I'll be delighted if that turns out to be the case. But as I said. After the rod bender, the eco-freak wiring harness, the # 14 head, the air suspension, the evap screw ups, the spring perches etc, they have a long hill ahead of them to climb, in my opinion.

- Peter.

It probably means "the lifetime of the transmission" which is true. It all depends on what you want that lifetime to be. The manufacturer is liable only for the duration of the warranty.

If I recall correctly I've read something about the early OM616/7 engines having weak valvetrains and I've seen many W123 ads that said the engine had been rebuilt. And something about the early W123 climate control units being faulty too. So I don't know if there was a sudden drop in quality in the mid 1980's as some people believe. I think quality problems have come and gone throughout MB's entire history, and the same is probably true for all manufacturers to various extents. But I do think MB still tries to ride on a reliability reputation from the past that it doesn't fully deserve. No doubt some of the other brands are more reliable and MB may be too arrogant to acknowledge that.

I don't believe it was mid 1980's. I think the really serious probelms accumulated in the 90's. I'd forgotten about the climate control but that was specific to the US market. For some reason Mercedes decided they had to use the ghastly Chrysler Autotemp II unit in the US because apparently the regular non US air conditoining system wasn't "sophisticated" enough. A stupid decision in my opinion but not in the same league as the later problems that are unforgivable engineering lapses for a company such as Mercedes Benz.

- Peter.

I agree. Especially the rod-bending in an S-class. Totally unacceptable. Even if the problem was contributed to by low-cetane US diesel fuel, it's not an excuse. MB should have thought of that. The W210 spring perch issue was a nasty surprise to me personally. I probably wouldn't have bought this car had I known about it.

I see in your signature you used to own some gasser MB's from the 70's. How was the reliability? Those were carburetted, right?

I think it was probably just an unlucky break.....I know that tobybul here on the forum has a 1997 C220 with over 300k on an original engine/trans with no issues. Its all about the maintenance. Cars serviced their whole life will last much longer without major issues.

My trans in my SD just blew on me a couple weeks ago completely at random, perfectly fine one day, making noises and having some real shifting problems (and almost no reverse) the next. Its toast, and I found a used one to put in. At 282k....I feel the trans did its service. The replacement has 163k and was running good with clean fluid. Hopefully it lasts as long as the one that failed in my car. My dad's SD with 315k has its original trans, and it shifts great, even had a shop re-seal it, and they said it looks great inside. Some last longer than others....

My mom had a 2000 C230 Kompressor which was maintained by the book from new. She got it with about 18,000 miles on it. She had numerous problems with it. Like the other fellow here, she had trouble with light bulbs going out, frequent "Check Engine" lights of unknown cause, and multiple oxygen sensor replacements. I think the oxygen sensor thing was probably a mechanic who started replacing things because he didn't know how to evaluate trouble codes, so that one is not entirely the car's fault.

It was a sweet car and she loved it, despite it's problems. She only gave it up because she was no longer able to drive (which was very sad, BTW).

To each his own, but I haven't seen a Mercedes that interests me since about 1987.

Let me say that I also have the first generation C Class. 2000 C280. It has around 85,000 miles and has a money pit from day one. I just think the C Class in general is a poor car. My cousin has a 2007 and it has been great. He had befoe that a 2004 C Class. Again a great car. Ran it to 100,000 miles with no issues. 100K came and a $1,600 repair bill. Got rid of it. But it has 100,000 miles. Something is bound to go. Yours has 141,000 miles. That is a lot. Im surprised your 1998 C lasted that long considering all the issues I have had with mine. As far as quality goes. YES Mercedes hit a hole in the road with some of the cars(The First generation C being one of the worst I belive.)

They were. I learned some very valuable lessons on those. My first was the 71 280S. It had twin Solex carbs. I bought it when it was around 20 years old with a couple of hundred thousand KM's on it. This was in SA. Reliability wise it was fantastic. The only serious problems with it were the right rear wheel bearing had to be replaced and the transmission modulator as well. The modulator however was a rather easy and inexpensive fix. And as I lived in a hilly town that transmission worked hard all its life.

One thing I remember in particular about that car was the fantastic starting. The routine was depress the accellerator pedal to the floor once, then half way down again and switch it on. It literally leaped instantly to life as soon as you gave the slightest pressure to the key, almost like there was a telepathic link between the car and the driver.

