I have an early built '04 coupe and I am very happy with the car AFTER all the bugs were fixed. It's a long term keeper for me.

On the other hand, I am not impressed at all with Mercedes quality and Chrysler service.

My car had both the 6-speed transmission and rear axle replaced. I've also had just about every problem that people have mentioned on this forum with my car. I do not buy into the notion that it was a first year or early production model which was the root of the problems associated with it. The majority of parts have been around a long time on the SLK 320 and some other MB's. Build and parts quality should not have been an issue with the Crossfire.

After doing some research on MB, I found that they are still trying to dig themselfs out of quality control issues that go back 5-10 years. Recently, it has been Chrysler ithat has been keeping MB afloat, MB profits are in the toilet.

I'll catch flack on this, but IMHO, overall quailty and reliability are much better on Japanese vehicles.