Daimler shares: best or nothing?

To admit it immediately: I am a Daimler Benz victim twice over. I have driven an M-class SUV for quite a few, desperate years and suffered with the car a series of unbelievable faults and ailments, as my wife had with an A-series Mercedes Benz.

Her complaints – mysteriously opening doors and windows even when the car was parked – and multiple faults with the ‘semi-automatic’ clutch were trifle though. My car had come with a ‘louvered’ sunroof which started to leak early on to still flood my car with every rainfall a dozen repairs later, for which I was even charged once the warranty had expired. I had to fix the leaks with duct tape eventually, incapacitating the roof forever.

The lift of the rear seats broke so many times that I thought it wise to access the auxiliary seats in the back through the boot of the car. The electrical engine of the passenger seat was faulty as soon as it came from repair, making it impossible to move any of the seat components most of the time.

The engine block was originally delivered with a crack, spraying a mist of oil over the hot parts of the engine until the car and its passengers disappeared under a cloud of dense smoke. And the windscreen...