What made you look to Mercedes? What car or situation..

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About 15-years ago, the missus had a VW Polo on PCP which was coming to the end of term. She went to the VW dealer (on her own) with the intention of starting again with a Golf. Instead she got a load of misogynistic sh!t off the arrogant tw@t of a VW salesman and basically told them to do one.

Shortly after that, we went to the local MB dealership in response to an advert in the papers for the A-class (the facelifted 'first' version, forgotten the Wxxx reference). The salesman was/is great, put together a great deal and went the extra mile. Her new A-class turned up promptly, all shiny, full tank, bunch of flowers etc. They made her feel very special and she came home beaming from ear to ear.

Since then she's had a new SLK (R171), pre-reg C-Class Coupe (C204) and our current C250d (S205). Same dealership where 'our' salesman heads up their approved used business. We have always been treated with respect at this dealership and they have always gone the extra mile for us.
 
I wasn't much interested in cars having ignored them and had only a bike licence for my first 20 years on the road.

My wife is into convertibles and for years every time we passed a BMW dealership she'd point at the Z4 and say that was going to be her next car. Anyhow - I kind of resisted and she picked up on the R170 SLK as being an option. She started looking at them and in 2005 there were some reasonably priced low mileage used ones as the new R171 model started to appear.

After she took a hard look and almost bought one I did whole load of sums and realised that an AU one wouldn't be too bad in terms of ownership costs and I capitulated completely. She bought one and it was built like a tank (to be fair the R170 drives like a bit of a tank too! And the 4 pot lump in the SLK230 isn't the sweetest).

So happy SWMBO. And I found the car was reasonable on long trips. Service was good. And the car felt quality.

So a year on I'm hacked off with my Honda Civic - another story as to how I ended up with that .... but it was a cleverly packaged car but in some ways overrated - and the SLK probably didn't help as it just felt more solid. I had been watching Au prces to judge whether the depreciation on our SLK fitted the curve I had anticipated and the lcal dealer had a batch of W211 E240s Avantgardes at a very good price. Nobody wanted the petrol models I guess and the 2.6 litre engine in the E240 was considered to feeble.

Anyway had a think. SWMBO was all for me going the MB route as well. Test drove one. The decent price was discounted a bit more.

And I ended up with the best car I have ever owned.

Both or MBs were kept until 8 years old - both were rattle free and felt tight and solid when we traded them. The tiotal ownershp costs were very reasonable.

The E240 wasn't fast - but in reality was great at long distance cross country rides. The Avantgarde suspension was a good compromise. The brakes were outstanding. The handling was better than I expected and it was an easy and graceful car to hustle on A and B roads.

I regret trading it. It would have been worth keeping for another two or three yearts at least - even with the shadow at that time of expensive non-goodwill SBC repairs.
 
Wanted another 4 seat convertible. Couldn't find one of the very last Saab 9-3's to replace the one I had at the time so needed to look elsewhere.

Choice was very limited as it had to take 3 adult sized people. Went for the Mercedes as it felt more comfortable than an Audi A5, despite it being more bland. Quickly found it really is bland so looked at selling it, but thankfully found that replacing the screen for Comand with an Android system has made it tolerable.
 
Wife needed a new car, small, auto, reliable, room for the kids, and the W168 A-Class fitted the bill exceptionally well. It is a genius package, unclip the rear seats and you have a van :rock:

Being an ex aircraft engineer I liked the build quality. Being a dad I liked the safety aspect of the double floor.

It’s still with us, daughter has driven it since 2009. (Though it may be for sale due to the wife’s A209... and subsequently loved the looks of the W215 CL500.... (So got one)

This year wife fancied a drop top - so we got the A209 CLK (looks like the euro tour is on hold :doh:)



*daughter has inherited wife’s old Swift, ... so the AClass currently unused :dk:
 
I ended up with my first and only Merc because I wanted a large and comfortable estate car for long journeys, preferred petrol (which was unfashionable at the time) and didn’t want to spend much. Merc was just about the only make that fitted the bill. Audi S6 seemed interesting as an alternative but they were way more expensive at the time, and also comparatively poky inside. After almost 5 trouble-free years I do think I made the right decision.
 
Mercs were the dream car for almost anybody really, due to their build quality inside and out.
I grew up in a Peugeot 504 2.0lt petrol that felt bombproof at the time and pulled (had torque) like a caterpillar. It did not have an a/c or even power steering.
Long forgotten and then I test drive a diesel W211. I was stunned by this sweet memory coming back, like it was the P504 reincarnated cars... could still be build that "old" way!!!
My Passat was on its way out...the Merc a world away in body and spirit. Easy decision
 
My interest goes back to 1970. My first serious chauffeuring job was personal chauffeur to Jim Slater of Slater Walker Sercurities a big noise in the city in those days. All the directors had a £10,000 budget on there choice of cars !! So there was a Daytona, BMW 350il a Bristol a DS Citroen etc and one director had a 300 SEL 6.3 which I had occasion to drive which was the fastest saloon car in the world + it looked great. The car I drove was a choice of a Bentley S3 1964 and a 1965 RR Silver Cloud 111 Convertible, Stately but boring !!
So in 1984 I had the opportunity to by one which was great. Since then always Mercedes except when the ugly 140 came out I had a BMW 740il instead, must say one of the best cars I have driven.
 
