C280 Sport

You do realize your 300C is pretty much a 220/210 underneith right? I own one Chrysler product at the moment(2011 Caravan) I use for a work beater. So far only some rust on the inside door and one broken window regulator.

nopcbs

No.

apl175

Two thoughts:
- I have no qualms about buying pre-owned. In that light, I think it's best if you target "final build year" or "facelifted" vehicles in any Mercedes lineup. As many of us have observed, these are vehicles with all the bug fixes, service packs, and patches applied, not to mention final build years typically are optioned up to emphasize value in the impending body change the following year. I would LOVE to purchase a 2013 S350 Bluetec 4-Matic....in the year 2015.

- If you have any inclination to save money and try to do basic repairs yourself, I think you should factor the cost of a Star Diagnostic unit. Without getting in to the issues of getting a "clone" vs. a "genuine" unit with support, the initial cost is going to be high. But every repair, every service code, every fault I've diagnosed and repaired myself, gradually helps "pay for the unit". Small things I've replaced include:
- Camshaft Position Sensor
- Rear Window Switch
- Two external keyless go door handles
- Being able to reset engine air filter adaptation when replacing the air filter
It can be argued that these items /could/ have been fixed without an SDS, but oh how nice it is to be able to ask the passenger door module to raise and lower the window through SDS, to isolate the issue to the switch, and confirming that by looking at the fault code "Window Switch Shorted OR Held closed (Tamper protection)" - and being able to clear that code. And I'm able to offer up advanced information on issues I care not to / can't fix and need to bring to the dealership.

abiazis

I have had Mercedes, Porsches, BMWs and Audis................Porsche seems to have the best engineering, materials, reliability (except for 996/early 997.1).......I would say Porsche is my next purchase........

cobra101

Huge opus? Not sure what ya mean but only info is that mine busted on a launch with some wheel spin. Then it stalled on the 2nd gear shift. Not anything that hasn't been done before by any who isn't an old lady from Pasadena. Not just revs in D and R.

C280 Sport

I had a Cayman S that was very good! Failed to start one time due to battery drain but it still very good to me. Looking into a 996 or 997 in the next couple years. I hear they tend to be solid. Only Porsche I hear lots of bad from in the SUV's.

nopcbs

There are issues, specifically the IMS that has been a problem for a very long time and Porsche just got around to fixing in the last model year or so. Bad design...they screwed up, no question. It's why I did not buy a used Boxster S.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsc...s-failure.html

vettdvr

Yes I knew that when I bought it. But it doesn't have the MB systems that fail and leave you waitinig for a flat bed truck.

The MB was a very solid well engineered car and drove great the day we traded it off. The chrysler has 40 + more hp about the same physical size (2") bigger than E series inside and still fits in our garage for only $25,000 less than I paid for the 2003 E500.

And to answer why I didn't buy one when we bought the MB. Easy answer as I did check them out. The 300 series was not offered with V8 only anemic 6 cylinder and we bought the V8 mercedes. My wife made the decision to buy MBover Jaguar. The latest purchase I made the decision.

One final and minor point. MB service I had to drive 200 miles for service. The Chrysler can be serviced 5 miles from the house.

gnma

I had an '05 E-500 for 4 years which ran near-perfect except for occasional vibration around 60 mph. Loved the car. But the SBC stories (and the limited 10 yr. warranty SBC coverage) led me to decide to sell the car before my "luck ran out". Traded it for a '12 5.0 Mustang and its the best automotive decision I made.

However, this decision was made after I acquired a C55 AMG. I did not want to leave the MB brand. I chose the AMG for obvious torque shredding reasons, a need for a sedan, and the fact that the C does not have the fancy gadgets found in other MB's. the car has been perfect for over a year but am now experiencing what may be throttle body build-up (which brought me back to this forum due to similarities in the engine). Car has 56k on her.

I love MB. They did away with the SBC in 2007, and I don't know if they've come up with other non-conventional items (which sometimes leads to new conventional industry standards), since then, but that vault-like feeling, and overall ownership pleasure is very satisfying with the three-pointed star.

My E500 was great, so I cannot fault her for potential failures, but am I happy to be out of the SBC issue.

