anonymousmoose

I was just sitting here wondering...

w203 were built in more that one Country. I know Germany and South Africa are one. Not sure if the USA also built them.

Would there be a difference in quality from different countries?

I guess what sparked this thought was my TV. I own two Plasma TV's, one made in Japan the other China. Guess which one died last week (China one).

Glyn M Ruck

Brazil, Mexico, Thailand, Egypt & Vietnam also built them. People claim that Indonesia & Malaysia also assembled them. I think this is wrong - I've been to those plants & never seen any 203's. US never built them at Tuscaloosa. W205 will be built at Tuscaloosa from late 2014.

Most RHD models were built in South Africa.

Best quality I've seen on the W203 was Vietnam & SA.

anonymousmoose

I would have thought Germany would be on top...

I'm not just saying this because I'm German

Glyn M Ruck

No - unfortunately. Look at all the trouble that US owners have had with German built W203 cars. They are not assembled by German's but by mainly Turks & Eastern Europeans.

Suggest you Google all the awards that the SA plant has won. We can thank Jurgen Schrempp for East London being what it is. He grew up with MBSA & is very proud of our plant.

I think that Bremen & Sindelfingen have raised their game. With W204 there is not much in it between them & SA. Although SA has the US W204 build contract with top up from Germany until 2014 when it switches to Asia. On the W204 forum you will note that the cars are a lot more reliable but when there is a major foul up it's always from the German plants. A guy's German car was delivered the other day with none of the passenger door mirror bolts fitted. It fell off & was hanging by the wires.

Anyway - I now own a German built CLK. Let's see how it goes. My first impression is very positive although the leather is not as good as SA leather.

Worst quality I've seen on W203 was from Brazil & Mexico. This is not typical of Brazil. Their VW's, Fiat's & Honda's are great.

EDIT - This has been discussed at length in a number of threads on the W204 forum. Search for them. You will find it interesting. Of course there is a pro German bias because it is a German designed car.

Glyn M Ruck

Sorry - I always thought you were Scandinavian

sammydragon3

i think the cars they send to the us at crap since their cheaper in price

why would they charge 50k more to someone in south africa for the same car

i dont know the currency differences but thats alot

Glyn M Ruck

I don't believe that. The US market is a lot more competitive & SA cars are generally better spec'ed.

That said my 8 year old SA built C240 has had 2 X castor bushes (known weakness, replaced under warranty) 1 X Tranny plug crush washer to stop a fluid weep & 1 X RHS rear stop lamp bulb. Zero other defects. There are not too many cars on this forum that can claim so few defects. I'm sorry I will be seeing her go this week. The most reliable car I've ever owned. Obviously she has had normal maintenance, brake pads & tyres. And I'm an **** Virgo.

rtjc

Granted i have only ever been in a couple of W203's, (and before i got mine these were brief encounters) Two were earlier both 2000 model German builds and mine is 2002 from South Africa i personally have noticed the feel of the interior build qauility is better, better fit & finish and feels more solid. Just the feeling i've had since owning mine compared to the others. Can't say for sure if this is just due to age & mileage but i'm pretty impressed with my SA built W203

Boom vang

Apparently also at Pune India


Unfortunately my alloy rims made in SA have been pre-maturely corroding where as the made in Austria are fine

Glyn M Ruck

I've been in the Pune plant as well & never seen a 203 near the place. I think that is another Wikipedia error.

Tiger Wheels SA make all the alloy wheels for Benz here in their plant north of Pretoria. They are fully powder coated & then clear coated so they should not corrode. That is one problem we don't see here. The East London plant is about 100 meters from the sea & while they have proper salt spray test cabinets for testing all local components they also toss them on the roof of the factory for years in the salt air. Sorry to hear that. Post a pic & I will send it to Tiger for comment. I know them well.

The old Austrian AMG wheels were absolutely fabulous if damn expensive. The newer ones for the W204 have been prone to some cracking of the rim. Most things made in Austria are tops. Including all the hardware on my new kitchen cupboards by Blum.

Glyn M Ruck

That is typical of SA build. My 8 year old car does not have a single rattle, squeak or groan - dead silent. SA was given the job of developing an anti rattle & squeak kit for the early W203's that made a host of nasty noises. If you have leather. Look down the side of the bottom of the front seat squabs. You will see a fabric insert on the side of the seats where the plastic covers are. SA developed that to stop the leather from squeaking against the plastic.

