For deanyel & DslBnz:

In Eastern Europe, given the fact that buying a car during Communist times was hard and spare parts practically nonexistant, the drivers had learnt a thing: never treat your car as either crap or deathless - both ways it will fail when you need it most. That is, if you want to keep it beyond the 2-4 years of leasing, use only the best supplies & consumables (fluids, sparkplugs, batteries, gasoline) and change them religiously.

~Nautilus

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1990 260E Sportline (that's 300E 2.6 for our American friends) -> sold
2001 E320 4Matic Elegance -> my Dad's daily drive
2005 Seat Leon FR 1.8T