I currently own a 97 S500 and a 03 S500 for my wife. My last car before the 03 S500 was a 92 LS400. I just bought an 01 LS430. I have to say that although I like the look of the Merc more (both the current generation and the last (92-99) generation), both mercedes have broken down many more times than I care to remember. My LS400 did not start to break down until about 150k or so, then something would break every couple of months until I sold it. My 97 S500 has only 80k on it, and my average repair bill is about $3k/year. Can you imagine I had to pay $2000 on repairs for my AC 6 months after the warranty expired???? When does the AC fail on a 4 year old car with 30k miles? I am selling my 97 S500, and swears never to be ripped off again. By the way, my brother had a 99 M3 for a couple years and when it worked, it was flawless until it would break down about once/year. Each time, the bill was between $1k-2k. He finally got tired and got an infinity G35 which cost less, has never broken down and is faster than that previous generation M3 series. He tells me he never looked back either. Yes, you will be very very happy with lexus. That's the bottom line.