Mercedes - Reliability issues

Associate
Joined
25 Jul 2005
Posts
711
Location
London
I'm in the market for a new car, having decided a sports car no longer fits the bill (driving to work daily in london town = comfort + auto box) i've started looking at "comfort mobiles" with decent enough straight line speed (sub 10s 0-60, and decent torque) for some enjoyment.

Budget is around £8k + trade in (got offered £1,250 for my leon at a jag dealer). I've been looking at '04 c180k's - all facelift (new interior).

Now i've read plenty of horror stories on the internet about Merc reliability issues over the last decade - but they seem to be limited to electrical issues on early 00-04 cars (C,CLK, and E).

Now i hear merc sorted themselves out, except i'm not exactly sure when their revised quality control kicked in (what year?)

Any experience/ reports on the german outfit? (thanks)
 
Permabanned
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
12,336
The C class wasnt a bad car, but it isnt great either, tbh from talking to the dealers around by me, they have only got their act in order since 06.

Ive got 3 in the household at the mo, a C180 W202,E220 CDI W210 and a S320CDI W220, the C180 feels a far better built car, and over the 4 years we have had it, nothing has gone wrong, unlike the S320. The E220 has been pretty good apart from the bits of rust.

My old man briefly had a 04 C200K and he was not impressed with the quality, he bored us ****less moaning about the thing:p
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
4,898
I'd agree with that - my mate swapped an 04 for an 06 C180K Sport and the latter was better built and 100% reliable.

If you want a reliable comfortable car for that budget have a look at A6 3.0TDi's. Decent ones available from under £10k now.
 
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