Posted on 03/19/2025 11:59:32 AM PDT by wzlboy
Mercedes-Benz took its boldest swing yet at Elon Musk’s Tesla in a bid to once more set the benchmark for luxury and innovation in the automotive industry.
On Thursday, the German carmaker that invented the modern automobile reinvented its compact sedan, keeping the CLA nameplate and nothing else from the previous two generations of the baby Benz.
(Excerpt) Read more at fortune.com ...
I had to take a car to Ohio to a friend who was in medical residency. It was S class, maybe a 2002 or so. You couldn’t use the AM radio (I wanted to listen to Rush). You could get static and what I think was the spark plugs.
The car had lots of problems, not just that, but it’s unacceptable in a car that expensive.
Then I took the Lexus that belonged to his father-in-law back home. The difference was night and day. The Lexus had a much sportier feel, was faster and had not one problem.
If one were to plop down a load of money on a car a Lexus is the better choice.
Oh, I can definitely relate, though I have, regrettably, no experience with driving a Lexus. Maybe one day…and the W220 S-class (built from the 1999 to 2006 model year) was a low point in terms of quality at MB, though I liked the shape of the car. I found that quite elegant to look at.
It’s just that J. Schrempp, the CEO of the firm, had abandoned the tradition of overengineering the cars when he got at the helm in 1995.
What a disaster! The brand never recovered from him and his yes-men within the board of directors. E. Reuter, his forerunner and later the head of the supervisory board, was nearly just as bad.
Depends on the model, depends on the care. I have had M-B that are tanks. Of course, I never buy them new and they always go to a mechanic for a thorough inspection before purchase is finalized.
Maybe he doesn’t like either…😆😆😆
Still, it’s just heartbreaking to see how Mercedes has declined from the Nineties onwards. I grew up in them, and the older models were just amazing in terms of quality and passive safety.
In the late Seventies, it was said that you had, in terms of safety, Mercedes, and then you had the rest.
I have no clue whether they had in fact no competition at all - Volvos and Saabs (RIP) were very safe, too - but they were really very safe and robust, just a little uninspiring to drive.
You were more driven by the car than driving yourself, so to say - but if you liked getting effortlessly from A to B, without much of a fuss, then the MB was for you🙂
I have a 2011 E350 4MATIC with 78,000 on the clock and it is one of the best cars I’ve ever owned in my 75 years on this planet.
That’s wonderful to hear, Sir! Long may it continue to provide you with comfortable and effortless transport 🙂
What I have heard is that MB got a good part of its quality back after Schrempp had finally thrown in the towel in December 2005. Sadly, it never reached the old levels of quality again, for which the firm had been famous.
Too much electronics…and other manufacturers are suffering from an excess of them, too.
Yes, the MB vehicles from the 1980s and earlier were very well made cars.
Literally the best quality you could buy.
Especially the turbo diesel engines.
However, since 2002 ish they have become over engineered and extremely expensive to maintain.
This goes for Volvos too.
Absolute tanks back in the 1970s with the 240 four cylinder engine.
There are models still around today with 1 million miles.
I had a 1976. I used to call it the tank because it was green.
Today Volvos rank in the bottom five of reliability.
Don’t even get me started on Land Rover and Jaguar.
Cheers
I’m mad at the German ruling party, not your 2011 E350 4MATIC.
And German politicians and German industry let their Nordstream gas pipelines be blown up without raising any sort of protest. They’re killing their industries, of which Mercedes is a part.
I admire a fine piece of machinery - glad you snagged a good one before the German Greens took over. :)
Sadly, it never reached the old levels of quality again, for which the firm had been famous.
++++++++
What folks are posting about M-B in terms of the downhill slide in quality is gospel truth. My cousin is a factory (in Germany) trained Mercedes technician. He has been doing this since the 1970’s. No one loves M-B’s more than him. He will be the first to tell you that M-B is no longer the company that he once revered. They went cheap on real stupid stuff like engine wiring harnesses. Perfectly good car (mechanically) with a wiring harness that constantly finds a new place to fail. Klaus (my cousin) said that this was a failure plague across the entire M-B line up.
