Since MB "acquired" Chrysler (and their 1 billion dollar debt) they seem to be fighting hoof nail and claw to bring the honoured Benz backwards into a "more affordable car", and the first cut is to quality. I wouldn't be putting any money into a Chrysler with a star on it.
Pre-1990 Benz's are another matter all together

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1983 240D 4 speed running on B100 and SVO
www.b100wh.com/b100wh.html#reactor
My Biodiesel Reactor/Processor

I don't own one of those cars, but from a legal point, any lawsuit against MB should be class action. To sue individually using an attorney working a contingency basis, they'd wisely not handle the case. But, with suit's involving a class action, there are plenty of law firm's in the State's who would fall over themselve's to handle the case on a percent contingency basis. With class action's you first have to identify the name's of those affected (owning those vehicle's) and, particularly, those whose spring mount failure's involved accident's and/or injurie's. Generally, when the defendant, which could include MB as a corporation, the CEO, Engineering Head, etc. The likely result would be a quick negotiated settlement to avoid the PR damage of losing in court and a quiet as they can make it free repair on all of these car's. Keep in mind that any personal injurie's get treated the same as individual's whose mount failure cause neither accident nor injury to self or other's; that is, every identified MB owner of these vehicle's get's their monie's divided equally among individual's. The firm's handling these cases start with an initial cut of the monie's based on quick negotiated settlement, if it goe's to court (unlikely), then the law firm get's larger percentage. In the event of a favorable settlement in court with MB appealing, then the law firm's increase's further. The likely negotiated settlement can be expected, umm, let me say modest. Free repair is likely with additional monie's from harm's mentioned previously. Individual suits, though I am not sure of this, might not be possible following a closed case class action. But, if MB think's they only have to deal with individual suit's, with no class action, they will spend the individual who is the plaintiff into the Stone Age (plus, count on your case taking some year's to settle). Even though MB would spend much more to fight individual suit's, they see it to their advantage to discourage more individual suit's. So, in my opinion (I'm not an att'y) it is much better to collect individual name's who own these cars (including those without failure), write the part's of the complaint involving what you see as design flaws in as professional a manner as you can. Then write various firm's who specialize in class action suit's and see how it goe's from there. They'll likely first come back with request for more information. Give it to them. Class action suit's that turn out with favorable judgement's make these firm's extraordinarily rich. But, you must first approach these firm's with no expression's of anger, they don't care about that. They want to be able to understand the sound basis of requesting class action and their chance's of winning.

One added caveat, in certain sort's of suit's, and I don't know if this type is affected, ruling's have been made that the plaintiff's have to pay the taxes on the law firm's cuts. I'm a Democrat, but Bill Clinton got this jewel on the law books on his way out of the Presidential Office. So, I'd sure find out in advance whether paying the law firm's taxes is in effect.

One last point, the law firm won't fight to death to maximize your damage's monie's, they'll balance their time invested with the wisdom of negotiated settlement. And, they are particularly wary of having to take it to court as nothing is certain as far as bench or jury trial money damage's are ordered. So, if you decide to proceed, with class action, don't expect the sky. Ask for abstract's of other class action's they've represented.

My personal preference (though I'm not affected since I'm not an owner) is to have everyone you know is affected be a signee on a letter to MB asking for full and immediate fixes. Politely tell them you do not want to be forced to bring a class action. This will give them the message that you will go to class action, which is more costly to them than to just fix their dangerous screw up.

In addition to MB I also blame the NHTSA for sitting on their asses and doing nothing about this problem, despite many reports from owners like myself. They seem to be more worried about engines shutting off unexpectedly on some other cars than the suspension falling apart. The NHTSA can force a recall if it wants to but last time I checked they hadn't even opened an investigation.

BTW, why do you put an apostrophe in front of every 's'? It makes your post difficult to read.

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL

My apology for the xxx's making the post difficult to read. The actuaries at NHTSA are the original people that see some statistical anomaly, if one exists, and then look further to see if it's worth investigating as to whether it is a hazard due to design, assembly, or owner operation. Further, the number of these MB models in the State's is small in comparison to say the Firestones failing on Fords Explorer several years back. The Explorer was an unstable automobile to begin with even in the absence of tire failure. Because of the relatively small number of the MB models in question, that puts the problem back in priority. If the failures have resulted in few deaths as a direct result of the failure, then that puts it further back as a priority. The biggest thing though, in my opinion, is that NHTSA doesn't even have the MB bracket failure as an issue. If a statistically large portion of MB owners with failures or just concerns report them, then the NHTSA will maybe at least take a preliminary look. My guess is that MB-Germany as opposed to Daimler-Benz/Chrysler is a further reason the NHTSA would shy away as they might not have good access to MB's information, even assuming that most of these MB model owners complain to the dealership. It's not a dealership problem, it's an MB-Germany problem. So, in essence, bottom line, there are statistically too few of these models to get caught on NHTSA radar; that is, it's not the threat of death/injury that gets NHTSA attention, it's the observed death/injury per failure, and whether it gets reported to NHTSA; so, one needs to see a much higher percentage of injury/deaths from bracket failure on these models than they did on the Firestone/Explorer because statistical signifigance was reached with the Explorer. NHTSA involvement, saying they do get involved on this issue, is a cold, cold process. They are more interested in actual injury/deaths rather than the potential of injury death.

