Mercedes build quality and just general QC has definitely taken a nose-dive in recent years. As a general rule, the further you travel backwards through the years, the better the car. Somewhere along the line they quit building "the best car in the world", and started worrying about competing w/ Toyota (Lexus) in the car:$$ competition. It hasn't gone well. My Ex-GF has a new S-500, says that it is a "POS". Before she had a '98, '91, '85, etc. S-class. The '98 was the last good one, and even it had some cheapo stuff in the interior.
