>>In 1968 my wife and I went to the Mercedes dealer in San Francisco. I looked at the various models, and had the cash in my wallet to purchase it after doing my research. A salesman came up to me and spoke with a thick German accent. I asked the wrong question: “How many miles to the gallon does the model 280 get”?
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>>The salesman stated with his nose high in the air, “Obviously, you cannot afford a Mercedes”!, as he turned his back and walked away. Mercedes lost a customer! So we went with a BMW 2002 tii. :)
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>Unless you were thinking about the SL pagoda style you got the better deal...

Europeans were way ahead on vehicle safety at that time. A colleague of my father's (an engineer) bought a full-size Benz sedan in the early '70s. His wife got into an extremely serious accident in it, the first responders thought for sure they were attending a fatality. Turned out the car did exactly what it was designed to do:

- Passenger cabin remained relatively intact
- Engine was diverted downwards beneath the vehicle floor, rather than into (or through) the driver's lap

They got the driver's door open without too much effort, asked her if she was OK. She said "No, I've hurt my ankle". Apparently she sprained or broke it, that was the one problem M-B already knew about but they hadn't yet solved.

Her husband said that if she had been driving any North American car, she would have died. M-B had a customer for life as a result of that accident.