cte430

In my local paper today there is a review of the C class station wagon. Some interesting comments regarding the decline of MB's quality. To quote the reporter: "... a cautionary note for would-be buyers: Strange things seem to be happening, quality-wise at Mercedes. Consumer Reports says the C class was "well below average" in reliability as reported by owners. The incredibly expensive S class gets the same crummy rating." There's more: "Mercedes fell to below average in JD Powers survey of dependability over 5 years. The carmaker was below average in customer satisfaction with servicing. The average number of complaints increased from a year earlier".

Spokeswoman Michelle Murad at the company's U.S. headquarters said consumer reports findings contradict its own findings based on warranty claims. Further, she contended, consumer Reports surveys don't distinguish between little problems and big problems Her quote: "The vast majority of reported problems have no effect on performance or driveability". WTF!! I'm convinced MB is striving for, and achieving mediocrity. The article states that she had no comment on Power's findings.

p.s. as raised in another thread, has anyone wondered which NAV system we will be getting? DVD or the old system?

gbahri

It is true in some cases. The powers rankings puts the same importance of the cupholders as if the engine failed. So if someone doesn't like the cupholders the same amount of points would be deducted as if an engine failed. I read that in an article somewhere.

cte430

I understand, but how many of us have had our cars in the shop for countless hours for a lot of "minor" things. Whether i'm there because the engine failed or the non-stop teleaid message makes little difference to me. I just took her quote as meaning as long as the problem wasn't major, it's OK, and doesn't count. I think that's setting a low standard.

alewifebp

What I find unusual is that they are claiming that this is contradictory to their warranty payouts. We all know the several articles that have appeared that detail the ever increasing warranty claims. Clearly she is just a talking head trying to play down the problem.

And, with Consumer Reports, they do make a distinction between cupholders and engine problems, which add up (and are weighted) to give the final findings. Although, CR does not exactly explain their methodology anyway. Of course the JD Power survey does not make that distinction, but how many little problems does it take to become a big problem?

And it can all depend on how the local dealer will handle these problems. I know that the dealer that I will be leasing my E from is very good in terms of taking care of problems, but they will keep it for days in order to fix them. At my Lexus dealer, it would almost be unheard of that they would keep it for more than a day.

When I am looking at quality at a car maker, you have to look at all of these different areas and make conclusions. Clearly, most of the areas that you look for this information (these boards, JD Power, warranty claim information, Consumer Reports, personal or friend/family experiences), the information all points to less than steller quality.

nyca

if you read alot of the C class forums, you will see that what really hurt the 2001/early 2002 Cs was the failing smartkeys. people cars wouldn't unlock or start, and the memory functions did not work. it was very bad, affecting alot of people.

RJC

One can say cup holder failure, smart key complaints etc. equal the same bad marks as engine failures etc in order to help justify MBz's poor showing but remember the same complaint formula applies to all the other brands too, and there were 14 of them that beat out MBZ.

MBZ quality is not what it used to be, period. They've got work to do and they better get thier ***** together or this will be my last MBZ and I've owned 5.