marc777

Had a nightmare on Saturday that I thought I would share with you guys.

Took the car with a very old friend to basically show it off. It was his first trip in my new E.

After 10 minutes the SRS malfunction came on the dash - with advice to go to the dealers ASAP. This was a worry as the SRS fix was done at the pre delivery inspection back in October.

Carried on nonetheless.

Then the radio and CD died. Lights on - no sound.

Stopped the car at a T junction and restarted - still no radio and CD but at least the SRS lights chose to go out.

Friend tried to look at the radio manual in the glove compartment only to find it had jammed shut!

And 5 days later it still is..........................and no, its not locked - I never lock it.

Radio came back 4 hours later - so much for showing off the car to a decent soundtrack.

I've had better days, and sadly the events hardly made a good impression with my friend, who, to top it all, drives a BMW 5 series!

Damn!!!

jhb

marc: what a drag. What is your build date? How many miles did you have on the car when this happened? I am wondering if I may experience some of this as I haven't so far. So, your build and mileage information may give a clue.

Jeff

marc777

I had one of the first cars in the UK - built September 02 to my spec.

So far I have done 4400 miles.

I love the car but boy, am I having some teething problems.

Car's booked in for 12th Feb to sort new aircon valve (2nd one); rectify "clunk" from drivers footwell when pulling away; radio/cd problem; glove compartment jammed shut; very very noisey wipers; ....

Marc

skymast

Toooo much time on this board and not enough behind the wheel!

marc777

Yes, perhaps you are right.

But then with 131 posts I guess you'd know what that feels like.

And I thought the forum was for sharing experiences.........

Marc

MBStar

I love many aspects of my E500, also one of the first builds (Aug. 2002), but there are too many problems with it to be happy. In fact I am upset about the way MB is handling the the problems. They are unprepared and unwilling to compensate us for the inconvenience. For me this is it with MB - just sold my wife's 2003 ML500 (at a spectacular loss, I might add) and bought a new HONDA Element which is fantastic. I am keeping the E500 for now but under the circumstances AUDI A8 or RS6, despite their reputed poor reliability, are becoming a viable alternative. The car was put on the market too soon, and is under engineered, it has a bad repair record and the resale value for the E500 in NA is pathetic, no better than for the AUDI. Yes, I think this is the watershed for MB, and the beginning of the end came with the Chrysler merger.

marc777

MB compensated me $1500 cash for the problems at pre-delivery.

I have now asked for a wood wheel for the small, but important things that are going wrong - and I expect to get it. The compensation is NOT from the dealer but claimed from MB.

I understand your disappointment with the car, and sympathise. I can't afford to step away from my car - and the truth is I really do like it - I think I'll just persevere - it'll all come good in the end.

Marc


E270 Cdi
New Beetle (wife)
New Beetle cabrio on order

etenn

Maybe another perspective is due. I just returned from a 3500 mile road trip. (Had to get out on the road to see how the E500 really handled )

First of all...I have had several of the common problems (motor mounts, noisy wipers and pulling to the right).
Each of these problems was taken care of by dealer with no problems and very little inconvenience.

By the way...the dealer simply replaced the wiper blades and no more noisy wipers.

The car handled flawlessly for the whole trip. I fully expected to have "malfunction" lights at any minute, but nothing. The radio worked great in all modes. No SRS warnings. I did have an occasional teleaid warning but as soon as I moved it went away.

The power is awesome. Passing at speed on two lane "State" roads is a joy. The car simply jumps around the car you are passing...no lurches, roaring, gear changes...just "jumps" up to high speed with no effort. Used the sport settings on curves on both freeway driving and on 2 lane roads thru mountains. Fantastic to have the option available.

Averaged 23 mpg (per display) for the total 3500 miles. Average speed (per display) for the trip was 57 mph. That would include city and highway driving. The freeway driving gas milage was not ideal because of the 80 mph crusing speeds:p

All in all I am more impressed with the car than when I left. I expected to have problems and had none.....except trying to keep it clean.

Having said all that, I am still very pissed about the continued circle jerk going on about the Navigation system. I wonder if the $1650. each of us paid was sent to MBUSA or held by the dealer?
If MBUSA has the money it should have to pay someone interest as it would amount to a lot of money collected and product not delivered.

Ed

mwillems

Well, as many of you know I have had many little issues too, with my E320. But they were solved in the end and they were (as I said at the time) all relatively minor. No engine or drivetrain problems or anything like that.

The dealer (Meray Motors in Oakville, Ont) gave me a leather jacket as compensation for the 9 days my car spent in the shop. In fact Meray always did their job properly - nothing but praise for them - I hope they get the cost back from MB Canada!

Anyway - sure, QC ex factory could be better and MB could issue software fixes a hell of a lot more quickly, but as long as all the issues are solved in the end, all's well. I am certainly very happy with my car now that all the little niggles have been sorted. It's easily the best car in my street. :-)