coold8

It was Friday morning, boom over a large bump, vibration coming from rim. This is the AMG experience I thought, every week I get to experience my service advisor Dave, telling me I have my choice between a C300 or a Lincoln MKZ, after which my 2 hours weekly delay getting in to work, I get in my loaner car and drive off for 6 hours only to come back to a temporarily working AMG, calling by name the man at the Enterprise.
This was a common occurrence during my first, and last AMG experience. I just kept telling myself, the good times (pulling up to the nightclubs, having random people give me a thumbs up, going drag racing), was enough to offset the bad. Since August when I bought the car, I have been in the shop countless times (close to a dozen). Headlight broke 3 times, air intake tube detached from engine, oil becoming extremely low after only 6,000 miles, tires done in only 9,000 miles, engine mounts replaced, 3 different occasions of bent rims, 1 brake pad change, 3 separate occasions of squeal brakes (more than usual), batteries replaced in each key, broken outdoor thermometer, keyless go door handles not working, 1 fender bender, which required 2 visits to fix, and on top of all that, my usual service every 10,000 miles. Oh did I forget to the mention the constant rattling coming from the panoramic sunroof? All while absorbing the exorbitant costs of inconvenience.
Lurking in the shadows was my old reliable Infiniti EX35, loaded. In 24,000 miles, all it ever asked for was 4 oil changes, a set of tires, and a set of brake pads. So I said to myself, the EX35 much as though in a different class is actually a better car, I get to drive it, and drive it anywhere, and not even twitch or worry about anything. Talk about pleasure. The only problem was in the speed and handling, it just couldn't compare.
The decision became clear to me, why not get a reliable car (no german), with high performance, I can use in any condition. The Lexus LX? No too big, too slow. The MDX, to slow and boring. Well, the obvious transition was the Infiniti FX50 - S. I took the median of the two cars, and shoved them together. Better handling and performance than the EX, however considerably better reliability of the E63, with an added bonus of a beautiful cockpit, with likely the best navigation system ever created. The EX was worth 40k new, and the E63 90k new, that put me at a perfect 65k, a nice affordable compromise to add to the fire. Did I mention? I am saving 5k a year in insurance? Likely $5-10k a year in maintenance?
As a company Mercedes should be ashamed of itself. How can you create any car, as expensive as this is, and allow things like the outdoor thermometer or the air intake tube going into the engine become easily detached? How dare you tell me that a headlight, a concept developed 100 years ago, can't even turn on, 3 times? All of this hassle and mess for thousands of dollars, and for what? A short thrill on the way to work. All I have to say to Mercedes is your cockiness, your shabby manufacturing, shows so little respect to your customer that I find it repulsive, if anyone ever comes to me for a recommendation on a car, and they do, I would rank you lower than a Kia and a do not buy. If a guy told me he wanted a CL65, I would recommend a Kia Rio, because at least you know the air conditioning won't work, because there isn't any! So I bid you farewell my fellow Mercedes friends, as I walk away from this 6 month $20,000 maintenance mess (payments + repairs + lost work, if I add time we are closer to $25,000), and enter my balanced bliss.

-David J. Eisen

MoeMZA

Wow, where to start, feels like I just watched Braveheart in a matter of 2 minutes.

Sorry to hear about your displeasures.

Almost sends a cold shiver down my back knowing that I just bought a used 2005 E55 two weeks ago and await it's arrival in a week. Hopefully I don't have your experiences.

Good Luck to you! (and me, lol)

06E55

5k a year in insurance? How many insurance points do you have? The insurance for my E55 is less than 1k a year! And that is with 300/900/300 and $0 detuctible for both comprehensive and collision!!! But anyway, A,B, C-ya!!!

coold8

NJ + 4 Points + under 21

emoving

Gotta pay to play bro! Enjoy that Infinity...............CCCCCCCCCCCCC-YA!

coold8

I knew someone would say that, you gotta pay to play. This is not a pay to play issue, clearly I was paying to play, for inconvenience. Having a car in a shop every week for one stupid problem after another is a major issue, whether you are a billionaire or have $10 to your pocket. The reason why I was pointing out the financial is to prove a point, more expensive is not always better. If a $40,000 car doesn't have these problems, then why should a car double it's cost have problems? To bring you back to reality, you are spending $90,000 on a car, there is no excuse for it not to be reasonable when it comes to reliability. PERIOD.

pearlpower

Infinity is nice, nobody should be buying one of these cars for reliability.

Yuille36

Sorry for all of your bad experiences. I too have an 07 E63. And the only bad thing, that I have experienced was to replace the passenger rear air strut. Covered under warranty. This car has been quite reliable, no issues. Mercedes has an extensive quality control process, and this fixes should have been a none issue. Maybe you should look at and 09 model, as the problems that arise, are fixed in later models.

Yacht Master

Too Bad you had so many problems,

Seems to me the dealer Pown3d you, most likely because of your age.
I bet they had some good laughs at your expense.

Don_J

I dont think there is one manufacturer that is totally immune to problems with a vehicle in their product line. Sorry you had a bad experience.

emoving

Headlight broke 3 times, air intake tube detached from engine, oil becoming extremely low after only 6,000 miles, tires done in only 9,000 miles, 3 different occasions of bent rims, 1 brake pad change, 3 separate occasions of squeal brakes (more than usual), batteries replaced in each key, broken outdoor thermometer, keyless go door handles not working, 1 fender bender, which required 2 visits to fix, and on top of all that, my usual service every 10,000 miles


Well I gotta point out here, the green sounds like bad driving, the blue sounds like lots of use and the red is about the only thing you may be able to blame MB for. You hit a good hole with your EX and your gonna bend some rims, you hit the gas often and your gonna use tires, you hit the brakes often and your gonna use brakes, you open your door 20 times a day and your gonna wear out batteries. Back to the main difference.....your Infinity will be cheaper to fix...so once again,,,,,, YOU GOTTA PAY TO PLAY! I would say half if not more of your problem were owner caused!

