I think MB is having a tough time with actual engineering / short design cycles in the sense that " Anyone can build a bridge that lasts forever, but it takes engineering to build something that lasts just long enough and uses a minimum of materials / labor " .

Calling the older cars " Over engineered " is an insult to engineers. I'd call the cars " Over built for the expected life cycle. " I'd think that most older MB were discarded long before they reached expected mileage / age.

As stated in the vid, lots of the tech comes from outside suppliers and they hold the keys to reliability.


Yep, this is the issue with Sony.

If you are speaking of your 83 SL, it is a but unfair to use a 35 year old car as an example. It first must be judged against it's contemporaries and tempered with it being a 35 year old car.

I life parts and change them before they fail, this greatly reduces the " It is randomly broken again "

A huge issue with push on electrical connections is corrosion / tarnish growing under the contact area. This is why sometimes removing and reseating connectors fixes problems. In the day, most all cars had unsealed tin plated connectors, MB used unsealed silver plated connectors making them more reliable than other cars. However, once sealed connectors started to show up in the 80's, they became more reliable than the silver plated MB connectors still found in small numbers on my 1997 C and SL.

Another issue is electrolytic capacitors that dry out or, in a long inactive system, need reformed by leaving them energized for a time.

We would really need to see data from 2008 and newer MB to determine current state of the union.