Because prestige matters more than common sense to some people when money is not an object. Ever pay $100+ for an oil change? Heh, the regular scheduled maintenance on a M-B V12 over 5 years could probably pay for a new car by itself. If something breaks that's not covered by a warranty, expect to sell some of your shares of Berkshire. BMW 7-series V-12's have a similar reputation for extreme maintenance costs. Car and Driver (I think) did a feature on used V-12's a few years ago that opened my eyes quite a bit.

M-B owners that I know aren't really dogged by frequent repairs on their cars, but repair bills for simple things can be huge. These are people that bitch bloody murder if their Chevy Tahoe's window motor is slow, but if their SL drops a tranny it means driving a loaner for a week or two.

I think Lexus is a boring marque but I have to admit: they've got this reliability thing down quite well.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by MDXLuvr
[B]

That might be true before 1990.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Hoonda
[B]I love mercedes... uh... -es.

 

MB reliability is not crap, its just not what it used to be. However, many people don't care about reliability. They want a great car, and plan to sell it before the warranty is up(most lease cars), or they are filty rich and don't care about reliability/cost of maintenance(ferrari owners).

btw joe, i think thats got to be the first time we agreed on something.