Reliability
Member
Joined: Jun 2014
Posts: 120
Likes: 0
From: Ontario, Canada
E350 4M (2012), C300 4M Sport (2009)
I'm going to give some input here...
My old 9-5 for YEARS was fixing electronics in all cars. I'm a car guy so when I car shop I like for ease of DIY repairs and the like. As I work on everything from Acura to VW, I have a lot of insight as to what fails electronically.
I knew I wanted European, for safety with 2 kids and I love the way the euros feel. They just feel so well engineered.
My assessment; Audis have major water leak issues. The Q7 is the worst for amp failures which in turn causes a break in the fiber optics and causes the MOST system to go down. I've replaced so many amps and most controllers by the shifter.
Bmw has the same water issue. Tuner packs go out constantly and the X5 is the worst for it. Really everything from 3-5 series has water damage. Logic7 amps aren't cheap. They are Becker built and hard to fix. I had a mini and it had so many issues (bmw built). My check engine light was on so often, when it went out, I assumed the bulb burned out. Cd mechanisms fail across the board. The CCC units fail as well, also über expensive.
Then there's Mercedes. Rare. RARELY do I get one to fix. Most often an S550 CD player goes bad. A few C300 Nav screens go black and I repair them with a new screen and move on. Not much else. The car comes apart very easy and the engine bay is pretty wide-open as far as European standards go.
I bought a C300 without a second thought.
Hope that helps.
My old 9-5 for YEARS was fixing electronics in all cars. I'm a car guy so when I car shop I like for ease of DIY repairs and the like. As I work on everything from Acura to VW, I have a lot of insight as to what fails electronically.
I knew I wanted European, for safety with 2 kids and I love the way the euros feel. They just feel so well engineered.
My assessment; Audis have major water leak issues. The Q7 is the worst for amp failures which in turn causes a break in the fiber optics and causes the MOST system to go down. I've replaced so many amps and most controllers by the shifter.
Bmw has the same water issue. Tuner packs go out constantly and the X5 is the worst for it. Really everything from 3-5 series has water damage. Logic7 amps aren't cheap. They are Becker built and hard to fix. I had a mini and it had so many issues (bmw built). My check engine light was on so often, when it went out, I assumed the bulb burned out. Cd mechanisms fail across the board. The CCC units fail as well, also über expensive.
Then there's Mercedes. Rare. RARELY do I get one to fix. Most often an S550 CD player goes bad. A few C300 Nav screens go black and I repair them with a new screen and move on. Not much else. The car comes apart very easy and the engine bay is pretty wide-open as far as European standards go.
I bought a C300 without a second thought.
Hope that helps.
Member
Joined: Feb 2015
Posts: 143
Likes: 7
From: Central Kentucky
2014 CLS550-4M, 2013 C350-4M Coupe
'04 Infiniti G35, '07 Maxima SE, '10 Infiniti G37x, '10 Audi S5, and a '11 BMW 550ix (among other cars).
Absolutely ZERO problems with either of the G's or the Maxima. They all had "bulletproof" reliability. I can't say the same about the S5 or the 550ix. I probably spent as much time driving loaners as I did driving my 550ix. I finally got sick and tired of dealing with it and sold it earlier this year.
That being said, the Infiniti Q50 (the first [2014] MY) has had significant reliability issues.
