I know for most of the car enthusiasts having a mercedes is a dream come true. I own a 2004 E200 Kompressor (Elegance) with beige interior and all the extra features. I also own a 2007 JDM Alto. I have found the merc to be unreliable, have flaky electronics and is completely over rated. It drives more like a tank than a luxury car. All mercs have high engine noise (the diesels sound like a truck)
ANS:i guess you know nothing about howto maintain modern CDI engines, when was the last time you had its EGR serviced or diesel particulate regeneration done? the CDI engines are super quiet and super smooth, even more so then regular economy petrol cars/hatchbacks.
the seats are hard, the steering heavy, the accelerator pedal is heavy and over all it gets tiring driving the car in crowded slow traffic.
ANS: i guess you have never sat in a porsche or maybach,all have hard seats hard steering and tactile throttles, it gives a better drive and driver feedback, the seats stops you being thrown about. only lexus have plush seats and they are doughy to drive.
It is fun on long straight roads but how often do you drive on long straight roads? Plus it has these annoying features like opening the fresh air automatically allowing smells to come in at unexpected times,
ANS: i guess you had the base aicroditioning system, the thermotronic one in mine has a activated charcoal filter which removes any odour and allows it to run all the time on outside air too if needed, theres a knob in the centre between the two vents that knob job is to regulate the percentage of fresh air being injected and even if it set to outside air you can control the percentage or set zero percentage o fresh air to come inside the cabin via that knob(thumbwheel) it also has two cabin filters even a sensor which detects the position of sun and adjusts the blow form vents at that side of the car automatically, you can even open and close all windows right from the AC panel, its a engineering marvel.
[U]the AC doesnt turn off immediately even if you turn it off which is very strange [/U]
ANS: it has motorised flaps under the dashboard which can infitenly direct air to any location and passenger and river can set different distributions, those flaps takes few seconds to close after turning off thats why AC keeps running.
and changes into second gear at very low speed
ANS: its all in the name of smoothness, it has more than enough toque to start from second gear and give you smooth driveline changes when in traffic, you dont need head bobbing response in traffic, you an always defeat that by putting it in S instead of C, its a very welcome feature
There is no dip stick so you have to carefully note the amount of oil you are putting in while changing the oil:
ANS: thats only on one diesel variant plus the on board computer tells you exactly how much oil to put inside right down to fine measurements and will tell you how much oil to add to bring it upto the full mark, i dont see a issue there, you can always check the oil level sitting inside in AC without doing manual labour from the computer.
And so many other strange things which can go wrong after some years of usage. All mercs are heavy on fuel which makes them suitable for occasional use only.
ANS: ill matinained mercs yes, what oil viscosity are you using? mine gives better fuel avg than a altis on highway because Mercedes cars are not stressed and stay at low rpms.
I think merc is a good car if it is less than 2-4 year old.
my car is 13 year old, how am i not facing problems which can be seen in my thread as it contains every account, Mercedes form the 80s are still going strong in high numbers in europe. again if a person buys a lemon they cant blame the brand.
Any car older than this is asking for trouble. I know merc fans would be fuming right now but its my personal opinion based on owning a merc, and Audi A6 and other cars. The Audi A6 was far superior to the E class.
ANS: your personal opinion is respected and you are entitled to it, just because you had a bad experience doesnt mean everyone does, one needs to be themselves knowledgeable when it comes to these cars.
Audi and Mercedes are competitors and equally good, it comes down to personal tastes, from last two years in JD reliability surveys audi has come third and Mercedes first among the number of faults reported in the cars lifetime, pointing to mercedes being more reliable. the list changes every year of course but both are equally good competitors.
Compared to the merc I love driving my JDM Alto which gives 16KM to a liter, has comfortable seats, and AC which is in my control, very soft suspension and zero faults in the last 3 years. Plus I can install a new deck in it any time unlike the merc which just comes with a CD changer and no mp3 player.