Durban is one of the most rust prone places on earth. Car's literally just fall apart there. No matter what make or model and that car is the one where the steering shaft snapped on me and that's when I discovered the realities of rust in the chassis box section that the steering box mounts to as well as the requirements in the service manaual to torque the steering box mounting bolts to the correct spec at regular intervals. Something I'm quite sure had never been done in the life of the car.

My 79 280S was the dreaded Solex 4A carb. Essentially two twin barrel carbs mated into one. It never ran right and I was not mechanically inclined enough to mess with it. Back in SA in those days there was no internet, no online community like this that provided a goldmine of info and I was essentially at the mercy of mechanics. When the engine was cold the carb worked great but then it warmed up only the first or second stage world work. Cant remember which now but you basically had accelleration similar to a 240D. Once you got up to speed though it was smoothe as silk and a fantastic highway cruiser. It had 308K KM's on it when I bought it and it needed valve stem seals replaced which I never did because it was too expensive for me back then. So it smoked a bit but other than that no problems. Apart from rust. In that respect it was worse than the 108. I've read in several places that the German steelworkers strike forced them to use crap steel from Russia and Italy. Don't know the truth of that but the car was definately not as solid in that department as it's predecessor.

My 1984 200 was also a carb car. No problems with it at all. Apart from my wrecking the manual gearbox when I downshifted incorrectly comming off a freeway offramp and ground up the gears pretty good. I didn't let the clutch in all the way and kind of rammed the stick down from 4th to 3rd. My fault and a replacement unit from a wrecking yard worked fine for the duration of the time I had the car.

- Peter.

Any 10-11 year old car could have similar problems. That's a trade-off from buying new w/ warranty, etc., you save a bunch of money on the front-end, but might get burned on high-dollar repairs.

As far as "newer" MB's being less reliable. Bull. I've got a stack of receipts dated 1982-1992 for my w123, for repairs that shouldn't be considered routine maintenance...

Yeah I know people who bought them new, they were never cheap cars to own. My broker has had her 86 SDL since new and drops a few grand into it every year like clock work.

One of my dads friends had an 82 or 83 300SD he bought new and sold a year later. It would never start in the winter and even MB couldn't figure it out under warranty. After a year he said screw this, you spend $40k+ on a new S class and after sitting outside a restaurant on a cold winter night for a few hours it doesn't start? F that. He sold it and bought a 1986 300E a few years later.

My grandfather had good luck with his 1987 560SL he bought new, but he sold it before he had 3k miles on it.:D

All high end cars require cash infusions, if paying bothers you don't play. Buy a Toyota.

IMO, they shouldn't. Like that friend of your dad's said, why would you spend all that money on an S-class if it doesn't start or has other problems? Maybe that's why Lexus is doing pretty good. It doesn't take much to figure out that customers who spend big bucks on luxury want reliability as much as anyone else if not more. Paying big bucks for routine maintenance at the dealer is one thing, but having to bring the car in for unexpected problems is quite another.

Well, I got the car back from the mechanic...and took it on my trip to Portland (from LA). Everything was fine until about 10 miles before Portland. Then it started making grinding sounds, and by the time I arrived at my father's house, the transmission had had it... It was making really bad grinding sounds, and popping noises just like it had done during the first breakdown...There is also a puddle of ATF under it in the driveway at the moment as well...Oh, and I should also mention the check engine light was illuminated the whole time as well. :rolleyes: I guess the transmission rebuild wasn't done properly, even though it was driving PERFECTLY when I picked it up from the mechanic. :\ I even saw the transmission at every step of the process, and it looked like he knew what he was doing. It was very clean and looked brand new when he put it back in the car. He even used OEM MB fluid.

So basically, I'm not sure what to do now. I am 1,000 miles from home, and I would consider the car to be inoperative. So my only option would be to tow it, correct? That would cost an astronomical amount of money... I'm tempted to just drive it until it stops and hopefully get it close enough to home so that AAA will tow it.

So now my wallet is $2,500 lighter, my car is still broken, and I'm stranded 1k miles from home. What would you guys do?

AAA will tow 100 miles. Do you think you can make the other 900? I might do this, try to get home. If the car dies, get it towed 100 miles to a gas station. Once you are there, call AAA and have them tow it 100 miles to another gas station, etc...

The trans should have a warranty. When I had to have the ZF box replaced in my BMW, it lasted all of 4 months before it failed. I had it replaced for free. It turned out that they rebuilder had left a plastic cap on a part and it had come loose inside the trans. I was lucky to get four months of use out of it.

Maybe the same thing happened to yours...

Can you call your mechanic and see if you can bring the car to another place to get it fixed?
What kind of warranty did you get?