**$100,000 expert challenge to ANY automotive expert, any SAE certified mechanic, any automotive engineer, any Mercedes Benz engineer (Including "Dr. Z", president of Mercedes as seen on TV), any Mercedes Service Manager or mechanic etc... If you can prove that everything I have stated here is completely untrue, I will gladly post your rebuttal, issue a complete apology to Mercedes Benz, and give you $100,000!
If you must own a Benz, avoid 2000 through 2006 in all models INCLUDING CERTIFIED PRE-OWNED autos.
Ebay member response: "Read your post about Mercedes being lemons....the problem goes way back with electrical issues. I bought a 93 560 SEC from American Service Center in Virginia, they car needed to get jumped 2-3 times a week. I took it back, they gave me a deal on a SL....it was hush hush back then too. I now drive a Lexus. With a Lexus, if there are problems, they trace the car back to Japan, and it gets taken care of immediately! I am so glad I read your post before bidding on a CLS!! Thanks!"
I purchased TWO Certified Mercedes on Ebay through the local Tucson, AZ dealer, John Hornbeck sales magager.
Here's the 2003 S-430...sitting on a tow truck.
I bought a Certified 2002 CLK 430 for my wife and a 2003 S430 for myself in Nov, 2005. We had to get rid of them 4 months later due to 14 trips to the service department for an assortment of electrical problems. Mercedes has spent $1.3 BILLION dollars buying back thousands of their vehicles that were made in 2001 through 2006....due to electrical problems that cannot be fixed. Then they are 'recoditioned' and sold again....with the same problems!
Many of the problem are life threatening...because a single circuit can control multiple systems. If one malfunctions, others will do the same. And, Mercedes does NOT KNOW HOW TO REPAIR THE PROBLEM.
These cars are beautiful to look at, but we never knew what would happen when we drove them each day. Half the time a warning light came on which meant another trip across town to drop it off for service. Eventually, Mercedes service dept. grew tired of trying to repair these cars. They started telling me they could not find any problems with them when I brought them in for service. That told me they couldn't find and repair the problem. It's not like I wanted to waste my time driving them across town for ongoing service problems.
So, they suggested I drive it to their service department the next time it happened!
Hmmmm. They want me or my wife to drive a car with the ABS and BAS systems not working....which can also lead to the transmission malfunctioning (according to the owner's manual). That's pathetic. I demanded a refund within the first month of dealing with these unfixable problems, and they refused. My guess is that they were happy to find a sucker (ME) to buy the car and didn't want it back knowing it had so many problems.
I have a letter from the Customer Relations Liaison for MBUSA apologizing, but refusing to refund my money for the car. He offers his sympathy and states he cannot give me a refund, because he is unable to validate the actual NEED for repairs from that distance (New Jersey). I'm in Arizona.
Huh?
The repairs are on the Mercedes computer system, and I sent him copies of the service reports, and he can call the service department and take care of the problem or investigate it further. But no.......this is the ARROGANCE of the Mercedes Benz Corporation. I wanted a good car. I thought MB was the pinnacle. Now I learn that their entire company doesn't really give a sh** about their customer's problems with their defective vehicles. I am not alone.
DO YOUR DUE DILIGENCE BEFORE BUYING! CHECK OUT THE HISTORY WHICH YOUR SALESPERSON OR PRIVATE OWNER DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT.
More IMPORTANT than the CarFax is the VMI (vehicle master inquiry). Each Mercedes-Benz has one. Read that article here:Mercedes VMI and why you need one BEFORE you buy a used Mercedes
It shows all the repairs that have been done on the vehicle. Have the dealer or private seller provide you with that documentation. It takes only a moment for ANY Mercedes dealer to pull up any VIN number and printout a VMI report.
PS.... I've been in the used car business. I didn't check the CarFax or VMI. Instead I trusted MB.
Here is some inside industry news for you to review. It's my intention to make the car buying public aware of the problems with certain years of Mercedes-Benz vehicles. I don't want to see honest people being screwed by Mercedes, let alone have a life threatening accident due to a repair that Mercedes could not fix.
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Even Mercedes Hits a Few Speed Bumps
The automaker is falling in quality rankings, and complaints keep rolling in.
The problems may take a toll on sales.
By John O'Dell - Times Staff Writer
July 13, 2005
Its image is up there on the top floor with Prada, Tiffany and Baccarat, but for thousands of Mercedes-Benz buyers these days, reality is down in the bargain basement.
