Mercedes-Benz awful reliability
Discussion
Mercs are not reliable and are trading on their name from the past.
There's always a bunch of Merc fanboys who will come on and defend them, but the truth is in the figures!
I own a mollycoddled AMG and yet again it threw a dashboard red stop and proceed to workshop light the other day. Voltage regulator this time. The ****ing thing has done no miles of note and is treated with kid gloves yet it is forever going wrong.
The workhorse Mazda that is caned to within an inch of its life every journey just keeps going and went through its 10th MOT with no advisories last month!
There's always a bunch of Merc fanboys who will come on and defend them, but the truth is in the figures!
I own a mollycoddled AMG and yet again it threw a dashboard red stop and proceed to workshop light the other day. Voltage regulator this time. The ****ing thing has done no miles of note and is treated with kid gloves yet it is forever going wrong.
The workhorse Mazda that is caned to within an inch of its life every journey just keeps going and went through its 10th MOT with no advisories last month!
Alex_225 said:
By contrast, my daily car is a 2003 E320 and it's been perfect. No advisories on the last MOT, everything works and it drives brilliantly. Has 104k on the clock and apart from a bit of rust to keep an eye on creeping in from the arches, it's mint.
Just to chime in here as well; my daily is a CLK 320 with 100,000+ miles on - has been flawless.We also have a few sub 2004 Mercs within the family with a large amount of miles clocked up on each which have also been flawless.
Ali_T said:
I love threads like this purely because I get to tell everyone the most reliable car I've ever owned is an Alfa Romeo... 
I bought an Alfa 156 2.0 TS for £1800 with 60k miles on it.It did 4 years and 64k miles with nothing other than very occasional oil changes, passed every MOT with no issues. Last MOT came back with 3 red and 3 orange pages. Managed to sell parts off it, including the red leather interior, for a total of £600. I work that out as about £25 a month + oil over the 4 years :-)
StottyEvo said:
Over the years I've found that Mercedes are either bomb proof or complete lemons 
I think this is true - a colleague had an E220 on 3yr lease until quite recently and it was an absolute nightmare.Any car can have problems, but what's common on the Mercedes forums is the impression that the dealers couldn't give a toss. To be fair, we also have a couple of VWs in the family, and VW owners say the same, yet people still buy them in droves.
Sheepshanks said:
I think this is true - a colleague had an E220 on 3yr lease until quite recently and it was an absolute nightmare.
Any car can have problems, but what's common on the Mercedes forums is the impression that the dealers couldn't give a toss. To be fair, we also have a couple of VWs in the family, and VW owners say the same, yet people still buy them in droves.
The British love a badge nothing else matters Any car can have problems, but what's common on the Mercedes forums is the impression that the dealers couldn't give a toss. To be fair, we also have a couple of VWs in the family, and VW owners say the same, yet people still buy them in droves.
I ran an E Class Mercedes for 7 years and 80,000 miles without a fault. At the same time my cousin's wife ran a new C Class that was an absolute liability and never out of the dealer's. His own BMW ran like a Swiss watch.
All of the above however means nothing. Warranty statistics will tell whether or not a brand and model are reliable or not.
All of the above however means nothing. Warranty statistics will tell whether or not a brand and model are reliable or not.
Personal experience of one or two cars is a pretty bad way of judging the reliability of models that sell in the millions.
There will be reliability high flyers that have been lemons for individuals and reputational dogs that have been flawless for others.
Hope the OP's experience improves that he's regains some confidence in his.
There will be reliability high flyers that have been lemons for individuals and reputational dogs that have been flawless for others.
Hope the OP's experience improves that he's regains some confidence in his.
Hold fire on getting too cross with MB at this juncture and let them fix it. On the machines at work who's cost is several times what your car is, they nearly always give more trouble in the first year than the next 5. If Merc are a decent company they will fix the issue one way or another. It might be a faulty part, or it might be the part needs re-engineering. It's not your car and it's under warranty.
All that said, having had a Honda, I'll never buy another German car.
All that said, having had a Honda, I'll never buy another German car.
janesmith1950 said:
Personal experience of one or two cars is a pretty bad way of judging the reliability of models that sell in the millions.
There will be reliability high flyers that have been lemons for individuals and reputational dogs that have been flawless for others.
Hope the OP's experience improves that he's regains some confidence in his.
That's true, but to any individual it's their own experience that matters.There will be reliability high flyers that have been lemons for individuals and reputational dogs that have been flawless for others.
Hope the OP's experience improves that he's regains some confidence in his.
It does seem to be weird with Merc (but I probably notice this more as a Merc owner) that you'll reports of owners delighted with the way Mobilo works - guy turns up in 40 mins, equivalent (or often better) courtesy car delivered an hour later, and the car returned a few days later valeted and with a full tank of fuel.
Then the next post will be from someone who appears to have been completely abandoned.
Reading this thread again & thinking about it, I could start the same thread about BMW, Mini, JLR, Bentley, VAG, Citroen & Merc, the cars & the dealers, based on my experiences looking after the cars at work.
We have had issues with some or all of their products we have had.
One dealer in particular has become a real pain since being bought by a much larger group.
Only one I would praise to the rafters is Porsche. Our local OPC is excellent. Nothing ever seems to go wrong with the cars & nothing is too much trouble for them if I need help & that's in over 10 years dealing with them.
OP. Maybe you should have a go with another dealer in future.
We have had issues with some or all of their products we have had.
One dealer in particular has become a real pain since being bought by a much larger group.
Only one I would praise to the rafters is Porsche. Our local OPC is excellent. Nothing ever seems to go wrong with the cars & nothing is too much trouble for them if I need help & that's in over 10 years dealing with them.
OP. Maybe you should have a go with another dealer in future.
InfamousKeiran said:
I work for a very big hire car company (one of the green coloured ones) and we do Mercedes-Benz replacement vehicles and they're forever breaking down which warrants a replacement vehicle, it's not uncommon that our branch to do five a day.
How big an area do you cover?There are over 400k mercs on the UK roads with warranty cover
The amount of people who slate BMW reliability actually surprises me for such a premium brand, are they really that bad or is it just the majority don't bother to say how good they have been?
My partner got a new at the time (61 plate) E91 318d company car. We drove it very hard for 4 years and a shade under 100K miles, in that time the only non consumable part that needed replacing was the headlight switch.
As others have already said there are always going to be a few bad-uns, no matter which make you own.
My partner got a new at the time (61 plate) E91 318d company car. We drove it very hard for 4 years and a shade under 100K miles, in that time the only non consumable part that needed replacing was the headlight switch.
As others have already said there are always going to be a few bad-uns, no matter which make you own.
SuperchargedVR6 said:
Ali_T said:
I love threads like this purely because I get to tell everyone the most reliable car I've ever owned is an Alfa Romeo...
My old 147 2.0 was very reliable! Probably in part due to Alfa moving away from Magnetti Marelli over to Bosch 
teTake a look at any car manufacturer's Facebook page. They're all full of people trying to publicly rubbish the brand where people are looking when considering buying one of its products. On BMW's site people are saying they'll buy an Audi or Mercedes next time, go to Mercedes and people are saying they'll buy BMWs and so on.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff