Originally Posted by 97 SL320

[/SIZE]You have no idea what you are talking about.

Detroit cars are far more complex and last longer than they did in the 60's. Do I need to remind you about the mid 90's Mercedes bio degradable wiring insulation? MB refuses to acknowledge there is an issue but still sells engine harnesses for these aged cars.

Calling auto mechanics / technicians "grease monkeys" is one of the things that drives talent out of the business, to your own peril. What will you do when you need a competent tech?
I closed my auto repair shop in 97 to work for a major consumer electronics manufacturer as a equipment tech. They made a big deal about preemployement testing, in reality it was far easier of a job ( and paid much better ) than running an auto repair shop.

I now work for a manufacturer of utility distribution equipment as a manufacturing engineer / fix anything guy. We have 20 or so CNC machines, other electronic controlled equipment ranging from simple to complex and lots of basic machinery. I fix all of it from changing motor bearings to component level electronic board repair, though I do push the simple stuff to the maint dept. This is _still_ easier and pays 2X than working day to day in a auto shop.

Also don't think that German automatically = high quality. At work I've got two German made material storage towers ( 24 ft long drawers and an elevator that retrieves them from a 25 ft tall rack ) It has chewed through 3 control computers in the past 10 years at $ 6,000 each, the cost to run a drawer out of the system ends up to be $ 1.00 per!

The other tower bricked the controller ( it runs Win CE ) after 2 years, the board mounted CMOS battery failed. The official repair is to replace the controller with a "rebuilt" unit for $ 4,500. A 3 cell battery holder, AA batteries and 1 hour later it is running again. So much for German attention to detail.


The German band saw was apparently designed by the British as it leaks coolant everywhere when running due to poor comprehension that "liquid assumes the shape of it's container " .





[/SIZE]You and the C class owner are comparing two price points that are light years apart. My soon to be Moms 97 C280 isn't as detailed as my 97 SL320. MSRP on the C was ~ $ 30,000 ? where the SL was ~ $ 80,000 , expecting a C to be as good as a car costing nearly 3X is unrealistic.