10 WORST Luxury Sedans to Avoid (2025) | Consumer Reports on YouTube !

 

Well, these days, we don’t buy (or preferably lease) these luxury sedans because they are rock solid reliable and inexpensive to repair. We get them because we enjoy them, we treat ourselves—and in most cases—use up the best, brand new part of them—and then send them down the road. Those folks down the road need to heed the advice of CR. My feeling is that these cars are no longer items you hang onto when they are out of warranty. Order, enjoy, give back, repeat.

Of course, I’m speaking of vehicles made after MY 2019.

 

Yep, lease them and give them back. If I was buying something to keep for a long time this would not be it.

Nobody has ever accused any generation S Class as being something you could reliably hang onto for 10+ years...not at least since the end of the W126 35+ years ago. That was the whole selling proposition for Lexus.

 

People fail to realize that depreciation comes at a cost. You buy it used and benefit from the depreciation, but you pay half the money you saved back in the form of maintenance and repairs. If you know that before you buy it then you aren;t surprised. But if you don't, you're3 super disappointed...like I was when I bought my first S-clas in the early 2000s.
https://www.motor1.com/news/786058/c...ntaining-audi/

I hate AI videos with repurposed material, in other words plagarized. No imagination or creativity.

 

There is to me a very silly saying. “If you can’t buy it new you can’t afford it used” it really should be “If you can’t afford to buy it used you can’t afford a new one” leasing doesn’t give you a real true cost of ownership as you drive it a couple years. Put 20k miles on it and move on. People who lease do not ever have to pull out of pocket a large repair bill or fix something that breaks. The cars are under warranty and what service is done is nickels and dimes. I personally am not a lease guy but that’s me. No shame to anyone who does it. It just means you love always having the newest car and that is fine. I’m the guy who falls in love with it. Buys it. Drives it a long time. I do wonder now with the new generation of pretty much any car how this will work for me and others in the future. I don’t worry about cost as much as are the parts even available? I can work on my V12 CL600 all day. But can I work on a W223 S when it’s 10 years old? Time will tell…

 

True but the only exception is a low mileage CPO, that is 1year or 2 year old Mbenz, which comes with unlimited mileage and 1 or 2 years warranty extension.
It’s 100% cheaper option with all the depreciation benefits (sometimes 40-45%)

 

Plenty of W220’s on the road with 275,000+ and even 300,000+ miles on them. I saw one at the dealer with 385,000 miles. I was a doubter of the w220 when it came out due to the issues and never would have guessed they would last longer than the warranty. Looking back now I wish I bought one because they are basic compared to a W223.

 

S-Classes have definitely been viewed as long-term cars, also post W126 (of which we had a couple). So I would disagree with the statement. Also, the selling proposition for Lexus was initially price, not longevity. When Lexus appeared, the LS400 was just shockingly cheap compared to the S-Class. Reliability came over time. Of course by the time the Lexus LS460 was EOL it was a decade behind its competitors.

S-Classes are heavily driven in other markets; the more you drive them the better they go. Plenty of W223's in Europe with well over 200K-250k kilometers. On the W222's even more so. How about 400k+ kilometers? Here is a 2016 S-Class with 775k km or nearly 500k miles..
https://www.autoscout24.com/offers/m...g_product=none

Point is that the things that break are the gimmiks. The cars themselves continue to be solid but US used car buyers are shocked and scared if they see a luxury sedan with over 50k miles and the resale value plummets more so than in other markets.

 

Does diesel and most likely highway miles contribute to the longevity?

 

Yep, you have to pay to play!

It cost a lot of money to keep them on the road though. Of course they CAN last that long if you pay to keep them up. I know several people who have them with that kind of mileage, they have paid tens of thousands of dollars to keep them running.

No S Class after a W126 has been considered a long term reliable car lol. Like I said above, they absolutely CAN last that long, but they are expensive to keep running.

And reliability was absolutely a selling point of the LS400 right from the beginning. The fact that it was a Toyota and reliable was a huge selling point.

Of course they can last, those are also diesels which have a better track record for reliability and we don't get them here. The "gimmicks" break, but increasingly the cars aren't drivable without the gimmicks...and in the US we don't get low spec ones like exist in Europe. Parts and labor to work on them are also much cheaper there.

I've been an S Class and flagship fan and driver for my entire life, been shopping in this segment since 1998...and at no time where I have been a buyer in the segment has anybody thought the S Class was a reliable long term car to own.

