Think Mercedes-Benz is problem-free? Think again (story inside)

[Imperial]

So in November 2003, my dad bought a 2004 Mercedes-Benz E320 sport. Not really fully loaded, but it had the stuff he wanted. I was pretty stoked cuz I happen to believe that the current E-class is one of the MOST elegant cars on the road. I'd have been more stoked if he went with an A6 4.2, but alas, he thought one Audi in the family was enough. At this point I'd have been REALLY stoked if he'd gone with the A6, cuz this E320 has been, well, yeah...


To start with, the transmission does this weird lurching thing when driving at lower speeds, such as in a parking lot. Give it some gas, and after you take your foot of the gas, the car doesn't slowly coast, it literally lurches. It doesn't always do this, but it does relatively often. Interestingly enough, my friend's dad ALSO bought an '04 E320 (same exact cars except they got silver/black and we got pewter/black) and has been experiencing simliar problems. Besides that, the tranny is so...lazy. But that would hardly qualify as a problem, rather a design element that is unappealing to someone like me.

SO Monday, moms picks me and John up from the airport after our East Coast soiree. She's in the E320. We head to lunch as it was around 1ish. Get to where we'd decided to go and park. Mom shifts in park, releases brake and car lurches forward. I chalk it up to the car rolling as it was on a slight incline toward the curb and I tell her to shift into reverse and back up a bit. Mom puts it in reverse and as soon as she releases the brake, it lurches forward AGAIN. Back to park, then back to reverse, lurching AGAIN. Even IN park, the car rolls forward. And not rolling, mind you, rather GOING. Ultimately the front fascia ended up on the curb, which was the only thing that stopped the car. I suggest she restart the car. Turns it off, car won't turn back on. We do everything we can, still won't start. We call Mercedes-Benz roadside assistance. They quickly send someone from a dealership (only 2 blocks away thankfully) who checks the car out and tells me it's gotta be towed. Couple hours later, we're at the Mercedes place and they give us a loaner in the form of a blingin '04 Nissan Altima 2.5S. SO hot. Anyway, they call today and leave a message at the house and call me on my cell (as I'm the only other person in the house who can speak automobile) and say that the car's ready. I asked what happend and it turns out that the mechanism within the gear selector disconnected from the gearbox somehow, so the car was stuck in drive. STUCK IN DRIVE. Thank GOD we were parked and FACING THE CURB. Well, also that it was fixed under warranty. But anyway, it's all fixed and back in the garage. How did this happen? Your guess is as good as mine. When I asked, the guy gave a relatively vague answer. My mom's a pretty good driver so I know she wasn't running anything over or anything. Besides, even if she HAD hit something, how would it have disengaged the things in question?

SO what's the point of this thread? Well, people seem to love to b*tch about Audi and it's lack of reliablity and claim that the other German marques are more reliable. Guess not. I mean, yeah all cars have their quirks, but my S4 is the 3rd Audi we've owned and really, I can't think of anything this major happening. Hell, my turbos are still okay and I'm in a CHIPPED B5 S4! Course I think they may have been replaced once by the previous owner and I do take good care of them with respect to warm-up and cooldown, but still.

What's my parents position? Serious disappointment. And I have to agree. My opinion of Mercedes-Benz has seriously plummeted thanks to these experiences. Besides that, their service departments SUCK (well, at least the one at Mercedes-Benz of San Diego does) and, well, when you pay $50,000+ for a car, you'd THINK it'd be decent, especially a Mercedes-Benz, right? PSYCH! So now dad's trying to see if he can get out of the lease on this thing sooner. They've talked to their service advisor at MB of SD and the guy who sold us the car. We'll see what happens. I keep telling them all the fabulous things I hear about the new A6. Maybe if we're lucky, we'll get a new V8 A6, haha!

[xaudia4driverx]

dang dude that sux! Ive been trying to get my dad to buy another audi too. Just tell the dealership( Mercedes-Benz ) that you dont feel safe in the car especially after what just happened and hopefully you will get out of it. O by the way nice story, well writen.

