In his original post he already acknowledged that the car wasn't meant for people who can't fix them on their own. No need to beat a dead horse. I'm sure he will make a more informed decision on his next vehicle whether it be a warrantied MB or a different make.

A few things:

The Bosch or Valeo alternator on the 210 is the same design as used on bunches of other cars. How does the failure / wear out of an alternator make the 210 a bad car? Parts that fail / wear out at a mileage similar to any other car do not count towards calling a specific car bad.

Due to the high RPM these alternators run at, the slip rings wear a lot more than you would think. Changing the brushes will buy some time but eventually the slip rings will need to be replaced. Also consider that the bearings will be getting pretty dry at this point and will need to be replaced.

It's an 18 year old car, if you can't accept having to change parts that would fail / wear out on an any car regardless of brand, go buy a new Kia on payments and trade it in when the warranty runs out.

First off, they don't run at an unusually high RPM rate. Like most alternators, the pulley ratio is about 2.5:1.

I don't think he's reacting to the alternator. I think he's reacting to dropping $1500 into the black hole of 210 maintenance and then having the alternator failure being the last straw. Have you ever owned a 210? I found it to be a very expensive lesson in the perils of relying on brand reputation.

These cars tend to grow on you after a while, after I bought my 320 it started cutting out. After a few attempts at fixing it, the issue was sorted and I started to really like the car. I have now owned it for 15 years and it has covered almost every one of its 151,000 miles with me behind the wheel, fingers crossed we'll cover many, many more.

I have to say now that I love the car, we have been through thick and thin together and if an issue crops up I know it's worth fixing.

BTW I know someone who just bought his dream car, a convertible M3 and has had nothing but trouble with it. He's now broke and just trying to get the car back together to sell it - for a considerable loss.

Many people are disheartened after thinking they stretched financially in buying a solid used nameplate like "Mercedes-Benz." Unfortunately, when they're several years old, a decade or more, and or lots of miles on em, they become nightmares in getting them fixed.

Two to three long term MB diesel owners here on Peach Parts dumped their 05 MB CDIs, they bought used, with lots of miles on them, quickly, after getting disheartened in their dismal reliability/costs.


The guy got disheartened quickly, thinking that the $1,000.00+ he spent months ago - made the aged car good to go. Unfortunately, you and I both owned W210s from new and learned differently about them, in our experience.

I really wish MB would have built a much better car than they did, because I would have kept mine. The longer I owned it, the more disappointed I became with the car's poor reliability in staying repaired.

It's been a disaster. Literally everything is going wrong with this car since it hit 170000 miles. I'm replacing the alternator and then drive it into the ground, hopefully get 6 more months. It isn't worth even $1000 to a buyer and I wouldn't feel right selling anyone this piece of junk after everything that's going wrong with it.

Next time, a Honda or Toyota. Had great experiences with both. This is my first bad experience with a car but it's been bad enough to make up for all the good experiences there could ever be.

Well, this is $6500 in repairs for 38K miles over 3.5 years since my purchase. It passed the pre-purchase inspection with flying colors. In my book that's overkill. Plus in addition to the alternator I was quoted $1100 for miscellaneous "non-critical" repairs which don't need to be done in the next 10K miles (no way will I drive this more than 10K miles).

I guess this isn't the smart place to vent, since others won't benefit- I just hope there's a way I can keep others from buying one of these ridiculous cars. I have posted on social media and steered everybody I know away from these cars.

[QUOTE=Ferdman;3668085]iuecon99, how many miles are on this 1998 E320?

It has 178000. Passed PPI at 140K miles. So in 3.5 years, 38K miles I have put $6500 in repairs in this turkey.

Exactly right! The $1500 was painful, but they checked everything, and I mean everything. Car was there for a week. Now 2 months later and not just the alternator but $1200 in additional "suggested" repairs, which I won't be doing because the car can go 10K miles without them and I will be driving it into the ground and then closing the books on it.

I am not blaming the mechanic. I know it's a good place, and honest. They told me the E320 is a notoriously unreliable vehicle and there was another customer there screaming about his falling apart as well.

Not expecting sympathy either, just venting out what an awful car it is. The better approach, and one I'm taking, is to make sure friends and family know never to buy one of these POS without a warranty.

I hear you there. Paid 5K, plus 6500 in repairs, for 3.5 years of use and only 38000 miles (hopefully this gets me through 6 months and another 6K miles). Couldn't sell it for even $1000, as I would disclose the problems to a potential buyer before they even had it inspected.

I will indeed be "getting a Kia" or similar as someone contemptuously suggested here, because those cars are more reliable and don't cost a ridiculous amount to repair. I'm doing my part to let every person I know never to buy a Mercedes for any reason. It's the least I can do.

How many miles are on it and what repairs did you get for $6500?

I bought my car in 12/2005 with 174k. It's now 12/2016 and it has 410k. I have every single work order receipt up until about 2007-2008. I'm sure in those 2 years I spent more than what I originally paid ($3300) for the car. Since I became a diy'er about 8-9 years ago I don't think I've spent over $2500 in car parts. Even if I did, 235k miles and 11 years later was definitely worth it. I used to curse my car too and really get stressed over any problem that I had with it (search some of my earlier posts when I first joined), but since I began to do the work myself, I can't imagine getting rid of this car. I think if the op had the know how and time to do the work himself I bet that $6500 in repairs wouldn't be more than maybe a fourth of that.

iuecon99, our 1998 was purchased new and has 88,000 miles on it now. For years it was a "trip car" not a daily driver, as it has been since 2013. It was in 2013 that it cost almost $4,000 to have the evaporator, compressor, dryer and expansion valve replaced. Besides that major expense, the only other expensive repairs were the catalytic converters (I did the driver's side myself) and ball joints. I do brake pad replacement and oil changes myself. This car is always garaged at night, so that may have prevented major rust issues that plague the 210 cars. I have a nagging issue where the seat controls don't work and require a quick resetting of Fuse No. 16 with the engine running; however, other than that quirk ownership has been uneventful.

It would be interesting to hear what repairs you have had done, and what repairs your tech is recommending. As others have noted, any vehicle requires routine maintenance ... especially on an older vehicle that has parts drying/wearing out due to age, if not high mileage.

Right about the miles mine started falling apart out of warranty. The turbocharger on mine failed under warranty. After 90K, that's when mine started racking up the /fail.