heh both my mercedes were "cheap mercedes" so i know.. lots of time and money needs to be spent, but the w124 wasn't so bad.. the c280 it was good once i did alot of transmission stuff not to mention the price of cheap gas..
i drove my mom's 2011 accord around for a while, but she returned it cause she couldn't afford it or something but man did i hate it..
and thought to myself the gas and all the time and work is worth it...

the problem is, most of the civics and stuff out there is CRAP and its about the same price as a good w124, when it gets up over 4000$ range