Originally Posted By: mikeinaustin
I disagree with the notion that americans skimp on maintenance, i believe strongly it is the other way around. almost all americans i know of (other than those on this board) have drilled into them to change oil and filter every 3k miles (just as an example). i believe both the mb and the bmw have oil change intervals of 10k-15k depending on year/model.
You must live in a place where people drive a lot.
Here, half the people I know can barely spell "oil change", let alone do they know how and when to do it. If it weren't for OLMs, they'd be screwed. One of my close friends -- you can imagine how much he's heard me talk about oil -- once went more than 30,000 miles on Wal Mart SuperTech dino.
I've also ridden in and driven people's cars that have had clunks, rattles, and vibrations that the owners never noticed. Some days, it seems like half the cars on the road have underinflated tires. Shaking wheels, blown dampers, exhaust leaks, and jerky automatic transmissions are frickin' everywhere.
Many americans see cars more or less as a commodity, and driving as something that "must" be done rather than a privilege or a luxury. That attitude strongly affects how much they know about cars and how to treat them, as well as their attitude toward maintenance.
Originally Posted By: mikeinaustin
everyone i know who own an expensive car do the exact opposite than described above, they treat it far better than a 15k car.
"Expensive" cars, or German cars? And what does "treating" mean?
Maintenance is only part of the story. The car has to be used the way it's meant to be used. German cars are designed to run for hours at full throttle on unrestricted sections of the Autobahn. In America, most people seem to drive them like any other car, running a lot of short trips in stop-and-go traffic and never exceeding 3,000 RPM. That's asking for trouble. You have to wind them out regularly and let them run on the highway.
Originally Posted By: mikeinaustin
regardless, it seems to me that the c-class reliability has gone up with the new model (2008).
Yes. They seem to be going up every year. Service is still expensive as heck AFAIK, but quality is really improving.
Originally Posted By: mikeinaustin
mb has made that 7-speed transmission for a long time now, not sure about the bmw transmission.
I'm pretty sure BMW's current 6-speed autos have been around a little longer than MB's 7-speed.