 

The issue I have with the word reliability and how it’s used in the car world. Many people think reliability = longevity. Reliable cars to me are ones that I have owned that get me from A to B safety. When that does not happen it’s unreliable. All cars to me are reliable. I rate them as a 10 every time they break down I take a point off . That’s how I rate reliability. While windows consumer reports thinks a car is unreliable if a window stops going down or if something malfunctions such as the seat headrest. To me those are not reliability issues. I have had German cars for many years and the only time I was ever on the side of the road was either from an accident or a flat tire. The only time they have not started was due to a battery needing replacement. But to me that isn’t a reliability issue. I’ve also had Japanese cars such that you could argue as unreliable since they had to be towed due to leaking coolant or broken alternator. Wife had a Honda Civic that left us broken down 2x. It was a Hybrid model. Of course, cars like a Honda or a Nissan will run longer for cheaper, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the car is more reliable. People also believe a car needing more basic maintenance from the owner book is unreliable than a car that needs less maintenance. Cost of maintenance doesn’t mean reliability. Both can be reliable.

 

Diesels engines have great longevity but most of these are chosen for greater fuel efficiency and subsidized fuel costs. Remember that gas in Europe is around 7 Euros (over $8) a gallon.
Here is a S500 with 450 km (280k miles) and a S65 with 320k km (200k miles)…

https://www.autoscout24.com/offers/m...g_product=none

https://www.autoscout24.com/offers/m...g_product=none

 

I've found MB to be reliable. I also understand the itch for wanting something new as in leasing, (hell, everybody's interested in new). But, to me keeping a car and maintaining it is a darn site cheaper than taking a bath when trading it in on something new and shiny. Polish and wax with weekly washing does wonders. New headlights, taillights and a different dashboard are not enough to sway me.

 

True.

 

With any German brand, there are a few rules.
1. Never buy first build. Always, only after the facelift, be it VW or Benz. Germans do all the fixes at once.
2. If you can pre Covid. We bought a 2019 C43, and now have 160k, lovingly maintained. The TT 6 is well proven. We then bought a CPO GLC300, with 9000 miles on it-no issues at all, and for $35k, a good deal.
3. Oil change every 5000k, premium fuel only....follow the service schedule. Ignore "lifetime" anything and put lifetime oils on a 60k schedule.

 

Owning a benz for 5-8 years has never ever been an issue, and reliability has always been the theme of a German Mbenz vehicle.
I’ve owned 2 S-class cars in the 2000s, a GL, and owned the same count and cars for 2010-2020.

The minimum mileage I put in any of them was ~80K except for my last W222. Most of them were driven up to the 120-150K mark.

They were all extremely reliable with minimal repairs.

Reliability has just became an issue very recently when it’s not even expected during the warranty perior. If there was one thing that Mbenz was famous for in the 80s, 90s and models from that era, and it was their extremely durability and reliability. That’s why they were (and still) used as a Taxi and long trip cruisers in some countries even today, some with 500K miles on the original drivetrain. No other brand could do that. Even the model years from 2000-2010, despite not having the best cabin materials and fitment relative to Lexus by then, they were very reliable.

 

Any issue that you have to deal with as an owner is a reliability issue. If I have to constantly put a car in the shop to fix things, my perception of the car is that its unreliable. Its not just maintenance, its unforseen repairs. Maintenance is changing oil and replacing brakes and filters etc. Fixing broken stuff isn't maintenance.

Having had a bunch of Japanese cars, one of the main reasons they are more reliable is that they are much less complex. When you get into more complex cars like the LS460 and LS500, they also have similar issues to German cars like the S Class.

Its cheaper sure, but I like having the latest tech and all and not having to deal with old vehicle problems for one set monthly cost thats tax deductible.

 

I’ll also say that when I was shopping for my 2nd W222, I was looking for a pre-owned, and one item I noticed even for the higher mileage ones is that their carfax record tend to be very light compared to other brands. Definitely lighter service records than the 2016-2018 Lexus LS options that I was also shopping for at that time. Same for my 2nd GL around that time too. Dealers tend to be busier now than ever before, for sure, but that hasn’t been a long-term trend.

 

While never cheap, this is not necessary the case. A lot of people will not fix non-essential options on high mileage cars (for example, people may not fix led lighting, electric adjustments to steering columns, head rests etc.)

It wasn't. As a W126 owner at the time I remember that introduction well. Toyota reliability was not a discussion point for a Mercedes customer. They didn't know the brand or if they did, it wouldn't be a consideration The surprise was that the LS400 was a competent car, had a very European design, well equipped, very quiet and only cost half the money. Also, the Lexus brand was new and didn't make buyers look like they are downgrading to a Toyota.

