CLS320 cdi Buying advise, known issues, tips etc

[IATM]

Just to calm your nerves;

A very good friend of mine works for Mercedes commercial as a head technician and I've shown him this thread and what his thoughts were.

In the four-five years that Mercedes have been putting the V6 CDi into their commercials, he has never once seen this problem. Ever.

They put through 60-100 job cards A DAY, so if there was this mass epidemic of this failing, he'd have seen this by now I'm sure.

thats very interesting sweetpea because i just spoke to guys at pcs and they said its quite common..........

not sure who to beleive..

 

[bpsorrel]

My problem exactly!! The issue for me now is that I doubt I'll trust the car, and certainly not for a critical journey where I NEED to arrive and on time! And from the experience I had with MB dealers during the time I owned 3 other MBs, I'm not in the least bit confident of a proper, lasting repair.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

thats very interesting sweetpea because i just spoke to guys at pcs and they said its quite common..........

not sure who to beleive..

I think you've already made your mind up by the sounds of it.....

If it's always going to be at the back of your mind that this problem will happen to you, it's pointless carrying on debating the pros and cons of owning a CLS320 CDi.

Good luck with whichever car you do decide to buy, it's probably not the best idea to post up your next prospective purchase unless you want it ripping to shreds.

At this rate, you'll end up buying a bicycle.....

 

[steve333]

i was hoping someone would say you know thats ok since its been at merc for 3 years lol.

i guess im going to have to start thinking with my head and not my balls, it just looked so sexy, cls, black amg pack 19* alloys etc lol

Have a test drive in an 06 on cls 500,you won't regret it

 

[steve333]

just heard back from the lady about the cls, she said

full service history , 2007,2008, 2009 mercedes garage surrey/cardiff
2010, 2011 service plus @in and out garage cardiff.

3 previous owners (including garage as demo)
she purchased at 19 and has done 11k in 2 years, used as weekend car.

hhhmmmmmmmmmmmm

Why would a woman buy a diesel cls as a low mileage weekend user?

 

[C240Sport97]

until this month, this 'known' problem with the V6 CDi engine was not raised on this forum.

am surprised really as you would have expected this 'news' to be all over this forum.

seems to be that this is not a common problem, it's 'common' on this forum because there are 3 threads running on the same topic.

I reckon a bit of perspective is needed.

No car is fault free, especially not complex modern cars with lots of electronics etc etc.

bpsorrel has not broken down .. the car is making a noise, it's being fixed. 1 fault surely should not condemn the entire car. I think there's an over reaction.

 

[bpsorrel]

Suspicious....

 

[steve333]

Spoke to MB Oxford today who are arranging to take mine in a day or two, and they still say, despite me sending them a copy of the bulletin (!) , that it's not a known issue and they have never had a case of it!
I hope this is not a way of them getting out of covering the cost, although if they do that, hopefully the warranty I have with the supplying (Renault) dealer will cover it.

If not, I'll take the car back and either try to return it to the supplying dealer as I've only covered 200 miles, or part ex it somewhere else on a day it's not making the noise.

Sorry to say it, but I'm not prepared to cover the repair out of my pocket.

On the other hand, hopefully they'll sort it out. MB will pay and I'll keep it 'till the next problem occurs....

Good luck on with that Barry(sounds like mb are on the defensive already),if the warranty doesn't cover the repair take it straight back to the supplying dealer(you are covered up to 90 days under the sale of goods act afaik).

 

[bpsorrel]

bpsorrel has not broken down .. the car is making a noise, it's being fixed. 1 fault surely should not condemn the entire car. I think there's an over reaction.

The issue is trust. From what I've heard, this problem re-occurs. I've read so much stuff now about the un-reliability of the engine that I simply don't have any faith in it and that will skim off ANY joy I would've had from owning and driving the car.

For me, as an OCD individual D) I'd be better off getting shot of it and buying a known reliable car. I'm passed the hooning around stage now and really, reliability is everything to me as I can't be doing with the hassle and expense of a car constantly letting me down.

 

[steve333]

Mercedes always pretend that known problems are unknown.

Mb top brass wouldn't want their staff telling customers of known faults for obvious reasons.

 

[A210AMG]

Beginning to wonder why I like Mercs......

My main client owns a couple of Lexus dealerships, and whenever, on the rare occasion a customer has an issue, the dealers, and Lexus, can't do enough to help.

MB could learn a lot from them...

My Brother had the iS200 a few years back when they were new, He does 50 to 60K miles a year (some days he would fill it up twice!!) the dealers were very very good.

And too be honest so was the car, bright red auto only a 2.0L petrol but nice to drive and he had that from new to 130K miles NOTHING felll off, broke, needed repair !

 

[bpsorrel]

sounds like mb are on the defensive already.

Sadly, I agree. If they do take this stand, I will never own an MB again and will encourage as many people as I can to not touch the brand.

 

[C240Sport97]

Sadly, I agree. If they do take this stand, I will never own an MB again and will encourage as many people as I can to not touch the brand.

From MB's perspective, they are less inclined to deal with this problem as it was not bought from their dealer network, and it does not have an MB warranty.

 

[bpsorrel]

But it has an excellent MB service history, with the last one just 1800 miles ago....
Surely they can't wash their hands of this?

Well at least the issue hasn't stopped the car working. Selling shouldn't be an issue on the right day. Don't worry, I wouldn't sell it to anyone here!!!

 

[C240Sport97]

But it has an excellent MB service history, with the last one just 1800 miles ago....
Surely they can't wash their hands of this?

why not? there is no contractual obligation on their part.

 

[kam05]

My Brother had the iS200 a few years back when they were new..

I spent 8 years and 100k trouble free miles behind the wheel of an IS200. The IS200 was a very nice car, in fact I'd still be driving an IS200 today if I wasn't doing lots of miles (I needed an auto diesel- this is a market that Lexus have over looked).

Saying that, I've had my W204 C220CDI Sport for nearly a year now and I'm glad I went for this instead of the IS220d.

 

[bpsorrel]

why not? there is no contractual obligation on their part.

I see your point, but nonetheless, for some reason they have repaired this problem under goodwill for others. Why would they do that at all if they knew it wasn't a build fault?

Edit! However, I am jumping the gun a bit here as my warranty is with the supplying dealer, not MB. I do know though that my dealer are hoping to get the cost of any repair back from MB.....

 

[steve333]

I see your point, but nonetheless, for some reason they have repaired this problem under goodwill for others. Why would they do that at all if they knew it wasn't a build fault?

I've never really understood goodwill,it makes you think mb are doing you a favour when in reality it seems they are really trying to brush known faults/issues under the table,after all,if mb were not liable or at fault they would surely make the customer pay?

 

[hawk20]

Mercedes always pretend that known problems are unknown.

Well I have never had that problem. Perhaps my local dealer is especially helpful but if there has been a problem MB have always accepted that and either put it right, or in one case they bought the car back from me.

 

[bpsorrel]

I've never really understood goodwill,it makes you think mb are doing you a favour when in reality it seems they are really trying to brush known faults/issues under the table,after all,if mb were not liable or at fault they would surely make the customer pay?

But, as my edit above, I guess it's not my worry really as my dealer have already said that any repair is covered by them. They are the ones hoping to get the cash back from MB! Seems they may have a job....