Well !!!

No prize for guessing how New Hampshire voted.

 

All other things. houses, appliances, lawn mowers, chainsaw, etc., etc. But I am not getting older and getting worse....

 

Japanese, Korean were copycats back then. In a way they still are. I wonder how many patent they hold
in automotive engineering compared to MB for an example?

 

Do you think oldest cars still on the road around world is Lexus? Wherever I go I see many cars still running which were made before the Lexus name was born. MB and BMW in '70s were built like a tank. MB is 400 year old company with many, many patents in automotive field. Like a grand father of the industry. Long history and accompanying experience is something. When the Japanese cars first landed on NA. After one cold Prairie winter night. Car was totally dead in the morning. Brake fluid froze and leaked out on all 4 wheels. Battery was marginal in that weather have only one chance to crank hoping engine will catch. Japanese learned quick. I liked Datsun PL510. Datsun in Japanese word is a "big loss" = Datsun = 大損 so they changed name to NIssan =日産 = Japanese product. Little Corolla name has lived long life still going strong.

Back when we're young my wife liked driving Sunbeam Rapier GT which I have to work every week end to make sure it'll run another week trouble free. She was a RN working shift. In winter nights I always prayed she will make it home alright after her shift. Since I swore to myself we'll never own any British made car. The horror of Lucas electrical parts... side draft Zenith twin carbs......As getting old I tried all kind of vehicles but never touched another British made. Land Rover? No thanks. Rolls Royce not interested. How about VW Beetles? I understand they are still made. Now manufacturers on any product line should entertain new generation. My generation is passing. Let them dictate market and see what happens. I often think some young folks think if car can go fast it is sports car. IMO speed is one factor but there are more important things to be a sports car.

Son grew up driving Subaru from HS then WRX Sti when in university. Then I had BMW X5 which he drove once in a while. Out of school, he got his first BMW and he still drives same brand. He said Compared to BMW WRX Sti is nothing much. After he got his second BMW we put the WRX on Kijiji. Amazing!!! in about 5 minutes phone started ringing asking about the car until late night. Boys and girls, even from out of town. next morning first came by with friends and took the car paying all in cash. Wife asked WRX is such a good car? I said I don't know. Young kids seem to like it so much tho. Getting old most of things are Hum drum, I just concentrate keeping my health in reasonable shape this is my priority number one every day in/out.

 

 

Troll much? How much do those patents mean when the MB dealer holds you upside down and shakes the money out?

 

Longevity loses some relevance when you talk about vehicles made in relatively small quantities and are hand assembled.

 

My 2000 GS400 is a daily driver in a place with up to 6-months snow on the ground every winter. It's got 295,000KM on it and the interior looks nearly new. In fact, last winter at the new car show, the Buick I checked out looked more worn on the driver's seat than my own car. The older Lexus, I think, were better made than the mid to late 2000s. I think they've come back somewhat since 2013 however. I've thought to get a 3rd gen GS, but that car is just not as distinctive, the interior is definitely not as good. The only thing I want to replace my car with is a 2004-5 LS.