Car Forum World

im reading that little things break down frequently and servicing and quality have gone downhill.

It depends on what models and years your talking about.



Their dependability goed down hill, but Mercedes was working on that problem for some time.



The major ones that have issues are the Mclass, Eclass, and Cclass, the most liked models.

The older Mercedes were built like tanks. They were and some are, still used as taxis not only in Germany, but all over the world. The mid 80',s 300DTs as an example. But, the late 1990s and to mid 2000',s, unfortunately, the quality control suffered as did their repute. The new generation of say the C and E classes seemed to moved closer to the Star repute for quality. The 1995 to 1999 E Class sedans are all over Germany as taxis. they're well built, spacious and dependable. The style isn't all that hot, but they're work horses.



If you purchase used of any year, have a qualified, wellrespected mechanic that specializes in Mercedes to check the car. I personally like independent garages that ONLY work on Mercedes. They concentrate in these cars. Yes, repairs may be expensive, but from my decades of experience, no more than any other foreign car. The Star was around lots longer than some foreign cars that are liked.

Mercedes', repute suffered because of issues with their cars from 19982003. They had lots of problems with electronic systems that were costly to fix.



Beginning in 2004 the onboard communications were redesigned and are more dependable.



The Cclass cars up to 2007 W202 and W203 chassis have lots of maintenance issues, they',re just not built also as the Eclass and Sclass cars. This didn',t help their in general reputatuion.

yeah that's true my dad had a 1996 merc c180 he brought it in 2001 and it only done 59,000 smart car but sold it a year ago and it had 120,000 miles everything original and it runned like brand new not the cambelt snapped haha you suppose to change the belt at 70,000 miles maximum realy at 60,000 but my dad just didnot because the car didn't give any sighns and was still running mint when he sold it he brought a 2004 merc ml270 cdi with 53,000 miles don't get me wrong smart car but lots of small niggles like electrics and trim issue but yeah nothing seriouse but it all ads up and the conclusion is old mercs are a better build quality the new 1',s