Sgooter

When the time comes to replace my current pair of MBs, I'll have to give some serious thought to buying MB again. Maintenance, repairs and parts are just too expensive. Most likely, I'll opt for a less expensive car that comes with lifetime warranty coverage, which several auto brands/dealers offer these days.

benzw205

What about the new CLA and new C-Class, do you think that they will be crap ?

vettdvr

The Gen I 300 was on the E but the Gen II (started in 2011) is upgraded with better ball joints, etc to prevent the parallel failures the Gen I had from copying the E class with the same issues.

AMGAffalterbach

I've been in the new CLA and I think it's pretty nice, hopefully it'll be reliable same with the new C-Class. However, there are bound to be kinks with any new platform or car, the thing about the C and CLA (especially the latter) is that they are meant to be buy-ins for younger people into the Mercedes brand. They expect a younger person, say right out of college, to buy into the Mercedes brand at that price point and as their career continues and they make more money, they will move up.

I'm a young-looking 18-year-old and even though I pulled in in an E550 at MB of Littleton, I had a bunch of salesmen try to pressure me into test driving a CLA. I hope for God's sake that they got this one right, and this does work as they planned. We all remember what happened last time with the C230 hatchback in 2002. It seems to be as I see a LOT of CLAs in my area now in place of new BMW 320/328i this season. I like the look and most seem to have nice interiors for the price. Time will tell as to how they age. Not a fan of Fail Wheel Drive but whatever.

As for the new C-Class, they're definitely going the way of BMW and Audi by making a more homogeneous line-up design wise. We hotly debated this topic with K-A on the W222 forums, but that guy hates everything Mercedes and in bad form too IMO. Both the C and CLA lack that Mercedes magic to me, but I think they'll be good cars nonetheless.

WEBSRFR

Nope. Will be buying a Tesla Model S P85 just as soon as it is offered with AWD.

I'll likely never purchase another gasoline powered car.

RichM

With a good set of snow tires, you will have no problems with the RWD Tesla.

AMGAffalterbach

Yep see the rear wheels are the ones with the grip.

bigben320e

Now that...is a fire.

Now, on the topic would I buy another Mercedes...I own three of the son of a guns. I will say this, after over 12 years of experience with them:

1998 E320: 227,000K Miles
Car runs like a damn tank, very little to actually go wrong with it. Left cat, some bulbs, shorted out third brake light, aux fans to go out. The rest has been regular maintaining, and expected wear items.

2006 CLS500: (Gone in Jan 2014, sold)
Loved that damn car, only issues were crank position sensor, front left strut (Arnott replaced, lifetime warranty), regular maintaining.
Left HID blew at around 100K.
Rock solid, great quality. Put 140K miles on her, sold in great shape. No issue with SBC, but due to the issues around it, decided to move on.

2006 R500: Where to start..
Goodness this car has been a problem child, that I keep beating and then it beats me. Damn, damn damn!

Airmatic pump blew at 20K miles, thank goodness under warranty.
All struts had to be replaced before 70K miles. ALL, Arnott saved a bundle.
HID's blew out on both sides.
Throttle body went to bull*****.
Transmission went bonkers, 1st to 2nd gear jerking at 100K miles. Being replaced as I type this, Buckhead Imports is taking care of it decent priced. Dealership, Mercedes South in Atl quoted $7300. I replied hell no.
Rear light short had to be fixed.

2009 Designo Edition CLS63: Big smile.
Picked up at 37K miles, currently around 42K. So far, great car, awesome growl. I only had a running lean code once, dealer cleared and checked out. Transmission service was done right at 40K. So far, I had the entire front and side fenders done in clear bra. That Platinum Black, too pretty gotta protect it.

So..would I buy another? Yes, but it seems the German made (origin) fairs better in reliability in my experience and many others I talk to. The truck lines (which all seems to be made in US except AMG's) seems to suffer many of the same issues noted about the R500 from forums, talks with other owners, dealerships, and MB mechanics. My SO wants to sell after the transmission is fixed. Go figure.

Just my experience.

K-A

You do know HOW many M-B's have caught fire already this year? Much more than Tesla. Difference is that some M-B's that caught fire have actually claimed peoples lives. A couple Teslas catch fire and the media is all over it. If they reported every M-B fire like that then M-B would have massive public backlash.

Let's not forget a brand new W222 already combusting, literally.



8 pictures and details in the gallery

As for the CLA, as some reviews have suggested, IMO it's kind of a joke. The interior sucks, the drive is no better than any other FWD (already blasphemy that M-B released such a bean-bag/generically proportioned FWD car) economy car really, the ride is harsh, etc. Not really becoming of the what Americans have come to perceive from "Mercedes Benz" based on historical values.

bigben320e

QFT on the CLA, my sentiments exactly. Sure the CLA is 30K, but look at what was dumped off. Sometimes, you need to keep things at a certain level of quality/price and stop trying to be the inclusion factor.

