MB has to spend more money in R & D to develop quailty products and avoid problems like the spring perch failure.

Toyota spends a lot of money in development and it shows in the products.

"GM will spend $8 billion on new products this year, up from $7 billion last year. That sounds like a lot, but Toyota by comparison spent $15.3 billion last year, according to BusinessWeek."

Even BMW considers Lexus to be the benchmark.

"Reithofer says Lexus was BMW's quality benchmark, not vehicles from German rivals Mercedes-Benz AG or Audi AG.

BMW's ambition is to overtake Lexus in the J.D. Power and Associates vehicle dependability study in the United States, he says.

In last year's survey, Lexus was the highest-ranked brand for the 10th straight year. BMW, the best-ranked European brand, took the fifth spot."

In many ways, GM and MB are similar, they have the resources and long automotive history, but are failing to produce technically superior vehicles.

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Zafar
94 E320 58000 Miles