Are quality problems returning?

[stroudwaterboy]

My wife is giving my a hard time over ordering a new C Class, it is not the fact I have ordered one but the apparent lack of quality she is concerned about.

Last week we had the camshaft sensor on @Marks car and last night I had a call from my next door neighbour to ask me to keep and eye on his 2 week old C250 after he had been forced to return home quickly whilst on his way to a job as the Comand started doing strange things and then started smoking. He was worried it might catch fire but could not stay with it as he had taken his wife's car to be able to carry on working.

Added to this the thread on the dark side about MB not coming up to the mark when things go wrong and after a month still not having a delivery date makes me wonder why I am spending the extra money for a premium brand?

The two items I started this thread with in my experience, will normally be caused by the bean counters refusing to pay for unit testing. This again is very worrying as that is part of the service I expect with a premium product, if you don't get that why not pay 10k less and get a similar product without the badge?

I am sure most of you will say I am concerned about nothing and just get on with it, it would be good if that is the case.

 

[@MARK]

The reason I am not loosing sleep on the camshaft sensor is that on my previous car (a BMW 335D) the experience wasn't totally fault free either.

On that one, in the first couple of weeks I had to have both of the Xenon headlamp units replaced under warranty because they were misting up (see picture below where the car had 10 miles on the clock). In my view a build quality problem and something the supplying dealer did give much help in fixing.

So I am not convinced that any of the other prestige brands are any different and to be fair, when it comes to electronics (unless they are French), they will either fail in the first few hours of use or after many years so if you are going to have such a fault, it is to be expected in the first few weeks of use.

As for loosing the badge

For many years I drove Volvos. I was happy with the cars and the service but always felt I was paying a premium price. So when the time came to change, I bought a Ford Mondeo ST TDCI after Jeremy Clarkson reviewed on on Top Gear and said he could find no reason why anybody would want to pay more for a car.

The car was OK (when it worked) but spent week after week in the garage. The dealer network was incompetent at best and rude at worst. Whenever the car went in, it came back with more faults. My car was damaged on a number of occasions by the dealer including screwdriver gouges in the dashboard and centre console.

Every complaint I have read on here about dealer attitude pales into insignificance compared to my Ford experience (and this was over 3 different dealers).

So I went German and have not looked back. Sure the dealers are not always perfect but I put some of the bad BMW experiences down to not buying the car from the same place as where it was services. The relationship took a lot more building but we did get there.

So this time, I have bought the car from the same place I intend to get it serviced with a view to building up a relationship. Sure things may fail but it's how they get fixed that matters (assuming they don't keep failing)

 

[Mercy1]

I too am noticing more mutterings of discontent - a tad disconcerting although I have no bad experiences personally...

 

[WDB124066]

Buy a Lexus......

 

[stroudwaterboy]

Buy a Lexus......

Tried but I am too tall, German cars seem to be the only ones that I can get comfortable in.

 

[grober]

High end cars are unnecessarily complex and feature very little true functional redundancy. The result is they tend to go wrong/breakdown more often. If manufacturers concentrated on higher quality rather than electronic gizmos things would be better. They may however feel they need the high profit margin gained from these high tec electronic toys so that's what we get.

 

[WDB124066]

An Audi, they seem to have things sorted recently too......

 

[Deleted member 37751]

An Audi, they seem to have things sorted recently too......

My experience and knowledge of the VW/Audi are that they are on the slide mechanics-wise.
You were correct the first time; if you want exceptional customer service and pretty much fault-free car ownership buy a Lexus. But I suspect the reason they don't sell as many as they should is due to two massive factors:
1. They were late to the market with a diesel.
2. Their interiors seem as though someone intentionally designed them to be as drab as is humanly possible.

 

[markjay]

My 2006 W203, had only a couple of very minor faults over the past five years. So from my point of view - so far so good

However, while my current MB experience is by far better than my experience with Vauxhall and Renault, it still pales in comparison to my 13 years old Toyota that has never missed a beat and is still going strong.

Interestingly, both my Vauxhalls were built in Rüsselsheim, Germany, while my Merc was built in East-London, ZA. So it has nothing to do with the country the car is made in... but more to do with company ethos, management, and quality control.

 

[jaymanek]

Im surprised they did anything about the misting of the headlights, thats pretty common on cars these days and most dealers would just say its normal.

