I bought my e320 for the looks and comfortable ride. I looked at other mid-size luxary vehicles and test drove a few makes. The Mercedes has the best ride with the least amount of road noise. These things made my choice in cars an easy one.
Years and years and years ago I finished college in London and moved to Italy with my, then, girlfriend and got a job at Alfa Romeo in Milan as a projectionist designer. I had studied math and so I moved from the paper based design to mathematics for suspension system design and developed a bunch of generic computer programs, these were mostly used on our Group 5 TT33 race cars but also found considerable use in the design of commercial Alfa Romeo vehicles, especially the Alfetta on which I spent a lot of time.
One of the things that Alfa Romeo did was to purchase interesting competetive vehicles and strip them to see how they were built. This work was often done on large flat-beds which allowed accurate measurement to be made of the car's components as it came apart, I was required to measure suspension points of selected vehicles and run suspension analysis for comparison against our cars. We bought Porsche, Maserati, Honda and others - including Mercedes.
I fell in love with Mercedes the first day I met one, and swore that one day I would have one. They were beautifully built in my opinion. The suspension systems were superb, state of the art, accurate and constructed with first rate components. The rest of the car was equally well built, it seemed to me, built with both care and intelligence. I wanted one.
So, after I moved to California I got a 1976 C230 (115 body I think). Getting this thing to run consistently was a nightmare - I stripped that carb I cannot say how many times, but it did run, and run and run and run. And when it became my wife's car, I got a 300SD which I sold with 220,000 miles on it, still running beautifully.
Now, a handful of C classes later, I have a 2005 C320 4matic which I love. I always know how spoiled I am when I go on vacation and drive a rental for a week or two, and then come home and get into mine own car. Those feelings so many years ago are as valid today, for me, as they were then.
I bought my 2002 C320 wagon because it was a wagon (I'm kind of weird as I love wagons) not really realizing just how rare of a car it was. It had 35K miles on it when I picked it up for $16K out the door. It's been 4 months now and other than the original battery dying I have had no problems with the car (when it was getting close to when the battery died the electronics in the car started acting pretty crazy so I assume it was the low voltage). I definetly love my Mercedes wagon and hopefully there will be an E55 wagon in my future.
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~John Stewart
Indianapolis, IN.
'02 C320 Wagon <- first MB but not the last
'03 Lexus IS300
'02 Toyota Tacoma
'93 Toyota Celica All-Trac (390 AWHP)
'92 Toyota Celica All-Trac
'88 Celica GT
My wife wanted the ml, I honestly don't like a thing about it. It has no soul, brings me no joy, is a pain to work on and costs to much.
Now if she had wanted a e class that I would have supported or a Land Rover
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"Only two defining forces ever offered to die for you, Jesus Christ and the American G.I. One died for your soul, the other for your freedom."
1991 Range Rover Classic (His)
1994 Saab 900s gas mileage beater
I own four mercedes (wife, two sons, and me). In 1977 my father was in his 300 D in a head on collision, in NY, at 45 mph. His suit was full of blood, he was taken to the hospital and released that night. The other driver (who crossed over lanes in a non mercedes) was dead at the scene.
I own four mercedes (wife, two sons, and me). In 1977 my father was in his 300 D in a head on collision, in NY, at 45 mph. His suit was full of blood, he was taken to the hospital and released that night. The other driver (who crossed over lanes in a non mercedes) was dead at the scene.
I drive Mercedes for over 20 years and never had any problems with them and I was never disappointed. Currently I drive an 98 SL 500, two kids drive a 1989 190E 2.6 each and my wife drives a 2002 ML 500
I bought my C280 because the price was good, the previous owner kept it very well mainatined with all records and receipts. The performance was/is wonderful.
or a Land Rover 
Linear Mode
