I'm with Kestas on this. I'm sure that many people who know me would take issue with this, but I really am indeed smart enough to turn the knob colder when I get hot and turn it hotter when I get cold.

I also have enough strength to crank up my own windows and enough driving experience to handle a car that is in a slide without a gyro and computer to do it for me.

When all this stuff is working it's great, but when it's not you are completely at the mercy of the dealer. I am an electrical engineer with many years of electronics, computer hardware and software experience, but without the guarded dealer software tools and other technical information I am at almost a total loss to fix the kind of gizmo gremlins that creep into these cars.

My C240 probably was one of the greatest all around driving cars I ever had. It was quiet, smooth, powerful, handled predictably and mechanically was as solid as any MB or any other car I've ever had.

Back in January I had to jump start it and a few days after that many Gremlins occurred that involved TWO DAYS of actual work by the tech to get it straightened out. Then on the way home from the dealer it flashed a bunch of crazy messages and then seemed to be okay.

Two weeks ago an electric window mechanism broke causing me to haul my family 150 miles on a hot day with the windows down. Then on the way to the dealer I stopped for gas and it didn't want to start. It then out of the blue decided to start and then all sorts of crazy messages flashed starting with Instrument Cluster Failure. Then it flashed a bunch of stuff again before I could get to the dealer.

I got a chance to get rid of it and I dumped it. The thought of paying for two days of technicians work plus who knows what in parts after it goes out of warranty was too much for me.

My 300E is still on the road and up in good shape. It is now my long distance car.

I worked myself to death to pay for that car for it to end like this. Things like this operate like a pendulum. I expect that in 6 or 8 years they will have corrected the mistakes that they are now realizing. Meanwhile I have a great 300E and a Euro 123 car that I expect to put back on the road in due time. I also have a stick shift Vette and the car that I replaced the C240 with (I'll never tell.) It's small, relatively simple and a hoot to drive on short hauls.

I sincerely hope that MB gets their gadget/technology act together.

Have a great day,