After hearing all the talk about mb not building them like they use to I was curious too ride in my freind's 99 ML. First thing I noticed was the doors were hallow sounding when i first sat in and shut the door. This was only a short trip but the ride and engine felt mercedes like. When I got out i shut the door and i could swear the door trim moved when i slamed it. I don't think the ml is worthy of wearing the star. Well since this was a 99 hopefully they improved the build quality with the 02's. Is this mb's future way of buiding thier cars? I know the 03 e class is suppose to have better build quality than the 210 and mercedes has admitted that their quality has slipped but will mb ever go back to the way they use to build them?

I think since the merger there is no where to go but down but thats only what I think.

When I work at the car wash and we get benzes coming in, I have to open the doors to clean the windows so I feel how the car is built when I close the doors. The worst is the new C class! Beautiful car but ITS DARN CHEAP QUALITY!! I mean CHEAP!! Some of the GM's and Chryslers are better. My Jeep compared to the ML is a VAULT!!!

They better make improvement very fast!!! The last strongest benz was the w140.

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99 C43
98 S420
99 C230K
01 C240

i have heard horror stories about the w140 as well as the w126

Dont scare me now benzman!!! What horror stories??????

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99 C43
98 S420
99 C230K
01 C240

on which one?
The w140 I heard the 1992 to 1994 had many problems from a guy that worked at the dealer
the w126 The suspension, a/c, specificly the 500 being called a "money pit" And of course the electrical system

phewwww........In my w126 I fixed all of that! Thank god.

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99 C43
98 S420
99 C230K
01 C240

I've been in the Mercedes business for a long time, and the question being asked here is nothing new. I remember when the 116s came out in the early '70s and the 108 crowd was aghast at how "flimsy" they were. 113 people pointed to the body side moldings on the 107 chassis that didn't weigh 5 pounds each as an example of how cheap they were. I'll take less weight and more horsepower, myself, but to each his own.

Ron
German Star

The w140's are bad huh??

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99 C43
98 S420
99 C230K
01 C240

I hate to compare, but here goes....

This so-called decline in quality that everyone keeps going on about sounds a lot like Harley Davidson's woes.

The BEST bikes built up to the late '70's. The bikes they built in the 80's were crap! Today their quality is undeniably better than in the 50's or 60's, but there will always be the die-hard fan of those vintage bikes.... sound familiar to all of us 60's, 70's, and early 80's Benz owners?

Harley Davidson got their act together.... Mercedes will as well. I just hope it is soon. Maybe someday they'll resurect the vintage style and quality. Ford brought back the T-bird (not quite the same, I know, but you get my idea).

Want a real money-pit? Own a 1992 300SD. Now that's an early 140-series car with the "rod-bender" 3.5 liter diesel engine to boot!

I can't think of a more unreliable Mercedes model than the W140 diesel (at least the US-market car) off the top of my head. I know the 6.3 and 6.9 were quite expensive to keep up, but I wonder if they were on the level of a W140 car.

I assume the 600SEL must be a bear to maintain, due to the V-12 motor (no DIY to speak of) and every crazy W140 option being included on the thing.

-Sam

All the stuuf you listed BlackMercedes I have never had any problems with that caused me to think of poor quality.

Constant head gasket problems -
One head gasket in 245,000 miles because the car had been overheated badly once before

Never-works cruise control
Never had any problems just like new

Breaking ACC units
Just a little leak nothing else

Failure prone evaporators
no problem

Driveline vibrations
none
Power window failures
one in 16 years

Poorly made valve guides
no problems

OVP relay failures
no problems

Hydraulic door-closer failures
none

Blower motors buried deep - real deep
no problems

Poorly made wiring harnesses
it's german of course problems here

There is a bit of nostaligia in thinking about the way mb used to build cars, but as the great mangement guru Peter F. Drucker has pointed out, manufacturing businesses for the last thrity years have been in steady decline, and hence business like mercedes have had to respond to a global economy by uniting with other big manufacturing firms and streamlining their production to follow manufacturing along product and service lines; heres a link to a typical (if unrelated) article by this 90 year old thinker

http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/99oct/9910drucker.htm

the issue of where and how the product is built or of how durable it is would become irrelevant if the company offered a lifetime warranty on the car. If an mb had a bullet-proof warranty that lasted 20 years or something, the definintion of its durability would no longer be expressed in terms of its mechanical longevity, but on the strength warranty service. imagine the convenience of a waranty that covered everything but oil and tires for 20 years, and offered free tows to the service center.

Again, mb (ie., db) must either build the cars to lst long or build the warranty to last long, and given the nature of parting out production world wide, they may have no chjoice but to build the most durable warranty in the industry.