Worst car he had ever owned

[BenzComander]

Just come back from the garage we use for MOT's.

There was an old boy there who had a C class estate (new shape) that had gone into limp home mode, would only allow low revs and reluctant to change gear.

He was ranting about what a cr@p car it was, and the worst car he had owned ever owned etc!!

After he went, asked the garage owner what he thought it could be and I suggested the MAF (I know, a little bit of knowledge gained here ). He agreed, and said that would be unfortunate because he had the guys 320SLK in last month and changed the MAF on that to sort the same problem

Unlucky or what

 

[wallingd]

(What's a MAF?)

 

[BenzComander]

MAF

 

[peterchurch]

After he went, asked the garage owner what he thought it could be and I suggested the MAF (I know, a little bit of knowledge gained here ). He agreed, and said that would be unfortunate because he had the guys 320SLK in last month and changed the MAF on that to sort the same problem

Unlucky or what

I think its more likely driving style Some people drive these cars for years and never see anymore than a service... It has to be more than pot luck
Last week when I had the SL blow the gearbox seal (I am more than sure it was filled cold ) the chap that took me home said the highest proportion of cars he picked up were porsches and other high end sports cars that just don't get driven hard enough and as a result get clogged etc.
It does makes sense to me, because my car is always much better after it gets an empty M4 to itself

 

[wallingd]

ooooooo

ooooo

ooooooo

(Took me a while to do that...)

Yes it's the same old story: give it a good blast, especially if you do a lot of town pootling.

 

[peterchurch]

nice picture

I got hold of our old T5 shopping trolly for a trip to London last year and as I tried to enter the 303 a complete tit in a saxo pulled what I can only describe as a totaly kamakazi stunt to get into the slip lane taking one quick look I dropped the car from 5th to 2nd and left the scene to give the saxo some room to recover (he needed it as well ) all I could see in the RVM was soot and crap from the engine then all of a sudden the car sparked into life and drove so smooth I could not believe it was the same car fuel economy on the computer went from 14 to 29 MPG !!!!! so now I slip away every now and then and give the cars a little boot and it does seem to work

 

[miro]

Just come back from the garage we use for MOT's.

There was an old boy there who had a C class estate (new shape) that had gone into limp home mode, would only allow low revs and reluctant to change gear.

He was ranting about what a cr@p car it was, and the worst car he had owned ever owned etc!!

After he went, asked the garage owner what he thought it could be and I suggested the MAF (I know, a little bit of knowledge gained here ). He agreed, and said that would be unfortunate because he had the guys 320SLK in last month and changed the MAF on that to sort the same problem

Unlucky or what

Im still lucky to meet someone that uses even 1/2 the functions of the car. Let alone understands whether a problem is serious or trivial. So as a direct result the serious problems get brought into the dealer along with the trivial ones. Still if you ask someone what the problem is then they will tell you they took the car to the dealer 8 times and neglect to tell you 7 of those trips were to push the floor mats back into the desired position.

Like most things, German cars are made to be serviced by SOMEONE ELSE and it takes a rare breed of person to get advanced enough to handle it themselves.

With the number of safety interlocks and safeguards in the motor alone you can bet that if the engine blew up and released a plume of smoke like an A-Bomb then most would come to the conclusion it was the engine but when it doesnt do that then it must be the whole car.

It doesnt pay to nanny people. They simply live to complain about how they were spared enormous cost and personal injury.

 

[miro]

nice picture

I got hold of our old T5 shopping trolly for a trip to London last year and as I tried to enter the 303 a complete tit in a saxo pulled what I can only describe as a totaly kamakazi stunt to get into the slip lane taking one quick look I dropped the car from 5th to 2nd and left the scene to give the saxo some room to recover (he needed it as well ) all I could see in the RVM was soot and crap from the engine then all of a sudden the car sparked into life and drove so smooth I could not believe it was the same car fuel economy on the computer went from 14 to 29 MPG !!!!! so now I slip away every now and then and give the cars a little boot and it does seem to work

There is generally one SL mechanic at every dealership and in one particular local one he claims that the SL's test driven after a service will reveal a whole lot about the owner. Low Km's and useless performance means its a work to home car that does about 10km a day and the cars with slithers of rubber missing from the rear wheels are able to give power on tap.

 

[pentoman]

I think you all may have a good point on the style of driving thing (within reason of course).

I have driven my now 90,000 mile C-reg 190E quite hard (for the last 25,000 miles), and of course it runs beautifully.

And I know that, tomorrow morning, you could drive my car all the way to Germany, run for miles on the autobahn flat out, do some fast laps of the Nurburgring, and come all the way back, with no problems at all. In fact that's something I'd love to do in my it (although there are more appropriate cars for the track..!)


However, if you bought one of those pristine low-mileage, grandpa owned 190E's that sometimes pop up, would you trust it to do that tomorrow?
==============


The rub is that, when I got my car 4 years ago with under 65,000 miles, it was exactly that - a garaged car living in London owned by a middle aged asian gent who was mostly out of the country, so how is it doing so well now? Well, the autobox did fail in the first month I had it...


Russell