From Newport Beach to Newport News, complaints keep rolling in: Mercedes just isn't making 'em like it used to.
Indeed, the brand has fallen from the top of the heap in most major quality and durability surveys in the United States and Europe, and top management at parent DaimlerChrysler is scrambling to make fixes.
The problems range from the merely bothersome — brake dust that dirties the cars' expensive alloy wheels — to the insufferable.
One owner says his $145,000 V-12-powered S600 sedan sits in his garage in Virginia because the doors and trunk won't open and the battery keeps dying.
Although Mercedes' U.S. sales have not suffered so far — they have nearly tripled since 1995 — the cars have lost their top-selling position in the luxury category to the Lexus division of Toyota Motor Corp.
And it won't take too many more reports such as last week's J.D. Power & Associates durability study to start taking a toll on sales, analysts and market- ng specialists say. The study ranked onetime quality leader Mercedes-Benz 26th out of 37 brands sold in the United States, based on complaints from owners of 3-year-old models.
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Edmunds Com
Mercedes Suffers Growing Quality Problems That Result in Recall
Date Posted 04-07-2005
Mercedes has announced a massive worldwide recall, involving over 1.3 million vehicles, due to electrical and braking system issues. According to Bloomberg, E-Class and CLS models built between June 2001 and March 2005 will receive updated braking systems. Mercedes also said that it will repair the voltage regulators on the alternators of six- and eight-cylinder models made between June 2001 and November of 2004, if they prove to be deficient. These recall announcements come as Mercedes suffers a growing quality deficiency that has caused it to lose significant market share to other luxury manufacturers such as Lexus and BMW
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A long-overdue wake-up call at Mercedes-Benz
Edward Lapham | | Automotive News / March 7, 2005 - 6:00 am
COMMENT
Edward Lapham is the executive editor of Automotive News.
The more you hear about what Eckhard Cordes is doing to fix Mercedes-Benz, the clearer it becomes that the brand had fallen into serious disrepair. In January, Cordes told the world that as head of the Mercedes Car Group, he personally was assuming responsibility for improving Mercedes quality. It was refreshing ... and long overdue. It seemed as if the only people who didn't know how bad things had become at Mercedes-Benz were the folks at Mercedes-Benz. The quality needs to be bullet proof. But Mercedes is still playing catch-up to BMW. Quality is crucial if Cordes is to restore the luster to the three-pointed star.
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Mercedes now is weak link in Daimler-Chrysler chain
Schrempp's dream to be No. 1 is in jeopardy
Jens Meiners | | Automotive News / April 25, 2005 - 6:00 am
STUTTGART - Ten years after it began, Chairman Juergen Schrempp's effort to turn DaimlerChrysler AG into the world's No. 1 automaker is in trouble. But it's not Schrempp's add-ons that are foundering. It's the Mercedes-Benz crown jewel that has problems.
Critics say DaimlerChrysler should shed its vast structure and return to being Daimler-Benz.
"One cylinder always seems to be working poorly," said Thomas Meier, fund manager at Union Investment in Germany.
DWS Investment fund manager Klaus Kaldemorgen mocked the company's method of fixing problems: "First you shoot yourself in the knee, and then you call the doctor."
The vaunted quality of Mercedes cars has fallen sharply, and so have global sales.
The quality issue surfaced first in various quality surveys and after the launch of the technically advanced E class in 2003. It then was reflected in slipping positions in customer-satisfaction polls.
Last summer DaimlerChrysler recalled 680,000 vehicles to fix the complex SBC electrohydraulic braking system. This month it had to recall 1.3 million vehicles to fix electronics and more braking problems - more than a year's total production.
"If you ask premium prices, you have to deliver premium quality," said Union Investment's Meier. In a recent Consumer Reports U.S. subscriber survey, the 2004 Mercedes-Benz E class was the most problem-ridden car. Among 2001 models, the C class was the worst car and the M class the worst SUV.
Critics say the damage at Mercedes is deep and will be hard to repair.
Said Georg Stuerzer, an analyst at HypoVereinsbank in Munich: "The cost of fixing Mercedes' quality problems since the third quarter of 2004 is over 1 billion euros" ($1.30 billion).
See More of my Mercedes Guides especially the VMI Guide
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