PaulE550

Yes I agree, that would be the important information to know about. Knowing what percentage of owners, broken down by model and year of vehicle if possible, would help quantify how pervasive any problem is. That's the kind of information, if anyone here knows, that would be extremely helpful in determining which MB parts are truly subject to premature failure. As another person alluded to earlier, MB has a higher parts failure rate than other cars.

So Airmatic may be one or at least a potential one. Thanks. Something good to be aware of and try to inspect those parts on a more frequent basis. What else has a supposedly chronic high rate of premature failure on the E models?

aaacsdai

Airmatic is a S and E 500-600 series problem, mostly coupes according to a longtime MB owner and close friend - Carousel Dealer, high end vehicles. He says the majority of his clients say they think they have a flat tire, but when they check, the tire is fine, so he automatically checks Airmatic out, as a dealer he wants to nip it in the bud fast, since it is a expensive repair that he sucks up, not the client. He ALSO advised me to purchase the 5 Year/50K Extended Warranty to make MB fix any issues that occur because it was his personal car (only owner) that I bought with 30 days left on the MB warranty with only 18K miles on it-yes he is a little old man. I went with Assurant Solutions Extended MB Warranty for 2.3K, this is what the insurance on 4 family cell phones cost, so WTH not. As previously mentioned, a reasonable extended warranty is always the least expensive road to take unless you have the time and skills to DIY. I finally have clean nails, and callous free non-threaded fingers, I just drive now, grease is for kids, warranties are for adults.

hyperion667

^buses too

aaacsdai

Hyperion, LOL, I may be riding the bus soon, getting up there, take care.

megasaurus

MY E550 sedan is mint and enjoy it. not many i see at all.

The G Man

Please enlighten us, how is China destroying the world economy? If anything, they are a major player in the world economy as they are now the second biggest automotive market in the world.

pca7ggr

In the past, China has been a huge consumer of raw. They have been so successful making stuff cheaply, they have a bigger middle class that has buying projects from around the world and increasing the demand for oil based products. Now, with their economy going down the ****ter, their demand for world products (and oil) is dropping. World production of oil had increased to meet demand which is now going down decrease the price.

badbenzz

I just purchased a 2012 E550 loaded for my wife to replace her 2014 E350 and it is so much nicer than the E350 in everyway. Drives like a completely different car, engine and ride are so much smoother and the leather over MX Tex is night and day in comfort. In fact I hated the drivers seat on the E350, it was so uncomfortable. Enoying the E550.

Das Rattlebox

A competent independent repair shop specializing in MB (not easy to find) reduces maintenance costs drastically. At the dealer you mostly pay for the cost of maintaining a showroom and for the service rep's commission. Plus the rigid list of often unnecessary items on the the "A" and "B" service lists that they try to force on you regardless of where you live and how you drive your car. Sometimes you have to wonder who actually owns the car. Whoever came up with the "A & B mandatory maintenance system" is a marketing genius. The "free" loaner is nice except in reality it is the most expensive rental car you ever rented.

The G Man

And I suppose the United States' involvement in the middle east has nothing to do with the lower price of oil. Sometimes, I think the only reason we lost all those lives in the middle east is because we want to control the cost and the supply of oil.
Enough of this political talk, this is a car forum after all, we don't want to bored everybody in here with our political views.


Do you have the multi-contour seats in the E550?

badbenzz

YES

El Cid

With all the above said, I still prefer to use the dealerships for all my vehicles for as long as I own them. May cost a little more, but I have far more confidence in the workmanship and the parts. Also pays off when something comes up that may not be covered by warranty, but dealership will fix it anyway or negotiate with MB for better deal.
As for China, it is not destroying the world economy. The world economy relying so heavily on one nation's purchasing ability leads to serious repercussions when that nation has economic problems.
The Western powers, first Great Britain and France and later US, have tried to control the petroleum industry in the Middle East, Africa and South America since the early 1900's.

