CLS320 cdi Buying advise, known issues, tips etc

[bpsorrel]

Good point steve333. Maybe he ragged it to death, serviced it and sold it to muggins here....

Trouble is, it looks so darn good!

 

[bpsorrel]

I too think about a 95, not my thing, prefer a back wheel drive car but they are a lot of big car for the money and the best recent big Saab. I do get why you'd want one.

To be honest, I don't really want one, but it seems a lot of car for the money (and you'd never pay the asking price - probably get it waaaay less) but, I wonder if parts on the new 9-5 will be an issue as so few were made.... Not a problem with the 9-3 like mine as so many have been sold and Saab Parts Uk are up and running with a good selection of 9-3 and old 9-5 parts now.

Maybe an Audi A5 Sportback would have been a good choice after all..... Saw one today, actually very nice looking and it whisked silently passed my old tractor....

 

[st4]

Good point steve333. Maybe he ragged it to death, serviced it and sold it to muggins here....

Trouble is, it looks so darn good!

Probably exactly that.

They should be "built for it" though. The CLS is a looker and the way it drives really lures you in. Damn those MB's

 

[D-18]

I'm sure the OP has deduced by now that any MB / BMW / Audi problems are often accompanied by that rather unpleasant individual, 'Big Bill'.

It is by no means unusual these days for a car repair (not just the prestige marques) to run quite easily into £1K plus bracket. I think it is prudent to have a repair fund of about £2K available once the car is out of warranty. I'm not a big fan of aftermarket warranties - had problems with Warranty Direct when claiming in the past, so I tend to take the self-insurance route and be prepared to take a major wallet hit if required.

The ex-rental / ex-demo thing doesn't put me off a vehicle as I've bought loads of 'nearly new' cars like this over the years. My reckoning is that if it doesn't fall apart during the warranty period, it's probably OK. If it isn't, then the warranty fixes it and I'll just punt it for another (I did exactly that with my previous E220). I think *** has been particularly unlucky with his 320 as his car is well maintained and whilst it might be driven with some enthusiasm, it is certainly not abused.

All car forums attract individuals with more than a passing interest in their vehicles and it is inevitable that the problems are highlighted - which makes this place a great source of information as we all are aware of type of issue / expense we could have to face. In the majority of cases, most of us won't experience a serious problem and even fewer of us will experience multiple failures.

If the OP goes ahead with the CLS, I'm sure you will love it as these cars do seems to have a really strong appeal.

 

[st4]

Lawrence, very well put. I tend to "self insure" and only this year I am down. So over say 4 years of high end cars, I'm up 4 * £800 for not buying a warranty. Its an unlucky car but there seems a theme with those V6 CDi's that they give more problems than the more common 4 pots (bar the new ones).

I prefer always to be worst case scenario when budgeting for a car repair, its just annoying when you get it back, want to go for a run and enjoy the thing and its give you warnings etc. Takes away from the enjoyment of the drive.

 

[D-18]

V6 CDi's....give more problems than the more common 4 pots (bar the new ones).

I know your V6 is an early one, I just hope that my later one has all the issues sorted! My main concern with the four pot motor was that it sounded like it had a serious problem all the time from racket it made. The E class deserves a 6 (or better still 8) pot motor

 

[IATM]

yeah you guys are right and i have it in my thinking also that regardless of what marque you get there is a good chance that something may go wrong however its about minimizing it and buying a car that will hopfully give you the least trouble.

the valve body issue within the transmission doesnt bother me too much as it looks like an average bill of 1k and its a risk i am willing to take however to have that coupled with issues that an engine might have is a very different story and furthermore this repair is a 2k-2.5 bearing issue which could bite you in the bum. for my budget range i could easily get a 530d, 525d m sport auto lci (facelift) model which i have seen is actually a widely bulletproof set up after all the improvments have been made on the lci models and i am swaying more towards this now. I love the mercs and theres very little than can beat it however that feeling soon wears off when it stops working.

I am still going to have a look at this cls, the bearing issues seems to be currently related to an engine being thrashed however my view point is is its a sports car then it should be able to take quite a bit of enthausiastic driving with no issues at all.

the cls i am looking at seems like a very tidy car and looked after very well however it does not have full mb history and on top of that i dont know what history there is at 31k (due to find out tomorrow) if it was MB history like other people i would fight MB to fix it FOC. I dont for one minute accept that a 55k car new can start falling apart 5 years later. if it did have full MB history i probably wouldnt batter an eye lid and get it.

i miss the days when things where built with the intention that it would last a lifetimes, these days everything is built with a "shelf life" not just food and its a real shame

 

[bpsorrel]

Agreed, but what really pi55es me off is that a £5K Nissan can endure thrashing, sitting idle for months, having a back street ex navy mechanic service it at just a few rubles a time and then immediately take a good spanking on Russias awful roads and not put a wheel wrong, for four years!! I'm not sure if any so called "premium car" could do that, and certainly from my experience with MB and BMW, no way one wearing a star or a blue and white roundel could cope! Something wrong there I think....

Rant over.

 

[IATM]

loll very true bpsorrel and i have a live example of this in front of me.

This is not an exaggeration; my brother is a student and purchased a ford focus 4 years ago for 1700 pounds. to this date touch wood the car has never ever let him down and always starts no matter what the wheather. my brother is so tight that he has never serviced the car and only put 2 litres of cheap oil in it roughly 2 years ago. it has never seen a new tyre and only a change to 4 part worn tyres to the tune of 4mm each (my brother considered this as looking after the car).

