nadhimali

first of all I would like to say that i'm a big fan of Mercedes, me and my family are a Mercedes users since 2003, however through all these years I came to a conclusion that Mercedes cars are not the cars you can trust.

I have owned C240, E320, S500, C63 , C300 through the last 10 years, and I have never been happy with the cars, The cars suffers from too many issues in short terms and low milage.

for the time bieng I own a c300 - 2014 model with a 40,000 KM milage. can you imagine a car with this short milage gets tons of issues ?

I only have 10 days a month available at home, I have 3 other cars and I use this car only for special proposes. the car is 100% clean however here is the list of issues i have until now

1- tyre pressure sensors failed.
2- Mbrace Faild (Re-programmed).
3- Oil cooler leakage (Radiator + hoses + Transmission oil replaced).
4- water pump failed (Replaced).
5- thermostat failed (replaced).
6- Nav module failed (replaced).
7- Gear jerking (re-programmed).
8- radiator leaks (all hoses replaced).
9- Easy Exit/Entry Failed (system re-booted).
10- Bad climate control (Hiss sounds from A/C).
11- when breaking a lot the car is shaking (needs investigation).
12- stupid ECO system, shut down the engine when stop making you boil in a country with 45C all day. (isn't this system causing A/C to damage ?)
11- roof fabric feels low quality and easy to fall from heat (happened in most MB cars we owned)

Basically the car is falling apart after 1.5 years in 40,000 KM milage and can't be used in hot countries, better to stay in Europe .

in comparsssion we have
-sizuki car 2013, never have any issue
-Nissan 2015 - no issues
-Jeep 2010 - minor issues
-Rav4 2007 - no issues.
-Camry 2012 - no issues
-MB c240 2006 - Tons of issues.
-MB s400 - so so

whats wrong with these cars, friends ?

the german tend to over-engineer every thing which makes Mercedes a unique car in my country because it is not reelable and costs a fortune to fix.

one of my mercedes cars was draining the battery, each battery lasts 1 day and i spent 3500 USD to get the car fixed, even the dealer couldn't fix it . WTF

C300Sport

Sounds like you have had some bad luck. Had my C300 8 years and 65,000 miles with only one repair out of pocket for a failed ESL.

ezshift5

During my pre-purchase research - prior to a CPO C250 coupe replacing my Asian 6M - I was very impressed with the solid red dots show by the Consumer Reports Annual Auto Issue for the Mercedes C Class (that is circa 17 areas of vehicle reliability).

I've had zero problems.



Regret the owner experience you've reported here.




ez

michail71

I've had a bit of bad luck too. So much of it that the dealrs have seemed puzzled. But my hope is I got out all the problems early on.

The last lingering issues I'm having are interior rattles and and the inability to get the car aligned.

shinjyo

This is the problem I see:"I only have 10 days a month available at home, I have 3 other cars and I use this car only for special proposes."


You are not driving the car enough. Car tends to break down more if you let them sit, baby them etc. Reversely, if you torture them, they are probably more reliable than you would imagine.


Just my 2c.

Speedriven1

Second. A lot of the systems in the MBs tend to freak out if the cars are left sitting.

Alfadude

Geez, the car has 40K kilometers on it in less than 2 years, which is about 24K miles, so it doesn't sound like it is sitting around THAT much.

Did most of the issues happen before or after the accident you mentioned a while back the car was involved in? That could very well have something to do with the issues you are seeing, especially if the repairs were not done well. Hope you can sort things out.

Speedriven1

Good point.

JWH321

My 2008 has 107k. It has has the Command controller on the center console fail and currently has an "ESP Inoperative" fault.

These are the only issues it has ever had in about 8.5 years. It has had several long road trips (10,000 miles or more). It has fewer rattles than my wife's Three week old Jetta. It delivers 30 mpg on the highway and 26 in town. For my money, it's been a perfect car.

xEryx

How the hell you get 26MPG in the city, I hardly get 18 when I am driving conservatively in the city.

JWH321

Well, I live in a small city, I'm retired so I don't sit in traffic for any length of time, I keep the tires at 32 frt and 37 rear, I drive all of the time in "C" mode and I do not have a heavy foot. It gets nothing but first tier gas and Mobil 1 oil. I used to live in Washington DC. I would have gotten much worse economy up there if I had been sitting in traffic a lot. The highway MPG drops to 27-28 it I put the Thule rack and top box on it.

I'm also 70 years old, and taking care of this car is my only real hobby.

ezshift5

Yes, (but I must have missed your highway MPG without the Thule rack/top box..........)


ez

Josh.A.Hussey

Always sucks to hear this type of thing. I hope it all gets fixed correctly and the problems cease.

Something is not adding up for me though.
You say you have only 10 days a month at home. Which leaves about 244 days over the past 2 years that the car was potentially driven by you.
This means that at 40,000kms, you would have to drive around 160kms a day, every day. That's a lot.
That doesn't account for the fact that you said it is only driven for "special purposes". This also assumes the car is 2 years old but you stated that it is in fact only 1.5, which would cause that estimate to jump by 33%.

This leads me to believe that there was a time that you had MORE than 10 days a month to drive it.
Now considering that was probably not in the immediate past, I'm guessing that in a short period of time, a lot of km's were put on the car.

There is a part of the history of this car that has not been disclosed here. Otherwise it just doesn't make sense.
Even if "special purposes" accounted for 50% of your driving ( which I doubt ) then you would still need to be putting 320kms a day on your car for 5 of the 10 days you could.

I am guessing at some point this car saw a lot of driving. Not saying that it was a more than normal amount or enough to account for any failures, I just can't help if I'm given the wrong information.

