After the initial shock of high repair bills, things have stabilized for my E320. Now I do a lot of the maintenance work myself and the operating costs have gone down. For example instead of buying a new engine computer for $1860.00, one can buy a used one for $80-.

Low volume, high profit margin vehicles are not likely to be as reliable as high volume, low profit margin vehicles. To make money on the latter, warranty costs have to be analyzed and kept under control.

My conclusion is that Toyota is more reliable but reliability is not everything.


DCX RECALLS MERCEDES, CHRYSLER VEHICLES
DaimlerChrysler AG is recalling just over 1 million vehicles in three separate campaigns.
The largest involves about 680,000 Mercedes-Benz cars and a faulty brake controller.
Affected vehicles include E-Class sedans built after March 2002 and SL-Class sports
cars built after October 2001. However, the automaker estimates that less than 1% of the
vehicles will need to be repaired.
MAY 12, 2004

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Zafar
94 E320 58000 Miles