It's a Mercedes, not a way of life. Geez!

That’s interesting, Johnny L.A., I’ve always felt the Crappy Driver Quotient was higher with Lexi than with Benzes and Beemers.

Phlosphr, ya shoulda tried to talk her into holding out for a Maybach … or at least a Phantom (I’ve seen an '04 Phantom, beautiful machine and the only full suicide doors I’ve seen on a new car).

– Dragonblink, who drives an '89 Accord and feels like one of those people who will debate for hours about the respective merits of different Playboy Bunnies, despite the fact that the chance of actually becoming acquainted with one is exceedingly rare …

Hey Phlosphr, did your wife consider the BMW 330 as an alternative and, if so, what was it about the Mercedes that made her get it instead?

I like 330’s because they’re consistently ranked as one of the most reliable cars year after year.

Yes they have, Mercedes recently (in past few years) opened a plant in Alabama. It makes their SUV if you can call that…

No she was smitten by the Benz-bug back when a friend let her borrow her’s for a few days when she was on travel. The navagation system alone is a wonderful thing. The state of the art suspension, turning, and pure rugged unbreakable engineering and materials that go into a Benz are what ultimately persueded her. Because she put a large down payment on her Jetta she was not upside down with it, so she actually had equity in that car. That and her platinum credit helped quite a bit…Plus the saleswoman saying, " I can have you in the silver one at $xxx a month for 48 months, in an hour" helped considerably…