This is an interesting conversation... As someone driving my first MB at 49 years old ( an E300 ) I have been thinking a lot about what to do when the lease expires in December. Having now driven the car for 30 months, I really like it, I recognize the incremental quality over other vehicles, but I am not sufficiently "wow'ed" that I am clamoring for another MB. Streamliner, your depiction of Luxury Experience Dilution is correct - even though I never had the benefit of prior MB experience - the dealer / service experience really is nothing special. Revolving door of advisers, with zero knowledge of vehicles, loaners with expired tags and just a general "who cares" attitude after the sale. It's not so much a financial issue as it is a value issue to me - I guess I expected the overall experience to be very different - and it's not.

Ive been in your shoes. After bouncing around a few dealers, I found excellence. Looking back, it was a job market issue where the dealers kept loosing service advisors and other shop staff. I shopped dealers and found one rock stable and it's been great.

if you have choices, nose around. Not all are the same.

Whoa... wow. So every C Class loaner I've had I loved. I liked the CLA too and never had any issue with it. I got a tiny GLA once that was fun, and mostly now, they give me an E Class since the service guy finds me funny and kind. Either car I get I'm extremely grateful for. Before my Mercedes, I had used, very used BMW's and had to take them to indies for service where I never got a loaner, never got a nice cappuccino, never got free scones or blueberry muffins, all stuff I get for free at my MB dealer now.

I will never forget driving that AMC Hornet my roommate lent me for a year, a couple years after college, since I was down on my luck. It had a spring sticking up and out of the front seat so big that I had to sit on a telephone book while driving it so it didn't stick my in the you know what. Driving an S Class and getting a free MB loaner, whatever the loaner is, is a joy. A total, and utter joy.

Mercedes used to build a car with the idea that everything had to be the best with zero compromises. Anybody who had a 126 or 140 knows that the build quality was 2nd to none but Mercedes also was dictating what their cars looked like and came equipped with. Heck, they wouldn't even give you a cup holder because they didn't want to. Now I have a 2" thick manual with 90% of the items I will never use and only look them up so I can shut them off after inadvertently turning them on.

Read the Toyota Way and you quickly realize that Toyota has had such an influence on the automotive industry that it is scary. Toyota in my opinion has destroyed the idea of building the best regardless of cost. Toyota showed the world that you can take every single part and hollow it out til it costs 1/10th of its original cost and can now barely work for a set amount of years. Add acceptable failure and complaint rates and its now the accountants running the show. Never change tranny fluid? of course its acceptable when you'r not buying a car for life to hand down to your kids. Then throw in the best advertising firms and the birth of the internet and you have a world winning product before it is even made, at least that's what the package says.

I tell my kids all the time I feel bad for them as they will never know what a real quality product is.

As far as dealers I have realized the the large publicly held Co like Penske or? have the worst customer service and that is because they are all employees not owners. I look for smaller dealers who want the business and have a vested interest. The give you a C class because they have to its dictated by the numbers not the owner trying to make you a happy come back customer!

It took me some time, but I finally found a good Service Advisor and we are in sync. He knows that I am particular and he takes care of me. Appointments are made by email, an E Class or larger loaner is always waiting and my car is always washed and ready at the designated time to pick it up. Dealers are retail businesses and they count on returning customers and puta high value on long time, repeat customers. When there is an issue and maybe it gets covered under warranty and maybe it doesn’t, I believe that I always get the benefit of the doubt. When I buy new tires, I always get a quote from my SA. If he is within $200.00 for a set of four, I give him the business. If you are having issues with your dealer, find another one. I happen to buy or lease my cars from one dealer and get them serviced at another.

I have a great relationship with the dealer personnel. No appointment, I can literally pull up in the middle of the day give my SA the keys and get a loaner no problem. If I can't pick up the car the same day, keep the loaner until the next day. They have treated me so well, it's one of the main reasons I keep going back. I've wanted to try other makes but they make it so easy I just keep coming back. I must say, my MB experience on the ground with my dealer has been nothing short of terrific. Guarantee lowest price on tires, and always throws in a small discount at service time. If you are having a difficult time with your dealer, shop around. Don't settle.