I almost forgot to add, Mercedes as a whole is still lacking the quality area. I noticed that in my CLS 500, the seats seem to be of better quality than the newer 09 63 I have. From many comments, people are noticing the interior fit/finish is suffering. MB needs to stop that crap.

AMGAffalterbach

It's still a 2009 E63, honestly if you've spent any time in the newer 2014s, there is a world of a difference in interior quality. But we get it K-A, everything MB does is terrible and wrong.

bigben320e

LOL, I get your point. I don't think KA meant MB is all wrong, but they certainly can make improvements in quality/customer service. Personally, I get the feel they are working on it and realize there are some issues. Some people just got a terrible ordeal with their MB's, between QC, defects, bad dealership experience, it ruined the MB experience for them, even judging from some responses on this thread. It happens, I am sure with all lines of cars. Here is a kick though, I wonder some people that complained, did they service their cars appropriately? Did they care for their cars inside/outside?

For example, when my CLS63 was delivered to my house the seats were DRY. I mean, felt somewhat hard, bone dry. Who does that to leather interiors?

The first day before I drove it, I conditioned and cleaned the entire leather interior.

I have been around in 2014's..and on some models there is some left to be desired, but the comparison I made was a 2006 CLS compared to a 2009 BTW.

WEBSRFR

K-A never said "anything Mercedes does is terrible." Where did you get that from? It seems you can't handle honesty in facts.

He pointed out a fact and that is that Mercedes vehicles have had far more fires than the 2 Tesla fires. Each of the 2 Tesla fires have been the results of impacts and accidents and they promptly redesigned the battery protection with a titanium plate to prevent even that rare of a fire from happening. No Tesla has spontaneously combusted like the W222 S class in the photo.

If you want to sensationalize false information go for it, but take a look at the videos on the following Web page so you at least know what the situation was and what was done. You'll see videos of a modified Model S being driven over steel and concrete with no issues. Most gasoline cars could not take the impact shown on the video below.

http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/tesl...plates-model-s

With the titanium shielding, the Model S likely has better under-body protection than any production car.

LemonSqueezy

He probably got that idea from the hundreds of threads filled with heated discussions between K-A and other members over at the w212 and w221/w222 sections. Although K-A does bring in some good arguments from time to time, he has generally been against anything Mercedes for some time now.

I'm sure AMGAffalterbach posted the burning Telsa with the "LOL" comment in mind so it shouldn't be taken too seriously(like some may or may not already have). We all know the Model S is truly an exceptional car.

Honcho

WRT to cars on fire.....

In 2012, 2,600 Teslas were built for the US market.

Teslas on the road today = ~ 25,000 http://www.greencarreports.com/news/...n-built-so-far

Mercedes Benz cars on the road = ?,???,???

I would hazard a wild *** guess that proportionally, Teslas have a less than stellar record when compared to MB.

LemonSqueezy

My experience with Mercedes:

1986 560 SEL: Family car for 25 years. Had it's fair share of small problems for being "top of the line" of it's time but it was a true tank.

1997 c280: Mini tank on wheels. The only problems I had were with the wiper blade assembly, parking brake, and 1 misfire. Pretty solid car overall. Still using it as a backup.

2006 R350: Agreed with the other comment above. This car is a joke. We saved thousands thanks to warranty. It felt like this car was back at the shop once a month. I learned a lot about rental cars during this time. Absolutely glad this van got totaled and insurance paid out or else we were due another $2k on repairs if this didn't happen. Stay away from the R-class.

2007 E550: Car runs like a champ. Has it's minor problems here and there but manageable. Repairs have been relatively low over my last 3 years of ownership. I've probably spent more on mods than repairs.

2008 CLK350: Sister's car with no problems over the last several years. Just the usual maintenance and it's good to go.

2011 GL450: Recently acquired to replace the R350. Been solid over the last 30k miles. Brought it in for a warranty check a few days ago for an a/c issue. The only downside I've noticed is MPG.

I can't voice my opinion on other Mercedes as my time with them and the newer ones were usually short term.

Would I get another Mercedes? Probably, but some of the other brands are starting to look pretty good and promising out there.