6 times now my brother and sucked the fuel system so dry of fuel that the car cuts out (hes a man on a budget, it really is a luxury to have a car, haha). all he does it fill it up with some unleaded and off he goes, not a care in the world.

the car now has went from 55k (purchased millage) TO 90K and never missed a beat oohh and is bloody fantastic in the snow even with four different makes of tyres on each wheel and budget tyres at that. really makes you think ....



if the ford mondeo wasnt such a dam ugly car i may even consider buying one lolllllll

 

[bpsorrel]

My experiences in Russia tells me that there's a lot of carp talked about dealer servicing. In the small towns (and there are a LOT of them scattered across 9 time zones of Russia!) there are no main dealers or specialists (these are reserved for cities like Moscow, St Petersburg etc) and people run all makes of car on harsh roads, every day with just basic servicing. often done by themselves. Reliability in a country with no AA or RAC is everything and you know what, you don't see many cars stranded as you drive around! Makes you think doesn't it!

Edit: admittedly, there are not many common rail diesels around as petrol is so cheap....

 

[Mactech]

Agreed, but what really pi55es me off is that a £5K Nissan can endure thrashing, sitting idle for months, having a back street ex navy mechanic service it at just a few rubles a time and then immediately take a good spanking on Russias awful roads and not put a wheel wrong, for four years!! I'm not sure if any so called "premium car" could do that, and certainly from my experience with MB and BMW, no way one wearing a star or a blue and white roundel could cope! Something wrong there I think....

Rant over.

Fully understand your frustration, but looking at it from an objective, engineering persective then the larger a production run is on a car the less likley it is to have issues as more will have been spent on development and testing.
At Le Mans, where any issue will cost you the race, I always work on the principle of anything new will cause you a problem. Good old proven stuff is often the best. To some extent it is the same with road cars. 'Premium' cars means there are less of them, less cars means the money spent on development is likley to have been smaller and so if you step out of the mainstream then I would expect to get worse not better reliability. Despite what the price tag says.
'Handbuilt' cars are probably the worst of all....

 

[steve333]

I'm sure the OP has deduced by now that any MB / BMW / Audi problems are often accompanied by that rather unpleasant individual, 'Big Bill'.

It is by no means unusual these days for a car repair (not just the prestige marques) to run quite easily into £1K plus bracket. I think it is prudent to have a repair fund of about £2K available once the car is out of warranty. I'm not a big fan of aftermarket warranties - had problems with Warranty Direct when claiming in the past, so I tend to take the self-insurance route and be prepared to take a major wallet hit if required.

The ex-rental / ex-demo thing doesn't put me off a vehicle as I've bought loads of 'nearly new' cars like this over the years. My reckoning is that if it doesn't fall apart during the warranty period, it's probably OK. If it isn't, then the warranty fixes it and I'll just punt it for another (I did exactly that with my previous E220). I think *** has been particularly unlucky with his 320 as his car is well maintained and whilst it might be driven with some enthusiasm, it is certainly not abused.

All car forums attract individuals with more than a passing interest in their vehicles and it is inevitable that the problems are highlighted - which makes this place a great source of information as we all are aware of type of issue / expense we could have to face. In the majority of cases, most of us won't experience a serious problem and even fewer of us will experience multiple failures.

If the OP goes ahead with the CLS, I'm sure you will love it as these cars do seems to have a really strong appeal.

Well said & the same school of thought re warrantys(if i buy a year old mb then it still has 2 years left,buy a 3+ from a dealer & you get a minimum 3 mths so whenever the warranty runs out have a pool aside foor unexpected bills),i udsually set aside 10% of a car budget for repairs over & above normal maintenance/servicing as a safety net.

 

[IATM]

i have been doing some research and it doesnt appear to be any info on having this engine bearings issue on the s320 w221 model at all ?? not that i can find, why would this be...

i wish merc would say what engine number/chasis/year were affected and that way you could check etc

 

[bpsorrel]

maybe the 221s aren't thrashed...

A BMW 525d is looking interesting...

 

[Deleted member 37751]

i have been doing some research and it doesnt appear to be any info on having this engine bearings issue on the s320 w221 model at all ?? not that i can find, why would this be...

Because they're all owned by 60 year olds that swan about without a care in the world.

 

[st4]

i have been doing some research and it doesnt appear to be any info on having this engine bearings issue on the s320 w221 model at all ?? not that i can find, why would this be...

i wish merc would say what engine number/chasis/year were affected and that way you could check etc

Crockers had it on a 203 C320cdi, and Wobbly on an ML. The vast majority of V6CDi's will be in C, E and ML classes. The S class is a lot more expensive and rare.

maybe the 221s aren't thrashed...

A BMW 525d is looking interesting...

Just rarer so less likely to see faults with the 221's, we don't have many 221 forum members either. I'm not a fan of the E60. The E90 is more my ticket.

 

[bpsorrel]

Just looked at a 530i (petrol) and can't believe the figures!

Fuel consumption (urban) 25.7 mpg
Fuel consumption (extra urban) 48.7 mpg
Fuel consumption (combined) 36.7 mpg
0 - 62 mph 6.5 seconds
Top speed 155 mph
Co2 182 b/km

What's not to like???!!!

BMW 5 Series 530i SE 4dr Step Auto Saloon 3.0L 2008

 

[Dieselman]

i have been doing some research and it doesnt appear to be any info on having this engine bearings issue on the s320 w221 model at all ?? not that i can find, why would this be...

probably because drivers of new S class don't bother going on forums.

 

[IATM]

you guys are not helping lol

I am trying to convince myself to buy a merc.. but this bearing issue is just silly and just putting me off buying one.

or a get an e300td which apparently would still work even if the world fell apart lol

 

[Dieselman]

or a get an e300td which apparently would still work even if the world fell apart

If there was Armageddon and everything broke and the World stopped rotating, the authorities would ask all drivers of e330TD to face the same way and rev hard to restart the World...