I've had nothing but good luck with my '91 560 SEL. Almost 102k miles and bought it used (I'm the second owner).

From my experience, parts are not that much more, or even less than Japanese cars in many cases.

I think it comes down to one's car philosophy: Do I want a car that lasts forever, is safe and built like vault, has simple, elegant engineering, easy to work on and not overly "gadgety" ? (I'm talking MBs up to the early 90's mind you ). do I wan't something to drive then dump after a few years?

I've owned Japanese, Swedish, Italian (yikes) and American cars (still have 2 Oldsmobiles, one as a collector the other a beater) and nothing compares to the Benz. All the other's seemed to be built as disposable cars. Drive it until something major goes wrong(e.g. it's not penny-wise to sink more $$ into a heap), so junk it or sell at a huge loss.

The Benz, if maintained properly, will always have *that* value. I plan on keeping the W126 forever and when my POS Delta 88 dies, I'll buy a 10 year old W124 and keep that car forever.