i am astonished. all these stories are so different from my experiences.

i have a 560sel that i purchased new in 1986. it recently turned 250,000 miles. it has never had a water pump failure. at 200,000 miles, pulled heads and replaced guides, valves, camshaft and timing chain. at 220,000 miles rebuilt tranny. never had any ac problems until 235,000 miles. had a leak that we could not find. rebuilt system to use 134a. no problems since.

interior, blue leather, still looks brand new. but it does get polished and fed at least once every 5 years.

it is on its third set of spark plugs. its second set of spark plug cables and boots. its second distributor cap.

original radiator was replaced at about 210,000 miles.

only towing experience with the car was on thanksgiving day several years ago. i was scorching the hardy toll road at about 120 when the engine quit. the original fuel pump finally fried.

suspension components were replaced at about 180,000 miles. none since.

vickers pump has been rebuilt twice.

sunroof has never leaked. all rubber window seals remain in great shape. instrument lighting has never been replaced.

brake pads and rotors are my only complaint. i go through them too fast. my mechanic says that it is my driving style.

oh, and i did lose the master cylinder one day. i was only at 30mph. and the car had 150,000miles.

my conclusion after 250,000 miles and almost 17 years: WHAT A GREAT CAR. it is still my favorite for high speed back road driving in all conditions. has never let me down.

i suppose one of the secrets to this level of reliability is having a perfectionist of a mechanic and to allow him to take care of the car on some kind of a routine basis.

the car used to get that kind of loving care at intercontinental motors when bill pennel and charlie thomas owned it. but after the schnitzer[sic]/autonation shuffles, i moved it to an indy. had i not made that move, i am certain that i would be less than thrilled with owning such an old beast - the dealer would have made my life running an old benz painful so as to convince me to buy a new one.

i would like to conclude by stating that i could tell the same story about most of my other benzes. from the first one that i ever owned a 1973 220 that i drove for 3 years and 140,000 miles and replaced with a 1976 450sel that i drove for 220,000 miles and replaced with one of the first us 300e's in 1985.

now, that was the benz that drove me crazy. i loved driving it. except for the damn squeaky seats. and that serpentine belt almost killed me when in a houston downpour one morning the belt got so wet as to slip enough that the a/c clutch disengaged: instant fogging of all windows. how fast can you handle that situation safely? and it needed another 2 inches of wheelbase, not really a 4 passenger car unless the rear seat passengers were two children.

so, after a year, it was replaced by the 560sel.


what more can i say, except that i have other benzes and i don't think that they have been unnaturally maintenance intensive.

in fact, measured over 100,000 miles, my 1996 gmc yukon has been the most maintenance intensive vehicle that i have ever owned.

4wd system out in 30,000 miles

2 master cylinders

fuel injection system

many brake pads.

3rd set of tires

in signing off, here is my current benz fleet...

1986 560sel - 250,000 miles
1987 560sec - 83,000 miles
1979 6.9 - 50,000 miles
1995 e320cab - 11,000 miles
1997 s500c - 22,000 miles

i also want to add, these cars are always driven at 8/10 or more. because of that, i do insist that the cars are maintained impeccably. i do not want to be running at high speeds and have the car fail in critical areas. i consider these cars sports cars disguised as sedans and i think of every running of them as an autocross event.

the crashworthiness of these m-b vehicles must be mentioned. i had one of the first honda crx. what a lot of fun. i drove it hard and fast. but it always scared me in that if it ever got hit, it was probably bye-bye. i think the same demise would have been the consequence if hit in my vw scirocco.

same reason that i quit driving lotus as an everyday. 18 wheelers never saw me.

enough said, i think.