 

[@MARK]

And of course remember that most people who post to forums like this one do so because they have had a problem and need help so internet forums will always run the risk of looking negative.

 

[bpsorrel]

However, while my current MB experience is by far better than my experience with Vauxhall and Renault, it still pales in comparison to my 13 years old Toyota that has never missed a beat and is still going strong.

Couldn't agree more. The attention I get when I take my Celica in to the local Toyota dealer is remarkably better than when I've had the necessity to use any MB dealer. Only the Saab dealer comes close to the Toyota level of care and service. Of course, you pay for this as surprisingly Toyota service is not cheap...

With that in mind I need to find a Celica and Saab "specialist" as I'm finding it hard to justify, (despite the excellence), the cost of main dealer servicing on cars that are out of warranty! I need a local Olly!!!

 

[stevieb15]

When any product is delivered it should be perfect...the best its ever going to be.
For most of us the purchase of a new car will be the second most expensive item we ever buy and the very idea it might have faults is so ridiculous as to be laughable.
Unfortunately my experience over a 20+ year period of replacing my company cars annually is most manufacturers and dealers think it entirely reasonable to deliver a car that doesnt work as it should, in fact I had an Audi A6, an 04 reg, which was delivered with two faults that had still not been fixed when it was replaced 14 months later!
The only cars I ever bought that were faultless on delivery and remained so were private purchases of my wifes Toyota MR2s.

 

[Dichtung]

High end cars are unnecessarily complex and feature very little true functional redundancy. The result is they tend to go wrong/breakdown more often. If manufacturers concentrated on higher quality rather than electronic gizmos things would be better. They may however feel they need the high profit margin gained from these high tec electronic toys so that's what we get.

My sentiments entirely; When MB get back to basics and make a sound gizmo less car, as the 190 was, then I might be interested.

 

[@MARK]

When MB get back to basics and make a sound gizmo less car, as the 190 was, then I might be interested.

The problem is that if they make such a car, whilst you might be interested, most MB buyers wouldn't be and would just end up buying something from BMW or Audi who do have all the toys.

It's a bit like an arms race with each manufacturer trying to out spec the other and it isn't going to come to an end any time soon I'm afraid.

 

[grober]

If Mercedes offered LEXUS levels of service and reliability instead of the gismos AUDI and BMW wouldn't have a look in imho. I would guess the charms of Distronic plus tend to wear off quite quickly when you are sat on the hard shoulder waiting for Mercedes Mobilo.

 

[steve333]

My wife is giving my a hard time over ordering a new C Class, it is not the fact I have ordered one but the apparent lack of quality she is concerned about.

Last week we had the camshaft sensor on @Marks car and last night I had a call from my next door neighbour to ask me to keep and eye on his 2 week old C250 after he had been forced to return home quickly whilst on his way to a job as the Comand started doing strange things and then started smoking. He was worried it might catch fire but could not stay with it as he had taken his wife's car to be able to carry on working.

Added to this the thread on the dark side about MB not coming up to the mark when things go wrong and after a month still not having a delivery date makes me wonder why I am spending the extra money for a premium brand?

The two items I started this thread with in my experience, will normally be caused by the bean counters refusing to pay for unit testing. This again is very worrying as that is part of the service I expect with a premium product, if you don't get that why not pay 10k less and get a similar product without the badge?

I am sure most of you will say I am concerned about nothing and just get on with it, it would be good if that is the case.

I also had a camshaft sensor fail & replaced under warranty(2 months before it ran out)unfortunately our beloved mb's are packed with hi tech gizmo's & from time to time they do go wrong(hopefully while they are still under warranty).

 

[stumpy1]

It's not just electronics where Merc are failing. They are having to replace S Class alloys as they are going square.

 

[John]

With that in mind I need to find a Celica and Saab "specialist" as I'm finding it hard to justify, (despite the excellence), the cost of main dealer servicing on cars that are out of warranty! I need a local Olly!!!

I know of a Saab specialist that I used to use in the south east.

 

[gIzzE]

They're all as bad as each other, my second car is a BMW X1 and that has got clutch judder, you look like a right twonk kangarooing down the road in it, even worse when trying to hill start. BMW know all about it and it effects just about all manuals with the 2 litre diesel, so about 35% of all the cars they sell, and still can't figure out how to remedy it.

At least if you buy a 5 year old car most of the faults can be sorted quickly, if not under warranty, as they have worked out what is causing the issues by then.