It does buy exceptional service at Rolls Royce, regardless of a £100k used Ghost or a £250k+ Wraith Black Badge. I've never seen such a level of service elsewhere. With Mercedes, I bought my S from a dealership 100 miles away because they had one specced how I wanted instead of my usual guy and let's just say I haven't bought any cars from him since. RR outside of London, despite being close to a deal which I bailed on in favour of a better deal from Sytner, still treat me as if I bought a Phantom 8 from them after I sold the car, I understand they're a different league of brand, but if a dealership offered even 1/3 of their level of service I wouldn't mind paying more, and around 15 years ago Mercedes more than exceeded that 1/3. Even at Range Rover, they messed up my Vogues interior(ordered red but they did another colour which I was surprised given all the checking that must be in place), and they've given me a new Discovery until mine arrives, which we've had since the start of March and done over a thousand miles on. I doubt Mercedes would've given me a C Class for a week. My daughter who's not even old enough to drive knew more about the car than the first guy I went to for a 222. I've recently started using their Head Office dealership, 100 miles away, in the UK and they're definitely much better than a lot of my closer ones. At every dealership, there are good people who will provide that same level of service, but in general I agree with Streamliners view due to the sour taste left by these bad examples.

MBUSA Customer service treated me well but my local dealership could have cared less. Not once during my 39 and 22 day long service visits my 2015 S550 sat through did anyone do anything to make my experience "better". Was only lied to and told that's how it is, No sorry, No comps no nothing. Even got the car back after the 22 day stay with a "Service A0 overdue by 15 days" reminder on the dash display!!! If I would have been told "Oh, your service A0 was due so we performed it on the house".... An oil change.... A simple oil change would have made me feel a little better but nope... Nothing. I was going to go for another S class but after thinking it over long and hard..... I am 100% done with MB. They are just another car manufacture, Nothing special... Just an expensive car with a nice interior. I remember when they had a handful of models, Now they have every size possible crossover, hatch, suv and sedan. We have A, C ,E, S and Maybach sedans, CLA, C, E, CLS, S and GT Coupes, GLA, GLC, GLE SUV's, G class SUV's, E class wagons, All the cabriolet models and roadsters and then the hybrid and electrics. Then mix in all the variables each car is available in..... MB is diluted. It's no longer an "exclusive" vehicle like a Rolls or a Bentley. Anyone can own one, and if you are into burning money just get an S class. Depreciation is Huge..... How can a $130k car lose 50% of its value in just 3 years?? I've seen 2012 and 2013 S class cars for sale for $10k to $16k and a few 2014 W222 cars offered for $30k. I had a 2006 Dodge RAM 2500 4x4 Mega Cab diesel truck, It's window sticker was $52k, I bought it in 2010 for $35k with only 17k miles on it.. I drove it until 2 weeks ago when I sold it for $27k with 155k miles on it. Never touched a thing other than ball joints, oil, filters and brakes. I'm picking up my new 2018 Dodge RAM 2500 4x4 Mega Cab diesel truck this week and it's pretty nice. Window sticker is $72,695.00 and in 5 years it will still be worth $50k.

The quality of the dealers and relationships with sales and service defines the experience. This has little to do with brand unless companies (like Rolls Royce) make this a contractual requirement.
A customer of course associates the experience with the brand. If there is a choice to pick another dealer it's easy, but many have geographic restrictions.

To improve the service, customers in the US actually have very powerful tools but many fail to use them. MBUSA rewards excellent service and penalizes poor ones. To the point of hurting the dealers bottomline.
Besides preferred allocations, dealers have hold backs and revenue sharing deals for financing in place. All these numbers change based on how the dealer performs.

Number one tool is still the follow-up survey. This can benefit or hurt the dealer; use it! If service wasn't good and the car was done right, don't just yell but be reasonable, ask them to make it right so that you can give them a 5 star rating. Talking to the service manager often helps as well.
Dealers make the most money on service and trade-ins, not new cars.

I am also brand loyal but have tried other cars as well. I want MB to succeed and make me happy in the process.

Being a longtime driver and MB's, I have seen some of the brands high points and some of the low points as well so I try to keep perspective. Mercedes is one of the more conservative manufacturers and often hurt itself when it tried to innovate without having the competencies. Late 90's to 2007 or so were the most challenging times. Trying to manufacture cheaper, more lightweight and having more electronics in the car proofed a disaster. To the point that they eliminated the free service that we enjoyed. Not sure how many know that regular services (A, B, etc.) were included for free when getting a new car.
Changing the paint processes to water-based paints turned W220's into rust buckets while the prior models were far superior.

