I wonder if there are any mercedes owner who can make the same claim about the benzes !

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Whether you think you can or cannot, Either way you're right!. by Henry Ford.

Well so far, my 300TD is running like new with 268000 miles, only basic clutch and brake job done. The OM616 turbo on my Gurkha is almost brand new after 115,000 miles, the engine compression is same as it was new. MBs last quite long, specially the body as long as some TLC is done on them, speaking of TLC, the Land Cruiser can last quite long with basic care and so do Subarus.

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99 Gurkha with OM616 IDI turbo

2015 Gurkha with OM616 DI turbo

2014 Rexton W with OM612 VGT

You won't catch me driving a 21 year old Honda/Toyota any day

My 300TE has been dead reliable. It only left it stranded once as the Alternator died and I was not aware that when all the lights on the dash are illuminated, it means the battery of alternator is low. It has misfired all along...yes...but I am about to resolve that in the next few days (hopefully) as I am in the process of putting the engine back in.

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2016 Monsoon Gray Audi Allroad - 21k
2008 Black Mercedes E350 4Matic Sport - 131k
2014 Jeep Wranger Unlimited Sahara - 62k
2003 Gray Mercedes ML350 - 122k

Someone may have already pointed this out but I don't have the patience to read through all the posts to find out.

I occurs to me that the vast majority of threads in this forum are present because people have problems with which they need help. Almost no-one starts a thread that simply says what a good and reliable car they have. This is a maintenance forum after all. I'll bet if you go to a similar Honda forum, you would have the same impression of unreliability with that brand.

If there were a way of tallying it up, I think you would find that MB has fewer customer issues than most.

I do not think of my MB as troublesome and its 21 years old. Other than an occasional sticking right rear brake, I cannot think of any major problems it has. Even the A/C still works, as does the locks, windows, lights and even the power antenna! It dont smoke, does not leak any fluids, nor does it burn any oil (not yet anyway- it is an M103 300SEL).

I like the old Japanese cars too... have had several 80s-early 90s Toyotas and Hondas with well over 200K. In fact, my 1991 Lexus LS400 has 217K and still runs like new. My old 1990 LS400 had 267K when I sold it.... still ran like brand new.

I have owned Mercedes since 1980. I have never had a problem with any of them untill I decided to buy the cheapest model. The C280 Sport that hasnt been any real issues only stupid little things such as interior parts that break. I would never buy another W202 but I have had 7 Mercedes in my life and I will continue to keep buying more. Long lasting reliable and good quality.

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2015 ML350 4Matic. Wifes DD
2015 GLK350 4Matic. My winter DD
2012 E350 4Matic. Road Trip car
2009 CLK350 Coupe Designo.Kleemann Tune For nice days/DD
2006 CL600. V12.Eurocharged Tune. Enough said
2005 CLK55 AMG Coupe.Kleemann Tune. For the sound and style
2004 CLK320 Cabriolet. 2005+ Interior swap. For the sunny Florida days & beach days

Lots of interesting discussion (I only made it about 20 pages then I skipped to the end). I think every car will have it's problems like has been said here. One thing I believe is that an initially expensive car (like our Mercedes, BMWs, etc) will be taken good care of in the beginning since it is expensive. I've owned two BMW e28 535i's and now two Mercedes Benz's (a W116 450 SEL and my "new" '90 W124 300e) and generally they have great documentation, a service book full of notes from the dealership about services, etc. Try buying a 20 year old Chevy or Ford with those kind of papers. The cars are built with better materials, generally better attention to detail and, again, generally better maintained because they are what they are. The key is catching a car before a layman or shadetree mechanic (no disrespect, I consider myself one) owns it and either ignores the problems or tries to "fix" their way around them.

I got the 300e really cheap because the last owner didn't want to pay the $700 or so the indy said it would cost to replace the water pump the right way. Turns out, I put a new fuel pump and filter into it too and fixed a bunch of stuff myself. If I had bought it one owner prior it probably would've been better, of course I wouldn't have bought it for the cost of an installed water pump then though. One of the best things about these cars (at least up to the W124 vintage, haven't had anything newer) is that you can work on them yourself and they're pretty "common sense". If you look at most things and think about how they should work, that's how they work. That's what I enjoy most about the e28 BMWs too.

FWIW I have owned a few Hondas and liked them but I currently have an '88 Civic my son drives to college and it's the most problematic car we've ever had. I tried to hang onto the belief they're super reliable but that car's left a bit of a bad tast in my mouth. There's good and bad from all the manufacturers and sometimes there's no rhyme or reason to it.

The longer they last, the more things wear out.

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Gone to the dark side

- Jeff

bump !

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Whether you think you can or cannot, Either way you're right!. by Henry Ford.

My 86 560SEL has 177,XXX miles on right now. So far I have replaced the tranny, timing chain, front shocks, water pump a couple times, brake rotors a few times, and a few other things. So far the car still runs like new and lot of power. The only bad side is the gas mileage is horrible.

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1986 560SEL - Alpine headunit with DVD Navigation system, European headlights, Parrot bluetooth carkit.

2003 called...

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CENSORED due to not family friendly words

I'll be replacing the a/c compressor on the silver 1995 E300 this coming weekend. It has finally given up the ghost after 15 years and 260k miles.

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Jim

i have a spare compressor on the shelf...just in case it goes on any of our cars.....

did the job once.... a few years ago..... wasn't that hard.... it was more difficult doing the expansion valve....

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1989 300ce 129k
( facelifted front,updated tail lights, lowered suspension,bilstein sports, lorinser front spoiler, MOMO steering wheel, remus exhaust,stainless steel brake lines). (Gone)

1997 s320 154k (what a ride). Sold with 179k miles. Replaced with Hyundai Equus

1994 e320 Cabriolet 108k



1972 280se 4.5 153k Owned for 12 yrs, sorry I sold it


[/SIGPIC]

From my ownership experience The early 60's and 70's models were very dependable . The last of my Mercedes, a 126 300se . does require much more preventative and ongoing work . Now the old Corolla used as a runabout has been the most reliable from day one. Unmatched reliability and Minimum maintainance.

mak

220S 111
230 110
280S 108
300SEL 3.5 109
300Se 126

Lancia Favia
peninfarina coupe never runs

Some long-term Japanese car owners seem to suffer from memory loss - when they say there is nothing beyond oil change maintenance on their cars with hundreds of thousands of miles on them.

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'06 E320 CDI
'17 Corvette Stingray Vert