[dramaticstatic]

Mercedes is absolutely afwul when it comes to stuff like that.
And it's only now surfacing.

I have a friend who's father owns a mercedes, I'm not sure of the exact model and year but it's a pretty recent E class. Well anyways his dad was driving the car along a back road and the abs system failed in such a way as to cause a catrostrophic failure in the braking system and he was left pretty much without brakes.

Well the back roads around here can get pretty twisty and going around those curves at a decent speed and without brakes can lead to some problems. Promptly after the brake failure the car ended up sideswiping a tree as my friends father lost control of it.

For some odd reason the guy kept the car after Mercedes fixed it up all nice but from the repaired parts I've seen I'm suprised it wasn't totaled.

He recently had the airbag system fail which luckily didn't go off on him and this finally persuaded him to get rid of the car.
The last I heard he was looking at an Audi A8L which I really hope he gets.

[shehatezme]

Funny you mention this. I have a story for you.

Roll back to 2001. End of the last generation E-class. It was time for a new car for my parents. Being the Mercedes fanatics that they are, they looked into another E -class, newly redesigned for 2003. They never had problems with the many Mercedes models they had purchased in recent years.... C, E, Slk...., but this was not the case with the new 2003 E-class they had ordered.

Fast forward to fall 2002. The first batch of 2003 E-classes arrived and my parent's car was ready for pick up. It was a E320 with every option except for Nav and Sports. We picked up the car fall 2002 and that's when the headaches began. Upon arrival, the fit and finish seemed to be sub-par. The materials inside the car felt very much like plastics and some of the fit and finish was not very well done. I guess this is what you get for ordering a car you haven't seen. However, that was the least of our problems. The real problem was with the electrical. After having driven the car for a couple months, some weird electrical problems began to show. The radio would turn itself on and off. The stations would change on its own. There were other various electric gremlins that showed as more time progressed. Brought the car into Mercedes 3 times but with no resolution. The fact is the car is too new for any technician to know what is going on with the electricals, at that time. So the car went in two more times and the last time, the dealership kept the car for almost 2.5 to 3 months trying to figure out the problem while my parents drove an old gen E320 around. This is when we decided to lemon the car. Within half a year of ownership, we have only driven the car half that time while it sits at the dealership the other half of the time. It was getting ridiculous. Having to know the dealership pretty well, they agreed to lemon the car and we decided to give another new 2003 E320 a try but with Sports this time.

With the new car, the fit and finish is a lot better than the lemoned car. Everything seems tighter and better fitted. The electrical problem is not there with the new car. However, we do experience the problem you have Imperial. The car lurches forward at low speed. Tried to get the dealership to fix it but they couldn't find or see the problem when we brought it in. I know the techs pretty well over at the service department and I really do believe that they tried their best in determining the problem when they told me so. Also, I would like to add the problem with the airmatic suspension. It sits at an abnormally high ride height even in sports mod, which is weird because it didn't do this before.

We are quite disappointed with the products that MB is putting out lately. They need to bring up their quality control. After merging with Chrysler, it seems as if they have taken the inspiriation to build their cars like that of their American counterpart....... I hope that MB will eventually get the shit together. They are going to loss a lot of business if they don't.

Hit me up on AIM, we can talk about MB problems. lol

[RippleChip]

Yeah, anyone else think its a little Chrysler working its way into MB. Remember at the auto show sitting in an MB and noticing Chrysler parts, guess the quality is coming as well. Would of been better had it gone the other way, but what can you do.

[XpondS4]

"I asked what happend and it turns out that the mechanism within the gear selector disconnected from the gearbox somehow, so the car was stuck in drive. STUCK IN DRIVE. "

OMFG......

I bet your feeling a little lucky on that score.....knowing it could have happened in a lot worse places with a lot worse outcome......not what u expect when you make an educated decision and lay that kinda dough out for a prestige auto....

A friend of my uncle had selector issues with a brand new SL500!!
a week old!!!!

that sux dude....hope ur pa gets a resolution

[piaadoll]

whoah! how interesting! cuz my dad's old mercedez circa 1989 heh heh lurches forward as well....i used to call it "lunging forward" when i step on the gas... i thought it was cuz the car was old.....

