nubirthestate

I'm currently researching the w213 e class. I've seen nothing but major reliability issues on Edmunds and Consumer reports. Are ANY year of this vehicle reliable? I like the looks of the 2017 and later models but they appear to be the worst.

Mac Jones 55

They aren't built for reliability like a Toyota. Neither are most of the luxury cars, although some may be better than others.

It depends.

You can't know until you go there. You can't depend on CR or any magazine, obviously. If you come here and ask you will most likely get disgruntled, and responses not representative of anything.

C280 Sport

I would be careful of the 4 Cylinder. I personally do not trust a 4 pot turbo in a heavy car. Maybe I am wrong or thinking crazy but I do worry about longevity vs the NA V6 or larger engines.

teksurv

W123 reliability is legendary As for the W213, I would avoid the 4 cylinder. While there are far more people without issues than those with them, those with them (M274 engine) are more numerous than I'd be comfortable with. My C238 (2-door version of 213) with the bi-turbo six has been flawless in terms of the powertrain. Rattles I have, but I'll get to those (driving on the surface of the moon i.e. San Diego potholes with 19" RFT on steel suspension will do that.)

DFWdude

In my community, there are more W213s than I can count. I've never seen one stuck on the side of the road. My W212 is rock solid reliable, so I don't see reason why its successor would be less.

As others have noted, you will read posts of lots of issues, because that is why these forums exist. The vast majority of owners don't have problems or know of this website.

Read the Honda, Toyota and Hyundai forums, and you'd wonder why anyone would buy one. Yet they are the most popular cars hands-down.

chassis

The 4 cylinder M274 is becoming known for piston cracking at less than 100k miles. No model year or production dates have been identified, all build years have reported failures on this site. To me this means a design flaw.

The 6 cylinder M276 seems to be pretty reliable.

The body electrical seems average compared with other MBs.

Seating surfaces seem hit or miss with scrapes, tears and cracks. MB-Tex is generally good but it does seem the E-Class has more complaints. Maybe because of the taxi heritage in Europe? Maybe MB uses a different source or specification of MB-Tex for the E-Class? Not all seats are made in the same supplier factories around the world.

Buy the latest model year with the fewest miles in your price range.

mobster600

You have to think about reliability in terms of high expense repairs and separately catastrophic engine malfunctions. The wrist pin issue on the 2.0L has lead to a complete engine replacement. How many times does that happen? Probably not too many. The high expence repairs plague Audi's and BMW's. They use plastic water pumps, valve cover gaskets leak, coils go bad, timing chains replacements before 100k miles. All multi thousand dollar repairs. I just think MB as a whole doesnt let these issues occur. Audi and BMW engineer's seem to set a 5-7 year life to these parts and its on the owner to pay the bill.

Lanzz

I had a 2017 E300 - did nothing but annual maintenance on it for 3 years - literally nothing went wrong. And I have had three different 2019s - two of which I still own. Other than the one noisy suspension issue on one of the wagons, these cars are really very little trouble to own. I still have a 2019 E300 and a 2019 E45 wagon, both of these purchased as CPO - just regular maintenance so far (and nothing remarkable in their service history before I bought them...) I am a bit worried about the wrist pin issue in the M274 4 cyl engine - but I do not plan to own either car out of warranty, so that is less of a concern. To the OP, chassis said it best above - find the lowest miles and best condition you can - plan to keep it under some type of warranty and enjoy it - they are great looking and driving cars.

nubirthestate

Thanks for the responses. I'm liking this car even more.

Egonvdv

if you want reliability go for a Japanese car . boring as hell, but you won't break down :-)

teksurv

Ha, your point is taken however some might say any four door family hauler is boring

The G Man

I used to say the same thing year ago about the 6 cylinder engine, a 6 cylinder belong in a small car and I need a V8 for a heavy car and for passing power. As time go by, technology prove the statement untrue. We can pretty much say the same about the E300, it doesnt need a 6 cylinder engine anymore, of course it is still a fun option. As far as reliability, I have also heard the same thing, smaller engines are less reliable because it has to work harder. Same as first case, that statement is becoming less and less true as well. Have anyone consider the reason there are more complaint regarding the E300 is that there are probably a lot more E300 or E350 sold in the US compare to the E400 or E450.