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Car Forum / Mercedes-Benz Cars / December 2004Your soul for an S class?
( Always a bad deal ) http://www.mosnews.com/news/2004/12/01/bribe.shtml Russian Finance Official Arrested for Trading Govt Secrets for Mercedes Created: 01.12.2004 12:52 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 12:52 MSK, 13 hours 11 minutes ago A senior Russian Finance Ministry official has been detained on suspicion of trading classified government information for a Mercedes car that he accepted as a bribe from two businessmen. Denis Mikhailov, the head of the department in charge of international financial cooperation, state debt and financial assets, was suspected of selling government secrets to two Russian businessmen, Reuters reports, citing a statement from the prosecutor-general's office. "An investigation has revealed that Mikhailov has handed over a document, which contained classified data, to businessmen Alexei Kirzhnev and Teimuraz Karchala," the statement said. The cost of the car, which has been confiscated by law enforcement authorities, was estimated at nearly $100,000, Gazeta.Ru reported. There was no information on what sort of information was traded for the Mercedes. Corruption among civil servants is rife in Russia and has been blamed for setbacks in the nation's economic development. > ( Always a bad deal ) > http://www.mosnews.com/news/2004/12/01/bribe.shtml > Russian Finance Official Arrested for Trading Govt Secrets for > Mercedes A couple of days a friend came along with an S 500 L, just 4 months old, all the gimmicks like leather, glass sunroof, 7-speed auto trans, keyless-go, DVD navi, air suspension etc. pp. resulting in a price tag of more than 95.000 Euros (incl. 16 per cent German VAT). What shall I say? Still the materials look cheap, be it the leather or the dashboard, everything looks and feels a bit too cheap in general and much too cheap with the price taken in mind; sure, the car drives smooth and fast and there's plenty of leg room in the rear - but 95.000 Euros? Never! Juergen - with an S for the soul the devil made a bargain > A couple of days a friend came along with an S 500 L, > just 4 months old, all the gimmicks like leather, > glass sunroof, 7-speed auto trans, keyless-go, > DVD navi, air suspension etc. pp. resulting in a price > tag of more than 95.000 Euros (incl. 16 per cent German > VAT). > What shall I say? > Still the materials look cheap, be it the leather > or the dashboard, everything looks and feels a > bit too cheap in general and much too cheap with > the price taken in mind; > sure, the car drives smooth and fast and there's > plenty of leg room in the rear - but 95.000 Euros? > Never! > Juergen - with an S for the soul the devil made a bargain ( how true ) Juergen, I have not seen your comments in a while! Mercedes claims to be addressing the quality complaints. Perhaps the new S will be much better. How much longer until they show it? .  Signature1 HP = 745.69987158227022 Watts 1 PS = 735.49875 Watts . http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpenny.htm - Current national debt As of 11/02/2004 the National Debt was $7,429,582,471,118.88 As of 11/26/2004 the National Debt was $7,524,685,017,945.74, up 95 billion in the 24 days since the last Presidential election. http://www.cannabisnews.com - stay abreast of marijuana news http://www.norml.com - support marijuana legalization by becoming a member of NORML http://www.mpp.org - support marijuana legalization by becoming a member of MPP http://www.ips-dc.org - the nation’s oldest multi-issue progressive think tank http://narconews.com - learn about the South of the Border drug war . . FOUR MORE YEARS to a 10 trillion dollar national debt! ( $10,000,000,000,000.00 )! . FOUR MORE YEARS until 20% of the federal budget is interest payments on the debt! . . > Juergen, I have not seen your comments in a while! I wish I would have more time! So there is times I don't participate here actively (means at least I try to read then). > Mercedes claims to be addressing the quality complaints. Yes, that is what they say. With the current S-Class W220 I can see no progress of any sort, quality impression is the same since the (minor) face-lift. > Perhaps the new S will be much better. How much longer until they > show it? IMHO they _really_ do have to make a clear step forward in terms of quality - and I expect that with the successor W221. Presentation will be at the 2005 IAA International Motor Show in Frankfurt which begins with press day one Tuesday, September 13th. Sale - at least for Germany - will start in October. I think we can expect spy photos with undisguised cars around late spring/early summer. Juergen What do you think of the latest E in this context? Better than S on the inside? Maybe time to switch to Jaguar? Just achieved 