[Hutash]

Why rag on MB so much stuff happens and it was fixed. Remember all the Audis that accelerated unexpectedly about ten years ago? They denied it was a problem, but after awhile admited the screwed up. It happens. Hopefully MB will admit they have aproblem recall the cars and fix it before someone gets hurt.

[shehatezme]

Originally posted by Hutash
Why rag on MB so much stuff happens and it was fixed. Remember all the Audis that accelerated unexpectedly about ten years ago? They denied it was a problem, but after awhile admited the screwed up. It happens. Hopefully MB will admit they have aproblem recall the cars and fix it before someone gets hurt.

MB engineers some amazing automobiles but they are just not up to par in quality anymore, this is the truth. It's one thing for a car company to have made shitty cars its whole life but this is not the case for MB. All the cars previously made before Chrysler and MB merged were well qualitiy controlled. This is reflected in its owners' ratings during the 90s. Although their reliability were not as good as their Japanese counterparts (ie. Lexus), they were still very reputable for reliables cars. No one wants to pay $50,000+ for a lemon.

[XpondS4]

"Why rag on MB so much"

I`m not raggin MB so much...its just they do proclaim there excellence so much and when u lay out a lot of dough its not the kind of dangerous problem u expect ....especially not from them.

I personally love MB`s and would`nt let anything put me off buying one ....except that i cant afford it.....and audi exists.....

[s4Rye]

So far my moms been lucky with her CLK. *knocks on wood for her*

Imperial - your story sounds like my parents old Mitsu Galant. Put it in neutral..."hey, look at that, I can drive it still!".

[dramaticstatic]

Originally posted by Hutash
Why rag on MB so much stuff happens and it was fixed. Remember all the Audis that accelerated unexpectedly about ten years ago? They denied it was a problem, but after awhile admited the screwed up. It happens. Hopefully MB will admit they have aproblem recall the cars and fix it before someone gets hurt.

There was a story I read on that saying that to save face Audi admitted it was a problem.
Originally the problem came up when some woman was pulling into her garage with her son standing at the far wall. She meant to hit the brake but actually hit the gas and pretty much floored the car into her son. Not willing to admit fault she sued Audi and when some other less than intelligent people heard about it who went through the same incident they wanted to get in on the deal to sue Audi over the "problem". Audi decided to settle not willing to go into a huge deal over it.

It got really big when a news channel ran a story featuring a car that would accelerate when the brake was pressed. What this fair and just news channel failed to mention was that it was physically impossible for them to get any Audi that they tried to accelerate while pressing the brake and they had to rig the test car to do so.

The so called "accelerating while pressing the brake" sydrome happens a number of times a year, just a bunch of people decided to rag on Audi about it so they got kinda screwed.

[Hutash]

It was Audis fault for putting the brake pedal next to the gas

I thought they actually did find an electronics problem, but it was` awhile ago so I could be wrong.

I was wrong once, but then I realized it was a mistake

[dramaticstatic]

Originally posted by Hutash
It was Audis fault for putting the brake pedal next to the gas

I thought they actually did find an electronics problem, but it was` awhile ago so I could be wrong.

I was wrong once, but then I realized it was a mistake

The way I read the expose on the whole thing set it up like the woman was just a greedy person who didn't want to admit that she screwed up very badly and went after the car manufacturer who happened to be Audi, many others got in on the same deal for the same reasons and that's why it became a huge problem.

No electronics problem would do something like that and it was impossible for anyone to dupicate without major modifications to the vehicle.


The reason I really really dislike Mercedes is that while most cars have problems, I had a BMW 5 series before my S4 that needed the head unit swapped out 3 times and the trunk latch would always brake, but unlike minor electrical and mechanical problems Mecedes' car have huge huge problems when they fail like the car stuck in drive or a brake failure or major electronics problem. This type of stuff isn't acceptable on any car let alone a $50K luxury car.

