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David E. Davis Jr. brilliant prose

It is reasurring to see that the engineers at Mercedes Benz still know
how to build the best cars in the world. That company--more
particularly the American branch of that company--seems to have
forgotten most of the important lessons learned during two decades of
dominance in the luxury-car market. The S-class cars are the
mechanical embodiment of that fall from grace. They are such wonderful
cars, yet their traditional buyers have turned their backs and kept
their money in their pockets. The twelve cyliner S600 that we took
through New England is as good a car as money can buy, but the C220
and the C280 seem to be where all the action is these days.

The big Mercedes combines all of the features that are parcelled out
among a dozen cars we love. It is very, very fast and can be driven
like a sports car. It is very, very comfortable and can be enjoyed
like a Rolls Royce. It is safer than most buildings, yet it will move
across any continent you care to name at three digit speeds. Order it
with the twelve cylinder engine, and it puts you in a very small,
exclusive club, a club everyone should strive to belong to before
they're too old to enjoy membership. BMW and Porsche owners sniff at
Mercedes Benzes and suggest they're too full of themselves to be
enjoyed on mountain roads. This is ignorance or prejudice talking,
more likelly both. Our S600 simply devoured the twisting back roads
of Quebec, Maine, and upstate New York and never showed a moments's
lack of agility or enthusiasm. On the Interstates, as on the
autobahns, the big Mercedes is the king, the really big animal that
comes out of the woods just when all of the lessser animals think they
have everything under control. When you drive the autobahn, and drive
as fast you you physically can, you'll find that only one car ever
runs with you or, heaven forbid, overtakes you. That car is almost
invariably a big Mercedes.

David E. Davis Jr.


FORZA!                  Smith, Walker And Associates, Melbourne, Florida

GWALKER@domain.elided      "Big brown river. . ." Tuli Kupferberg, 1963