[V8] Love for V8's, and ramblings.

[Kneale Brownson]

I remember the disappointment of seeing Mercedes cars from the late 50s and early 60s running around with huge rust holes in the bodies.  Must be the "generations" comment referred to the engine?  
   
  This car  http://www.pbase.com/kneale_brownson/image/17947087    sat behind my barn for 30 years.  The only part that didn't rust beyond reuse is the grille.  Oh yeah, the engine was seized but the dual carb linkage still worked.

Roger Woodbury <rmwoodbury at roadrunner.com> wrote:
  I think this is absolutely correct. I well remember a comment reported in
Road & Track Magazine made by a Mercedes senior officer in the early 1990's.
He was speaking of how Mercedes was going to confront the new high end
Japanese competition. He said plainly that Mercedes had always built cars
for generations. The Mercedes build quality was intended to enable their
cars to be passed down from one generation to another, with only the precise
maintenance schedules furnished by Stuttgart to be followed to enable their
cars to last without limitation. However, the executive said, that in order
to meet the Japanese competition, Mercedes would shorten their model life
expectancy and build cars to a new consumer, one that was less interested in
such longevity.