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elite_hunter_sh3 · 06-08-07, 06:12 PM

who screwed Mercedes benz??? Chrysler did (knowing poor american quality...) mercedes reliabilty was top of the list back then... before it bought chrysler... chrysler killed the reliabilty in mercedes... but now mercedes is smart... they shud sell chrysler or someone shud buy chrysler (cuz chrysler is poop... bad cars... bad quality...)..

"

For over one hundred years Mercedes both invented the automobile and just about everything in automotive history. A Mercedes cost double that of an ordinary car and was completely different. For one hundred years the only car you could buy that always just worked was Mercedes. Somewhere around the time Mercedes bought Chrysler in the late 1990s Daimler decided to make cars compromised for cost to compete with everyone else, which was OK since the Japanese had learned by 2000 to make cars as reliable as Mercedes, even if they lacked soul. Thus the market for cars costing double that of regular cars shrunk since you could get a perfectly good Toyota or Lexus that ran great, even if it was boring. Unfortunately Mercedes doesn't know how to make an inexpensive car work well, which is why they bought Chrysler and also why new Mercedes models introduced since then are among the world's least reliable cars. See the April, 2004 and April 2005 editions of "Consumer Reports" for the details. The 1990s SLs are great, but beware new models introduced in the late 1990s and today.

That edition shows Mercedes' recent slide down to the bottom of the reliability chart, far below Hyundai and Kia, with the latest models! I asked my dealer who chalked it up to "well, Mercedes drivers are more picky about everything so they show poorly in surveys," but the Consumer Reports reliability ratings are based on real problems like electrical failures. JD Powers tends to focus more on the paint, which can be ignored. More here and here (towards bottom) and here. On March 31st 2005 Mercedes recalled 1.3 million defective cars made since 2001 with bad electronics. This is the biggest recall they've ever made, in fact, it's hard to recall any serious recalls at all by Mercedes before 1999 when they only made quality.

A few months after the April 2004 issue Consumer Reports tried to address, in a sidebar, why Mercedes and other European cars had fallen so much in reliability. They thought maybe it was the cutting edge technology now employed, but realized that Mercedes has always pushed the envelope extraordinarily well is past decades, and that Honda and Toyota have even more nutty electronic technology in their cars, and those cars work great. It was left as a dilemma, and my opinion simply is that if you want a luxury car on a budget you have to slum with a company known for making good, inexpensive cars like Toyota's Lexus brand. Unfortunately real luxury cars like the former Mercedes were great; they just cost double other cars because they didn't cut any corners. For the past 5 years they've been cutting corners and not very well. It's like trying to retrain a CEO to work flipping burgers: an enthusiastic kid is going to do a better job than a seasoned CEO who'll consider it beneath him."

06-08-07, 06:12 PM	#21
elite_hunter_sh3 The Old Man Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 1,376 Downloads: 6 Uploads: 0	who screwed Mercedes benz??? Chrysler did (knowing poor american quality...) mercedes reliabilty was top of the list back then... before it bought chrysler... chrysler killed the reliabilty in mercedes... but now mercedes is smart... they shud sell chrysler or someone shud buy chrysler (cuz chrysler is poop... bad cars... bad quality...).. " For over one hundred years Mercedes both invented the automobile and just about everything in automotive history. A Mercedes cost double that of an ordinary car and was completely different. For one hundred years the only car you could buy that always just worked was Mercedes. Somewhere around the time Mercedes bought Chrysler in the late 1990s Daimler decided to make cars compromised for cost to compete with everyone else, which was OK since the Japanese had learned by 2000 to make cars as reliable as Mercedes, even if they lacked soul. Thus the market for cars costing double that of regular cars shrunk since you could get a perfectly good Toyota or Lexus that ran great, even if it was boring. Unfortunately Mercedes doesn't know how to make an inexpensive car work well, which is why they bought Chrysler and also why new Mercedes models introduced since then are among the world's least reliable cars. See the April, 2004 and April 2005 editions of "Consumer Reports" for the details. The 1990s SLs are great, but beware new models introduced in the late 1990s and today. That edition shows Mercedes' recent slide down to the bottom of the reliability chart, far below Hyundai and Kia, with the latest models! I asked my dealer who chalked it up to "well, Mercedes drivers are more picky about everything so they show poorly in surveys," but the Consumer Reports reliability ratings are based on real problems like electrical failures. JD Powers tends to focus more on the paint, which can be ignored. More here and here (towards bottom) and here. On March 31st 2005 Mercedes recalled 1.3 million defective cars made since 2001 with bad electronics. This is the biggest recall they've ever made, in fact, it's hard to recall any serious recalls at all by Mercedes before 1999 when they only made quality. A few months after the April 2004 issue Consumer Reports tried to address, in a sidebar, why Mercedes and other European cars had fallen so much in reliability. They thought maybe it was the cutting edge technology now employed, but realized that Mercedes has always pushed the envelope extraordinarily well is past decades, and that Honda and Toyota have even more nutty electronic technology in their cars, and those cars work great. It was left as a dilemma, and my opinion simply is that if you want a luxury car on a budget you have to slum with a company known for making good, inexpensive cars like Toyota's Lexus brand. Unfortunately real luxury cars like the former Mercedes were great; they just cost double other cars because they didn't cut any corners. For the past 5 years they've been cutting corners and not very well. It's like trying to retrain a CEO to work flipping burgers: an enthusiastic kid is going to do a better job than a seasoned CEO who'll consider it beneath him."