I have been on holiday most of the summer (kids are off school) and as usual have bought and sold a couple of cars to keep myself amused (I don't make much money on them, by the time all the messing about is account for - just in case Mr Taxman is reading!).
Anyway, I quite like buying and selling Mercedes because I know the cars well and can rectify any little faults. I have noticed that a lot of more recent MB's are showing signs of rust though.
I am familiar with the potential rust spots on the early W210 E-class (e.g. around the number plate area and door handles etc.) but I had thought that more recent cars would be better. From my recent experiences this seems not to be the case though.
A good example was a car that was bought to me this morning. A W-plate CLK in black with 50k on it. I looked around and was astonished to find rust on the boot lid and door bottoms. We're not talking little tiny spots, either. There were a couple of 1x2 inch rusty areas right on the back, were the depression for the number plate is. The paint had blistered up and would have lifted off had a poked it with a fingernail. This is more the sort of thing associated with FIAT.
Older cars, like early '90's, W201 and W124 are still largely rust free. If one does encounter rust it is usually a result of a scrape. They only tend to rust around the jacking tubes in the sills (where the welding seems to destroy the galvanising).
It is very disappointing that these newer MB's are showing this problem. Definitely something to look out for if buying one of these cars used.
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Thanks for the warning, along the same lines a body shop manager told me how hard it is to keep up with all the V reg & onwards E-class's that need both sides resprayed to deal with rust at the top of the doors.
A few weeks later we test drove a 3 yrs old one and when we peeled back the rubber seal on the top of the door there were indeed rust spots there.
Oh dear ... does anybody know of any large japanese estates that would be worth importing, a toyota crown maybe?
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It doesn't surprise me one bit. When I bought my A4 a couple of years ago I compared it to a neighbours Merc C class. The difference in quality was amazing. I couldn't believe how naff the trimmings in the Merc were. If the bits you could see were this cheap its hardly surprising that the bits you couldn't would rust.
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I seem to remember that the Tata CityRover production line has Mercedes quality approval?
;-)
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& on the rusty German cars thread, I saw an Audi 100, 1992 that had rusted through its wheel arch (with no obvious reason) & had a tailgate that was more rust than not. These cars were galvanised, for goodness sake!
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haha
the same paint job people criticise the cityrover for - the mercedes have!
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I seem to remember that the Tata CityRover production line has Mercedes quality approval? ;-)
Faulty memory then. Tata do the paintwork for Mercedes.
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Faulty memory then. Tata do the paintwork for Mercedes.
So presumably have Mercedes quality approval? We'll have to ask the guide dog in charge for the definitive answer.
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