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All this yakking about MB not fixing "known defects" out of warranty. Find me a car maker than does that. None do. As to the list of "known defects" they are durned short, but unfortunately, some are pricey.
All makes have their list. Honda has a bunch of mid 90's four bangers that self destruct thanks to poor balance shafts. They have a whack of not-great four speed autoboxes,and a couple years of BAD five speed autos.
Toyota has a scad of sludge prone fours and sixes. They also have some bad five speed auto-boxes.
And so on...
Try taking your 1995 Accord with 150,000km's into the dealer with a broken engine and talking about "known problem" and see if they warranty it. What about a Lexus IS300 out-of-warranty with a slipping automatic? Forget it.
I had a 1990 Acura that had a 100,000km warranty. At 100,001 km's I was on my own. No matter what, Honda/Acura no longer warrantied the car. They had poor paint, they had tranny problems, they had leaking cam seals and leaking valve covers. They had some bad interior bits and hatches that rattled like a baby toy. Calipers that seized and rotors that warped easily. At 100,001 km's, it was all yours.
The number of posts with "I have a 15 year old Mercedes with a jillion miles on it and the tranny is slipping. Why doesn't Mercedes warranty this?" is insane.
Recalls are ONLY done for safety items. Nothing else. A leaky head gasket is not one. I think that Mercedes should have worked harder to solve the problem, but the fact is that a 1995 E320 with a new wiring harness (about $1000) and a new head gasket ($1500) is an AWESOME car.
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