Your soul for an S class?

A couple of days a friend came along with an S 500 L, just 4 months old, all the gimmicks like leather, glass sunroof, 7-speed auto trans, keyless-go, DVD navi, air suspension etc. pp. resulting in a price tag of more than 95.000 Euros (incl. 16 per cent German VAT).

What shall I say? Still the materials look cheap, be it the leather or the dashboard, everything looks and feels a bit too cheap in general and much too cheap with the price taken in mind; sure, the car drives smooth and fast and there's plenty of leg room in the rear - but 95.000 Euros?

Never!

Juergen - with an S for the soul the devil made a bargain

( how true )

Juergen, I have not seen your comments in a while!

Mercedes claims to be addressing the quality complaints.

Perhaps the new S will be much better. How much longer until they show it?

.

I wish I would have more time! So there is times I don't participate here actively (means at least I try to read then).

Yes, that is what they say. With the current S-Class W220 I can see no progress of any sort, quality impression is the same since the (minor) face-lift.

IMHO they _really_ do have to make a clear step forward in terms of quality - and I expect that with the successor W221. Presentation will be at the 2005 IAA International Motor Show in Frankfurt which begins with press day one Tuesday, September 13th. Sale - at least for Germany - will start in October.

I think we can expect spy photos with undisguised cars around late spring/early summer.

Juergen

What do you think of the latest E in this context? Better than S on the inside?

Maybe time to switch to Jaguar?

Just achieved 2nd place in a customer satisfaction survey undertaken by the BBC (link posted in post on picking cotton in Alabama)

Jag has been doing well in such surveys for quite some time (in UK, at least).

DAS

I don't think so.

And especially with the instrument cluster one can see _how_ cheap it is - predecessor-series 210 is much better in that respect (and in terms of cargo volume, too).

No option for me - an e.g. Jaguar S-Type sticks out of the crowd cleary, an MB E-class does not.

In the UK - nationalism plays a role here,; of course the same in Germany with Mercedes et al - and also the expection of the customers comes into play.

Juergen (being a Jaguar fan, I admit)

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I don't think so.

And especially with the instrument cluster one can see _how_ cheap it is - predecessor-series 210 is much better in that respect (and in terms of cargo volume, too).

No option for me - an e.g. Jaguar S-Type sticks out of the crowd cleary, an MB E-class does not.

In the UK - nationalism plays a role here,; of course the same in Germany with Mercedes et al - and also the expectation of the customers comes into play.

Juergen (being a Jaguar fan, I admit)

I think that British 'car nationalism' largely died out with the realisation many years ago that British Leyland cars were a load of rubbish. This laughable rump called MG Rover is a zombie and the directors clever 'frauds' in that they sold their concept for buying the company from BMW on misleading premises, and the stupid workers believed every word. They even demonstrated in support of the present owners against the rival bidders. And now Rover sales are heading south at an incredible rate, within spitting distance of what the rival bidders had indicated...

A great shame, as the MG sports car itself can be the basis for a nice little niche business.

Whatever happened, it would probably be foreign-owned.

Right now Rover are negotiating with a Shanghai car company....Can you imagine? A Chinese car company coming to the rescue of a British one?

And Jag is 'foreign'-owned, though Ford does have a long and quite distinguished history in Europe.

DAS