They actually did get better about the time you left. Had way less problems with my 2011 E class W212 than my 2008 W211, but I like the W211 better. Has more styling and I can see the cost cutting that happened between the old and new platform. The W211 had the door assist where the doors pop open a little when you unlock it, gone from the W212 but it has better keyless go handles, you could be pretty sure that the keyless go handle would fail on the W211 after 6-8 years or less but the W212 is a better design where there's no rubber where water can get in and corrode the switches. They also got rid of the little business card holder in the newer model. On the newest I hear they even got rid of the bins under the seat, the passenger side came with a first aid kit which I've never used, but probably all the meds in it are expired by now. I also looked at Lexus at one point, it's cheaper because it doesn't offer as many options as Mercedes did. But it appears most people buy Mercedes for the name, not the options, took me 6 months to find one that was loaded, 80-90% of the ones out there are basically base model ones with just two or three options. Pretty hard to find them with 6-8 major options.
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