It all depends on what you get, and (as mentioned above) what sort of dealership service you get.

I have owned 3 M-B's (one right now), and 3 BMW's (the X5 right now) in my life. I had no serious service or quality issues with any of them, except the current M-B (2003 model E320). The car looks like a cheap American car on the inside, and mechanical/electrical things just break in ways that never used to happen. The local dealership can't/won't handle things in the same excellent fashion they used to do, and that helped keep loyalty.

I had a potentially fatal crash in a 1997 CLK and am here because of the quality workmanship. That workmanship seems to have declined dramatically over the past couple years.

I have not heard anyone on this board gripe about quality issues on an X5 with a 2003 or newer. At the same time M-B quality seems to be going down, the BMW quality/attention to detail seems to be improving.

My take on it: I won't be buying another M-B for a long time. I will stay with BMW until they give me reason to quit.

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