Thoughts while driving the 2007 Mercedes-Benz E550 sedan through the foothills of the Bavarian Alps: "The perfect car? No such thing…is there? It feels wrong that we can find nothing wrong, but the E550 does everything extremely well…but perfectly? We're not going to park this thing until we find a flaw, even if it's no more irritating than a pea under a hausfrau-high stack of feather beds."

Thoughts, hours later, in a hotel parking lot: "The perfect car. Impossible? Maybe, but there is one thing we know for sure. We can't feel any poke from any pea anywhere in the E550."

Thoughts, days later, at a computer keyboard: "The new and improved E-Class is as close to perfect as any vehicle we've driven."

Impossible? Our fingers admittedly balked at typing such an extravagant statement, but there it now lies, and there it will remain. If we overlooked any evidence to the contrary during our first drive, blame it on the bewitching fairy-tale beauty of Southern Bavaria.