Return visitor saddened by Mercedes quality

Yep - look at the Lexus group - you won't see anybody regretting buying one. Plenty of people here regret buying their Mercedes - me included. I consider it the worst purchase decision I have made in my life. A total waste of money.

The most recent, or least old, MB I've had is 1980, and it's staying like that. Next will be another 108.

So far I feel I have been lucky with my 2001 CLK Cab -- one 'major' niggle with the widow lifter, fixed by Merc.

However, the reports here worry me.

Funny thing is that there is apparently no German language Merc Usenet newsgroup, which would have been interesting to follow as there would be so many more 'home market' participants. Of course the US and UK are markets number 2 & 3 for Merc.

DAS

DAS

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Like you (Michael Hobbs), I used this newsgroup to influence me in '98 to buy an E-model Mercedes rather than an Lexus 300. Over the years, I gotten the feeling that the quality and service of my '99 Mercedes is far below the Lexus. For example, I'm finding it hard to pay over $70 for a plastic cup holder because a can of soda spilled and jammed and cracked the flimsy plastic mechanism. The dealer says that my cup holder is out of warranty because it is over four years in spite of the fact that I have less than

30,000 at the time and service it every 10,000. There is no doubt in my mind that the Lexus folks would have given me better satisfaction.

The 'widow lifter'? I haven't lifted a widow for many years. Any of you chaps have more recent experience of uplifting widows? Surely a worthy occupation. A trifle sad, of course. [Ignoring the NAUGHTY top posting]. Any widows care to meet a kind gent who will uplift you and your spirit?

I love this talk and grin ear to ear thinking about the two late model E320s I purchased for a song this summer. So now I own some extremely fine automobiles likely abandoned by their owners fooled by nothing more than advertisements bought and paid for as press articles and "quality reports".

Only long term ownership and a love of automobiles leads to undoubting decision to buy Mercedes - without need for quantitative analysis, stacks of magazines and narrow experiences found on repair forums. Keep on trading 'em in on those soul-less Japanese luxo-cars - I'll keep on buying 'em.

Scott D....... (five MBs in the family now, a few more before these, and over half a million wonderful miles behind the wheel)

These groups are not usenet-based, but meet in forums (Forum, plural Foren) - much easier and faster to set up than a new usenet group. Also interesting is the high number of such forums, many devoted to one single Mb model only.

We have to face it: Usenet is loosing in terms of importance/relevance. Anyone still knows Fido net?

Juergen

I read that article and was not surprised at how poorly the S did. Notice their disparaging comments about the BMW 7 Series, and that the new Jaguar XJ came in a close second. My, my, my how the world has changed!

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Does your car not rattle? My sportcoupé rattles and creaks like an Austin Allegro - and that is a fairly rigid bodyshell. I'd have thought a Merc cabriolet would be a total jelly.

No, doesn't rattle. That was another reason I selected Merc (besides my being a firm Merc fan before starting to read this ng...).

In comparisons with other cabs -- BMW & Saab being the nearest -- it did best for stability and rattles according to motor journalists' reviews.

DAS

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Mercedes most certainly will fix these things. In the meantime I'm not rushing out to buy the Lexus - no matter how strongly my left-brain wants to listen to Car&Driver, my right-brain cries out for the Benz!

"Oh, so you didn't buy the Mercedes...?"

Scott D

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What I cant believe is that Jaguar is actually gaining market share. KH

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Interesting what seems to be happening at Jaguar. Ford's initial influence purged the Company of its historical stupidity in terms of product quality issues, bad vendor management, etc. Then they swung too far in terms of cost cutting through the "brand management plague" years, i.e., using Ford platforms & even powertrains for S & X Type. Now they launch the heavily Wolfgang Reitzle influenced XJ replacement to good reviews, and the press reports they've decided (very sensibly) that to continue build volume all new Jaguars must sit on dedicated platforms. (How novel, they've decided the public can tell the difference between automotive $#!t and shinola!). If I was BMW & MB I'd finally start to pay attention, they have a knockout-pedigree, and despite all their past problems they could take off like a rocket.

The worry in all this for MB is they've sold hundreds of thousands of mediocre vehicles over the past few years, and the poor quality ratings will be reflected in "never again" word of mouth among first time MB buyers. MB is a very arrogant company and needs to consider there are PLENTY of other good choices out there. I for one thought they learned this lesson in the early '90's, apparently not.

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they are priced right and the perception is that the car offers prestige for 30k

--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Because of the current email spam attacks my email account is not included, reply via the newsgroups or ask for a valid email address.

Sure but you'll have to take your car back twenty odd times to the dealer, and argue with them for hours, to get them to do it. I finally had to drive my car back to the factory to get one rattle fixed which the dealer couldn't/wouldn't attempt to repair any more.

That Jag looks like a good option to replace my E in a few more years...

MC