But a 1960s, 1970s or 1980s Mercedes would very likely be a very reliable car compared to any of it's contemporaries. People would save up for a long time to get one, with the expectation of it lasting. And they typically were behind on features compared to other brands. AC was optional, and typically ineffective, seats and windows were manually operated except for the flagship sedans and so on.
That went out the window with increased competition in the 1990s. They added a lot of features that had become the norm in cheaper cars, and a lot of those features were poorly implemented and unreliable.
I think that the increase in popularity in leasing, shorter development cycles, and an increased rate of innovation have contributed to people not keeping cars as long, which means that longevity is not as important as it used to be.
Right now, there is essentially an inverse relationship between price and reliability. Some of the least reliable cars have been the flagship sedans from the Europeans. And they really don't have many features that haven't also been implemented by much more pedestrian brands first.
Disagree strongly here. There are dozens of features that debuted in the 7-series and S-class that have trickled down (or will trickle down) to less expensive cars.
For example, this article outlines a few firsts in the current S-class: http://wardsauto.com/technology/new-mercedes-s-class-claims-many-world-firsts
The W126 was the first car with airbags and seatbelt pretensioners. ESP debuted on the W140.
The new 7-series has a key with a display on it.
Some of these features may be of dubious value but that doesn't preclude them from being world firsts.
Wards shouldn't issue Mercedes marketing pap. Airbags debuted on Fords as an experiment in the early 1970s and in both Fords and GMs as an option not long after. They had a very low take rate, and were discontinued not long after, only to return again once the NHTSA made them a requirement in the early 1990s.
The Japanese, and depending on era, the American brands were quite often the first to introduce really novel products. Turbo Chevrolet Corvairs and Olds Jetfires, ABS equipped Chrysler products and so on were on the market when Mercedes mostly produced normally aspirated 6 cylinder gas and diesel cars.
