ok, i came on this site because im 500E shopping, then i read thru the posts from other topics and to my surprise, i found a lot of friendly "good" people driving high mileage older mercedes and loving it. I have a 88'930 myself but its basically a weekend racer/garage queen. I was surprised that most of u who have a old-trustworthy benz in the garage really love the car, even if u have problems with it. Just like what i feel about my porsche. All my other rides are couple years old and i will be seriously pissed if they have a problem.

Since im always a mercedes kind of guy, i lust over the new S-class with barbus or AMG mods but never thought i would see u guys that really know about the cars and enjoying them. I had a 00' S500 w/sport pkg on 20s and a aunt still has her 01'C320. I really loved the 500 because of how it "looked" especially after the brabus 20s, but i could care less about how it drives or how fast it is.

It made me 10 times richer than what im really am when im driving it. It made me feel GOOD when im in it. And that to me is what a mercedes is all about.

On the other hand, im very disppointed with the new C320, its just another luxury car that looks cheap to be a mercedes. Any lexus ot nissan can do better for almost half the price. Its a perfect all around car, but to me, its not a benz.

As for my 500E search, i always lusted after one, because it was made by porsche and i love porsches. The wide fenders is another reason, but thru searching for this car. I get to know a whole other sub-culture that is new and surprising to me. Maybe when i finally get my 500E i will understand working on a older mercedes is like working on a porsche........

MB has expanded their product line to include MB-Toyota's ...price pointed to the mass mainstream

MB as a business has been successful at leveraging their 'ultimate Euro luxo' status to dip into this market and making money to ensure its survival (kudos to MB for realizing this)

as a consumer, one must simply recognize that that MB:
> "ultimate Euro Luxo" vehicles lie solely in the S/SL/CL classes
> ...and , "less than ultimate Euro Luxo" MB vehicles proceed downward through the mid classes
>...and, "econo Euro" MB vehicles ....yada, yada, yada

...I looked at purchasing new: E55, Clk430 cab, SLK32, etc. and was not satisfied that I was getting my money's worth in these vehicles in terms of build quality, quality of materials vs. cost.

-fad