Depending on who you talk to…many people don’t rate or trust the CVT at all…but others really like it…
We have a W169 (2006) A200 Turbo CVT and we really like driving it…however…
Failure of the speed sensors appears to be a fairly common problem with the CVT that comes with both the A & B Class. The speed sensors are located within the valve body of the unit and traditionally this resulted in the whole of valve body unit needing replacement (at approximately £1000 plus labour and VAT) – ours went and it cost £1600.00, but luckily we had it replaced under warranty. A refurbished unit from MB will cost around £800.
There are companies/individuals around these days that can dismantle the valve body and repair the speed sensors, and they give a very reasonable guarantee on their work…costs around £450 for repair…then labour on top of course.
In my experience the speed sensor problem manifests itself as an intermittent fault, resulting in the car going into limp home mode and displaying a ‘Transmission – Visit Workshop’ fault warning on the dashboard. Turning off the ignition and restarting the car often clears the fault and the car may drive perfectly well again for days, even weeks without issue – but the fault will return at some point.
I was told by the independent MB specialist that replaced the valve body on our car that the newer units have a undergone a ‘product enhancement’, (I take that to mean a better design) which means it shouldn’t happen again…I don’t know when MB started fitting the newer design valve bodies to their cars…Our car now runs just fine but the valve body was replaced just over a year ago and we’ve not done a great deal of mileage since.
I’ve not heard of any other common problems with the CVT other than they do appear to make a low level whining noise - ours does too but it’s not noticeable above 20 or 30 mph. I’ve tried and tried to find a definitive answer as to why this might happen but haven’t managed to find anything concrete…it seems to be generally accepted that this is probably just a feature common to all CVTs regardless of manufacturer.
Another common problem with these cars is rust on the bottom edge of the doors and tailgate…if you buy a used W169 try to make sure it is newer one, manufactured from 2007 onwards that has the newer type seam sealer over the door welding – but do check these areas when viewing the car, just because it was registered post 2006 it doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll have newer ‘smooth type’ seam seal…see my post regarding rust here:
http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/bodywork/153178-rust-diy-dealer.html
I can’t comment personally but I think that the general consensus seems to be to go for the lager engine options if you can (A180, A200) as the smaller range feel a little under powered.
As for spec, I’d go for the Avantgarde or Excellence depending on your taste…I think our A200 Turbo is really just a turbo charged Avantgarde and it comes with every extra you could imagine fitted as standard.
One last thing…I quite often read that the earlier W168 should be avoided…
Good luck, hope you find a nice one…
Paul Mick
