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Old 03-02-2009, 11:40 AM
hookedon210s hookedon210s is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Jacksonville, FL
Posts: 474
Quote:
That is a terrible design, that some of these are failing after only 23years on the roads. Those Mercedes Engineers (oops, I was one).

On the other hand, the plastic tape drive that Detroit uses is wonderful when it snaps first year on a cold morning.
I don't care about other faulty designs. Further, you should take a poll on this site to get a feel for how many failures occurred before 23 years. I would guess that this is at least the second replacement for the poster's vehicle. My 124 wagon failed at 10 years and my 210 wagon failed at 5 years. Of course, if I listened to MB it would be "operator error", an "isolated event", or, like the biodegradeable wiring harness issue, a "wear item" (clearly a window regulator can be considered to be this but not a 5 years). IMO most manufacturers overuse plastic and frequently make invalid cost/benefit and weight/structural integrity tradeoffs. The plastics that are used do not stand up to heat/cold cycles and IR light like good alloys do. MB was forced to change its product paradigm when Lexus began dumping its vehicles in the US for less than cost and in an effort to remain competitive made a lot of bad decisions that cost the company dearly from the mid 90's until the early 00's. Frankly, I believed if they didn't wake up MB as a brand would be history. It is good to see that they are doing better but sadly they don't lead the world in quality any longer. Mark
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