are mercedes still poor quality?
Discussion
joebongo said:
Really? I was lucky then when I had a 92 220e which was harder than a chieftain tank.
I thought it was 97 ish but never knew exactly when it was.
I thought it was 97 ish but never knew exactly when it was.
I think the W124 E-class was the last of one of the good mercs. From then onwards (when they started doing cars with quad headlights) it turned to pot.
Avoid anything *new* between 1995 and 2004 and you should be ok. The W210 is an excellent car but it suffers badly from rust. Its internals are very similar to the W124, the car often considered to be Mercedes "last great car". I ran my W210 for 5 years and although it wasn't without its faults, it never let me down, and it never felt as though it wanted to.
Anything after 2004 is fine, that's when they started galvanising their bodies, although there are still sporadic reports of minor rust problems.
If you ask me everything that epitomises Mercedes' cost-cutting can be found in the first A-class.
Anything after 2004 is fine, that's when they started galvanising their bodies, although there are still sporadic reports of minor rust problems.
If you ask me everything that epitomises Mercedes' cost-cutting can be found in the first A-class.
Doofus said:
The W124's were the last of the 'properly built' Mercedes. The W210 E classes have a lot of well-documented problems (mainly around paint quality and rust)
So that makes it 1995 really. ALthough the W202 C-classes are pretty decent, and they ran until 2000
I'll second that about the W202's. My old C43 felt solid and well put together with no squeeks or rattles and that was a 2000 registered car. A few rust issues got rectified (and older "proper" Mercedes are far from immune to this), but other than that it never had any issues or any electrical gremlins. My current B10 is far worse from that point of view, so it certainly isn't justified to tar the W202 with that image in my experience.So that makes it 1995 really. ALthough the W202 C-classes are pretty decent, and they ran until 2000
AFAIK the South African plant ceased making MBs some time ago, with all production transferred back to Germany.
I certainly wouldn't class the current range as poor quality, maybe not as well engineered and put together as in their early 90s prime, but those cars were probably built 'too well', any modern car from any manufacturer will look poor in comparison.
Looking at the number of posts in the BMW and Audi sub-forums on here complaining of mechanical problems, poor paint, crap service, I'd say the modern Merc is certainly not inferior to it's competitors in terms of quality.
I certainly wouldn't class the current range as poor quality, maybe not as well engineered and put together as in their early 90s prime, but those cars were probably built 'too well', any modern car from any manufacturer will look poor in comparison.
Looking at the number of posts in the BMW and Audi sub-forums on here complaining of mechanical problems, poor paint, crap service, I'd say the modern Merc is certainly not inferior to it's competitors in terms of quality.
My '97 SL60 is built like a tank, though I can see a few points where it differs from my '91 500SL, signs that the bean counters were drawing their chairs up to the table.
My '01 ML500 seems to have avoided Fridays and Accountants, 145.000miles and still does anything you ask of it.
My '91 GE300S is a tank.
My '01 ML500 seems to have avoided Fridays and Accountants, 145.000miles and still does anything you ask of it.
My '91 GE300S is a tank.
Parrot of Doom said:
Anything after 2004 is fine,
I run a late 2004 C Class C270CDi estate (they were facelifted mid 2004) and (touching a big piece of wood here) it's been totally reliable and remarkably cheap to run. They require very little servicing - with average mileage most things only need doing every 4yrs. This does cause a bit of a shock to people who don't understand the MB servicing schedule and buy a 3yr old one, and then find the next service is very expensive though!
MB dealerships' service depts have been in difficulty for some time as the later cars require so little warranty work. In fact MB moved the post 2006 cars to annual servicing (from variable) and it was reckoned this was to try and get more activity in the workshops.
Pints said:
I've often wondered if the drop in quality had anything to do with the plant in South Africa.
Given the regular strikes, one has to wonder if the workers bother nailing them together as well as they should. AFAIK, all RHD C-class Mercs are built in that plant.
I think that the estates were built in Germany.Given the regular strikes, one has to wonder if the workers bother nailing them together as well as they should. AFAIK, all RHD C-class Mercs are built in that plant.
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