tetra7

Actually, Marshall brings up a very good point here. This is not the first time I have heard anyone knocking JD-Powers. One of my friends is also an editor for a travel magazine, and she has described several times on how JD Powers fails to verify/validate their resources. In short, she gave me very strong reasons to have little faith in JD Powers.

Hey Marshall, I might drop you a PM on a new car I'm interested in but I woud like you sincere feedback on it.

VVT-i

I agree, but you forget one thing, Status. That what make people buying the MB before all of the above. People will spend their retirement money just to get a C230 and say " I got an MB".

MB can be at the bottom of the poll by JD and they still selling cars like no other. MB is a global's status of wealthy and this will not change anytime soon.

jracerlmn

personally i think a lot of repeat customers buy for safety...

MB's make IMO the safest cars. Volvo's are safe, but if you ram a S80 and a S class head on...i'd rather be in the S class

my cousins are sworn purchasers after they got broadsided in their E320 by a Tahoe that ran a red light going 40. Walked out with only cuts and bruises..

Ice350

iTrader: (1)

I get your point, it's easy to get it since you so strongly expressed it. The counter point is you can have both elsewhere. Lexus for instance. You get styling, safety and reliability. Only the extreme power levels are missing. Then there's BMW. You get styling, safety, power but only a little more reliability than benz. Bottom line is there are too many choices to accept inferior reliability for the sake of what some perceive as a prestigious nameplate. We wouldn't accept that anywhere else....why do it with a car? No one goes to Brandsmart for the TV that breaks down every other month.

Incendiary

What's Brandsmart?

LexFather

MERCEDES DIDN'T COMPLAIN WHEN THEY WERE #1 in 1994

mmarshall

Mercedes and Volvo in general do indeed make the best cars as far as crashworthiness and safety features are concerned. We have discussed this numerous times on CL and have given them their due in these areas. They combine en extremely strong roll cage around the cabin to protect the occupants with highly effective crushable structures at both ends to deform and absorb impacts. The main problem with both makes is not safety but crappy electronics and lousy quality control. Volvos, for instance, are notorious for poor circuts and burning out bulbs. Mercedes has problems with poorly attached hardware and, especially, the electronic brake systems.

Consumer Reports, however, gives the Lexus IS300 not only one of the highest reliability ratings but also one of the highest safety ones as well.

Ice350

iTrader: (1)

Pardon me....I thought Brandsmart was a national chain. That's one of our electonic and appliance megastores. They sell everything from calculators to high end A/V systems.

mmarshall

Fire away.

STIG

in that case, watch out for hyundai and kia. they are no kidding around anymore. i looked at the kia amanti the other day and i was pretty impressed.

but toyota wasnt the worst company 15 years ago and neither is hyundai today.

SCV8

Somewhere in that 1st post, the fellow from MB mentioned something about image; there was a time when the image meant something, now it's just an image.
If Chrysler can come back from K-cars, then MB can once again build cars with functional electrical systems.

Gekko

While I do not deny that MB and Volvo are relatively "safe" cars, I do not think that they are any safer than any other high quality manufacturer - ie Toyota/Lexus, Honda/Acura, BMW, Nissan/Infiniti of comparable (car) size. I do think that MB and Volvo have been good at MARKETING/PROPAGANDIZING the myth that they are "safer" than everyone else. If you look at crash test results and not anecdotal evidence, it bears this out.

I'd rather be in a crash in an LS430 vs. E320 or S430 and I'd much rather be in a crash in ANYTHING but a MB C230 tin can.

Incendiary

I also wonder whether they're still the safest cars. Problem is a lot of the models of not just those two but pretty much every manufacturer aren't really tested (or at least not listed as such) on the IIHS and NHTSA safety sites. In fact, IIRC, not a single Lexus is listed. I wanted to prove to my dad that Lexus/Toyota have come a long way from the tin car days of the 80's, but all the fields were N/A...

Gekko

And factor in the probability of electronics failures of European cars vs. Japanese cars. I want to be sure that my AIR BAGS deploy in a crash!

XeroK00L

I wonder that too. Perhaps crash tests are just too expensive and time-consuming?