QQQ

Note the last statement... the Sindelfingen plant delivers the best quality for cars sold in US... but quite a few C Class sold to US are assembled in South Africa and it doesn't even get a honorable mention...

June 10, 2008

Mercedes-Benz receives three awards for initial quality

Mercedes-Benz is one of the most successful auto brands in this year’s Initial Quality Study conducted by U.S. market research company J.D. Power and Associates. The Stuttgart car brand receives two model awards for the highest vehicle quality in their respective market segments and is also honoured with the Platinum Plant Quality worldwide award. This outstanding result is one outcome of the initiative launched by Mercedes-Benz to raise customer satisfaction and product quality.

In conducting the annual study, market researchers investigate the satisfaction of U.S. customers with new vehicle purchases after the first 90 days and evaluate the quality of both the concept and execution of the vehicle. Overall, Mercedes-Benz moved up one place against last year from fifth to fourth in the brand-level ranking, and three Mercedes-Benz models (CLK, E and S-Class) are ranked within the top three of their respective segments.

This year, the E-Class and the CLK each receive J.D. Power and Associates Awards. These models are the vehicles with the highest level of initial quality in their respective market segments. Furthermore, Mercedes’ Sindelfingen plant receives the Platinum Award, making it the assembly facility with the highest delivered quality worldwide for vehicles sold in the U.S. market.

chilledbenz

The problem with JD Powers survey is I got mine shortly after I purchased my car and at the time my car was flawless, so in turn I rated it good. Now I'm having problems starting to show up and it appears I'm not the only one. These surveys should be sent out a year after taking ownership, then they would get more of a real world number as to how many problems a particular car is having. I wouldn't tank them on the survey now, but I would certainly rate them lower than I did initially.

micropower99

I never got no JD Power survey. Only the MB dealership survey.

imboom

Nice to see a Stuttgart plant to be considered among the best in the world. Isn't that where they produce S and E class models?

And I believe that it is Bremen that the German-made C-Classes originate from. The production tag on my car says made in Bremen.

EDIT: I got a JD Power survey. It was quite long and for their time they gave me a crisp 1 dollar bill.

MBTex

I didn't get the survey either...but to be fair about the timing of sending them it is specifically the "initial" satisfaction rating...JD Power does additional surveys for longevity ratings.

imboom

Probably not worth your time on the survey. It was way too long and asked way too many irrelevant questions.

Initial quality is a stupid measure anyway imho. Everyone will always love their car for the first few months.

joebenz

same here. got the survey less than a month of owning the car so had nothing bad to say yet. now couple weeks ago the drivers window wont go up automatically.

Azn_C300

I got the MB dealership survey and dealership called me up and blasted me for the bad review! I guess it's like a A-B-C-D-F grade and even if you select satisfied (instead of very satisfied), it'll lower their GPA! I thought I gave them pretty good marks with a mix of satisfied and very satisfied. Either way, no matter what I submit for their survey, I shouldn't be getting a call at 8am in the morning by the dealership saying "You screwed us". That's just unprofessional. Just a warning for anyone out there filling these out, you're not anonymous and will probably have your score distributed with your name attached to it to parties of interest at the dealership.

imboom

When I purchased my car, they actually told me what that survey was for and how it was used. My salesperson asked me to rate him accordingly and if I felt he did extremely well, then rate him at the highest level. I appreciate their candor about it and rated him at maximum. Great salesperson too, took care of what I wanted and held a car that was very hard to find with the right options. Took the time to explain aspects of the car and its options. You don't expect that from car sales people anyway.

When I was in for my first complimentary checkup, I was treated very well so they probably do track how people rate their staff. They went through lengths for my shuttle service and detailed the car for me. The service adviser was also very honest with answering my questions, especially those of the extended warranty. He told me that I always should wait until the warranty term is over and that the price will be no different as compared to when I purchased the car.

Azn_C300

Yeah, my sales rep was great, so I gave him the highest marks, but the warranty person seemed like some temp who wasn't even in her own office so didn't know where everything was. Seemed like she was more interested in getting me out of the office, hence the satisfactory marks. I guess it's all added up to one grade however and not by individual sections as the survey made it out to be. I hope they'll be professional enough that they won't hold that against me when I take my car in for service cause that would be seriously ****ed up.

chilledbenz

No complaints here with my salesman or my dealership, both are at the top of their game. I just feel these good numbers are a bit off seeing how many of us didn't experience any problems with our cars till we starting putting the miles on them.

RLE

My C300 was built in Bremen 9/2007. No rattles, leaks, squeaks etc. Nothing from J.D. Power.