You, Sir, have my apologies.
And yes I do see your other points as well, I was just getting frustrated, watching all of the reviewers bashing the 63. I love my 350 and WOULD LOVE to give it a couple hundred more ponies.

P.S. When is the W205 supposed to come out? is it 2013?

 

Let me second that final comment - "I drive places where a 50 mile range was unacceptable." I do also (or even 150 miles), and many of them are outside cell phone range. It seems to me that a vehicle that depends upon runflat tires without a spare is more of a toy than a serious vehicle.

Sorry I'm late to this particular party, but I just found out about the BMW's no-spare-tire issue in time to avoid putting down the deposit. I'm now seriously looking at a C250 where before I was simply curious.

I'll second that, too. My first Audi (a '79 5000) used a quart of oil every 400 miles, and I was assured by the local dealership that it wasn't a problem until consumption rose to one quart every 350 miles! (Crystallized valve stem seals, as I recall.) When trying to trade in my second Audi 5000 (an '85, I had not learned my lesson yet) in 1990, the used car sales manager asked me, "Have you replaced the steering rack yet?" Sure enough, withing six months I had a $900 repair bill to replace the rack. I liked the A4, but a look at the forums says Audi still has recurring oil-use issues.

After these, it was 18 years before I bought another German car, a 2008 VW, which has been great for 50k miles, and I now have an acceptable offer to buy it and am looking to replace it with, possibly, a new W204 or a used E-Class.

Also, I do "trust" Consumer Reports, unlike some folks on various car forums. True, they don't do sporty, but they are trustworthy in that they don't take advertizing money and so I don't have to consider whether their editorial content is skewed by their marketing department. This doesn't necessarily mean that they're right about what they write, but it does mean they aren't purposely lying, and that's not something you can conclude for other car-specific magazines. FWIW.