[QUOTE 4621333, member: 9609"]they used to be fantastically over engineered, they used to be something quite special about them, super reliable and just went on and on indefinitely. my wife had nothing else for about 25 years and they progressively got worse and worse, imho they're now no better than any think else on the road, would never have another, and the attitude from the dealers is just hideous.[/QUOTE]
IIRC, the engineering quality of Mercs took a dive around about the W124 time and the bodywork of the W210 was dire. It was during that period that the German taxi drivers staged their protests about the poor reliability of the cars. I believe that they got some of the engineering quality back after the W210 but they still seem to push out products with poor design / too little testing e.g. the common engine / auto box radiator on the W211 (pre 2004) that was a disaster (coolant leaked into the auto lubrication) and failing igniters on new engine types. .
IIRC, the engineering quality of Mercs took a dive around about the W124 time and the bodywork of the W210 was dire. It was during that period that the German taxi drivers staged their protests about the poor reliability of the cars. I believe that they got some of the engineering quality back after the W210 but they still seem to push out products with poor design / too little testing e.g. the common engine / auto box radiator on the W211 (pre 2004) that was a disaster (coolant leaked into the auto lubrication) and failing igniters on new engine types. .