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In the US MB is widely regarded as a "rich persons" car. Although I have never been to Europe, I am sure many at this site have and will share that in Europe, they are like Chevy or Ford is here, many Mercedes Taxi's, cop cars, delivery trucks, what have you-in short they are run-of-the-mill. Not neccesarily high-powered or laden with options; crank windows, no power or heated seats, cloth interior, etc..
All the electronic do-dahs we have are market driven. Engine electronics are a neccesity to get these engines down to a reasonable level of emissions. I'm not some tree-hugger, but with the amount of vehicles out there, something had to be done or the whole world will end up being like the LA Basin was in the 60's.
It seems MB-USA is trying to get the image in the US altered a little so that it will appeal and be affordable to the important youth market, say 20 to 30 year olds, very important to appeal to this crowd. Exclusivity is bound to suffer, no doubt. This will end up being a widely varying range of products though. Sounds exciting to me.
On the comment that these seem to be disposable cars, I believe that the product lines will always have much better coverage of parts to keep them on the road than other manufacturers typically do. At least that's the history of it. Try ordering just a small sampling of (other than driveline) parts from GM or Ford for say a 1980 vehicle, forget it!
Gilly
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