[C280 jr]

you want a long lasting car....get a disel..lol....every car has problems, especially when you come up with a new generation, such as W211..give it several years and most problems will be solved...i know 97 C classes when they changed engines from I6 to V6 had transmissions fail on them after 50K mi...its just a problem where they dont know how to do everything, but like everybody else they improve..i cannot say mercedes is perfect, i cannot begin to tell you how much money ive spent on my car in 2.3 years of ownership..but then again thats what you get when you buy a used car....Its not just mercedes its a lot of high end cars, especially GERMAN...some are good some are not..my friends ' 93 90S had pritty much 0 problems and has hit past 180K miles and still running strong

Elvir

[shehatezme]

Originally posted by C280 jr
you want a long lasting car....get a disel..lol....every car has problems, especially when you come up with a new generation, such as W211..give it several years and most problems will be solved...i know 97 C classes when they changed engines from I6 to V6 had transmissions fail on them after 50K mi...its just a problem where they dont know how to do everything, but like everybody else they improve..i cannot say mercedes is perfect, i cannot begin to tell you how much money ive spent on my car in 2.3 years of ownership..but then again thats what you get when you buy a used car....Its not just mercedes its a lot of high end cars, especially GERMAN...some are good some are not..my friends ' 93 90S had pritty much 0 problems and has hit past 180K miles and still running strong

Elvir

Buying a used car does have its problems. HOWEVER, we are not talking about used cars right now. We are talking about spending upwards of $55k and up for a brand new car that BREAKS. Now wouldn't that just piss you off when you spend that much money just to drive in a piece of defective shit? Don't take this the wrong way, I like MB cars and I understand that no car is perfect but comeon'. Having to bring in a car multiple times within the first month of ownership is unacceptable.

[C280 jr]

Originally posted by shehatezme
Buying a used car does have its problems. HOWEVER, we are not talking about used cars right now. We are talking about spending upwards of $55k and up for a brand new car that BREAKS. Now wouldn't that just piss you off when you spend that much money just to drive in a piece of defective shit? Don't take this the wrong way, I like MB cars and I understand that no car is perfect but comeon'. Having to bring in a car multiple times within the first month of ownership is unacceptable.

Well like i said, IN MOST CASES, when you buy the new generation of a particular model car, it has its share of problems that only get fixed over a period of time, reason for that is due to their technology...give it some time and in couple years that model will improve..

Elvir

[XpondS4]

That is not what i would expect if i layed out that kinda a dough. Thats what u pay the money for surely, to avoid that!

[neoprufrok]

Sorry to hear about that Imperial. We own a MBZ C230k coupe and we like it quite a bit. So far there's been its fair share of issues (rattling sunroof, a/c goes on/off by itself, coolent level pressure sensor went bad) but it has been fixed in a timely manner.

MBZ's quality has gotten worse over the years. Most people have attributed this to their push to adopt cutting edge electrical technology vs their previous conservative outlook on such innovation. I think they're scaling back some of that and putting more money into R&D on quality issues.

The lurching is horrible to say the least. I hope this is an isolated incident.

[Ryan S.]

Originally posted by dramaticstatic
There was a story I read on that saying that to save face Audi admitted it was a problem.
Originally the problem came up when some woman was pulling into her garage with her son standing at the far wall. She meant to hit the brake but actually hit the gas and pretty much floored the car into her son. Not willing to admit fault she sued Audi and when some other less than intelligent people heard about it who went through the same incident they wanted to get in on the deal to sue Audi over the "problem". Audi decided to settle not willing to go into a huge deal over it.

It got really big when a news channel ran a story featuring a car that would accelerate when the brake was pressed. What this fair and just news channel failed to mention was that it was physically impossible for them to get any Audi that they tried to accelerate while pressing the brake and they had to rig the test car to do so.

The so called "accelerating while pressing the brake" sydrome happens a number of times a year, just a bunch of people decided to rag on Audi about it so they got kinda screwed.

ive heard this too.

[dramaticstatic]

Originally posted by Frank S.
ive heard this too.

Glad to see I'm not crazy. Hopefully I'm not far off from the original story.