2nd place in a customer satisfaction survey undertaken by the BBC (link posted in post on picking cotton in Alabama) http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/survey/ Jag has been doing well in such surveys for quite some time (in UK, at least). DAS SignatureFor direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling --- >> Juergen, I have not seen your comments in a while! > [quoted text clipped - 24 lines] > > Juergen Hi Dori, > What do you think of the latest E in this context? > Better than S on the inside? I don't think so. And especially with the instrument cluster one can see _how_ cheap it is - predecessor-series 210 is much better in that respect (and in terms of cargo volume, too). > Maybe time to switch to Jaguar? No option for me - an e.g. Jaguar S-Type sticks out of the crowd cleary, an MB E-class does not. > Just achieved 2nd place in a customer satisfaction > survey undertaken by the > BBC (link posted in post on picking cotton in Alabama) > http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/survey/ > Jag has been doing well in such surveys for quite some > time (in UK, at least). In the UK - nationalism plays a role here,; of course the same in Germany with Mercedes et al - and also the expection of the customers comes into play. Juergen (being a Jaguar fan, I admit) ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > DAS > -- [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] > > > > Juergen Hi Dori, > What do you think of the latest E in this context? > Better than S on the inside? I don't think so. And especially with the instrument cluster one can see _how_ cheap it is - predecessor-series 210 is much better in that respect (and in terms of cargo volume, too). > Maybe time to switch to Jaguar? No option for me - an e.g. Jaguar S-Type sticks out of the crowd cleary, an MB E-class does not. > Just achieved 2nd place in a customer satisfaction > survey undertaken by the > BBC (link posted in post on picking cotton in Alabama) > http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/survey/ > Jag has been doing well in such surveys for quite some > time (in UK, at least). In the UK - nationalism plays a role here,; of course the same in Germany with Mercedes et al - and also the expectation of the customers comes into play. Juergen (being a Jaguar fan, I admit) I think that British 'car nationalism' largely died out with the realisation many years ago that British Leyland cars were a load of rubbish. This laughable rump called MG Rover is a zombie and the directors clever 'frauds' in that they sold their concept for buying the company from BMW on misleading premises, and the stupid workers believed every word. They even demonstrated in support of the present owners against the rival bidders. And now Rover sales are heading south at an incredible rate, within spitting distance of what the rival bidders had indicated... A great shame, as the MG sports car itself can be the basis for a nice little niche business. Whatever happened, it would probably be foreign-owned. Right now Rover are negotiating with a Shanghai car company....Can you imagine? A Chinese car company coming to the rescue of a British one? And Jag is 'foreign'-owned, though Ford does have a long and quite distinguished history in Europe. DAS SignatureFor direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling --- [...] > In the UK - nationalism plays a role here,; > of course the same in Germany with Mercedes et al - > and also the expectation of the customers comes into > play. > > Juergen (being a Jaguar fan, I admit) >I think that British 'car nationalism' largely died out with the realisation >many years ago that British Leyland cars were a load of rubbish. This >laughable rump called MG Rover is a zombie <rant> Could not agree more. Morris Garages (MG) was a fantastic visionary company with a great product and a cool work ethic. Unfortuanately when it got bought and swallowed by British Leyland it became just a different bonnet badge for Leyland to whore its poorly designed, shoddily built, unreliable, ugly rust buckets with. BL was not interested in the proper development of individual marquees that they had under their wing. This is still clear in the way Rover needed to up sales so stuck an ugly body kit on an old Rover and called it the 'MG Rover'. And who can forget the abomination that was the MG Maestro!!! Although to be fair with workers in the 60's &70's striking more days a year than working, union strangle holds and the three day week the Leyland management were on a bit of a hiding to nowhere! </rant> (DISCLAIMER) I do not own, nor have I ever owned, a flat cap, a tweed jacket with leather elbow patches, a pipe, a moggy minor or a holiday caravan in Devon. Mike SignatureW126 300SE W115 220/8 |
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