11th Jun 2022, 21:11
Also not exclusive to Mercedes to be fair, but I get your point. A lot of manufacturers you could argue built their reputation back in the day, and in more recent years went downhill.
No one is going to argue the fact that safety, security and performance have advanced massively, but reliability and longevity have taken a back seat circa year 2000 onwards. Everything just seems so throw away now and not built to last.
11th Jun 2022, 18:25
I would agree with this. You just don't hear people talk about cars in general as fondly as they did back in the day.
I don't think its blind nostalgia either - my Uncle had a Mercedes 190 in the 1980s, it was a very reliable and durable car (had over 180K miles and nearly 20 years old before he got rid of it) but the C Class he got later in the early 2000's was unreliable and started to rust at only 8 years old! Many other Mercedes owners have similar stories. Just read the reviews on here and elsewhere.
We need a return to quality engineered cars, affordable and durable - it's better for everyone that way (and the environment!) to not throw away cars that you pay endlessly for. And don't even get me started on electric vehicles. They will also be useless in 10 years or less time, still require fossil fuels for building and charging them, and no one who likes cars and driving is really interested, yes Tesla Model S is good but most won't be like that.