I’ll probably jinx myself, but my 2011 E 350 DD has been amazingly reliable, to the point that I can’t bring myself to get rid of it. Still classy. No major mechanicals except for a failed serpentine belt and the motor mounts have been replaced.

 

Nice. Here's mine on Wednesday

 

I was expecting to see bulletproof glass, but still good topic.
When I am buying diesels only, I usually buy them with more mileage than above members show as I can buy them at 20-30% of their original price.
You can't expect to drive MB for well over 100k miles without replacing some parts.
Motor mounts are matter how much vibration you can take, but think about airmatic overhaul, or simple sway bar links, Idler pulleys and some other stuff that depends on MY.
Bad news is that when you don't replace them sooner, you can expect a cascade effect down the road. Fortunately those are mostly small parts, when MB powertrains don't have common catastrophic failure, but keep that in mind and don't get frustrated when time comes.

 

Sounds like standard maintenance stuff for any car. Things last for as long as you take care of them.

 

Toyota and Lexus owners claim that they don't do it.
Than worth pointing again, that even some buy aged $70k MB for 5 grands, it still is $70k vehicle to maintain.

 

Agree with both @kajtek1 and @Senecat .

Actual experience varies and lies somewhere in the middle.

High mileage low maintenance MBs but are rare. Low mileage engine grenade is not unheard of.

High mileage low maintenance Toyota/Lexus is fairly common. Low mileage engine grenade is uncommon.

I ran a couple of Toyotas near and beyond 200k miles. At that point all vehicles need significant maintenance. One Toyota in my fleet had moderate frame rust that needed attention, plus front halfshafts, cylinder head gasket, and more. All doable, the vehicle would have made 300k miles had I not sold it for a handsome sum.

Point is that all cars deteriorate, including Toyota/Lexus. Great to see the high mileage E-Class in the original post.

 

​​​​​​​Glad your car doesn't have that annoying start/stop that MB added on the newer cars, that thing will wear the motor mounts much sooner.

 

I sold 1 2014 E250 Bluetec with 180k miles and the one we keep has 130k and as far as I know on original MM. And I love ECO stops, getting annoying when AC keeps them off in 120F weather.
They seem to improve from W210 and W211 where 60k miles on MM was good.

 

Thanks for your comment : ) Glad to hear the mounts were good on all your cars. For me though, the ECO start/stop off is the first button I press when starting the car as I hate it. I believe if you use it for the main purpose it was designed for (to save some fuel when stopped) it has to be stopped for at least 7? seconds? to actually have benefits otherwise you may be wasting more fuel restarting the engine than if you never stopped in the first place. Not ideal but you can have the AC turned off or the temperature set higher just before you are about to come to a stop so the car doesn't start up again too soon, I think?

I wish they continued to put those good quality mounts you mentioned in the more recent models of MBs because I came across a few posts just a few days ago in regards to premature motor mount failure that was exactly caused by this eco/start stop system. Other posts I came across seems to suggest the system is pretty flawed (on some cars) resulting in them not being able to start again on its own in the middle of heavy traffic, that is rather embarrassing if not dangerous imo. Although, thankfully it is not a common issue with this system.

 

Glad to hear it. I agree with "classy" and I hope mine is going strong in another 100K miles

 

My power train has been reliable. Only thing I had to replace was the air pump and water pump for the engine. I replaced some other things when I did the water pump since it made those things easily accessible. They didn't fail, I did it mostly as preventative maintenance. The most costly thing was the airmatic system, which I had to replace for all four corners.. but now I should be good for another 100k miles in that regard. All in all, even with the cost of airmatic, it's been a really affordable ownership for the 6 years I've had it so far. Would much rather have this car than a Camry or something.

I should note that I got all my airmatic parts for cost price and did the labor myself, which made it like 1/4 the cost of paying a shop to do it. Basically the same story with all the other work I've listed above. So it's been affordable for me specifically :P

 

That's great and I kinda expected similar experiences like those posted above
Happy Driving

 

Nice to hear! I have 136k on my '11 and other than routine maintenance it hasn't needed anything and runs and feels amazingly well. That said, I'm planning on replacing the oil pump this winter to hopefully remedy that knocking at idle the M272s love to make.

 

As a former Lexus owner, I can personally attest to the fact that my two Lexus vehicles (LS400 and GS430) were some of the most expensive and frustrating vehicles I have ever owned, and are the reason why I now am a 100% German household of 3 vehicles. Lexus are great, right up to the point where that ultra smooth and inoculate driving experience is no longer because of something being "off". Then they just drive you nuts because you bought the damn thing for how ultra-quiet and smooth it is. And that ultra-quiet and smooth ride comes at the expense of ultra soft rubber bushings in those control arms and carrier arms, which happen to be melted into the arm and not as a stand-alone bushing (that's the expensive part). I've not owned a Lexus in 12 years, and not planning on ever owning another one ever again.

My 212 isn't bullet proof by any means. I've spent several thousand on it with repairs (oil leaks, brakes, bent wheels) and more to come I'm sure. But man, there is just nothing else out there quite like it. Not even the new ones can compare to the 212 in my opinion of that old-school heavy Mercedes Benz feeling that handles so well because of engineering. In my opinion, the 212 is probably one of the most "honest" cars on the road today. It is what it is, and it doesn't try to be anything else. It doesn't try to be all things in one car. It has a dumpy transmission. The AWD is lumpy, the stereo is known to ignite speakers, the seats will rip, and as the case in mine, the seat frame itself was terrible and painful to sit on after 30 minutes. But if you work through them, maintain it, your reward is every time you slide inside and go for a drive. That easy kicked back feeling. I fixed my seat issue, now it's the most comfortable seat of any car I have ever owned (all with just some strategically placed hand towels underneath and 3 more support springs added to the frame). I have driven mine from DC to Naples FL in one sitting several times (18-20 hours depending on traffic). Never a complaint from me on those drives. I love doing it. Just a great place to spend some alone time hurling through the atmosphere at 80mph (sometimes a lot faster, depending on what state I'm in and if the conditions are right).