06E55

I have had my E55 for over a year now and has only been to the dealer twice. The first time was for a complimentary service A that my salesman gave me when I purchased the vehicle. The second was for an airmatic suspension failure. Other than the airmatic suspension failure, I have had ZERO issues with my vehicle (ok, I just had my MIL (check engine light) turn on because I was stupid and didn't turn off my vehicle before refuelling with very little gas left in the vehicle). Yes, I do routine maintenance (oil changes, serpintine belt replacement, supercharge belt replacement, air filters, cabin filters, etc.) and some not so routine maintenance (transmission, brake service, etc.) myself, but this is to shed light that not all MB vehicles are as unreliable that yours, unfortunately, has been. My wife has a brand new C350 that she put over 25k miles on in less than nine months, and other than routine maintenance, she has had zero issues as well (granted this is only a 60k vehicle, not a 90k vehicle)... The air intake tube can be replaced in literally less than 10 seconds and usually don't come loose unless you were messing witht them and didn't put them back on correctly. The rim issue is your fault. You are the one that ran over the "large bump," not Mercedes. Anything electronic can fail. Plain and simple. I purchased a $7,000 Mac Pro six months ago and used it for a total of three days before the logic board fried. This is from a company with arguably the best hardware in the business. The replacement came and his been running ever since without a reboot (except when an OS update requires a reboot). I test drove a FX50 before I decided to purchase my E55. Personally, I didn't like it, but everyone has their own unique perspective. For me, the E55 is perfect for a daily driver (and that is exactly what my E55 is). And I love pulling up to FX50s and blowing them away! Especially when the driver of said FX50 has no idea what the E55 brings to the table!

Anyway, I hope your Infiniti gives you what you are looking for, and heaven forbid, I hope it doesn't have any reliability issues! I would dread to see how long you keep it for if it does!!!

revolutionml55

I think you got a lemon straight from the workshop.
My ML55 2000 was incredible tank, 2 years daily driver no issues at all exept for oil change and gas.
Hope my E55 that i will be getting won't cost me an arm and a leg=)

930chas

Agree 100%

06E55

Exactly!!! If you drive your car hard, you will have these problems (oil, brakes, bent rims). It is to be expected. Any performance cars will be the same! With this type of vehicle, you do have to pay to play!

Don_J

I would have said the exact same thing, but I'm a newb here...nobody would have listened...lol

sy1616

you have very valid points. I don't feel MB is as reliable as most others but so far so good (E55 and ML350). I am keeping my BMW 545i as it has been perfect for 50k miles and i trust it fully to go anywhere. again the MB cars we have are good, but I just can't get the confidence YET...hopefully I will, good luck, the FX is great!

mikekuriger

sounds like you abuse the hell out of your cars. $5000 a year in insurance tells a pretty good story about your driving record.

jbrinkley

I'm with you OP. Mine's in the lawyers hands now. One way or the other it's the biggest POS I've ever owned. And I truly hate to say that.

e1000

RedG

A 569 horsepower car won't be as reliable as a 200hp station wagon.

cte430

this is hysterical. Including things like worn tires, brakes, and bent rims when complaining about a car's reliability. Curious about the headlights - someone take a baseball bat to them?

Blacksport350

Wow, not my experience at all. I have had issues normal of a car with this level of performance all covered under warranty and average cost of service, brakes, tires, etc not more than $1,500 per year. My insurance on the E55 as no different than the insurance on any exotic car I have owned....$70 a month. Most be something wrong with your driving record or you have a really bad deal on insurance.

Good luck with your new car!

MB_Forever

I'm sorry to hear about all the trouble you had with the car. Such incidents are usually very annoying and sometimes very frustrating. However, you have to agree that some of the issues you listed are "normal" wear and tear on high-performance vehicles, such as, brakes, tires, oil, etc....

On some of the other items, it may have actually been the dealer's fault. For example:

- Sometimes the dealers DO NOT attach those tubes on correctly, which leaves them loose waiting to get detached while driving. It usually happens when they try to change the air filter or move the tubes temporarily out of the way. If the tubes are not latched securely, they will become loose. However, if they secure and latch the tube correctly in place, there is no way the tubes would "un-hook" and become loose while driving.

- It is possible (although I'm not saying that is the case) that there was sometype of faulty wiring/circuit that is causing the headlamps to go out. Most dealers usually just take the easy way out and start replacing parts instead of chasing down the problem.

Again, I'm sorry you did not have a positive experience with your AMG, and I certainly hope you give it another try in the future, so you will see why so many of us are so attached to ours

g.smiley

Fender benders? Broken rims? These are you fault, pal. So is the insurance. If you, perhaps, were a more attentive driver, then maybe, none of these issues would have occurred...? Regardless, you cant blame bent rims on Mercedes-Benz.

Moreover, brake pads virtually always need to be replaced eventually and so do tires when you produce 400+ WHP. Come on. As for the thermometer? If you would have had taken the time to figure out where the thermometer ia actually located, you may have realized that it had slipped back a bit behind the fender. Easy fix in 2 second by using your fingers. Happened to me.

Be happy you dont own a c63 then you would have been really pissed about tires and brakepads LMAO. Furthermore, this is coming from an owner of an E63 that has been in the shop for two weeks beacause of a blown cylinder....These things can happen even in an infinity or whatever it is that apparently is superior. Again, if your infinity is more enjoyable to you then, by all means, get back in that thing on the double!