With a few exceptions, you are right. I was also born in 1966.

But in the 50's.

A friend of mine (whose family has owned a lot of Mercedes: actually I was helping him fix the climate control on his dads 69 280 SEL) had a '56 Olds Delta 88. His dad bought the car new in '56. With careful care, it was continuously driven until the early '90's before he sold it. He really doesn't know how many miles were on the car since it was passed from family member to family member. At least 200,000. Keeping a car running that long in this part of the country is a major feat. If the car is not excellent, it is really impossible. Before he sold it, I did some research on the car. There were repeated comments on the superior quality of these vehicles.

Today, people tend to forget that GM was the Toyota + Microsoft of the '20s. They perfected the assembly line approach and the sequential marketing of cars to a popuation. That was the major technological breakthrough of the first two decades of the 20th Century. As you can tell, I used to work in the auto industry. I have worked in the US, Europe, and Asia. Unfortuately, I am concerned about the Diamler arm of DiamlerChrysler. They are burning their brand equity with the rash of troublesome cars they have put out over the last ten to fifteen years. I still talk to mechanics and people in the industry. They have confirmed the relative poor quality of Mercedes products over that timeframe. There does seem to be some acknowlegdement of the problems within Diamler's corporate headquarters. Hopefully they will not let pride and arrogance (like GM's) take over and lose sight that if their products are not excellent, they will lose business and market share. Considering how many technical advances that corporation has had (including inventing the automobile), it would be sad to lose them.