What is happening to Mercedes Benz??

[acha3]

This info is from C/D July edition:

The C/D award for the darkest secret of a german carmaker since WWII goes to Mercedes Benz, The high-falutin luxury brand scored 132 in the JD Power survey,only one point better than the industry average (the average this year was 133 problems per 100 vehicles). This means it was badly beaten by Cadillac (at 103) and was even worse than Chevrolet's score of 130.

My question is What is happening to Mercedes Benz???????

[drbrandini]

It got bought by Chrysler

MB was not "bought" by Chrysler, quite the contrary. MB made the drastic mistake of buying Chrysler. But that has little to do with the MB problems.

To begin with the JD Powers "number of problems reported" surveys are controversial to begin with and always have been. The problem is that regardless of the problem within a category, they get a check mark. For example, it matters not if an electrical problem is a fuse blowing or an entire wiring harness burning to a crisp, it is still a checkmark in the electrical problem column.

In spite of their vague problem weighting, they do have some merit for the initial buyer. What doesn't show up is the long term life of the vehicle. This is where MB does very well. 250,000 miles on an MB is about like 100,000 on a Cadillac.

Where MB exposes themselves to bad stats is by putting every gadget known to man on their US models. This causes many extra problems that would not occur with cars that do not have such gadgetry.

I have driven MB's for almost thirty years and with every new model there are plenty of people that say "they aren't built like they used to be." Folks said that when I got my first new 123 car in '77 and look how great they turned out to be.

I expect that a young psychology student could do a great research paper on peoples reaction to new models and their commonly pronounced attitude of "they just aren't made like they used to be" comments.

Have a great day,

WHY IS THIS THREAD IN THE TECH HELP FORUM???????????????

WHERE IS YOUR TECHNICAL QUESTION????????????????????????

[yal]

Mercedes Benz E-Class

Discussion already in progress.

[drbrandini]

Originally posted by LarryBible
MB was not "bought" by Chrysler, quite the contrary. MB made the drastic mistake of buying Chrysler. But that has little to do with the MB problems.

Larry,

I was being facetious. Have a great day!

[rich39]

For many, many years, I bought Cadillacs that had 100,000 miles on them, drove them easy an additional 50,000 miles with practically NO repairs except an occassional brake reline or rear axle bearing- non of which cost any money to speak of and only had to replace these old junkers(and believe me they were junkers) because I either smashed into someone and the insurance company totalled it(after all the most I ever paid was$800-usually $500) or I was hit. The insurance company would give me on average $2500- so I made out. I did this over and over. BTW, never was injured even in huge car pileup on freeway. ALL for $500-$800. From the threads I see here looks like most people are shelling out the big bucks OFTEN to keep these MB on the road.What can you expect from a used $800 car anyway? How much service do you have to get for your money. The Cadillacs which you are so eager to disparage never left me stranded. Not bad for junkers! Now I would probably shift the term junker to the MB marque based on these reports. What do you think?

[stephenson]

My personal assessment would be that DC decided some years ago that they would compete in a larger market ... I think, since that decision was made, they have tried to be everything to everyone ...

This is a very, very slippery slope.

[william rogers]

any time that the sales managers and stylist gain control of a product from the engineers be it a radio or a Mercedes Benz you can bet your favorite fly rod that quality will degrade.......
William Rogers.......