Quote:
Originally Posted by RLPIII
I completely agree with this point. When my wife wanted an SUV, we test drove at least half a dozen. She HATED the ML. I feel bad now because I drug her back up there to do a 2nd drive to make sure she was not imagining things. When I drove it, it felt like driving an American truck. I was very displeased with it too - then we started hearing about its problems and decided that MB just should stick w/ what they know - cars not SUVs.  |
I still wish that Mercedes was a car-only company. I can remember when Mercedes was the truly exclusive high end car that you thought of when that topic came up. Back in the '60s, '70s, and most of the '80s, to have a Mercedes was special and exclusive. You didn't see them very often in the average town as you usually had to drive to the upper class neighborhoods in a city to see one. I remember when everyone would get all excited when we saw one going down the road. It would be similar to the reaction of seeing today's Rolls-Royce.
It seems that the quality issues started popping up when they left that bread- and -butter lineup of cars that only included the S class and its variant 2 door coupe versions, the diesel cars like the 220/240s (later 300 TD) and their convertible SLs. That was the only things on their menu to select from and if you had any one of these cars, you stood out like a sore thumb with exclusivity. Having a MB was big time special but nowadays, just about anyone can claim to be driving a MB especially with so many models and sneaky financing that gets someone behind the wheel of one.