All there made out to be?

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Maco

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150
Location
County Durham
Car
2021 A220D AMG Executive Saloon.
Is the Mercedes brand all its made out to be?

Onto my second car from them now & out of all the new/newish cars I've had the Mercedes are the only ones I've had problems with. I had a year old Audi and a 6 month BMW, never had a single issue with any of them.

Anyway down to the Mercedes, bought the first one this time last year. It was a 2012 C220. Used approved with 30,000 miles. First issue I had with it was when it wouldn't go into gear, it went in under warranty and had a selector fitted. A couple weeks later it had a clutch judder. After a little haggle and a complaint we managed to wiggle getting £2000 knocked off a 2015 E250 & they just about give us our money back on the C class. So it was a good deal.

Now the E250 has just came back from a service with a coolant leak which is going back in next week under warranty. I'm guessing it's not a simple fix because they want the car for a full day.

It's not really what you expect from Mercedes when you pay what you do.
 
Name me any make were cars are not repaired under warranty. You are in effect saying you'd be happy buying an Audi or BMW with no warranty...because you'd never need it. Would you? Do you believe neither Audi nor BMW have warranty repairs to make?
 
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Don't buy a Jaguar then ... couldn't wait to get rid of mine, spent more time at the useless dealers than on my driveway !

My 2017 C220d 4matic is sublime right now, looks great, super comfy, very happy.

It does depend on how good your dealer is, I don't mind the odd niggle as long as it gets prompt and professional support when needed. Selling cars is easy, the tricky bit is keeping customers happy afterwards ... or we don't come back.

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The over-engineering that gave them their bullet proof reputation stopped around the start of the 1990's. Couple that to increasing electrical trickery and lots of gismos to counteract emissions and they are probably no better or worse than most high end market cars in reliability terms. :dk:
 
We are on our 2nd Nissan, 1st Qashqai the Tailgate was welded on wrong believe it or not! sqeaky heater blower at 5k, and Radio would be random dropping in and out.

2nd A New X-trail top of the Range, Its been back 3 times to try and sort a miss fire out, and other Various electrical issues.
 
The BMW 5 Series (F10) has had a lot of problems with faulty air conditioning compressors.
 
Name me any make were cars are not repaired under warranty. You are in effect saying you'd be happy buying an Audi or BMW with no warranty...because you'd never need it. Would you? Do you believe neither Audi nor BMW have warranty repairs to make?

Did I once say I would be happy buying a Audi or BMW without warranty? Nor did I say that every Bmw/audi is faultless. If you don't have a sensible comment to make about my question then why reply at all? This wasn't a discussion about how many warranty repairs other manufacturers have, it was a question of whether Mercedes was all it makes out to be..

Anyway, thank you to other members who have actually decided to have a discussion rather then been clever.
 
My W203 was 11 years old when I sold it and it was trouble free. Had the W204 for 2 months now and so far touch wood no issues.

But while personal first hand impressions are powerful, the fact is that your two Mercs and my too Mercs are far too small a sample to establish any meaningful statistics.

In all likelihood... either you have been unlucky, or I have been lucky, or both.

Personally, I think Mercedes make reliable cars. But again this is a view I can't back up with statistics.
 
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I am not impressed with my 30k mile CLK....I know it's an old design but its not impressive on the quality front. Frankly my 2010 mondeo is better screwed together...but it's a lovely design so I forgive the shortcomings.

Mondeo owned from new. Zero warranty work, never had an issue. 70k fault free miles. Zero rattles. The CLK however......rattles and endless small but annoying faults....
 
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Funnily enough I had a w203 coupe for 11 years too. Only just sold it and it was a tough decision as it had been bullet proof all that time. Only thing that was the DVD player for comand had started playing up every now and again but mechanically the thing was perfect. So I second the idea that it's the electrical gizmos that are probably most susceptible to old age

Likewise I might just have been lucky but it's why my next car will also be a merc but I don't think Mercedes have some magic formula over bm or vw


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Maybe a caveat here just to put in balance that a preview of J D POWERS to put in away from personal experience's to facts and figures of a larger poll. It's is interesting reading.
 
Maybe a caveat here just to put in balance that a preview of J D POWERS to put in away from personal experience's to facts and figures of a larger poll. It's is interesting reading.

The issue with these reliability surveys is that they are subjective, and that they suffer from negative bias (ie people are more likely to take part if they have negative feedback)

So without having an objective measure and a randomised sample group the results are at best anecdotal.

The people who would know which cars are reliable and which are not are those who fix them when they go wrong.

But independent garages typically don't see new cars before they are 3 years old... and so the only people who really have any meaningful reliability figures for new cars are the manufacturers themselves who authorise the warranty repairs during the first 3 years.

But not surprisingly it's a closely guarded secret... so at best, all we can do is take an educated guess at marques' reliability.
 
I have a relative that works in the Warranty Department of a big Audi Franchise, you will be surprised the amount of warranty claims he has to put through.

Like any car that is mass produced, you will get problems with some of them.

I've been lucky, I haven't had any problems with my W204 coupe since I got it last year.....apart from a rattley dash !!
 
Funnily enough I had a w203 coupe for 11 years too. Only just sold it and it was a tough decision as it had been bullet proof all that time. Only thing that was the DVD player for comand had started playing up every now and again but mechanically the thing was perfect. So I second the idea that it's the electrical gizmos that are probably most susceptible to old age

Likewise I might just have been lucky but it's why my next car will also be a merc but I don't think Mercedes have some magic formula over bm or vw


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I'm genuinely glad you guys had good experiences with your 203's , mine was an absolute money pit ; I spent as much on repairs over my 18months with it as I did buying it - it was the most unreliable car I ever owned , and not one I could work on myself .

All of my older Mercs have been brilliant , and that's what I'm sticking with now .
 
They're*


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I've got a friend with an M3 and he seems to be forever replacing suspension components on it; the most expensive being the rear sub-frame that was cracked. - I appreciate that's not representative of an entire marque, but it does suggest that you might have the same experience with a BMW.

I don't think he's ever had any problems with his 5-series, and the only problem he had with the CLK55 his wife bought was the hood mechanism needed greasing.
 
I'm genuinely glad you guys had good experiences with your 203's , mine was an absolute money pit ; I spent as much on repairs over my 18months with it as I did buying it - it was the most unreliable car I ever owned , and not one I could work on myself .

All of my older Mercs have been brilliant , and that's what I'm sticking with now .

To be fair to MB, issues with new cars are 100% their fault, but when it comes to us second hand car buyers you can never be sure if the issues with the car are not due to it having been abused or neglected by previous owner(s).
 
Did I once say I would be happy buying a Audi or BMW without warranty? Nor did I say that every Bmw/audi is faultless. If you don't have a sensible comment to make about my question then why reply at all? This wasn't a discussion about how many warranty repairs other manufacturers have, it was a question of whether Mercedes was all it makes out to be..

Anyway, thank you to other members who have actually decided to have a discussion rather then been clever.

Grow up. My reply was valid. You said BMW and Audi were better than Merc...in your experience. So what... it isn't as though BMW an Audi will have the same problems.
 
What should a Mercedes be/mean to you Maco?
 

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