Just bought a Merc

[Mich the Tester]

Yes, I know I said I´d buy a Citroen C6 as it´s beautiful and stylish and somehow slightly kinky, but I´ve just got so sick of the tulipty service from PSA and the fact my Peugeot fell to bits last month, so I´ve decided to go against all my principles and buy a conformist German car. Black E240, nicely equipped, looks and feels a bit like the Bismarck, someone else has sorted the electrical nonsense in the first year or so, and hopefully I can now have a car which will actually get me to clientco more than 4 out of 5 times.

F##k the recession.

[DimPrawn]

Taxi!

[Mich the Tester]

Taxi!

That's right! Could be a Plan B!

There´s a good reason for that; they're comfortable and last forever. Over here on le continent they have the lowest depreciation of the big teutonic brands; as I understood it that's the other way around in the UK.

[sasguru]

Mercedes lost their values of quality, reliability and engineering integrity from around 1999 onwards when they messed around with Chrysler.
They had a truly bad patch for reliability around 2000-2004 and although they claim to have sorted it, I'm not convinced.
IMHO they haven't got their mojo back entirely and are no longer top of the tree. They are leaning on their brand name and past excellence at the moment and their cars are no longer the best built in the business.

Their European reputation is built on the past.

HTH.

[DimPrawn]

I think the biggest problem with owning a Merc is the poor service from the dealers, expensive service from the dealers and poor reliability on some models.

[Mich the Tester]

Mercedes lost their values of quality, reliability and engineering integrity from around 1999 onwards when they messed around with Chrysler.
They had a truly bad patch for reliability around 2000-2004 and although they claim to have sorted it, I'm not convinced.
IMHO they haven't got their mojo back entirely and are no longer top of the tree. They are leaning on their brand name at the moment and their cars are no longer the best built in the business.

HTH.

It's a 2005 model, and my mate who has had pre and post 2005 says that's basically back to what you should be able to expect from MB; basically as you say, you have to avoid the 2000-2004 versions.

[sasguru]

I went to look at some Mercs recently and was shocked by the shoddy build quality - loose glove boxes etc.
Audi and BMW (or most Jap brands) have better build quality nowadays.

[Mich the Tester]

I think the biggest problem with owning a Merc is the poor service from the dealers, expensive service from the dealers and poor reliability on some models.

In the UK. Manufacturers have different reputations in different countries. Peugeot had an excellent reputation for service in NL until this recession struck and they started cutting on front line service; now they've gone to the dogs. Merc have a good reputation here, the BMW a poor reputation for ruining good cars with crappy expensive service. Each market is different.

[Mich the Tester]

I went to look at some Mercs recently and was shocked by the shoddy build quality - loose glove boxes etc.
Audi and BMW (or most Jap brands) have better build quality nowadays.

Looked OK to me, but I haven't looked at the pre-2005 stuff, which was apparently not much good.

[DimPrawn]

I went to look at some Mercs recently and was shocked by the shoddy build quality - loose glove boxes etc.
Audi and BMW (or most Jap brands) have better build quality nowadays.

Trading up from an Aygo to an SL 65 AMG Black?