Cmersu

I just order a new C200 A and my dealer told me that it is going to be build in South Africa. How good or bad is the quality compare to German build?
The C200 I owe now is German made and the quality is not very good.

hummerhealey

I got a C220d 3 weeks ago, built in SA. I have a small resonation occasionally from the center console, but that wil be fixed. The rest is perfect. The built quality is certainly on a par with the german cars and way above (from what I read here) the US build's.

I have no wind noise,
No bad aligned body panels of doors,

And MY16 also adds:
- A smooth 7G gearbox (although that might be different for the C200),
- A good sounding base audio,
- A good functioning Garmin Nav and Voice control,

Luton Driver

No problems on my 19 day old MY16 South African built C200.

listerone

Having traveled in South Africa I can assure you that it's basically a Third World country with occasional pockets of wealth to be seen.It's not difficult to imagine workers in such a country not being up to the standards,in terms of motivation,that one might see in Germany,Japan and elsewhere.

I know that that doesn't directly answer your question but it might be worth considering.

Luton Driver

As I have said so far no problems but it is a little off putting when you see the workers gigging up and down dancing when they went on strike. They don't seem to be the best educated when you see this clip

hummerhealey

The US workers might not dance during a strike and the US might not be a Third World country. But reading the specific problems on this the quality of the US built cars is not even close to those built in SA. Reading on german fora they are on a par, if not better than the German built cars too.

jolt8631

Had mine for 5 months now - SA build and I have to say the build quality is good. Only annoyance is fuel filler cap alignment, but this is due to the part (moulding) which does not conform to the body shape, precisely - so not the fault of the production line. My dealer has had one go at re-aligning, but will need to replace. They told me that "they all vary a bit" - until I pointed him at the C63 in the showroom that is perfect - no more none sense.

No rattles or squeaks and everything (else) in good alignment.

Overall, I am impressed.

116Benz

Had my S.A built C250 now for 4 weeks. The only niggle is a slight rattle on the passenger side with the panno sunroof, but it stops when the blind is closed.
Having had a W203 that was built in S.A, it was rubbish. The W204's in the family have all been German build and brilliant.

acrooney

Just bear in mind that the factory has the same quality standards as any other MB factory. The plant in the Eastern Cape has won global quality awards. That's not to say there won't be "Friday" cars but so far the quality seems a lot better than the W204. AMGs I believe are built in Germany. Das beste oder nicht.

MattTheSouthAfr

As pure blooded South African this is nonsense. We make solid Mercs here on par with that of Germany. We have done so for many many years! We also make most of the Toyota models and those we do are amongst the most reliable cars in the world too.

“with pockets of wealth made me laugh”. More money here than I think you know….. as a third world country who produce better doctors than most European countries too. You forget once we weren’t a third world nation. But irrespective don’t take South Africa for fools. We are much harder working than Europeans.

Thermal

OMG almost passed out laughing after reading the response from the token South African. Dios mio man, you live in a country that should be lucky to call itself Third World. Rampant corruption, violence, industrial incompetence and more. More? Yes, more. The average South African (see previous response) suffers from a malaise that can only be summed up as thinking they are ahead of everyone else only because they are so far behind they’ve lost sight of the nearest competitor.

jbnCH

Back on topic: I have driven three W205 cars since 2018 and the build quality of all of them has been impeccable.

Greg52

I bought mine new 2015 model built in South Africa, there are some squeaks and rattles but I think they are more design issues rather than build quality. Fit and finish is quite good and I would expect that the quality would have only gotten better over the years,