View Full Version : Any recent MB reliability nightmares?
LA525iT
02-09-2005, 03:56 PM
Wife likes the new SLK350 and frankly if I were going to get a pointless drop-top, would rather have a Boxter. Tried to scare her off with story about colleague who just had to lemon law his 2004 CLK320 -- and had his 2005 replacement car die the first day off the lot! Anyone here any bad stories about MB reliability lately?
tgravo2
02-09-2005, 05:02 PM
Show her the consumer reports april car issue. I think it says some things questioning MB reliability.
My fathers had a bunch of mercedes and the ones from the late 80's/early 90's had issues but since 1999 and forward they have all been problem free and that includes his latest 03 clk500
Jalli
02-09-2005, 05:20 PM
Here is a nice story:
My dad is a dealer, and one day he bought a brand new S500 (2004) with 500 miles from the Auction. Anyway, the service light is on so he takes it. Three main conputers later they say they have it fixed. We go on a road trip and all of a sudden the car starts jerking erratically, almost like it blew a tire. If we went above fifty the problem returned.... The car stayed in the shop for three weeks before we got rid of it...
adrian's bmw
02-09-2005, 05:43 PM
Wife likes the new SLK350 and frankly if I were going to get a pointless drop-top, would rather have a Boxter. Tried to scare her off with story about colleague who just had to lemon law his 2004 CLK320 -- and had his 2005 replacement car die the first day off the lot! Anyone here any bad stories about MB reliability lately?
I wouldn't get a new MBZ even if you gave me the money to do it.
tgravo2
02-09-2005, 06:04 PM
I wouldn't get a new MBZ even if you gave me the money to do it.
I just wouldn't get it cause I think it's ugly :dunno: :D
Llando88
02-09-2005, 06:19 PM
My fathers had a bunch of mercedes and the ones from the late 80's/early 90's had issues but since 1999 and forward they have all been problem free and that includes his latest 03 clk500
Um, I had a '99 C280 and it was in the shop more per 10K or ownership than out 98 Town and Country.
We now have the Bimmer and a Honda Odyssey. :eeps:
BruceX3
02-09-2005, 08:07 PM
I had a 2002 SLK320 for about 18 months. At around 12,000 the big belt in the engine that controls a lot of things that's supposed to last a LONG time broke when I was making a left hand turn across 2 lanes of busy traffic in west L.A. Luckily I made the turn OK, and was able to quickly pull over and turn off the car. It got towed to Bev Hills MB and was in the shop over 2 weeks since the broken belt damaged a lot of other things in the engine bay after it broke. They even notified MB of my problem since it was so unusal for that belt to break so early in the car's life. The entire repair was covered under warranty of course. I hear that now they don't include scheduled maintenance on the new cars, so that would rule out a MB for me for the future.
Back in 1999 when I got the SLK, the most problems I had were on the retractable roof. The position sensors seemed to go bad pretty easily and always ended up with a non-operative roof. Sometimes you couldn't open or close, and sometimes it got stuck in the middle position like the letter "Z", and that's the most embarrassing moment!
The second problem was when the roof retracts in the trunk, there was a slight misalignment and the metal arms on both sides rubbed against and scratched the pillars. They still couldn't fix the root of the problem but they repainted my pillars and stuck a piece of foam between them.
Both problems were very common to the 1st generation SLKs. I don't know if they apply to the new SLK350. But I also heard that a lot of the SLK350 have roof problems. So beware.
Other than that, I don't have much problems. To be honest, besides the roof, I have less problems with MBZ than with BMWs, the X5 and 330i.
Um, I had a '99 C280 and it was in the shop more per 10K or ownership than out 98 Town and Country.
We now have the Bimmer and a Honda Odyssey. :eeps:
That sucks ... has your Odyssey been trouble free ? When we had one, it was a great vehicle but it had it's sure of problems ... the electric sliding doors needed the sewnsors adjusted like 3 or 4 times and the transmission had to be replaced ... there were other problems but those are the ones that stick out in my mind.
Llando88
02-10-2005, 05:32 PM
That sucks ... has your Odyssey been trouble free ? When we had one, it was a great vehicle but it had it's sure of problems ... the electric sliding doors needed the sewnsors adjusted like 3 or 4 times and the transmission had to be replaced ... there were other problems but those are the ones that stick out in my mind.
Yes, I've heard that, a neighbor had one with transmission problems too, ours has 86K and is basically been bullet proof. The doors do work ok, I think there was a recall on the latch IIRC that was done FOC during one service or another. Runs everyday, boring car really :D
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