John, I understand your point of view but I would also like to take up the cudgels for slightly older cars in terms of reliability. We have a Mercedes W124 220CE from 1992/93 and a Mercedes E W212 estate 250 CGI. I know that you know them all and have had them yourself, the 220CE has 280000 km and the W212 now has 200,000 km, our family car. The W212 has never let us down, but the maintenance was much more expensive, these downsized turbo direct injection engines never have the life expectancy of a naturally aspirated engine from the 90s. The 30-year-old 220CE needs an average of 8 to 9 liters of petrol, which is 1.5 liters less than the downsized W212, ok, it has 60 hp more. But I believe that there was a zenith in quality and reliability at Mercedes that will never be reached again, and that was the W124.
