JAdmiral

....that of the W124?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bIV_...elated&search=

An amazing video. Make sure you watch all four segments!!

MB Fanatic

I think the W221 will hold its own. But damn even after being bombed by a cannon and some TNT under the hood that bad boy started back up with no problems. Amazing. Now lets see a lexus do that.

Mercedes Benz

vraa

I believe they did (I didn't watch the video, so I say they meaning Fifth Gear?) something similar to a Toyota pick up truck.

Turtle25

Top Gear was the one that did the Hilux test. That was quite a lot more dramatic, and actually inspired a special edition of the truck from Toyota, the "Hilux Invincible".

Nevada Jack

I had a '85 wagon (diesel) and it was a tank. Solid as a rock and handled like a sport car on the road. Great car....

factoid junkie

thanks for the post - good yuk at the end of a long day

dr.skp.ortho

My w124 300E was brilliant....and the sad thing was the following two generation of e-class vehicles i had (W210 E320, W211 E500 and CLK320) all had electrical glitches...the clk in particular was terrible. Hopefully the w221 will bring us back to the standards set by the w124...and by early accounts it seems like perhaps the quality issues are a thing of of the past!

Braheem

Here you go... I think you will agree they went well beyond the abuse given to the mercedes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD0UV...Hilux%20toyota

srknutson

I will never figure out why these British shows must always destroy an otherwise sound older model!! I hate to see such a good old car that many owners probably spent 100's of hours maintaining, mistreated for tele ratings!

Nevada Jack

I agree...kind of stupid stuff really. What does it really prove and if you want to see cars smashed, go watch a demolition derby. Jeremy and other do such a good job on evaluating and reviewing cars, why do they think this destroying of old classics is fun to watch?

abhatti55

That 124 wagon was a clean car too, maybe if it was on its last legs I could understand the abuse given to it. The first test beating it with a bat was useless and stupid. There is no argument that the 124 was one best cars made, they didn't have to kill a good mercedes for that. Maybe we are more partial to it because it was a benz that didn't deserve to die!!

georgl

The 221 is not build with the same quality philosophy as the 124. The last car build with this philosophy was the W140 but the customers didn't want real engineering quality, instead they rather bought much cheaper build cars and thought quality is about design, gimmicks, expensive marketing-campaigns, customer studies...
So MB introduced Toyota/Lexus-methods to reduce costs and of course quality.
But the 221 is a nice car, they've learned to handle the new production philosophy and all the new technology. Maybe 20% of the old philosophy is left and makes it superior to Lexus. And of course the 221 has a much more sophisticated technology which makes it superior to older models in many ways.
But real quality won't come back as long as the customer does not learn to pay for quality!
But I don't think that will come, customers always notice what quality a product had, when they've already destroyed the producer by buying cheap crap... Many german companys with "over-engineering" (pushing technology further and making the best quality at any price instead of paying millions for marketing) already broke down because of that.

Braheem

MB charges more then enough to continue to provide quality, I would be driving a benz today should the new ones be built to the old standards. It is not a matter of people not wanting to pay for better quality and lexus stealing thier customer base for a lesser price.

If mercedes continues to take marketing ques from Chrysler and chase the ///M series and simultaneously cut costs to save a few pennies we will end up with a S93 quad turbo in a few years while gas prices will be $6.00 a gallon.

Someone please tell MB they are thier own worst enemies, get thier heads out of thier rear end and see the world around you.

Nevada Jack

I loved my "old" Mercedes Benz (going back to the mid-70') but quite frankly my new S is far above any of my prior MB in quality and technology. The ride, the sytle, the mechanicals, the fit and finish...all are what I would expect of a MB automobile. I loved my 280E and my 450SL and other models through the years, but this car is at another level. Time marches on and what is standard in the past becomes "dated" and a new standard is developed. I think MB has had its cost cutting, quality let-down and now are building high quality cars based on today's techniques. I think georgi explains this well.

shadowgriffen

Thats why I'll never get rid of her...she's like a fine wine, the older the better.

Nevada Jack

A beautiful car...looks in terrific shape!

shadowgriffen

thank you Jack, coming from such a respected member of this board, that means alot to me.

she is in fantastic shape, that cell phone picture does no justice to her at all, it actually looks...weird LOL

but in reality she is the best car I've owned. (I'm 24 and I've had a new saab, a ford probe (highschool), and a couple of honda accords.)

here's to the conquest of land, air, and sea!