I have visited Germany many times since my brother lives there and can tell you that most Germans dont have good opinion on their own labels like BMW and MB and are also not too happy about the high cost of ownership of these badges. They as one German doctor I met there would rather prefer Honda, Mazda and Lexus and to quote him ' would leave the MB, BMW badges to rich outsiders': end quote.

Speaking of crakcked heads, my aunt's 300E developed cracked heads after 32K miles and so did her friend's. I would agree with others here that OM 616/617 were the best MB ever made.