X72

Congratulations on your purchase, braverichard!! I think you made an excellent choice.
I like the W211. It is probably one of the safest cars in the marketplace. I think the styling is beautiful. I hope to keep the car for a long time. But I probably won't replace it with another Mercedes because I believe the only way to make companies change is when their sales are affected. Of course, if my ownership experience improves and I see signs of increasing quality in the newer products, I may change my mind. You can bet I will be watching how the new ML does over the next few years. Braverichard, you affected Mercedes in your decision by costing them a sale; you bought a 22 year old car instead of a new W211 diesel.

The management does have way more to lose than I do. That is why I do not believe what the management says about how the cars rolling off the assembly now are perfect. I would lie too (the worst part is that management's tend to be insulated and like to believe their own lies) because once confidence in the brand is shattered, the fall from grace is very brutal. They will say anything to keep sales from collapsing. The marketplace is crowded with alternatives. For fierce Mercedes fans, they will continue to buy Mercedes. But fierce Mercedes fans are not enough to support the enterprise in its current form.

When design and production issues like this happen, and they have been going on for years, there are no very effective quick fixes.

William
2003 E320

X72

Braverichard, check out the link within this post.
https://mbworld.org/forums/general-mercedes-discussion/102621-japan-s-design-practices-get-credit-its-reliable-cars.html
It goes along with the above point you made.
William
2003 E320

braverichard

Thanks for the link William. You know I've actually always been aware of the fact that the Japanese are much more superior manufacturers to anyone else on earth. In one of the Accounting classes I took for my degree, we learned how the entire system of manufacturing ANYTHING has been based on principles developed by Toyota. Everything from Just in Time Inventory and Manufacturing to involvement of parts suppliers that all industries use today were pioneered by Toyota. Not to mention Toyota's Kaizen principle of continuous improvement which everyone preaches today. It is amazing. These people, instead of first concentrating on engineering, concentrated on perfecting the processes of manufacturing and assembly of parts. Then after that, they started concentrating on engineering. As of two years ago, MB executives were quick to point to their engineering complexity as the cause of the problems. Well, they don't use that excuse anymore because Lexus, Acura and Infiniti, while still always a step behind MB, now have very complex electronic features in their cars yet their quality isn't suffering at all. Today's Lexus LS430s have a Pre-Collision Protection System as well as Active Cruise Control and many other things MB first brought to the market. However, an S-Class with the exact same features as a Lexus LS430 will give at least twice as many problems with those features as the Lexus, yet MB came out with the features first. It all boils down to manufacturing and assembly. I've read about MB power window motors failing and tiny things like that. That is all disgusting when you remember MB invented power windows 1948. So even nearly 60 years later they still can't make power window motors that won't fail in less than 2,000 miles? Ridiculous!!

However, I am confident that these problems are being attended to. Yes, I cost MB a sale and I realize that and I'll still cost them even more sales as my two dream cars are a 1999 W140 S600 and a current model S500 4Matic. All I need are both cars and I'll never want any other car all of my life. I'll only be able to afford the S600 first. Since it will be used obviously, I will cost MB a sale there again. But that's because I am financially incapable of purchasing a brand new S-Class right now, but I'm working on being able to do so in the near future.

The main problem at MB is that they are still fighting with the new method of engineering cars. They've gone from a no budget, "hang the expense" attitude in which the engineers only released the car after they were satisfied with it regardless of cost, to a budgeted system of development like everyone else. This is the result of competition from the Japanese. They are still adapting. I read somewhere that MB engineers are still some of the highest paid engineers in the world. Things like that all have to change so that these cars can be given much bigger budgets which will result in less "cheapening" of parts.

Hardcore MB fans aren't many and thanks to the prices of the new cars, hardcore fans like myself won't be purchasing a brand new MB for years. Then when you consider what the competition has to offer for much lower prices and greater reliability, it becomes even much easier to trade your MB for a brand new Lexus. LS430s have overcrowed my neighborhood and surrounding areas. People are buying these cars like crazy. Statistics researched on the web showed that sales of the LS430 were up 11% last year and have been going up ever since 2001. People are realizing that for what you can pay for a midsize E-Class, you can get a full size, high refined and luxurious LS430 with a reliability track record that no MB possesses. That sort of stuff is what can slaughter MB. The executives at Daimler have to step up to the game and they have to do so fast!! Having survived WWI and WWII and many other things, I know MB will survive this one. The biggest hurdle has already been passed: making the executives admit that there is a quality problem. If Hyundai could be improved on so much that the Hyundai Sonata was more reliable last year than any other car (according to Consumer Reports), then MB can also be turned around even more swiftly.