Mercedes aren't all they used to be cracked up to be. Up untill the late 80's, MB had almost the same attention to performance that BMW has. But in the early 90's, their focus shifted toward luxury. So out went the manuals, tight suspensions, and torquey V6's and V8's. In came turboed and SC'd I4's and V6's were tuned for higher hp and less torque. Then of course, they threw out the true manuals. So now the only cars in MB's line with real balls are all over 60k. And even at that you can't row your own gears. MB's don't impress me one bit, unless they offer the C430 AMG with a real manual..... hehe. Only in dreams, I guess.