 

Lets be honest, these cars have far more serious repair issues than LED lighting and steering column adjustments...they just have a lot to go wrong.

Maybe not a discussion point for a Mercedes customer but it absolutely was for people who were moving up into that echelon of car. We were that customer at the time.

 

You're right, you save some money on depreciation but not much after you factor in the premium price for CPO status. There's no question that owning a used car is cheaper than new, but the repair cost due to the complexity of modern cars is erasing some of the delta.

 

I love having a luxury flagship, and do not feel in my gut that the S-class is a long term ownership option. With that in mind, I agree with the CPO plan as a middle of the road option to 'enjoy, turn-in, repeat' - I could certainly afford to buy new car or lease, but I prefer the 2 year old lease turn-in -- bought my 2020 S560 CPO off someone else's 2 year lease for $75k with 13,000 miles. Sticker was $125k. Bought it with 4 year CPO warranty for an extra $4k so $79k total. Will sell before the 4 year warranty is up and repeat with then next generation's 2 year old CPO. Standard maintenance during this time isn't bad, and covered for bigger issues. $50k for 13,000 miles of new car smell? No thanks. My last 911 was even better -- $80k for a 10k mile 991.1 C4S Cab that had a $145k sticker. Granted, hard to get deals on P-cars like that lately.

 

Thats just it though, it doesn't cost $50k for 13k miles and the new car smell if you're comparing to leasing new. If you do the math I bet you find its not actually that much cheaper. Driving my S580 will cost me $66,000 for 3 years (AND thats tax deductible for me). Don't know how long you intend to keep your S560, but if it was a 2 year lease that would assume you got it in 2022 or so, which means if you're trading it in after 3-4 years thats around now. Right now on trade your S560 is worth about $35,000...so $75,000-$35,000 is $40,000...without any interest cost or opportunity of money cost if you paid cash that means it costs me $16,000 more over 3 years to drive a new S Class vs driving a CPO one...

So $5,300 more a year to drive a new car with the latest features and styling and not having to worry about age related failures...that savings isn't worth driving a used car of the previous generation to me. I'm just guessing you paid cash, but thart $75,000 invested in the S&P in 2022 would be worth ~ $120,000 today...so I'm actually way ahead.

 

Interesting… can you share some examples of modern tech in your car that you really like? I prefer a spartan approach, and am curious about what I may be missing out on.

 

No, that math up there is not reasonable or at least let me say that’s not how it works for everyone. You’re just making the math in a way to make it work for your case, but those who want to buy CPO or preowned vs new usually should know how to buy and sell the car if they want to go that route with saving more money… and it is not much of a hassle at all.

There’s nothing anyone can do for buying/leasing new so the baseline is firm. However, for buying CPO, if you know how to buy and how to negotiate and more importantly how to sell the car then it is much cheaper and still tax deductible because that has nothing to do with ownership type leasing or buying. This also doesn’t factor in that buying is interest free, unlike leasing or financing.
- My Lincoln Navigator cost me $2500 only after two years and a half
- My ALPINA B8 was a net profit of positive $10,000
- My second S class was a positive $10,500 profit
- For my first X7, it cost me $15,000 over two years, and my second X7 was slightly less than that. My third was new and it was luckily bought back.
- Our X5 cost us $10,000 after one year and a half.
- All the other cars that I bought a brand new costed me significantly more like tens of thousands and surely that new smell and the very similar warranty term during my specific ownership costed a lot. Is it worth it? That is subjective and I’m not going to debate it, but it is definitely tens of thousands of dollars per car.

I bought so many other cars brand new, but I can confidently say that every single preowned CPO one that I bought was significantly cheaper than buying by tens of thousands of dollars. In many cases, I’ve actually sold the car for more money, which is something you would never ever be able to do at leasing. This topic is not debatable for me because I have lived both worlds and I laugh each time anyone argues that leasing/financing brand new is just a tiny bit more expensive or close enough financially, because it’s simply not for those who know how to do it. It’s just more enjoyable sometimes. The other part is that for my BMWs, even when I do a private sale, my local dealer is happy to do the paperwork for me and my buyer so that I’m selling the car as a trade-in on paperwork and get all of the sale tax benefits on the other one that he would acquire for me. It’s all about connections and mastering the approach, and if so, then CPO is significantly cheaper or free, otherwise for a regular person just doing the minimum or minimal know-how, we could argue all day long on whether the difference is worth it or not and we won’t get to a conclusion.