All I'll say is that it's funny - no, make that hilarious - how often you see LEGENDARY car brands (BMW, Mercedes-Benz, even Porsche and others) called junk and crap on forums for Nissans and Hondas and Chevrolets, etc.

I somehow don't think these marques would have attained the international status and respect they have if they were crap. I'm okay with it if someone personally doesn't like a given brand, but the automotive world hardly considers Mercedes cars as junk.

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It was covered by both...but only after action from people on websites like AZ, including one person on the 2G TL board whose tranny crapped out at 80 mph, and subsequently reported about it in the LA Times. But that's another thread for another time and place.

Even so....in 8 Honda products...

Though I agree that MB's quality has declined in recent years, they are hardly crap. I simply take offense to the $30k MB C-class sedans of the last iteration with manual forward/aft seat adjustment. I think they've outdone themselves with the new C, however. :thumbup:

I KNOW Acura will do better with the competing TL.

 

I think it's exciting to think what Acura COULD do with the next RL, given the great stuff that's appearing in other brands out there. And I think they WILL incorporate a lot of the new tech in the next RL, unless they somehow decide they don't want to compete in this market any longer.

Hopefully, they'll conclude that the lackluster success of the current RL is because of their own failure to establish it as a worthy luxury car, and not because it's a flawed concept or product. I still consider my RL one of - if not the - best car I've owned, and I know many of you agree.

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Without a doubt

 

In the 80's I was driving a round with my old man in his brand spanking new S turbodiesel, 65K (90K todays $$)at that time. I was in the back and it was a little hot so I decided to lower the window to let in some breeze. To my dismay the window proceed to thunk down inside the door like the Titanic never to be seeen again till the dealer extricated it. Bad omen, the rest was a story of the usual MB reliability litany broken AC at least once a year, non fuctional ignition switch, broken turbo every 30K, wacky transmission that could never be trully repaired broken radiator.......... Need I say more. BTW mercedes reliability has always been bad, that's why the "magnates" had chauffers/mechanics on hire to keep their German mechanical marvels running. During WWII the wonder Leopard tanks were easily destroyed by russian and american, "inferior" armor because they were invariably always sidelined, the german "uber" engineering story is and has always been a myth plentyly denied bad reliability and subpar construction and exaggerated claims.