Hi Guys:

A couple of points...this thread (the 2nd version) started out so nice but seems headed in the same direction as before. Heads up guys!

Second, I feel like I have a foot in both camps. Passions aside, the discussion is interesting because it contrasts two very different philosophies about what we value in a motor vehicle.

I'll declare up front that my wife owns an ML320 that has never seen a dirt trail. She enjoys the height advantage over other vehicles and has put lots and lots of miles on the odometer. I've found it to be a very comfortable highway vehicle, quiet and very stable in crosswinds. Also, the ESP has proven itself during winter driving (saved my ass once on an icy off-ramp in the mountains during a blizzard, whew!). I also enjoyed thrashing an ML320 and ML55 at a MB-sponsored demo event that included more on than off road driving. Its a really good urban assault vehicle ESPECIALLY FOR THE PRICE!!

On the other hand, I'd buy a G-Wagon tomorrow EXCEPT FOR THE PRICE!! My first MB was a W210 E320, which I kept for a couple of months and found very disappointing in terms of build quality and driving feel. The trade to a W124 E500 was an absolute revelation. "Old World" it may be, but that baby is really screwed together. I sense the G-Wagon was, and is, built with the same ethos...perhaps also shared with the R129 SL coupes??

The G-Wagon, it seems to me, is the last representation of MB's Old World values. Twenty years from now nobody will remember what those vehicles were like and this discussion will be moot outside of collector's circles. During the transition to New World realities that MB is undergoing (think of it...A-Klasse to Maybach - the broadest market coverage in their history!), we are all cautious about what may be lost but excited about what is to come (W211 E55 AMG...need I say more?).

This "argument" isn't about which is better. You don't even have concensus about what measures you're comparing so its a no-win scenario for either camp. Its really about personal values and how can either side say the other is wrong?

__________________
Dean Albrecht
"Lead, follow, or better yet, get out of the way!"E500 owners motto