I know that many love the W126 & W140's and like to think of them as the best cars at the time (had both) but they also had their share of issues.
While some may like to disagree with me here, the W222 is the best and most reliable S-Class I can remember. The car has been in production for 6 years and the record has been impressive.

In regards to the amount of microprocessors, solenoids, etc. there is a presumption that these will fail before other mechanical parts. I haven't seen that to be the case but we'll see how they hold up moving forward... The issue with processor-based electronics is not that they fail, the issue is what to do if they fail. Car companies fret this more as processor tech is a snapshot in time and many components used in hardware module are out of date or already or unavailable anymore by the time the car is manufactured.

Well, When there's a problem with the car and service says "No faults or codes come up" and sends you on your way... it's a different story.

That has nothing to do with the car. Just a ****ty service tech unable to look beyond an error. I have had small issues with every car I can remember (any brand). For example with the roof mechanism on the SL. No codes but they just assess the issue and replace the parts. If a module misbehaves without codes, it still gets replaced.
My experience...

This is what I'm referring to in my O.P. I remember back in the late 60s and 70s when I was around 8-16? years old drooling over the classified section of the newspaper. I would look at the 220Ds, 240Ds, 300Ds, and their gasoline variants , along with a convertible SL (about the only thing they offered) and always wished one day I could afford a Mercedes. It wasn't because of prestige.....I just liked the funky engineering and quality appearance of everything. It's kind of like back in those days, you had more enjoyable things to watch on TV when you only picked up 3 or 4 stations . Now there are 900 channels and after about 5 minutes of boredom, I just shut it off and get on forums like this or watch YouTube videos.

Oh, and you would only see about 20 on the lot.....TOTAL. Now I see at least 150 cars at my local MB dealer with , like I said earlier, 400 or more at a vacated parking lot. But you also have to understand that back in the day, people didn't finance cars as much as they do now and they practically paid cash for a $20,000 car (today's $130,000). Predatory lending may also have a lot to do with this phenomenon.

I remember those days as well. Toyota made the Corolla and the Corona and that was pretty much IT! I don't know about "predatory" lending, but easy financing & leases especially have given just about anyone with a steady income the ability to have a new car on a regular basis, with hoards of choices.

Then came the Cressida which in my opinion was the first knock on the door from across the seas of a luxury sedan from Asia. Ten years later we get Acura, Lexus, and Infiniti.

Great post. Love the part about looking at the classifieds. The real treat was the Sunday Times that my dad would bring home.

If I am going in for service, I will ask for a C Class, they will usually accommodate me. S is far and few as a loaner. But if you schedule your service in advance, they will hold that car for you if you ask.

Wow! That brings back memories. I used to LIVE for the auto classifieds in the L.A. Times. I paid my way through college, buying, fixing & restoring Corvettes. I once bought a 1954 Corvette from the original, lady owner for $2,500.00, her asking price. It was all original, with the side curtains and I sold it a week later for $3,500.00. Those were the days!

In my case growing up in Pittsburgh it was the New York Times but same difference. I keep thinking about the Lamborghini Miura's and De Tomaso Pantera's listed.

Mercedes-Benz has been building many things and I think manufacturing many things doesn't dilute the brand's outstanding image as long as Mercedes-Benz keeps its standards ( what makes Mercedes -Benz as Mercedes-Benz ) sets the bar whatever they make .

That's the problem. It does not keep it's standards, drive any one of the newer entry points (CLA, GLA, GLC, and co.) and then drive an S/SL and tell me the standards match. Not even in the same universe. I'm not even talking ride quality, it's a different car with entirely different standards.

If I were in the market for a new sedan in the $30K price range, I would not even consider an MB, I’d be driving the beautiful, comfortable and bargain priced Honda Accord.

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Don’t know why my text did not show up in the picture above. I agree with Stream on his point. My Son drove out his Subaru Outback this weekend and we took a drive. I was really impressed with the fit, finish, smooth drive and huge amount of technology built in. Not a Sedan but a great vehicle.

Well that's a big part of it. MB has become a marketing company selling tech first car second. The tech drives the car that drives the driver. Building off the legacy of what was at one time an exclusive brand. Unfortunately, in today's world the word luxury is the most overused and abused word, and this cover many industries. Not just cars. I mean a 30K luxury car, seriously? Absolutely idiotic, there are no standards to truly define luxury anymore. The high-line MB models are all we have left that are worth a damn. Hopefully they don't lose that.