RJC

Mercedes Benz finished 27th out of 37 vehicle nameplates in a survey of original owner model year 2000 vehicles after a three year period!!

"AT the other end of the spectrum is Mercedes Benz, which experiences the largest quality gap between initial quality* and long term quality measurements."

* Rember, even MB's initial quality was quite poor at 15th place.

This is deplorable.

xyzpl

WOW!!! Horrible.... but understandable.... my 99 CLK430 is just not quite what it was....

C280Sportster

It's not all that bad...

http://money.cnn.com/2003/07/08/pf/...ility/index.htm


"But Chrysler, Dodge and the now-defunct Plymouth brand all outranked Mercedes, which had 318 problems per 100 vehicles. Ivers said Mercedes' troubles were concentrated in its M-Class sport utility vehicle and its E-Class sedans, which accounted for roughly half its sales. "

"The M-Class has had a lot of problems since its launch," Ivers said. "The rate of deterioration on the E-Class is greater than on any other vehicle in the industry."

Sounds like it's just the ML and E Class bringing everything down. Could the old (body) E class really be that bad ? I'm sure the new one is better, I hope...

RJC

They've always got a story....

jpb5151

The more stories like this, the better. I'd like to keep buying Benzes my whole life, so shaming MB into paying attention to quality is just fine.

karl k

Deplorable is the continous quality curve - if anyone is charting this - going down, down, down...

At what point will the MB PR Department step in and announce plausible re-active measures to combat this drop in quality??

Perhaps MB is just resting on it's laurels, because sales are rising, however small @ 3% year to date compared to 2002.

RJC

It's time a few heads began to roll

Why is it that I isolated all the problems with my new W209 as did most of the people posting in the 209 forum in the first few weeks of ownership not to mention the 211's etc and MB could not in all their testing prior to release? Or was it really they knew of these problems all along and kept producing the cars with the well known defects anyway. I know that it takes time for uncommon problems to appear in actual consumer useage but most of this stuff effected almost all the cars delivered and was quite noticable. My service adv. informs me that the factory would rather have the dealers address this stuff vs the factory doing it during assembly, therefore having the consumer deal with these problems! No wonder their quality ratings are so poor and the service depts are so busy. The person/groups responsible for this process should be the first heads to roll

Lynn

The biggest reliability problem for the E class is exessive brake dust. When did that become a reliability problem?

GDawgC220

I hope that MB starts to pay attention to their quality in their builds...for the price that people are paying, quality should not be at that rank. Only if they were like at 1990, when MB lead the industry.

The M-Class brought the scoring down because of all it's quality and build issues...why did MB decide to build their SUV in the US? I think if they kept it in Germany...maybe they wouldn't be suffering this quality issue?

I hope that the next generation of M-Classes will have all the quality and build issues sorted out.

Does anyone know if this report included the new E-Class? I hear that the new E-Class is very strong in it's fit and finish???

karl k

RJC -

Yes -- heads must be rolling...:



...or is MB trying to impress Afghanis???

:o

oggle

If in the next few years they don't improve on their build quality, I will NOT buy another Mercedes again and switch to BMW. This is totally disgusting.

Kain

Wait, when they are saying "E-Class," are they refering to the old one or the new one?

karl k

Yes, MB is loosing loyal customers.

MB must start post haste an aggressive correction campaign.

1. The first step is to admit that mistakes have been made during the last years, because of...

the war in Kosovo, where all their quality control managers were mandated/required to serve -- by Chancellor Schroeder.

2. Pay customer $200 for each bonafide defect during the warranty period plus free MB loaner.

MB must show actual commitment to quality - NOW!!

Window-dressing and resting on their laurels does not cut it anymore...

when SUBARU and FORD trumps MB in all quality surveys over long and short-term periods.

C280Sportster

Well they are refering to year 2000 E class, which I thought were great cars.

Maybe it was just a bad year.

I know MB's don't have Toyota (short term) reliability, but I'd like some numbers on how the 2000 S and C classes did.

