Build quality: the last hand-assembled Mercedes

Owners repeatedly describe the W108/W109 as the last hand-assembled Mercedes and the finest mass-production car of its day, out-building contemporary Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Jaguar and American luxury cars. The over-engineering is illustrated by a first-hand crash account in which the body crushed to the rear glass without the glass breaking; a well-sorted example is said to make other cars feel like poverty on wheels.