When you don’t do quality wiring harnesses, then a vehicle that has electronics EVERYWHERE is going to be less than stellar. SAD.
Yes, it’s such a shame. Obviously, that’s what happens when the bean counters take over.
Still, some specimens are good, as is the one of Mr. Cobra64. Long may it drive well!🙏🏻
Yes, and so am I, believe me. But that’s what happens when you lose one third of your country and one seventh of your people within thirty years or so.
You become a slave state, and the fact that our corrupt power elites wish to destroy what is left of it, doesn’t help either.
We can only pray, pray, and pray some more for His mercy, because no human is going to grant us any…
Terrible. I hadn’t known that Volvos had become so unreliable.
I may be wrong, but even Nissan is suffering from reliability issues, and that is a Japanese. All of them used to be really great, iirc…
Ah, yes, and what I forgot to mention: Schrempp raised his own salary to around ten million Euros. His forerunner made do with less that 25 percent of that. He was not only a terrible manager, but a greedy terrible manager as well, if you ask me.
Sadly, I am a historian by training, not an engineer or businessmann, and handicapped to boot, or I would have loved to get a job there.
But with the tyranny of the neo Bolshevik greenslime over here, the entire national economy is going down the drain, and the county with it. I wouldn’t even be afraid of Mr. Putin and his troops, as they would have nothing much to gain any more by invading us.
Still, that’s what the Germanophobic greenslime had in mind from day one, if you ask me. Sometimes it seems to me that it all will have to come down with a crash before it gets better.
Lord, have mercy! Please🙏🏻
I only am reporting what Consumer Reports showed on their annual readers/subscribers survey.
Which if you are not aware they send a yearly questionaire to their subscribers which is a huge amount. When I was a subscriber twenty years ago it was over 600K.
People fill out the the questions and then mail it back.
So, they get a pretty big sample of people across all income levels. They also do not take advertising so they do not have bias like Car & Driver, Road & Track, JD Power, etc.
I have found their annual auto review of used cars to be very accurate when it comes to problems areas for all automobiles. For example, Toyota Tacomas generally are very reliable. However, in 2016-2018 they had issues when they changed the automatic transmission. This specific problem shows up in their survey.
Nissan used to be better. They are in financial trouble right now. I believe there was a merger being discussed recently.
At one point the Nissan V6 engine was the best in the world.
The engine you could put 250K miles on easily.
At this point most of the European cars are very problematic except Porsche and BMW. However, they are still very expensive to repair/maintain. Generally, most of the European cars are way too complicated. Which makes them very expensive when you have a problem.
Even Lexus are not as good as they once were.
They are still generally better than anything else. But the Lexus cars from twenty years ago are bullet proof.
FYI, I have been trying to find a low mileage Lexus IS350C. Which is a hard top convertible with a naturally aspirated V6. They made them from 2010-2015 to compete with the BMW 335I and Infinity G35 hard top convertibles.
Lexus did not make a lot of these cars. Many were bought as a second car. A summer car. So, they are around with less than 50K miles. Except, they are mostly down south. Not up here in New England. Even today they are still in the $24-28K range with lower mileage. They were a $50K car when they came out.
Yes, I have heard of the Consumer Report, though I have not read it in a long time.
But what astounded me most is that quality problems seem to have struck the majority of manufacturers over the years. Maybe they have to spend too much on electronics nowadays, at the expense of good and well-handicrafted materials?
I have no clue 🙁 Lamborghini, however, seems to be the one to buck the trend, as their cars are supposed to be of very good quality nowadays. But not many can afford one, unfortunately…
What car model sold the most in the world 2024
Oh yes, and I forgot to wish you all the best for finding your dream car - a really fine IS 350 C, with an appealing color scheme and, not to forget, in very good mechanical condition 🙂👍🏻
Older cars which have been neglected mechanically can turn into horrible moneypits, after all, and my wish is that you shall find one in really fine fettle, even if its buying price may be somewhat higher than that of a less cared-for example.
What you invest more while buying, often saves you twice the amount later.
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