Well maybe not the S...I've heard tons of complaints from 2000 S class owners, but that was the first year of the new S class...

RJC

That's just one of the problems. My service dept is always jammed with cars in for service repairs and many are 211's and 210's, from the owners I've spoken to over the years beleive me they're not in for brake dust. The quality of these cars are declining, period!

MBZ4LIFE

Hello RJC,
What specific problems did you have with your 2003 CLK 500?

Thanks.

gbahri

I think mercedes is coming back with their reliability. My clk is great. It seems to me that has a problem with their car it turns out to be electrical. So thats not a biggie for me. As long as my doors dont fall off. Also JD power rankings are a little weird. They deduct the same amount of points for a broken cup holder as a blown up enigne. Thats a little weird to me. Youd think with the blown up engines the 3 series had maybe bmw would go down. Thats how i think of it.

RJC

The "normal" stuff:

pull to right

wipers

motor mounts

a/c smell

am radio

slow clock (requires entire new instr. cluster)

poor midrange perf


and the not so normal stuff:


driver window regulator

all 4 brake rotors

sulfur smell from exhaust

engine stumble

transmission hard downshift

engine cooling fan system

engine cam gears

exhaust heat shield

I get sick when I have to list all this stuff, car only has 3000 miles

RJC

karl k

RJC-

Sad to hear about MB defect/troubles. That sounds like my 2001 SL500, which I kept for a few months and after 5,000 miles I traded it for the 2002 208 CLK AMG.

While the CLK had some problems with the sliding roof, it's just a joy to drive on this 24,000 mile trip.

The best car I've owned.

ps-
It's intersting see corporate culture in local TV commercials:

LEXUS states:

Our Quest is Perfection.

MB states:

See your local MB dealer to help you decide in the selection of a C-coupe or C-sedan.

RJC

How true but sad re: the advertising.

Read my post in the tech section and see what the "master tech" forgot to do when my car was in for service and see what happened.

Did MB provide any financial assistance for you?

ruperto

Wow! Time to adjust prices downward. ;-)

karl k

I did not go for any, in retrospect I probably should have...yes, I could have, would have, should have...

- but I received a $12K discount from MSRP sticker, because dealer wanted to close out the 12 year old SL in the spring of 2001.

I was so disgusted with the SL, that when I test drove the 2002 CLK AMG, I knew that I had something really special.

The 24K trip on the AMG so far has confirmed this initial "love affair", it's really special and fun to drive, and head and shoulders over all of the previous cars I've owned or drove.

RJC

Glad to hear you "got a good one" What do you think of what happened tp my CLK 500 at the service dept (see tech section; ? for Patrick)

karl k

https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...k&pagenumber=1

Unreal!!

Typical MB tech in training with more important things to worry about, then replacing the dipstick tube cover.

I can only think of lemon law. To qualify, you must go in for the same problem 3 times, within the first year, and then the dealer is given one more time to fix it.

If you are within the 12 month timeframe and you had it in for more than 3 times relating to engine related noises/problems and it is still not fixed, you may consider lemonizing it.

HERE IS THE LEMON LAW for Florida:

http://cartalk.cars.com/Got-A-Car/Le...n_florida.html

With my 2001 SL, there were some 10 unrelated problems that prompted me to dump it, plus - it was not a comfortable car for my 6'2" frame on long trips.

Problems like aircompressor, oil sensor, gas sensor malfunctions and their replacements in a NEW car, after driving it a few miles is not only an insult to me as a customer, who paid premium $$$ for a luxury car, but also casts a poor image on the name "Mercedes Benz", whose reputation is on the decline as a consequence of SERIOUS ABSCENCE OF QUALITY in the manufactured automobile parts and the subsequent serious deficiencies in MB service because of insufficient QUALITY CONTROL.

This decline in customer satisfaction is reflected in the recent J.D. Powers' surveys, which rated MB cars as way below average and poor, reflecting disappointed MB owners' experiences.