Mercedes tends to very a great deal by model and year as to quality and most people I have know to given up Mercedes was because of the repair cost at least in the USA tends to be high.
I have owned on Mercedes and it was crap but a Mercedes mechanic said I picked the car with the worst carburetor Mercedes ever made and I bought it very used. the floor also fell on the drive shaft.
Most of the time it is that the maintenance parts costs of European cars for USA is often high to be worth the money.
There is one thing you are missing about those European Mercedes taxi's. Just as do American taxi's (Mostly Fords in the USA), they get repaired and rebuilt as needed. THAT'S how they run 500,000 miles and more. Yes, Mercedes models have decent drive trains, as do many other cars, BUT they do tend to have more than their share of body related issues.
Well you won't experience catastrophic break downs these days. You will however have more little gremlins than the japanese equavalent ,like; blinker light not working, power window or door not working, check engine light on, squeeling brakes. All that are no big deal when it's still under warranty, but when it's out of warranty. That's where it hits the pocket book.
After 100,000 miles Mercedes and other European vehicle require far more repairs than comparable Japanese vehicle and those repairs are considerably more expensive due to higher priced parts and more labor.
What's with the stereotype that Mercedes cars break down a lot? I mean.. have you ever seen a Mercedes on the side of the road with car trouble? And the Taxi's in Europe are all Mercedes cars with over 500.000 miles and still running.
Mercedes engines and transmissions are rock solid in my opinion.
BMW on the other hand...
