Quality may mean different things to different people. In the automotive industry quality is defined as number of warranty defects per car.

And for the person that wants to be an informed customer, manufacturers nowadays are designing for parts to last through the warranty period. This means we'll be dependant more than ever on message boards such as this one to keep DIYers informed on the systematic defects present in their vehicles that are out of warranty.

BTW, it was about 10 or 15 years ago - long before I joined the ranks of MB - that I started reading in the automotive journals about MB going the route of more gizmos that actual improvement on dependability and longevity, and that this may hurt the MB image.

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95 E320 Cabriolet, 169K