Mercedes-Benz - Best cars ever! (rental, rear-wheel drive, braking, roadster)
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I keep hearing about Mercedes' supposed horrid reliability, but never see a source. Do you have one?
There are plenty of sources-the owners. Our ML 320 has been the neediest vehicle I think we.ve ever owned. From the evening we brought it home to have the alarm go off falsely at 3am to the most recent malfunction of the BAS/ETS system and the constant parade of off again/on again P300/302 check engine lights, it's been ridiculous. If it weren't for the driving experience when it's all working correctly we'd have ditched it a while ago. Well, that and the guilt we'd feel about unloading the damn thing on some unsuspecting sucker.
I keep hearing about Mercedes' supposed horrid reliability, but never see a source. Do you have one?
Then how are you hearing about it? I'm a source, I had a SL600. Search my posts, I've talked about it before. There are aftermarket warranty companies that absolutely refuse to write policies for the S and SL class now because they've been burned so bad by their clients constantly putting in claims for repairs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GnomadAK
There are plenty of sources-the owners. Our ML 320 has been the neediest vehicle I think we.ve ever owned. From the evening we brought it home to have the alarm go off falsely at 3am to the most recent malfunction of the BAS/ETS system and the constant parade of off again/on again P300/302 check engine lights, it's been ridiculous. If it weren't for the driving experience when it's all working correctly we'd have ditched it a while ago. Well, that and the guilt we'd feel about unloading the damn thing on some unsuspecting sucker.
That's sad. I'm willing to forgive some of the problems we had with our SL600 because it was the top of the line car and loaded with luxury crap. But if the ML320 is also breaking down all the time and it doesn't have anywhere near the luxury of the S and SL class... then Mercedes isn't even getting the basics right. I got rid of mine, you'll feel a lot better when you do.
Then how are you hearing about it? I'm a source, I had a SL600. Search my posts, I've talked about it before. There are aftermarket warranty companies that absolutely refuse to write policies for the S and SL class now because they've been burned so bad by their clients constantly putting in claims for repairs.
That's sad. I'm willing to forgive some of the problems we had with our SL600 because it was the top of the line car and loaded with luxury crap. But if the ML320 is also breaking down all the time and it doesn't have anywhere near the luxury of the S and SL class... then Mercedes isn't even getting the basics right. I got rid of mine, you'll feel a lot better when you do.
Yeah, but when it's on it's game it's so damn good!
We shopped for this based on our experience with a 84 380 SL we bought as the wife's "empty nest" car. The quality and feel of that car after 26 years was so nice, solid, and comfortable we sought out a MB when looking for the wife's daily driver. We had a record breaking snowfall winter last year and the ML is brilliant in snow and ice. It's never broken down or come home on a hook but the disco lights on the dash do get old.
I keep hearing about Mercedes' supposed horrid reliability, but never see a source. Do you have one?
Many owners have had difficulty with the more complex Mercedes in recent years. There are many sources that you can search to find out about the predicted reliability of a given model. The S and SL are temperamental, owing to the complex nature of the vehicles and expense of parts and labor as the vehicles age. Electronic components can be problematic, especially once the warranty expires, and that's the converse of the old style Benz that were absolutely solid, and while any car has its problems, the vehicles were simpler and had a reputation for durability. That eroded with the Chrysler acquisition and in successive generations that are competing in a crowded, and techno-laden luxury segment.
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I have owned several Mercedes and have had good luck with all, but all have been 80s models when Mercedes made fine cars that were still really simple to work on vehicles.
I now have a '93 S-Class with 228K that still runs like new and smooth as silk, but the previous owner did have stacks and stacks of service records where the car had been serviced. A few major issues can show up on these cars and thankfully those areas have been addressed on mine already. I love it. I love it so much that since I won that new Honda that I am keeping the Mercedes and selling my old Lincoln and Cadillac.
I found out today that my cousin purchased a 2013 Mercedes GL450 SUV, one of the big and $$$$$ ones... must be nice! lol.
