PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post - Older mb's Built better than the new Mb's?

G-Benz · #9 10-05-2007, 04:44 PM

The jury is still out on that one. As you say, how will today's vehicles hold up when they are the age of your '89 perhaps?

All I know is reliability is subjective...after all, unless you own the vehicle since inception and are fastiduous with maintenance, you never really know what the standard is for reliability.

For most of us that own older MBs, we picked them up after a decade or so of service, perhaps one or more previous owners, and questionable service records.

That said, there was probably some cost involved to get the vehicle up to par with driveability and safety (knowing well that it won't be 100%...there is always some quirky gremlin that can never be solved).

Once past the initial dumping of money and parts, age and entropy dictate everything else. With hundreds of parts that are close to or past their useable lifecycles, there's a lot that can (and will) go wrong. This is a reality for pretty much any product.

I will add however, that the aged versions that MB has produced are technologically primitive compared to the current crop, and thus, parts are far cheaper to replace and diagnosis is less of a hassle.

I can only imagine what it would be like owning my W164 a couple of decades from now, and having to troubleshoot with a proprietary scanner and a laptop, only to discover that some $2300 part needs replacing.