My bad the MK V had the lousy transmission. The Mk iv was a good platform, just under powered..
I read an interview with a Sturmgeschutz crewman, he liked the late models III better than the IV. It was almost the same thing, but the IV was slower, and that mattered.
I'm tracking a guy in England that found the stripped, rusted, shot-out hulk of a Stg. III in the UK, and is completely reconditioning it. The transformation is stunning.
panther had a crappy final drive design. rushed into production before being fully and completely “design verified and validated”
response to appearance to T-34 seems to be the reason for rushing design to production.
MTBF was about 60 hours...roughly.
classic example of design and engineering failure.
other than that, it was a fine tank.