Have owned the 450 for two months and a total of 4600 miles...........no problems and my mileage for today's 436 mile trip was 20.2! Traveled at 65 to 75 ...sometimes up to 80. I am very impressed! Now.....time to get the 3 weeks of mud and dead bugs peeled away. Two coats of zaino under it all however.....!

 

Let's see how filthy that machine is. Would love to compare it to the beautiful picture in your signature!

Glad to hear that everything is working smoothly. And, love that mileage figure too. That's fantastic!

 

I can't help but be envious of the Capri Blue!!!

 

Glad to hear all is well. I'm right behind you at 4500 mi. and also no issues.

 

Pleased to hear! 15k miles, only had to have defective brakes replaced.

 

Too late.....all cleaned up! 3 weeks of traveling back and forth on a 3 mile dirt road put fine dust and dirt everywhere! However, later this fall when I take it back up through the mud and snow to our cabin in Vermont I am sure I'll have some picture material! That trip will also give me a chance to give the 4-matic and off-road equip. a workout!

 

Thank Goodness!! If my GL has issues like my 2000 ML320 I will cry!!

1,000 miles are no issues.....Guess the folks in Bama got it together

 

Funny you say that. When I test drove the GL for the first time, my dealer was saying that MB had to bring in Germans to work in the Alabama plant because the build quality went down dramatically when the Americans worked there.

 

I think what he really meant is that they had to bring over more production managers and specialist to show us Americans how to build them better. The overwhelming majority of the Bama workforce is still American.

What I don't get is why they didn't make the Bama plant a direct copy of their best German plants in the first place. There is no excuse for the hell the first generation ML owners went through.

The real truth of the matter is that the assembly was only part of the problem. Much cheaper supplied parts and sup-par engineering/design from Germany (read: cheap) is why the Bama plant has had so many problems. The ML for years seems like it wasn't even built by the same company compared to ther Benzes in the same showroom. This was for the first generation model, but the new ML/GL/R still don't match the E/CLS/SL/S/CL in material and assembly quality.

M

 

Are you saying that if MB were to build, for example, an S at the Bama plant it would be inferior to that built back in Germany?