The thing I can't stand on Mercs is their ugly UI, which they've kept even in this day and age:

https://c1.peakpx.com/wallpaper/1018/324/929/mercedes-benz-c...

One time I got in one of their cars in a car show, and the display kept popping up a modal dialog "To use X, please connect a phone". I get it, you told me 5 seconds ago!

It's insanely ugly. I rented a cla200d in Germany a couple years back and just assumed it looked chintzy because I had the low-rent cardboard interior rental company model.

... Until I saw the same font and graphics on a $100k+ AMG E class at the auto show being advertised as NEW.

Automotive software isn't written by Germans anymore, they outsourced most of it to the cheapest OEM over a decade ago. And it's not just the Germans, everything in automotive is cost driven with contracts going to the lowest bidder leading to a race to the bottom and the results speak for themselves as you can see.

This isn't true anymore.

With MBUX Mercedes has started developing their infotainment system in-house again. I don't personally own a Mercedes but from what I've heard it's much better then the previously outsourced infotainment system.

I guess it’s written by non-Germans who speak German then? Awful lot of BMW internals tend to be in German.

Please elaborate.