[Ed Bighi]

As for Mercedes, the days of W124 and W140 are definitely over. Number of issues aside, at least as far as Mercedes is concerned, the choice is either electronic toys like electronic cupholders and power undercoating and breakdowns, or none of this crap and more long term reliability a-la-w124. Not to mention durability through the better materials. In all honesty, I think a lot of the issues for all cars listed above come down to the ammount of electronic bs that is put in all these cars in order to appeal to the average american consumer. In fact that is what is is being mentioned in all the Mercedes forums. Too much junk and inferior materials when compared to just a decade ago.

Just a couple of months back while spending a little too much time figuring out all the tricks in the ventilation/trip computer controls of my mother's E39 BMW (and this isn't even an i-drive E50), I noticed a part of the owner's manual which showed the ventilation controls for the "rest of the world" E39. Three simple mechanical rotary knobs on those. No trip computer. My only issue with what I consider to be a great all around sedan and the last 5 series that looks like a BMW, is in fact the ac/trip computer controls. And again, this isn't even a i-drive or moron guidance device car. This would be solved if I were to bring one in from any other place on the planet outside of the US. I serioulsly think that at least half of the issues for the cars listed would go away if all the unnecessary electonic junk was removed from those vehicles. Or if the vehicles would come in standard ROW spec. As for A4's, my mother previously had a 99 1.8t quattro that never had a single issue. But I still remember the salesmen looking at her funny when she asked for a quattro with a bose stereo, but no winter package, power seats, heated seats, or anything electrical other than the headlights, ac and the power windows. They though it was strange of her to outright refuse any electrical device she did not need even if it cost her nothing. We had to accept power mirrors since there was no choice. After all, my mother and my wife never had a driver's side mirror break in their Mercedes 124's after owning the cars since 86. For those that don't know, go and figure out why they don't break. So again, that A4 served her great since the heated door locks, heated seats, power seats, self adjuting whatever never broke since they were not there. In fact, I had the same power items including the trip computer die in my own Audi. It's always that crap that goes bad.

Who knows, but maybe the Lotus Elise is going to turn out to be one hell of a reliable car. It has all the right ingredients, or should I say, lacks all the ingredients that lead to reliability issues.