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      08-21-2020, 08:50 AM   #97
stein_325i
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GenXer View Post
I grew up riding and driving a Mercedes and our family have gone through a lot of them.
As far as I can remember, we had 280C, 450SEL, 190E, 500SL, CLK430 cabriolet, C240, SLK280, C300, CLA250 and finally E400 cabriolet and GLC300

They used to feel like a vault and when you sit inside, it felt special. (with the exception of 190E of course. That was a piece of crap)

These days a Mercedes feel more delicate and fragile. Even the $80K E400 doesn't feel quite as special. It's still a fantastic vehicle mind you.

Granted, a Mercedes has gotten less expensive and you could see the cost cutting measures. You won't see titanium grille slats on a new one like you would a 500SL. Not that it does anything for the vehicle but WOW! How's that for attention to details.

Perhaps I was seeing older Mercedes with rose colored glass from my childhood. Which audience is Daimler targeting these S class and high end sedans? Millennials?

Do I have to sit on the front porch and yell "get off my lawn?"
Am I just getting too old for the new Mercedes?
The day's before Daimler-Chrysler are sadly gone. I just watched Doug's review of the last classic S-Class, the W140, and that car is an engineering marvel, but like you said, its also much more expensive. It was very expensive, especially compared to the then underdog LS, and was heavily criticized for over engineering and design, and eventually a lot of the over-engineered features would be dropped and prices decreased with a recession. Doug said "The engineers would build the best car possible and then Mercedes would later worry about costs and marketing," they even spent close to $1B alone of developing the W140. Today this just wouldn't be very cost effective, especially with Mercedes growing market and more sales going towards more "affordable" cars like the A, CLA and C-Class, not to mention owners now are keeping luxury cars for a shorter period of time or just leasing and dumping them after three years.

Today, everything is about cost, and sadly cars like the W123,124, or 140 will never happen again. The other thing is the older MB life cycles ran a lot longer than today's car. Now, the average life-cycle of a C or E-Class is 6-7 years. The W201, 123 and 124 each ran for close to 10-years or more of production, the 116 ran for over 10-years, and the R107 even ran for 18-years! The car was so old it could legally smoke cigarettes!
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