I've read that in the past 3 years Mercedes reliability has been on the decline (Chrysler influence?) and that ones car may spend as much time in the shop as on the road. If true, what are the most common problems, engine, electrical system, what?
Some would suggest it started in 1992. that makes it 14 years. Mine is a 1980, and it works great. I want the old beast to die so I can upgrade to a newer model, like an 84 or 85 !!! LOL.
Amen. 85 was the last year that gave the do it yourselfer a fighting chance.
I have three recent MB cars and none of them has ever broken down. They are commonplace here and I can't say I have heard of any having significant reliability problems. The problems that do occur in the UK are dealer service related and usually the MB dealers who are part of large multi franchise chains.
Yes (and I don't even seem to have dealer problems). In fact my most memorable failure was around 1983/4 in the supposedly tank-like W123 (200E).
With only about 2000 miles on the clock I was poodling down the motorway in Kent one fine summer's evening on my way to Paris. After some horrendous noise I came to a halt (in a service station) and, in short, when help came a blown-up engine was diagnosed. After ringing round for ages I was taken to Hertz to get a car with which to continue my journey.
(Unfortunately this coincided with the German metalworkers strike and, as there was no replacement motor in the Merc supply chain, I had to wait over two months for a replacement. I had a rental BMW 320, half paid-for by MB UK...there were no 190s in those days, the deal being that I should have a car one class below mine.)
Soon after the engine was fixed I drove to Germany and found that, towards the end (fortunately) of my journey I kept having electrical failure.... the local MB found a screw in the distributor...They said they considered this so serious that they would report it to HQ...
Oh, and BTW, the evening of the day I took delivery of the car I drove out to a pub with a girlfriend to celebrate. On return to the car park I found that the central locking had failed....
Win some, lose some.
DAS
For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
'00 E-320 - only problems were dash lamp, then vent fan switch, after dealer worked on dash lamp; front brake pads wore far too quickly, and both rear windows jumped their track, because of a weak/poorly designed retainer.
'06 S-500 - nothing, though only 15K miles.
Hunt
And yet I owned a 123, (a 1982 240D) until 9 months ago that had over
650,000 miles on the odometer when I sold it, (and that reading was inaccurate because it was broken for 3 years until the previous owner,(I was the second owner) could find a mechanic that knew how to fix it.I'm told that the new owner is still getting good service out of it.
M. Pate\
1991 420 sel
I have owned a C class 220 and an E class 320 in the past and both cars have been reasonably reliable - however my current Benz a 93 600SEL (supposed to be the best car in the world - period!) has been a nightmare for reliability. In the past 12 months problems have been;
All these problems have occurred on a car which has an impeccible service history with no cost spared.
Q. How can you end up with a small fortune by owning an S Class?
Well, you may have bought one of the more expensive, but not neccesarily better cars in the world.
Insulation problems in the '93 - '95 models is common, due to a "design" failure - they were formulated to be more *biodegradable*
Yep, 13 years old.
Yep, about that age.
If not replaced, then also about that age.
Not sure, design?
About that age too.
The old ones were original? Then also due.
True, but you feel satisfied driving it, I'm sure.
There's a reason your C and E class vehicles seem more reliable; they just made lots more vehicles than your S600, which meant they had more bug reports, and more "real-world" use.
Regards, WS
no kidding... Who know DE-evolution was still alive and kicking.. Even POS america cars are becoming more reliable. Everyone is... execpt Mercedes. Enough harvesting of your name brand!
DBob Smith wrote:
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