Also, if you have NEVER been happy with your MB, why do you continue to buy them after 10 years?

Adi-Benz

That's what I was gonna say.

Mathematics

Carsy

Mate,

Old sayings came to mind when I read your post .

"Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."

"Once bitten, twice shy "

After buying 5 cars you do not like, I have to question your sanity.

Good luck with the next one.

Carsy.

stgry1

He lost me at "relabel car"

Josh.A.Hussey

Bump for answer to my question.

Moto_Guzzi

I never had to walk owning a Jap car, but the C350 made me walk soon after newly puchashed. So far the car still has an ill they could not fix in 6 years of gurantee. The engine developed a noise on startup sometimes but nothing had break yet.
Just in case I kept my old Jap vehicle and bought another new KB6/DMAX hoping it would be reliable.
The only reason I keep the C350 is its probably wortless in money terms, but it seems to be more reliable out of motorplan, I now tell the garage what I want serviced and when. The oil I change more than regurlarly, the engine is clean, the gearbox changed every 50 000Km. So I hope for the best, but deep down I just know one day I will scrap it for some stupid design reason.
The C350 was perfect, except for chewing up the front tyres(Bad initial checkup from factory)
1st 15 000Km, then things started to happen after its 1st service.
I learned one thing about Mercedes and that is the car I received did not match the advert.

edgalang

Has any of the cars the OP mentioned purchased new?
Has any of the cars the OP mentioned been in an accident?

Usually most of the negative posts I see are from users who either purchased 2nd hand, or have gotten into an accident. This is not a stab at either one, however the common ground to both is the element of the unknown in regards to the maintenance, repair or abuse of said vehicle.

In contrast to the OP, I have a 2012 C350 that I drive daily with currently 66k miles. This on the other hand, was factory ordered to spec and delivered with single digit miles on the odometer. I can account for everything that has happened to the vehicle, including all the drivers and parts that have come in and out of the vehicle since ownership (valet drivers don't count prior to the installation of the dashcam).

With that said, I cannot relate to the OP since I haven't experienced anything that would require me to visit the dealer for warranty repair (with the exception of cosmetic issues from the factory after delivery, such as excess glue from the rear spoiler). I have also begun to do Service-A/B maintenance myself after passing the 50k mark and have been amazed how easy this is to maintain (especially the oil changes). And my plan is to keep the C350 for a minimum of 10 years or 155k miles, just enough to earn a Mercedes high mileage award and display it for fun.

Just as I've mentioned in prior posts, good or bad I will report my experiences. Short from an accident (aka total loss), or this board shutting down, I plan to be here for a very long time. So to counter the OP's doom and gloom post, I'd like to report that other than general maintenance, there hasn't been any drama here. Perhaps my tune will change after the 100k mile mark, but I bet most folks reading this would of probably moved on by then.


P.S.
In regards to "Moto_Guzzi" comment of "making me walk" vs Japanese cars, I can relate as well. However mine was not due to mechanical issues, but with me pushing the limit of the gas gauge. Unlike Japanese car...when MB tells you, you are empty, you better believe it!

Josh.A.Hussey

108.7K miles here!

Alfadude

In one of his earlier posts the original poster reported the car was in an accident and the driver's airbag deployed, so some of the issues he has seen could be related to that and how well or poorly it was fixed. Does not look like he is on here that much and maybe was just frustrated and needed a place to vent.

michail71

Man, mine has been rattling like mad. But all of that can be traced back to the dealer taking the instrument cluster out for a diagnostic test. I have another headliner rattle too. Getting them to fix it has been even more maddening.

I had a VW MKV with 150,000 miles that never stranded me or rattled. I don't think the C-Class is unreliable. It's more my time was up, lol. But I have had more issues with a C-Class from 20,000 miles to 30,000 miles than I did wit ha VW to 150,000 miles.

TSchuettinger

Words can not express how ridiculous I find this entire post.

Funkwagen

Well lets see, I'm at 155,000km now.

I've put on 70,000km of those. In that time I've replaced an intake manifold, a brake booster, a power steering pump, sway bar links front and back, a leaky oil separator, and that's it aside from all maintenance items, including two sets of front brakes. Good chance the intake manifold and brake booster were existing problems when I bought the car. Admittedly, it's been a very, very unkind 70,000km. Unkind as in frequently WOT, frequently drifted in snowy parking lots, cornered hard, driven on rough roads, 0-80kmh-and back to 0 almost constantly, and general leadfoot-itis. I used it basically as a snow plow on a few occasions, even. I've hit a few potholes bad enough that the doors unlock, it's seen speeds that I won't put down in writing, it's been through weather considered "undriveable", hell, it may have very briefly gotten some air time once (I wish I was joking about that..). You know those car ads that say "driven gently by an old lady who only used it to go to church"? This car is the exact opposite of that.



I'd say it's held up extremely well, all things considered. It drives nicer than it did when I picked it up. It still consumes almost zero oil between oil changes, it shifts smoothly, it hasn't lost any power over time, there is no rust, cosmetically it's as perfect as can be for a daily driven car, the interior is in perfect condition (save for the well known tear at the seam on the drivers seat, heh), there's no sign of weakness with anything electrical, the air conditioning can still refrigerate the interior, the car is practically air tight with air recirculate on; everything works and works well. It's all about maintenance (preventative/scheduled) and quality of repair work, ..and in some cases, quality of replacement parts.

So no, a Mercedes is not an unreliable car. A Mercedes is not a reliable car, either. It's just a car. Hell, it's just a brand.
That being said.. KNOCK. ON. WOOD.

stgry1

^^ well said