Wanted a subtle/rarer performance car rather than a BMW M series that was comfortable (wife hated the Toyota GT4 I had before) so got a C32
 
Inheritance - my first 2 Mercedes were given to me by family. The SL has been here for 17 years now, and I probably would still have the C250TD if my grandmother had ticked the box for AC.
 
Got my brother in law to blame for my love of the brand. In 1998 I took my first trip of many to visit my sister who lives in Abu Dhabi.
On landing, I was picked up from the airport by bro-in- law in his recently bought W124 S500 with cream leather. It was instant love at first sight (the car that is!)
I was driving a Sierra Cossie at the time but the power, comfort and acceleration of this huge car won me over. I had to have one.
My budget or needs didn't stretch to an S Class, but in 2003 I found a nice W210 E280 and that was it. Haven't owned any other brand since apart from work cars.
The enjoyment of speed and acceleration has never left me, so I progressed through another E280 to the real deal and an E55K and possibly my last AMG, an E63 Biturbo. Sadly it seems time is running out for the fossil fuelled cars and the next car may well be some boring EV, simply to comply.
 
Got my brother in law to blame for my love of the brand. In 1998 I took my first trip of many to visit my sister who lives in Abu Dhabi.
On landing, I was picked up from the airport by bro-in- law in his recently bought W124 S500 with cream leather. It was instant love at first sight (the car that is!)
I was driving a Sierra Cossie at the time but the power, comfort and acceleration of this huge car won me over. I had to have one.
My budget or needs didn't stretch to an S Class, but in 2003 I found a nice W210 E280 and that was it. Haven't owned any other brand since apart from work cars.
The enjoyment of speed and acceleration has never left me, so I progressed through another E280 to the real deal and an E55K and possibly my last AMG, an E63 Biturbo. Sadly it seems time is running out for the fossil fuelled cars and the next car may well be some boring EV, simply to comply.
You had me till ev......:(
 
I had a mid life crisis and wanted a career change so gave up a well paid job in the Manufacturing industry to start my own chauffeur company.The car choice was either a BMW or Mercedes and most people I talked too said they preferred the Mercedes to be chauffeured in. So started a 20 year relationship up to today.

I initially bought a C220Cdi but that was too small so after a 152k mile trouble free relationship that was replaced by three consecutive E220Cdi's, the first two each, coincidentally, did 312k trouble free miles and the last which I still have has done 315k trouble free miles and is still going strong. Well apart from a water pump, a shock absorber top mount bush, and a replacement alternator about 6 weeks ago, the alternator being the only repair I have had to pay for at a grand sum of £194 plus fitting.

For my sins I also bought a 2004 SL350 when I retired as a weekend toy, which has also been almost trouble free apart from a new starter battery and a CPS, but has only done 54k miles.

I think I made the right choice, I doubt I would have had the same reliability from a BM.

I am however not keen on their current renditions.
 
My Dad had always had Jaguar's up till mid 1980's he was trading his 420 S-tpe in for a early Xj6 but then a w116 280se came up for sale, His business was looking for a wedding car at the time.

The (v) w116 was far better built than any of his jag's much more modern inside and just and a Presence about it. Well that was that, it followed me and him buying numerous Merc's 90% all from the 80's i carried it onwards from a little 1989 mk2 190.


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Yes the later Merc's are nothing like the 80's ones but hey you have to evolve otherwise you go out of business.
 
Interesting topic.
I started driving at the age of 18 in Africa while living with my uncle, my uncle had Mercedes Benz 200.While waiting for university admission.My uncle turned me to his driver.He had 3 cars and I started driving him around with no wages. But I drove him more with Mercedes Benz on his business trip which was long distances.Since then I love MB. I bought my first MB w204 c class in October 2019.Dream come true.I love this car.
 
In 2001-ish I read the Autocar Road Test for the W203 C 32 AMG and couldn’t believe what I was reading when I reached the performance figures. It was the first time I really considered a Mercedes. It looked fantastic, muscular but subtle, and the performance was other worldly.

A year or two later, on my wife’s 28th birthday we were heading out on a birthday shopping trip and she suggested that we go past a car dealership which had an ML she liked. We called in and it was a pre-facelift ML270 CDi with factory AMG body kit. I suggested that if we would spend that much on a car then we should the then just-launched Cayenne, so we went to Porsche next. They were really really rude to me so we went and bought a new ML270 CDi instead.

A few months later I took the summer off work and had a 5 month holiday, and whilst away I decided that I’d buy a new car when we got home. The skewed seating position in the 911 I hankered for irritated an old back injury, so I looked at the SLK 32 AMG next. I couldn’t get on with the tombstone seats so I tried a C 32 AMG like the one I read about a few years before, and boom, it was perfect.

