Really wasn't too bad, this was a hang out guys trip with my son and I anyway, so we made the best of it. Had a Tahoe as a rental, first time driving one of those, quite comforatable, I've owned a couple of Mercede's in the past, but moved on. My old 280 SEL (the larger 126 body) I had when I lived in Europe for a few years was a nice car, and I had an ML-320 that I bought when I moved back to the US, but just wasn't for me, had several problems with mine, especially electronics, whcih always seemed to need a part shipped in from somewhere else. Both were nice vehicles, but just can't justify the premium here in the US especially for maintenance, which my ML seemed to need pretty regularly.....It's funny, overseas they're just cars, most taxi's are MB even, but over here it's a pseudo status symbol. Just like Jaguar, (another brand I'll pass on ever buying again) they're pretty, but just not worth the expense for the headache from my experience, but some people really like em. My neighbor has an E Class, and it is nice, and when I go with him to the dealer to pick up or drop off his for yet another service, I like to browse, but just don't see me buying another one. Wife has a German car, which she loves, (VW Eos Turbo convertible) and so far it's been ok, but I question it's long term reliability too, but there was no talking her out of it. I do like the BMW M5, considering it for our next vehicle, maybe after the next gen comes out. Who knows...For now, between her VW, our Durango SRT8, and Ram, we've already got more than we need!
As to the bus, again, we probably would have, if they were ready to go when we got to ELP, but sitting around for 4-6 hours, THEN starting the long ride? No thanks, we enjoyed the drive ok, got dinner that didn't come out of a box, hit the pool for an hour or so, got a good nights sleep, and still got in hours ahead of when the bus ride (s) would have gotten us home. It worked out, didn't get the train trip we were looking for, but at least we didn't get stuck in the bus mess!
