[DrJfrmLA]

My first MB was a 1971 280 SEL 4.5 that I bought in 1981 with 100k on the clock. I drove it 4 years and 44k miles and sold it for what I paid. It was a great car and it parted traffic like a blue light bar. I fiddled with various substitutes until 1997 when I bought a '94 E-class. It was a great dead-stone reliable vehicle for over 100k miles. I traded it in 2004 for a Lexus GS 300. This year, I bought my '04 S430. I go other places and find good, well-made cars, but I always come back to Mercedes. I have said that my "dream car" is an Audi A8L, but after driving the S-class, I'm not sure what Audi can offer that will trump the big Benz. My car is a Base 430, but it is as fully equipped as I want. I'm averaging 22 mpg in mixed driving, except when I stiffen up the suspension and find a road where I can let the big dog eat. It's deceptively fast, drives smaller than its size, and offers all the comfort the driver and passengers could ask. Never mind the the unmistakable presence of the flagship of the line still grants the driver exception from the limitations of the drivers of lesser cars. Around here, C-class models are as common as Camrys, and various flavors of CLKs are everywhere, but you don't see an S-class in every parking space, so there is something to be said for that. My wife has an '04 Lexus LS 430, and the undeniable Lexus reliability notwithstanding, it's not the same as my S-class. Maybe the most telling thing is you never hear anyone say "It's almost as good as a Lexus" or any other car--the comment is "It's almost as good as a Mercedes." That says it all.