ATSOBE

Did this really happen 14 million mile around the world. So then all the problem should have been fixed and this car should be recall free. Does this make the car the best mercedes ever built in history test and test and tested over again. Or is this just an advertising catch to lure people like me who read alot on car testing.

chilledbenz

Just having the big star on the hood makes it the best car in the world...duh! Ha ha...as for the 14 million miles. I consult the old world wide web and I see sites that say 11 million miles, you say 14 million miles, and yet another site says 15 million miles. The one thing that stays the same is the testing was done on a car that doesn't exist. It was a computer program running all those miles and can't take in consideration that parts due fail due to flaws, operator error, ect. It wasn't millions of real world testing. No car is perfect by any means, but I will tell you this, I almost bought a 08 Audi A4 thinking that its the last year for that model before the new redesign comes out as an early 09 and it wouldn't have any problems. I went to an Audi board much like this only to find out that there are problems with the DV, and PCV valves on those and they still haven't bothered to fix them. That car has been around in that variation for quite a few years now. I will say that with all my Mercedes cars if I do have a problem, they go above and beyond what any other dealership has to fix it, could just be the dealership I go to though. (I should probably add that I don't keep my cars much longer than the 50k warranty, so after that I can't contest to how well they hold up.)

Dema

I haven't see any complain in this forum yet. So it is certainly the best from reliability point view Mercedes car. I remember when w211 was out, people started endless complains about many design flaws. w221 didn't look good either.

chilledbenz

Haven't seen complaints here, but yahoo autos has a few, although I wonder about the validity of the big one. Guy claims to have gotten the car from his wife as a present and had the engine shut down, a/c stop working, nav stop working, and tranny troubles. Could have been a real early build, or he could just be a BMW fan out to run down the Mercedes name...seen that before so wouldnt surprize me.

delirium

I had those same symptoms on a 06 CLS500... that i USED to own... a real beautiful piece of junk.

MB Fanatic

The W221 had very few complaints if any. Any Mercedes service department will tell you that the W221 has been the best car in years since its practically bullet proof, very few owners have experienced issues that required more than 1 visit to fix. Ask Konigster, he too will tell you the same.

My W221 has gone back for just basic service and a couple software upgrades to COMAND and a transmission software update, otherwise its been flawless at 20K miles. The same can be said for my fathers W221 S600.

Dema

Nice to see that W221 owners are browsing W204 forum. It looks like Mercedes climbing up in reliability, so the latest models are almost flawless.

Germancar1

Acutually a lot of prototypes were doing actual miles in every corner of the globe for years so the millions of miles claim in true, in real-world miles. This was stated over and over when the new C debuted. The computers were used to sort problems before the first road-going prototypes were even built. Very clever IMO.

M

epiphone3

THey did fair really poorly in the latest Consumer Reports reliability survey though... if you believe those things.

I think that MB is definately on the way up in quality and are a newly focussed company... they have realized some things in the last couple years and have also trimmed a lot of fat and distraction by getting rid of Chrysler.

They should only get better here, and I think the new C is the beginning of this.

chilledbenz

Mercedes Benz the company fairs bad but the C Class has been pretty good. The company itself lost points when Command was introduced. That system was really flawed, my salesman even admitted to me that they had seven lemon law buy backs of E classes when that system came out just at their dealership. The new S class is going through similar growing pains with its night vision camera. Probably why we don't see distronic on the C class even though its trickled down through the other models. The more options the more to go wrong I always say, but they eventually get things worked out.

Jorg

BMW had major problems with their new 7 Series, when it came out. It was so bad, they did buy many cars back from their customer, because they were unable to fix them.

Starting in 2003 the problems were almost all solved and everything was fine. The iDrive is just not a system that you learn by trial and error, you have to study it and then it is very good.

When the new MB S Class came out, MB did not want to repeat the mistakes BMW made and the car was almost problem free, right from the start, but they deleted the standard telephone of the BMW, which caused most of their problems, not the car, the Motorola Telephone.

I had only one error message so far on my S Class, to check the oil level at my next stop for fuel. All MB did was a computer program upgrade.

They can't afford big trouble with the new C-Class and I don't expect any either. Yet don't forget, these cars are as complex and have more computer power than some aircrafts. They have a much better management team at MB now.

The new C-Class will be a home run for MB.

Jorg

MB Fanatic

The new C class is already a home run, I see more new W204 than I do Lexus IS series, right on par with the new BMW 3 series, and well above what Audi could imagine with the lousy *** excuse of a car A4.

The W204 is the finest car in its category IMO. If they made it the size of the E class I would dump my Volvo and buy one right now and use it as my DD. What a fine car it is IMO.

jrct9454

5000 miles and 10 weeks here, with no issues to report.....period. [Built in Bremen in June, serial number 17xxx.]

Dema

I do not see many new C on roads of North California. Actually I've seen a new C only once. I hope to see them more in near future. E class is most popular here.