Sorry to go on about this again but this is becoming my hobby horse.
Friend I know bought a new C Class Turbo diesel. Delivery came just before Xmas. The car was 3 months late due to strikes in the factories in SA.
He had the car literally one day when it broke down. Returning from a funeral with wife and friend on board the car totally conked out on a hill. MB rescue came out (within 35 mins). Ah yes the mechanic said, we have had a few of these - some fuel pipe was coming lose on a number of new C classes. It took the mechanic an hour and a half to fix - stripping down a part of the car to get to the fiddly pipe.
Is is my imagination or is it always a Jap car when people say "I had this [ ] car for 10 years I loved it it was totally reliable it never broke down etc"?
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After many years of motoring, I am now on my second Japanese car and, I am old enough to remember the apalling build quality of some of our British made cars. The Marina and some of the Rootes products come to mind. However, I do feel that, in those days, perhaps, we did not expect anything much better but, Mercedes and Volkswagen gained a reputation for quality which did make our own manufacturers take some notice. I think that we could have been much better, much sooner, had not the far eastern manufacturers stolen a march on us and established a reputation which was hard to live up to, even for the Germans. The splendid products, now being produced by Rover, do seem to have taken a long time coming and we all know the difficulties which this Company has had over the years. Now doing all my own maintenance on my Japanese built vehicle, I notice the attention to detail, and the quality,of such minor items as trim fixings, switches, etc and, from experience, I remember that it was these small details which let down, otherwise decent, British vehicles. The ingenuity and flair was, certainly, there in abundance, ie, the original Mini but, who remembers the British franchised dealers who had to install dedicated PDI bays in their workshops, sometimes spending a day per vehicle on rectification work not covered, or, brought about by, the original build ?
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Not your imagination,if you value reliability buy a Japanese brand.As a point of interest,how do BMW still manage to convince us that their cars are top quality/reliable.How many engines have BMW replaced this week under warranty?
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Let's be fair -- having learned that some engines were suffering upper bore wear due to fuel problems in some countries, BMW immediately upped the warrantee to 100,000 miles for cars fitted with those engines, so long as there was a full service history. They even went so far as to meet a substantial part of the cost of repair for some cars that had done a lot more than 100,000 miles and to accept some non-BMW service histories.
I believe that BMW acted very honourably, rather than bouncing the problem back to the customer or playing difficult as some lesser manufacturers would have done.
If nothing else but reliability matters, then buy Japanese by all means. Suggest you first read the magazine road test reviews though, to see what you could be missing. Otherwise it might be a very short love affair!
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There was a long thread on this starting on 13 Jan 02 instigated by the Clarkson column in the Sunday Times. Thank God MB are not made in Australia.
It is not just MB reliability that was questioned, it was the overall build quality. A few Merc owners disagreed.
L
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Hi
i have owned 5 MB over the last 15 years. None have had majot faults not have any been off the road other than for normal service
Lucky...I think not
alan
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A MB service manger lives opposite a friend of mine. He drives a 325i. He says MB reliablility is no where near as good as many people think- hence he drivers a BMW. Most problems he deals with are electrical. When i asked him how come we dont get to hear much about this he said he thought it was becasue MB were so good at fixing these faults with minimal inconvenience to the customers who they mostly keep happy.
Ben
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BMW had it right with the engine problem and kept it sweet!
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I had a company C class (N plate) which had to have major surgery on the auto gearbox at 50000 miles, had the front wiper unit replaced twice in 70000 miles, needed a new differential at 60000, and leaked from the sunroof for all of the time I had it.
My wife had a C class (P plate) bought as an ex-demonstrator. Two years of absolute hell - two autoboxes, wiper flew off, rear axle, headlight fell out, I could go on. Traded it at substantial loss for Audi A6 (a proper car) and is now totally happy. MB dealers didn't give a monkeys.
I could rant for days about a particular BMW dealer and my 3 series in the late 1980s.
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Not all RHD DB come from SA many still come from Stuttgart and they came third in the most reliable cars to own 2001 Germany,Toyota first and BMW third,they would not be the second best selling car in Germany if they were so unreliable .In fact the fuel pipe comming adrift is only a problem with German built cars and was rectified over six monthes ago so a car with the problem is old stock.
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Andy,
While you were away HJ said RHD C class came from SA.
D
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Not all there is a rhd assembly line in stuttgart for the UK market they ship them from SA when there is a to high demand .
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