Boom vang

My car was made in Sindelfingen, and although I only have 107K km it has been on the road since oct 03 and the one thing that I have been impressed with is that there is still no rattles or squeaks...the frost heaved potholed roads in Toronto are anything but smooth, though I have gone through my share of front suspension components (everything has been replaced now). Passengers often commented that it fells like the car was carved from a single block of steel as it is so silent and stiff. Fit and finish has been excellent, everything is lined up and the seams around all the opening parts has consistent gaps, paint is second to none, and everything in the interior is matched and fitted properly...I am very picky / **** on this and maybe it is not the norm from Germany perhaps I got lucky

Glyn M Ruck

My car is also Oct 2003. The worst cars were produced 2000, 2001 & part of 2002. Benz name stank in every quality survey done. We always concentrate on the W203. The E class of that era was even worse.

rtjc

This site is an utter wealth of information, and good information on Mercedes Benz as a company. Thanks for that. My W203 is a 2002 but not sure when it would have been built exactly. The main issues with Mercdes Benz in the UK, especially the colder & damper area's like Scotland etc is rust. Some Benz's here have simply, and i mean this litteraly, rotted away and are resigned to the scrap yard.

Before i bought this i made sure to check it over and i'm happy to say my car has none, or very little. Certainly been looked after at least. Time will tell how it holds up but it feels very well made

C230 Sport Coup

When I bought my coupe in 2002, where it was built was a consideration.
If I was going to pay bog bucks for a german car, I wanted it to be built in Germany. All this crap about the Coupe being the least expensive MB ever sold are crap anyway. Throw in a few options, and bingo, you're well over 30 grand. I think I paid about 33 out the door with tax and license.
Someone I know bought a W204 in 2008 with a 3.0L V6 and it comes with some of the options I had to buy separately, and it was about the same price. I mean it has built in CD, blue tooth,
sunroof, (though not pano) and partial leather. His has the 6 speed manny.

So that being said, I looked at a strippy BMW 3 and it was made in So. Africa, and of course Volkswagens are built in Mexico.
And I've seen some 203 sedan's that came from Brazil.

And that also being said, my car being built in germany also
didn't help it to have any less problems, though looking back,
a good portion of my 'problems' i now know, didn't exist, as they were tacked on by the dealer, and never actually existed. I've busted them for that. The dealers rob MB USA.

A lot of problems were caused by dealers in the process of the repairs, and resulted in multiple trips. And though I took the car in many many times for ESP problems, it just kept reappearing, and I've been driving the car with a constant ESP error
for years now.
I know that the source of the error is from the module in the back.
And likely always was from that module and they never replaced it.

In the time I've had the car out of warranty it has been relatively trouble free, with the exception of a bad wheel sensor and the rest has been normal maint. and wear and tear items.
And these days, I have a slowly leaking head gasket, which is a known M111 issue.

So looking back, and all the 'problems' I had.
How many were real and how many were just BS to fatten the dealers wallet?
My build quality seems pretty solid in the long run.
Too bad I can't say that for the M271, which while properly built, is not properly designed so this is not the issue.

LightDragon

chassis number wdB stand for german built w203s and of course its highest quality than south africa singapore or God knows what else pfff

anonymousmoose

My research showed similar. Apparently the E class from 2002-2005 was not a good build. I really like the E Class interior style though.

Glyn M Ruck

This statement is complete nonsense. If you believe that you are deluded. Look at all the crap with early German cars. It's well documented & look at which plants earned the quality awards, JD Powers awards etc.

I would have a car out of the Vietnam plant tomorrow. They are absolutely fanatical about quality. They even run around all the body gaps with dial gauges. The German plants are frequently let down by semi skilled Turkish labour. Dream on - I have facts on my side.

LILBENZ230

Glyn, not to be captain obvious here, but LightDragon is clearly a troll. His comments range from solely "pfff" at best to utter nonsense at worst, like above. He may not can be banned yet, but I feel certain he's headed in that direction.

Glyn M Ruck

That E Class was quite a pretty car & I also like the interior. But if you got one of the early cars with fly by wire brakes etc they were crap & built in Germany. I remember Top Gear at the time reading out the quality surveys and the E Class was third from the bottom of the list. It was that bad.

Glyn M Ruck

Indeed - we try and be kind - even to trolls. But the day will come that the patience runs out.

I have had a number of complaints about childish behavior of some members recently on the 203 forum.

LightDragon

gimme a break, dont say these things to innocent guys are u serious? can a vietnam product overcome a german one ? duh!!

LILBENZ230

You don't have the slightest clue what you are talking about. Even if you did (and let's be clear: you do not) no one would take you seriously because you end EVERY post with the word "Duh" as though we're at recess in elementary school.

tommy

Maybe he is?

All of this "country x produces better than country y" talk is utter hogwash. With QC, you don't have country-to-country variations. All you need is a company that runs itself well, and any variations will be slight, and all above minimum requirements. It's just a replacement for racism, and a transparent one at that.

I think that my 2001-produced C230 from Germany should be good enough evidence of that.

rtjc

There is absolutely no reason why a Vietnamese product, or car for that matter, could not be up to the standards of ones built in Germany. I agree with Tommy with regards to qaulity control. I don't believe this thread was meant to come across as a form of racism in any way. It relates to the W203 which is no longer made, so it's mearly friendly talk of the qaulity of vehicles built throughout it's shelf life from the various plants, in various countries