All Mercedes Benz's are made in Germany except the M-Class SUV. As far as being owned by an American company, thats not true...although Daimler-Benz changed to Daimler-Chrysler when they bought out Dodge. From my experiences with MB, the older more boxy models, from say the mid 80s to mid 90s, were the best Mercedes ever built as far as overall quality and dependability. However, the new Benz's are also of very high quality and are in my mind the safest cars on the road. As with any other car maker there are the "lemons" of the bunch, and those are probably the people who are complaining about their transmissions so much. I havent heard many complaints where i work about transmission problems. Most of the problems I hear about deal with all of the high tech gadgets that are on the cars, like the air suspension and keyless go. But honestly, the 97+ S and E models are great cars...service on them is pretty pricey, but when you buy a MB you should be able to afford the costs that come with it IMO. Anyways, I hope I helped you out but if you have anymore questions I can try and answer them for you.

PS: if you do go for a pre-owned Benz, make sure it is Star-Marked.