Sorry , but these cars are bad.They cost a lot of money and won´t work at all.
Better buy a bike.
Sorry , but these cars are bad.They cost a lot of money and won´t work at all.
Better buy a bike.
Mercedes makes bicycles too. They're about $3000.
h
I agree with you entirely. My car (C-Class) has been staggeringly unreliable and has been back to the dealer over twenty times in two years. I did indeed buy a bike (a folding bike) which I could take with me every time the car broke down or as transport back from the dealer to save on taxi fares...
what do you think the C stands for?
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Mercedes send their second grade cars (those with "minor" production defects) to Australia, rather than repairing the defects in Germany, which is much more expensive. To MB, Australia is the place on earth, farthest away from Stuttgart (except for The South Pole), and they totally ignores any rants from there.
Jesper
I have one. It is fair to say that they are also totally crap. Heavy with very unreliable electrics. Like their cars really!
My dealer told me that they have 12 full time service advisors and 150 cars a day on average come in there. Oh my! KH
woohoo! now I don't feel like so bad living in Canada... there's at least one place where people get treated worse by a big corporation ;>
cheers
Keith
Well, in fairness they have increased their annual sales by about a factor of five over the past 8 years, but at the same time their quality has slipped and they've added more models, some of which, like the ML are horrendous. Lexus has sold even more vehicles over the same time period, has maintained quality and done a far better job of managing retailer service capacity and capabilities. MB seems to have been taken over by clueless marketing types.
Drive past any MB dealer and look at how many used cars are parked all around the place. I suspect most of them are customers cars waiting to be picked up after repair. Go past a Lexus dealer and there are only a few new cars in the showroom - the outside car park is mostly empty. All the customer cars are out being driven. I'm definitely going Lexus next time too.
The only problem is that the Lexus is such a boring looking car. It looks like a corolla or something. Its just not exciting driving a lexus. its sad. KH
Who would want to drive a fancy Toyota when they can own a real car that will last. More than likely the reason there are so many cars at the dealership is that real Mercedes owners know the importance of service and maintaining their automobile. Any car can be crap.. It all depends on the owner. And you get out what you put in...
Now we are stretching things a bit. The electrical problems that the newer Mercedes seem to have are hard to ignore. KH
That's complete nonsense, maintence is paid for the first four years, I'm sure the vast majority of buyers take advantage of it. Face up to the facts , they're not the cars they used to be. -Dana
Indeed, with the introduction of the C Class in '94 MB signaled a new, volume based strategy. They are in process of mortgaging the long term viability of the brand for the sake of short-term sales records and record salaries for Jerkin Shrimp and the MB board.
While the dealers are doing well now, the legacy poor quality will cost MB the loss of many of the most loyal owners in the industry. Sad, but inevitable.
A motoring writer in Britain's best selling Sunday paper -- when writing about the new small Volvo yesterday -- referred to the increasingly "shabby" interior of the smaller Mercedes (and BMW!) cars.
Sad. DAS
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It's not just the small MBs that are being "dumbed down". Even the S Class has some interior bits that would look more appropriate in a Ford Focus. With the lease on my '00 E430 coming up early next year I stopped by a dealer in Denver to look over the new E Class. First, even though I'd driven up in an MB, no one in the dealership bothered to ask me if I had any questions, etc. (don;t you just love that?) So, I just helped myself. ;-)
I must say that while the layout of controls is much better on the new E, as is the feature content (from what I could tell just sitting in it), I was not impressed with the overall level of fit an finish. Again, some of the interior plastic looks very cheap and insubstantial. What's most disturbing is the deterioration in the quality of body work, seams around the C pillars on the E Class look like they've been worked on by a High School auto body repair class, unreal. All this for $55-75k!
At least you get to drive the damned thing. My C-Class is always at the dealer getting repaired.
I have had 7 Mercedes and 3 Lexi. I don't buy the "Lexus is boring" thing one bit. The only thing boring is NOT having to go to the dealer AT LEAST once-a-month for maintenance and repairs. Boredom...let me have it!
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