Thankd for the kind comments everyone.

GBenz, I took your Hyundai comment as a joke, but a few years ago I was in Pittsburgh and had to rent a car to go to State College and then down through West Virginia, and then up to Cincinnatti and turn in the car there. All they had was a mid size Hyundai. I begged them for something else but that was it.

I begrudgingly got in the car for this long distance run and was VERY pleasantly surprised. I actually grew attached to the car before turning it in 1,000 miles or so later. Out of curiosity I raised the hood when I got fuel and was pleasantly surprised there as well. There was room to work on the engine and it appeared that a timing belt job would not be difficult at all.

MB's are still fabulous, but the practicality of driving the new ones has gone away. Not only due to the electronic nightmare of my '01 C Class, but also the constant work that I have had to do on my 124. If they all were as trouble free as my old manual everything 240D, I would never even dreamed of driving anything else.