The G Man

The multi-contour seats in the E-class is a bargain compare to what BMW charge for the comfort seat in the 5 series. $660 vs. $2400. Both seats are about the same with the major difference being Mercedes has the active side bolster and BMW has the upper seat back adjustment.

jahquan3

I'm starting to believe that I even see the S550 at a 10-1 ratio compared to the E550. I see an S nearly once a day and I may go a few weeks before I see another E.

hyperion667

I really like the side bolsters in my CLS, but they're kind of weak in the S, then again, there are MANY controls in the S class seat and I may have it set up incorrectly to have the full on side bolstering as in the CLS

cc16177

Yup. I live in Miami but I commute to Orlando so i'm on the road 800-1000mi/week and I see a TONS of S550 and CLS550 but I don't know if i've seen more than 1-2 E550 since I bought mine in June.

E350s are everywhere but i'm always on the lookout for another E550... I see coupes now and again but almost never a sedan.

thefisch

Without sales volume information from MB, it's hard to know for sure how the E class sales breakdown. But it seems from shopping used that the E class seems split 95% E350 and 5% E550. CLS is about 10% of the total E class volume IIRC. S class sells more than CLS and seems to be about 30-40% of E class volume based on this. Therefore, you should see about 6-8 S class and 2 CLS for every E550. Obviously, part of the problem is spotting the E550 from a distance.

jahquan3

Definitely hard to spot from a distance. I try to go by the rectangular mufflers which seems to be distinct to the E550 vs E350 but I'm not 100% sure of that. Almost everything else seems identical on them. Is the hockey stick running lights on both from the factory?

El Cid

I believe the rectangular exhaust are on the E350 Sport as well vs. the oval exhausts on the E350 Luxury.

thefisch

Hockey stick leds were on the sport editions of both E350 and E550 in 2010 and 2011.

+1 on that. I think only the badge sets the E550 apart from the E350 sport.

Barry Glover

+1 I think that concept went out the window years ago with vehicles. Now it's more up front and more in repairs to some extent. Recently in LA, saw only one E550 during week stay. Several E63's, C63's and lots of exotics. Enough regular E, C, ML's to make one think they give you one for moving there.

Tjdehya

The one and only external difference between the E350 and the E550 is that they replace the number "3" on the rear of the trunk with a number "5"

E550 instead of E350.

jonUF02

I didn't read the whole 8 pages, where the quibbling over oil wars and such seems to get deep.

I was searching for an E550, and I can say yes, they are rare. I did narrow my search to a 2012-2013 model specifically because 1) more powerful engine, easily capible of more power from the turbos via ecu tune. 2) NO airmatic suspension. I see some opinions flying, but I think the people who say it's great are also the people all over this for saying they would never own a MB without warranty. For me, I see many complaints of failures in this system, and I'd rather avoid repairs instantly costing me thousands by avoiding the airmatic completely. I can say this was almost a deal breaker until I figured out that the new engine models did NOT have airmatic, and they all come with 4matic to put the power and handling down.

It would be fun to have the RWD only to disable the traction control and do a burnout once in a while, but in 4 years of owning mh CLK430, I've only done that a handful of times.

These are so rare that I could not find one anywhere near me in FL, so I'm picking up my 2012 E550 next Saturday about 1000mi away, in Texas. It's so awesome that depreciation is so bad on these that I'm getting a $70k MSRP car for less than $25k. The only thing I don't love is that there are tons of E350 around, and 99% of anyone on the road can't tell the difference from an E350 sport to an E550. Until you mash the gas pedal!

KEY08

2012 E550 for $25K? How many miles are on this thing? That is cheap

jahquan3

I've seen a few 2013 E550 in the low 30k range all with around 50k in miles on them. These things are losing so much value it's shocking almost.

On a side note did anyone see the new Forbes article on the 15 worst new cars? The had the 7 series BMW as the worst car and a lot of it was depreciation and reliability issues. I was surprised that the E or S 550 didn't make the list just based on it's depreciation.