Combines European Combines migrating to North America

The dogs on the street know that Mercedes cars are the best engineered cars in the world period and thats coming from a British guy!!!! I personally know of diesel Merc Taxis here in N.Ireland with upwrds of 600'000 miles on them and they're still going strong without any major engine work having been done.Merc dealers here are firmly aiming at the "upper" end of the market although the "A" class is also doing well here.

Having visited Germany several times I would agree that Mercedes dealerships resemble domestic dealerships in North America, but there are far more 500,000+ km mercedes still "running the roads" than the domestic brands, and Euopeans tend to keep thier cars longer, and tend to run higher miles on the odometer. It is NOT uncommon to see a 500,000+ kilometer mercedes; - it IS uncommon to see a 500,000+ km domestic.

I don't know. I personally know of several domestic vehicles with 200,000-300,000 miles. We have a little old S-10 here at the shop with close to 350,000. Our parts pickup has nearly 300,000 as it does a 200+ mile parts route twice per day. I have a Grand Am with 225,000 on it. A friend of mine has a mid-80s Chevy pickup with a 6.2 that has nearer to 600,000 on it and I think he's replaced the engine only once. Another friend's Dodge Cummins had over 300,000 on it before he sold it to yet another friend. My Grandpa's '90 Dodge Cummins has 300,000 on it, all of them as a farm truck and pulling stock trailers, haying cows etc. It's all in maintaining the vehicle and how it's driven, and it's my understanding that the roads over there are better than what we have here. Any truth to thatIJ

Having lived in Germany for 30 years, I'd say the roads are getting worse, because the government is going broke. The car manufacturing is more precise in Germany. It shows on the gaps in between the body parts and how precisely the doors fit in. Just take a close look. However the Japanese have won the break down report (conducted by the german automobile club) for the last two decades in Germnay with Toyota always being n1 with the least break downs per thousand sold cars. German cars usually have more inovations under the hood like variable valve stroke and timing, variable intake lengths, direct fuel injection on gasoline engines, air ride and independent link suspensions, diesel engines in small cars and so on, while American cars focus more on the outside and the make up.

The roads are pretty good over there although, like Dakota said, they're getting worse. I'm glad to hear of some of the Dodge Cummins getting high mileage; - I hope mine does. I do agree that maintenance is a BIG part of reliablility, although I've have 2 lemons in my day, and all the maintenance in the world didn't make them any more reliable.

What machines are the most popular over thereIJ

On modern combines Claas outsells the others about 3 to 1,NH is next with JD_MF fighting it out for 3rd place!!! Pre the 1990's and it was MF who ruled the roost,abit like the USA I thinkIJ

Big Truck would there be any chance I could get you to email meIJ I would enjoy visiting with you a bit outside the forum, if you have time. The older claas machines and some of the different harvest methods you use interest me.

Old Pokey, You have mail!!!

At least we don't need to call ourselves BRITISH anymore.