If people here don't pay $100K+ for a Mercedes van then they sure as **** aren't going to pay that much for one from Lexus.

 

I don't see a big market for luxury minivans either.

It's big over there, though.

 

The luxury minivan could be successful but this thing is an EV and a Minivan and MB thinks this can sell in US lol

The MB dealers must be crying especially since they just got through the whole EQ debacle.

 

I like the MB minivan. It would definitely be of interest to us, with the fact that it's an EV being a very big plus. We only lost interest in the VW ID.Buzz because it was down on range and power and this addresses that plus it brings the option of a much nicer interior

 

When I lived in Mexico I remember these A-series, and I had looked at an A190 to have as a second vehicle there.

Mercedes ended up taking a bath on these vehicles, but I hope for their sake they can produce something that will work for the US market.

My family had an 87 and a 93 190E 2.6 that both ended up lasting almost 20 years each and it is that lasting memory of endurance that I only now see in Lexus.

 

Do you all think modern Mercedes vehicles can still go past 200k miles like they could years ago?

 

The first car we ever bought from new was a 1998 C Class wagon, and we used to get the A Class as our loaner whenever ours was in for service. The A Class was an absolutely tremendous car, with much more space inside than the exterior dimensions would lead you to expect. We used to really like driving them and you could park them anywhere.

 

.....Probably, but, in doing so, they will likely need more repairs than the tank-like Mercedes products of before 2000......true repairs, not just the normal wear-items.

 

No. Not without significant repairs along the way.

 

Of course Lexus will option it and price it properly. They arent dumb enough to think people will pay $200k for a luxury van. There will be some buyers, but not enough to justify bringing it here. RX level interior in the base trims to LX level interior for the top trims, use the two plug in powertrains with the V6 phev at the top to give it the refinements needed and you can probably range it from $70k to $100k maxed out. A lot of the cost is the hand built interior and the giant massage chairs.

If it comes here as an EV like this new EV MB van, it will be doa.

 

The newer cars do far better than the older ones from what I have seen.

You can also see that newer cars are lasting longer and longer on average, you didn't see many 1990 Mercedes rolling around in 2010 but you see countless late 90s early 2000s still around and a huge amount of 2010 era cars with well over 150k miles

% on the road vs age stats are great to see how much more reliable newer stuff usually is vs perceived better older cars.

 

i'm gonna say it largely depends on the nature of those miles (highway vs. city etc...) and how quickly they're put on... if someone's driving 40,000 miles a year from largely long trips i don't see why not, especially when it comes to their V8 cars

 

about being “tank-like” - they were certainly heavy as tanks, lol, but that doesn’t mean they were reliable. around 2001 my old boss bought a ‘slightly used’ s-class… man what a DISASTER… air suspension broke, endless dash lights coming on, and on and on. i think a new s-class would be profoundly more reliable.

and before 2000 the mercedes ML came out, their first suv/crossover… made in beautiful Alabama. what an absolute pile of junk for several years.

but modern mercedes can be problematic too… my gf got a glb (cuv box) a couple of years ago which she really liked, but only kept it a year due to ENGINE FAILURE (cracked head). absurd.

 

Do you think country of manufacture matters? I keep hearing European cars in general are better built and more reliable in their home country. I know that is true for Toyota and Lexus products. You can instantly tell when its made in Japan vs the ones made in North Murica.

 

That's the W220 S class, introduced in 1998; that's probably the worst S class in history manufactured in the darkest period of Mercedes in cost cutting and quality. The W140 S-class(1991to 98) before it is much better in terms of quality.