A point that seems to be lost in this debate:

New Mercedes are expensive as compared to your average Ford, Chevrolet, or Honda - that is indisputable.

New Mercedes are incredibly INEXPENSIVE as compared to old Mercedes. A new E350 is roughly $52K in 2007 dolllars.

My '92 400E was roughly $53K in 1992 dollars. This translates to a tab of roughly $76K in today's dollars. Yikes!

My 1983 300CD was a whopping $35K (roughly) when it left the showroom. This translates to tippng the scales at roughly $72K in today's money.

So relatively speaking, new Mercedes have not continued the pricing that one would expect based on historical trends. It should not come as a surprise that since the cars cost approx $25K less, the "feel" of the car may not be what we would hope. But the trade-off is this - who in their right mind would pay in the mid $70s for a standard-issue E Klasse today?

That said, this does not answer the reliability factor. If I purchase any new vehicle - bank-vault-quality "feel" or not, I expect the car to WORK. Were I the proud owner of a new E Klasse who was relegated to driving a C240 loaner on a regular basis whilst my E returned to the dealer for warranty work, I would indeed be very angry.