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Sedans High End Luxury Cars
24700 messages, Last post on Dec 01, 2009 at 12:24 PM
You are in the Sedans Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
Let's try to define this forum as being limited to luxury performance vehicles where the mainstream version in a typical configuration has an MSRP of at least $60k.
A luxury vehicle with a base price of $59k qualifies because it would typically be bought with some additional equipment, bringing the MSRP over $60k.
Vehicles like the E, 5, A6, M, or GS, even if available in certain versions over $60k, don't qualify because they are cars from companies that have higher end cars in their lineups.
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Replying to: dewey (Nov 13, 2006 2:24 pm) There is no way I'd ever let these surveys dictate what type of car I buy. Never. There are GL450 owners who are reporting that their GLs are making a slight hissing noise when parked, i.e. the airmatic is just leveling the car or lowering it after it is parked, but I'm sure some have reported this as a "problem". M |
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I totally agree. I'm a big Honda/Acura guy, but the first time I sat in the new MDX I said to myself, this interior isn't up to German standards. I had hoped that they would step it up a little and be more competitive. I guess in order to hit their price point, they have to cut somewhere. All that to say, the driving dynamics are pretty competitive IMO. I have driven the Q7 extensively and I love it. I think [hope] my wife will to. The S class interior is very clean and modern. I can't speak to how intuitive it is, or isn't. |
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Replying to: merc1 (Nov 13, 2006 5:38 pm) "Thank you for your recent internet inquiry. My personal experience with contacting manufacturers has typically been a waste. It is nothing more than a lesson in public relations. The primary interest of MB is to sell cars. Almost every time there is internal knowledge that an upcoming model could canabalize existing sales, the information is somehow non-existent, not up-to-date, or is totally incorrect. I completely understand how it is in MB's interest to suggest that there will be no upcoming diesel GL for the US market, because there are lots of current units to sell, and those sales are mission critical. But there have been other indications that there will be a diesel GL, and it just makes too much darned good obvious sense. I still believe that there will be a diesel GL for the U.S. market announced or available within 2 years. BTW, I read your post about the ML quality issues that seem to emerge from the Alabama assembly plant. I found that to be very interesting. TagMan
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Replying to: tagman (Nov 13, 2006 6:00 pm) Yes the issues at the Bama plant go back to day one. I guess they're too deep to correct this time around. A shame really. One plant in Germany spits out the SL, S and CL, all shimmering in build quality and the Bama plant isn't anywhere close except for maybe the GL450. Hell if this new S proves to be reliable there will be no excuse as to why the ML, GL and R aren't. Mercedes knows how to build a reliable car, they did it for years. Someone, somewhere forgot that, but they seem to have remembered how to do so with the S (fingers crossed), but no one told the folks in Bama how to or showed them the best materials to assemble the ML and R with. M
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My theory has always been that they're purchasing a lot of things from the same suppliers that do business with Ford, GM and Chrysler. I've read where a lot of German suppliers opened up shop here back in 1998, but my nose told me otherwise when I sat in the first ML. The same smell and feel you get in a German made Benz simply wasn't there. Now the new generation Bama vehicles seem to be a mix of American and German suppliers by my nose. On thing I truly hate is that steering wheel. It screams cheap when you order it with wood and only one half of it is made of wood in contrast to every other Benz. I couldn't care two lugnuts about a wooden steering wheel in general, but if they're going to do one they could at least do it right. That 1/2 wood stuff was for Cadillacs and the like. Then there are the huge gaps between the buttons and the steering wheel hub, it reeks of American supplierism. See the gaps in this photo:  M |
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Replying to: merc1 (Nov 13, 2006 9:06 pm) |
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Replying to: merc1 (Nov 13, 2006 9:37 pm) We've all seen this before, when the steering wheel's hub uses the center axis as a pivot point, and therefore needs the "space" to move (push on side to side) the hub in order to honk the horn. The gap is by design, but there are alternatives that other manufacturers have clearly proven are less unsightly. TagMan
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Replying to: merc1 (Nov 13, 2006 9:37 pm)
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