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meltie posted:Looking at W168s (mk1 A-class) at the moment. Bit smitten with the load-carrying capability vs the manoeuvrability for our tiny UK cities. Probably too late, but my mom has a 2005 second gen A-class she bought new, and it has been absolutely bulletproof. The only things i can remember going wrong where a flayed windscreen wiper and a burnt out headlight bulb. Said bulb was changed in 2 minutes without tools, which i guess is good for such a tightly packaged vehicle. It has been serviced, but often more than a year overdue. I think the second gen was quite a big improvement over the mk1, so i would maybe look into those. A bit of rust is developing on the bottom of the front doors though. Look out for that?
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May 26, 2015 12:39
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Comrade Gritty posted:Is there anything special to know about purchasing either a new, or recent model E300/E350 sedan? Any particular options that are must haves, or that should be steered clear of? Looking to purchase a luxury sedan for my wife, and she really likes the look of the Mercedes. It's hard to tell from looking at the CPO inventory and the builder on MBs website what features matter or are traps that should be avoided. Since no one is getting on this, ill add my two cents. The E class in its basic form is seen as very reliable here in Europe at least. The 220 diesel E class is still the car of choice for most taxi drivers who can choose whatever car they like, and for them an unreliable car is lost income as licenses are tied to cars where I live. However reliability seem to suffer when complexity and power go up where an AMG model is going to be expensive to maintain, and not all that reliable. The 350 apparently uses a turbo 2 litre 4-cylinder engine producing 300hp. I'd call that fairly high strung, but not unusual these days. Volvo do the same thing, but are apparently suffering with reliability as a consequence. I'd say go for it, but keep it simple. Avoid stuff like air suspension. Consider if 4matic is necessarily, since it does drive up maintenance costs if you plan on keeping the car for a while.
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Jan 9, 2020 14:19
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Kivi posted:The E is not that reliable Eh. Statistically they last a long time. they are the second longest lasting brand here in Norway on the newest data I could find on average age when scraped.
Humbug fucked around with this message at 13:45 on Jan 11, 2020 |
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Jan 11, 2020 13:41
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they just have taxi kitted cars available on loan when your own E breaks down, it's complete marketing (or used to be) exercise. They're better than what they used to be, tho wrt rust and biodegradable wiring looms.
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Kivi posted:Oh, okay. I'm in the Eastern Europe (Finland) so I have had a chat about the cars with taxi drivers on re: why all the taxis are Mercs and the reason is basically that the deal is that there's free maintenance or a free car whenever yours' breaks down. There is probably a bit of that as well. The Mercedes taxi infrastucture is in place. I don't think you can transfer licenses within a few days here, but I think there are service shops specifically for taxis that get you in and out very quickly. Almost all other taxis here are Toyotas, so I would think reliability is important. Humbug fucked around with this message at 15:44 on Jan 11, 2020 |
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Jan 11, 2020 15:41
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MrOnBicycle posted:In the UK, Mercedes-Benz is currently the 30th most reliable company. When it comes to individual models, the E-class is more reliable than average (indexed @ 80. 100 is the average.). The variation is probably big between models. Not sure exactly how they get their numbers, but I've never paid much attention to reliability surveys, since they mostly seem to measure peoples expectations of cars rather than their actual reliability. Cheap econoboxes and budget brands always do well because people seem to expect them to die immediately, and then rave when they are decently reliable. Conversely, luxury cars are perceived to be perfect pinnacles of reliability, and their owners rage when anything goes wrong. That page seems to reflect that since their top 10 most reliable cars are all tiny cheap subcompacts and the Mitsubishi Lancer for some reason. The bottom 10 are all big sports/luxury cars. If you compare the mechanically almost identical Audi A3 and VW Golf, the A3 does significantly worse. It's the same in Norway where Skoda always outperform the other VAG brands significantly on reliability statistics. The higher parts and labor cost of luxury brands may make a difference as well. I'm not gonna argue that a Mercedes will make the most financial sense or that they are all the most reliable cars ever, but I think they are better than their "lol german car" internet image suggests.
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Jan 14, 2020 23:21
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