Bears Crusin’ in Style: Mercedes Benz
If you want old school luxury and refinement, Mercedes Benz (also known worldwide as Mercedes AMG) symbolizes that kind of elegance that is Bold and Beautiful while still Young and Restless and current on technology and performance.
It really is a nice blend of 20th an 21st Century charm and style.
Worldwide, the term ‘German Engineering’ still holds gravitas because it means attention to detail without cutting corners, which is why cars like Mercedes Benz are so expensive. Every part of the car is so carefully engineered that noise is kept to a minimum while performance is truly outstanding.
Mercedes and BMW are the standard bearers for this concept.
Mercedes Benz got a foothold in the United States in the 1950s in an attempt to rebrand itself after having worked with (for) the Nazis during World War II. In the 1950s, the big luxury cars that Americans with money bought were Cadillacs and Lincolns and other high-end American-made cars; foreign made cars were for collectors, not for the country club set.
Come the 1980s when American manufacturing was taking a hit from foreign-made cars, Mercedes really gained in popularity, with their E-Class and S-Class sedans being the ultimate symbol of luxury.
(TV shows like Dallas and, later in this century, Succession prominently featured S-Class sedans as the cars you bought and drove when you had money to burn.)
Indeed, these cars were never affordable and were never meant to be, which is why American manufacturers like General Motors and Ford offered different higher-end trims of cars that offered ‘luxury’ accents, like leathers seats or moonroofs, to make customers feel like they were being treated like they were living The Lifestyles of The Rich of Famous.
Still, these higher-end trims could not compare to the drive or feel of cars like a Benz. The engineering was just not there. The design was not there. And, in reality, the longevity was not there either as it is with a Benz, many of which are now manufactured in Alabama.
For 2026, you will realistically need at least $45K US to get into the subcompact GLA SUV (a truly wonderful car) and you can easily spend almost $200K for the snazziest G-wagons that are, well, Wowee!
Is paying that much for a car worth your money? Generally, Merecedes cars do indeed hold their value well but not exceptionally well. Ultimately, it is just a car and not an investment.
Yet if you like the idea of a car that has the precision of German engineering – and if you want to be as elegant as the Ewings of Dallas or the Roy family of Succession – Mercedes Benz cars are a true joy to drive, once you get past the nervousness of driving a car that is so expensive.
In a few weeks, I will write about Lexus, the luxury arm of Toyota and a brand with which I am very familiar. These cars are truly a dream to drive, and the elegance indeed just radiates – but here’s something to know about every Lexus on the road: there is a Toyota-badged equivalent that is just as good and thousands of dollars cheaper.
Okay, there’s the spoiler alert. But stay tuned. Luxury, if you want it and can afford it, is within reach, just like anything you want in life.
Happy Pride Month, my fellow bears. We are winning. We are winners. Stay strong.
And please vote in your primaries.
Lead Image – The new Mercedes-AMG GT 4-Door Coupe
At a time when the vast majority of Americans are struggling to afford basic needs, such as housing, childcare and groceries, it baffles the mind why Bear World Magazine would choose to publish articles about $200K+ luxury cars. Is this supposed to be a relatable topic? Obviously, if someone can afford to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a car, then luxury is “within reach”, but for 99% of us it remains out of reach, regardless of whether we want it. It’s a shame that something inexpensive like spell check couldn’t have been used before publishing this to ensure that a word in the title of the article itself was correctly spelled (it’s “cruisin’”, not “crusin’”… and it’s “Mercedes”, not “Merecedes”).
Thank you so much for your well-written and thoughtful comments. We always appreciate when readers like yourself take the time to comment; it truly helps improve the quality of our work. As for the title of our series, we were going for something similar to, say, Crusin’ for a Brusin’, something more like slang. Perhaps that did not work. We will need to revisit that. As for the typos, thank you for pointing that out. Every now and then, some get through, my apologies. And the point of these columns about Mercedes Benz or Land Rover is not to say ‘hey, you should go out and spend all your money on these cars.’ I certainly cannot afford a car like that. The car I own is 2014 Nissan Versa. We write these columns to give our readers, who are very financially diverse, some insights into what’s out there, perhaps for shopping, perhaps for dreaming. I also write about affordable new cars and definitely encourage readers to buy used but do their homework. I hope this helps. Please let me know if there is anything that I did not address. And again, thank you for your comments.