Wife of Gnomad here, Yes I love my ML ... when its not throwing a hissy fit at being asked to leave the driveway BUT i love my 380SL even more. For a 28 year old car it is fabulous !
Wife of Gnomad here, Yes I love my ML ... when its not throwing a hissy fit at being asked to leave the driveway BUT i love my 380SL even more. For a 28 year old car it is fabulous !
Just curious if you've had any issues with the electronics for the cruise control or climate control in your car? the fuel injection system? the valve guide seals due to excessive oil consumption (blue smoke!)?
these are areas that have high failure rates in this 107 series, and are typically repeat failure items on most of the series.
As well, if you haven't had the single-row timing chain replaced, perhaps with the chain tensioner rail and a few of the plastic guide rails, and have in excess of 100K miles on this car, this engine is at risk of serious damage.
Additionally, these cars had failures with the oiler tube plastic seals at the cam towers breaking with age-hardening issues. It's not a case of if, it's simply when, because they will fail. They were the same seals as used on the earlier 3.5/4.5 V-8 engines where the valve adjustment was mechanical and so were inspected at frequent intervals when the valve covers were off. With the 3.8 engine's hydraulic cam followers, periodic valve adjustments aren't required and so this area frequently gets ignored ... until a follower gets noisy and upon inspection, one discovers a wiped out cam lobe due to lack of lubrication from the oiler tube. I've replaced more failed camshafts on this series of engine than any other in over 40 years of working on M-B's ....
Other areas of concern ... the lightweight radiator in this car plugs up with electrolysis products over time. It's rare for these cars to go 10 years on an original radiator, even with periodic coolant flushes and correct coolant. The OE Behr radiator also had problems with the plastic of the radiator tanks age hardening and crumbling at the hose connections. Typical other failure items were the fluid coupling for the engine cooling fan, and water pumps aren't particularly durable, either.
At the age of your car, if you haven't experienced these common failure items, then I can just about guarantee that they are problems in your car which exist and have been overlooked by the people maintaining it. I saw well over a hundred of these cars through my shop when they weren't yet 10 years old and every one of these common problems was present then ... and at 28 years old, I don't care if your car has been garaged, babied, praised, waxed and polished and looks fabulous ... many of these problems surfaced just by time/fatigue/heat and did not need a lot of mileage to appear. And I consider the engine mount shock absorber, steering shock absorber, and suspension shock absorbers to be routine service items, along with the guibo joint on the driveshaft ... all age limited service items that typically failed long before 10 years of age.
The electronics in these cars were so fragile that we used to keep remanufactured units on the shelf, in stock, because cruise/climate/FI units were a common failure item. We partnered with a company that remanufactured these ... and other electronics ... to an ISO 2001 standard, which was better than the original manufacturing standards. We'd reverse engineered the computers, determined the failure areas, and beefed them up ... even if you handed me a brand new unit, we'd take 25% of the new components off the board and replace them with better items. Additionally, we ran them through a wave solder tunnel to do a better job of soldering than the factory new components, which was a consistent failure item with cold colder joints. With a lot of cars coming through with climate control issues, I got real good at pulling the control unit out in a matter of minutes to exchange them. Dithering and anti-return valves were common failures on the heater system, used to keep those parts in stock, too, for quick replacement.
Bottom line: I'm glad that you're happy with your SL, but as an independent shop owner specializing in MB's of that era back when they were new, this series of car was one of the best little money makers I'd ever seen. I didn't need to look for trouble with these, they came in the door in droves once out of warranty. At that, I did a better job of repairing some of these fault areas than the dealerships in my area, and they sent them to me to get fixed better than simply replacing the original computers with a Bosch RX or new unit that failed as quickly as the original items in the cars. I could install new timing chains for less money than the dealers could do it in-house, so I saw a lot of these projects ... along with the failed camshafts from plugged up oiler tubes with the broken connecting piece at the cam towers.
Mercedes Benz = Dodge with Mercedes plastic panels and a big Mercedes star on the front, hahaha. Enough said!
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They're really Chrysler cars in disguise
