MB has been on the shit list for quite some time now. Electrical gremlins have been in the woodwork there for a long time. This seems to be the case with most of the German manufacturers. VW and Audi have electical issues, Porsche less so (same company, I know). BMW seems to be better than its geographic competitors in this respect. I would imagine it has something to do with the complexity of the electronics.

Had an A4 for a while. The wiring layout was attractive and neat but the electronics and connectors were less than reliable.

 

Yes. German cars by far are extremely complex. I tried to hardwire my V1 in our C-Class. There are a LOT of wires in the dome light/sunroof control cluster. I tested every single one to see which one was switched with the ignition and could not find a single wire that behaved that way on its own. Clearly, the sunroof power is switched but I could not find it. I had to wire the detector to a "main" wire in that cluster that is hot all the time........

After doing this job in no time both in my '98 GTI VR6 and my S2000 I thought it should be cake in the M-B as well.......no dice. I was at it for at least an hour and could not locate a wire that simply turned on and then off with the ignition.

 

Today's cars in general I think are becoming very complex because of all the features and gadgets the market demands.

In that regard, I really like the S2000 as it's built the "old fashioned way" electronicswise. You can install your own stereo, hardwire your detector, add a 12v outlet....all very easily.

 

Actually, if you want to nit-pick, it was a merger: Daimler-Benz and Chrysler Corporation merged and formed DaimlerChrysler in 1998.

But who's keeping track anyway....both are junk

 

The German cars have this chain reaction thing, once you start having problems...it becomes a way of life, but prior to issues they are masterful....i think its just because the Germans push the envelope of engineering...they dont mess around. though i really dont like Merc. or BMW, Audi and Porsche, in certain models only, are quite nice...

 

Well, my s2k is my sports car, and my '04 Mercedes C 320 is my sedan. One has been as relaible as the other -- bulletproof. In the late 90' and early 00's, Mercedes did have some serious reliability problems, which all too often the dealers didn't know how to fix! In fact, Mercedes cars produced in more recent years have become highly reliable (just like Honda), and I would suspect the many reliability reports that are published will begin to reflect this soon.

 

i find that hard to believe as well. My older brother had one that was nothing but problems and have heard the same from several other people...

 

Mercedes aren't quite reliable. My family owned a few and a BMW, and had a lot of troubles with them.

Traction control would fail to work, speedometer would die, climate control would jack up to 80 degrees F in the middle of the summer randomly, wiring harnesses would melt, check engine light would come up randomly, ECU fried ...

According to the law of probability, it's hard to have lemons every time ... my parents got so fed up that they ended up getting Japanese cars (even though they used to not like them before) ...

 

Why are you surprised?

 

i knew american cars were unreliable, but i guess since the americans popped up in the euro car scene the euros aren't all that reliable nowadays either... well i guess i made the right choice going japanese