WMHarlow's story reminds me of a little streak of insanity that ran through my old neighborhood in Oklahoma. It all started when a friend of the family's brother came to town and convinced his brother to sell his Lexus and buy a Ford. Everyone in the area got a sudden scare that foreigners were going to monopolize the auto industry and take over the world, so they jumped on the bandwagon, sold their foreign cars, and bought Fords, Chevys, and other American made cars. Many people in the South (everywhere, really) seem to have that fear of foreign contries, and it leads them to have people who don't follow suit and buy American cars. That could explain the fact that when a new Ford or a nice truck was parked in WMHarlow's driveway nothing happened, but the second a German made car showed up, all hell broke loose. Maybe people are not so much anti-Mercedes, but anti-foreign. Just a thought...