We’ve had several MLs, several AMGs and even several ML AMGs since! We quite like them.
 
I worked for a company in Camden for a period in my early twenties as a sales person; the old Jewish chap who owned it, Ronnie, was trying to flog his old car to all and sundry. He approached me and asked if I'd like it for £5k, to which I thanked him for his offer but there was no interest from me - I was more into motorbikes at the time and certainly not an old man's ride.

Anyway, I'd see it occasionally when I parked my bike downstairs and despite not knowing anything about it, the chiseled robust look and light blue airiness of it held an appeal.

I had grown up driving the cars on my dad's car hire - mid-tier vehicles from Ford, Nissan, Vauxhall etc. I didn't know what a Mercedes was about really.

So I approached him and proposed that if I hit a sales target that year, he give it to me as a reward. It was a shoot for the moon target and a bit of fun, so he took me up on it.

At the Christmas party and buoyed on having exceeded that target, I reminded him and got a very non-committal response - but not a 'no'! Six months later... he handed me the keys and the V5! As it was an 'old man's car', I put it in my Dad's name as he deserved a nice car. Before I drove off, Ronnie showed me how to open the bonnet - from the sides of the grille.

So it was a sunny Friday afternoon and I jumped into my SEC380 and marvelled, firstly at the seat belt butler, then at the huge steering wheel. The light grey interior and the excellent coupe windows with no pillar. I had no idea that such splendour could exist in a vehicle! I then pressed the throttle and recall marvelling at the precision of how the engine responded to the most gentle of throttle inputs. The engineering was like a precision watch. I didn't even realise the significance of a V8 configuration at that time, let alone had any experience of one!

I collected my first child from hospital in that SEC and also drove it to Glasgow a number of times. Unfortunately, we couldn't afford to repair all the things necessary to keep it on the road so it went, but I do hanker for another - perhaps with a larger engine this time.

Mercedes, an excellent auto manufacturer. The same composure is present in my current vehicle and second Mercedes. They are immense vehicles.
 
I was at work and sharing an office with the Commercial Manager, he showed me an advert for a lease deal on the Mercedes E300 Hybrid, an excellent deal with limited supply.

We both ordered one he ordered the sport variation and I ordered the SE version, this was in 2014.

It was a 2 year lease deal and during my lease there were no issues with the car other than the wipers were pants.

Towards the end of my lease I decided to retire and as a gift to myself I ordered an E350 Night Edition as I had really enjoyed the 2 years with the Hybrid.

When I ordered my current car it has an EU6 rating and the demonisation of diesels had not begun plus there was limited petrol models other than the AMG cars which were outside of my budget.

Would I buy another Mercedes?

Not sure, I love my current car it drives superbly and is 4 years old soon and has been trouble free other than the wipers are pants on this one also.

Robin


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
It was a gradual thing for me as in my 30's I genuinely thought that MB's were for old men and that track tests were extremely important. But I used to travel a lot for work in the 90's and would arrive at Heathrow exhausted, flop into the back of the 124 or 126 that the company's drivers used and get wafted back to London. Then there was a week-long trip to a trade show in Munich in the late 90's where I was shepherding execs around (around the city and to and from the airport) and I had access to fleet of 211's and 220's. On the airport runs I found out just how well they coped with 130+ and generally how brilliant they were as all-rounders. On the odd occasion I found myself in the back of a contemporary 7 Series or S8 I was struck by just how bad the ride was in comparison, how jerky the throttle was and generally how un-relaxing the experience was, for the passenger at least.

Then, like some of the others above, in 2003 my wife wanted me to get something more sensible-looking than my 200SX, I wanted something grunty but wafty and so I bought my first V8-engined Merc. I was 39 so got into the brand one year earlier than expected (joke).

The only other manufacturer who has consistently done something similar, IMHO, is Jaguar. My neighbour runs an XKR and an XFR both of which I love and oddly enough the only other brand he's dallied with over the years was MB - he had more than one SEC back in the day and remembers them very fondly. Similar ethos; grunty, smooth, quiet & quick. But cossetting at the same time.
 
Similar story: VW's fuel injected Golfs & Scirocco's had me in the 80's, until 5 door SAAB turbo's elbowed their way in during the 90's. Three different Porsches promised much but left me unimpressed afterwards, while a couple BMW's seemed just..."competent and poorly equipped"

In the late nineties I did the Euro commuter thing, and was astonished at how crushingly effective W124's and W210's were on German Airport transfers. Then they launched the groundbreaking W220, and was instantly converted.

OK, our roads will never be as good as the Autobahns, but the design, build quality, and reliability of the big MB Saloons (and SL) keeps me loyal to the brand.

That said, I still only enjoy the mainstream big volume models. The SUV's and the smaller volume niche vehicles leave me unimpressed.

And I still dismiss 500+bhp AMG models as jewellery, being neither usable for the South East of England, nor for 500 mile a day European touring.

full
 
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