Yup, like any government agency, the NHTSA is purely reactionary as opposed to forward-thinking or whatever the right term is. People have to die for action to be taken, yet this particular problem is completely preventable. I just wonder how the Daimler-Chrysler management will defend itself in court once the lawsuits start rolling. I think there have already been enough cases reported to and addressed by the dealerships that the management has to know about this problem and it won't be able to just state in court that it wasn't aware of it. It would be in DC's best interest to issue a voluntary recall and thus show good faith in addressing the issue.

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2004 VW Jetta TDI (manual)

Past MB's: '96 E300D, '83 240D, '82 300D, '87 300D, '87 420SEL

Indeed. The class action attorney's job is to maximize $$ per hour worked. The defense attorney's job is to minimize $$$ paid out. The plaintiffs' attorney and the defendant are represented in court. The plaintiffs are not, their lawyer is too busy representing himself. The end result is the lawyers get rich, the defendant ditches a boatload of liability, and the plaintiffs are left holding the bag.

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'79 300SD W116
'86 190E 2.3-16V W201
'92 300D 2.5 W124
'99 E320 4MATIC S210

Mitch, so true. And still getting the MB dealership to fix the things is distant from anyone's mind. Justice is about law, lawyer dynamics, not fairness to the member's of the class filing the original complaint.
thirty seconds of time, sad to say, on one of the cable news station's would do more to help the owner than anything else. Yet, that is a story of no particular interest. Jokingly, maybe if the pad bracket failure could get tied to Heraldo opening Al Capone's vault, then we'd make some progress.

My 1998 E320 has rust on the body in many areas. Some are close to rusting thru. I put Zinc Chromate on them as soon as I find them. It seems to be mostly starting from panel edges or where the metal has been significanly formed in the manufacturing process. As a comparison, I have a 1995 Suburban with 140,000 miles and no rust and a 1988 Riviera with 265,000 miles and also with no rust. All have been driven under the same conditions in Wisconsin. As you might guess I had the spring perch fail. This is the worst car for rust that I have ever owned.

Who fixed it? I saw a 210 at Zimbrick European getting fixed for that same thing recently.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

is 00 E430 4-matic part of this problematic spring perch issue as well ?
if so kindly advice what I can tell the local mechanic to do in order to prevent any mishaps.
thnx.

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Whether you think you can or cannot, Either way you're right!. by Henry Ford.

Never seen a modern type 4Matic break, they have reinforcement bars on top. I've mentioned this before, it sure looks like they could be retrofitted. If I had a 210 I would look at getting these added, but rust is the real enemy here. Or is it Mercedes
Gilly

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FYI anyone that plans on contacting the NHTSA it couldn't hurt to do so but i had a 97 E320 that both of the spring perches fell out on me and I fought MB over it and wrote to the NHTSA about it and no one did a damn thing about it. It certainly is a shame.

Folks,

I have an '85 190E (W201) parts car......it also has a similar problem on the right front spring perch.....I had not thought much of it, chalked it up to salty winters and hard use, but I was not intending to run the car in the first place.....got it for $150.00, and it had brand new front struts (now on 190D)....

SB

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Diesels:
'85 300D, "Max, Blue Benz", 155K, 27.0 MPG
'84 190D 2.2, "Eva, Brown Benz", 142K, 40.2 MPG
'77 240D (parts car)
'67 Eicher ES 202 Tractor "Otto" (2cyl, Air Cooled, 30HP)
Gassers:
'94 Ford F-150, "Henry", 170K (300 Six) 17.5 MPG
'85 190E 2.3, 148K....Parts Car
'58 Dodge W300M Powerwagon (Flat Fenders) Less than 10 MPG

I know this isn't the for-sale forum, but this is relevant to this specific thread:

I have a BRAND-NEW passenger side w210 spring perch panel for sale here.

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'98 E300 turbodiesel

In the cars section their was a pretty nice 300TD listed, I hope MB realizes all of the customer's their loseing with this crap.

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2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200