My problems with the Mercedes C180. And Mercedes Benz India.

[lamborghini]

I mean as a luxury car for the rich guys and not a wannabe mercedes.
I wonder how many bookings Audi has recieved and whether it is more then the S class and E class bookings.
Wheres CLS55 from this thread.
He would help a lot.

[RX135]

Originally Posted by ajmat

Other than GTO and some others mentioned, are you sure that 100 % of all customers are dissatisfied? Please note that 10 dissatisfied customers make 50 times more noise than 100 satisfied customers.

That is so so so true. Even more because it is a Mercedese. Something, that is perceived to be epitome of quality, engineering and perfection.

GTO and co are rightly aggrieved - You will note that warranty repairs have been done without a quibble however, Merc need to do more in terms of looking after existing customers. They are working towards making the product right - the newer cars A, M, SLK, CLS and E show that they are on the right path.

It might be very stupid, but if I have enough money, I would still buy one Merc than two accords. No wonder, I preferred Petra over Accent, NHC and Baleno.

[typeOnegative]

Originally Posted by RX135

It might be very stupid, but if I have enough money, I would still buy one Merc than two accords. No wonder, I preferred Petra over Accent, NHC and Baleno.

Why do I feel so much the same?

[tsk1979]

Dude, this is amazing, and i was harrassing tata for wrong fan speeds ! But man the first thing you should do is change your sig to something else

[GTO]

That is so so so true. Even more because it is a Mercedes. Something, that is perceived to be epitome of quality, engineering and perfection.

It might be very stupid, but if I have enough money, I would still buy one Merc than two accords.

If there is one thing to be highlit, its this : Mercedes is NOT the epitome of quality and perfection anymore. Reality bites pal. And its bit the boys from Germany sore. Go check out any quality ratings from various sources for the last 3 years and your doubts will be confirmed. Its absolutely outrageous when you pay top dollar for a car that is less reliable than even Tatas home grown Indica!

About the Accord vs Mercedes choice - Easier said than done. Try pouring 20+ Lacs of your money into a machine, spending 30,000 on every service and then have the car dying out on you. Get this - There were 3 Silver C Classes in my lane. As of today, the other two are sold and mine is the only one remaining.. This from what is a supposedly supreme automobile that breaks down more often than your neighbourhood taxicab.

The bottomline is that when you pay top dollar for something, you expect top grade quality and service. If it does not perform to even a basic level of expectations, the situation outright sucks. And Mercedes is aware of itself being at the bottom of the pile when it comes to the stakes of reliability.

Daimler knows, You know it and I know it. Mercedes is in huge trouble and are "trying" to play catch up with other luxury brands. The only ones benefitting from this scenario are the authorised service stations

But then again, this is just the tip of the iceberg. The word is spreading on problems faced by Mercs that are only 2 - 3 years old. What on earth can one expect once these cars are 5 years old? Or 7? Or more? I think that Benz is out to create a new record for the minimum possible time duration for road-worthiness! Mercedes USED to be the hallmark of quality and superiority. Now its the best example of someone who lost it. Big Time.

GTO

P.S. Mr. Mariwala, as the owner of Auto Hangar and Linkway Honda, deals in both - Mercedes Benz and Honda. HIS PERSONAL CAR IS A GOLDEN HONDA ACCORD V6

[vinsanity]

Woah, GTO....

Thats some news.. Hope the guys here(kerala) start to realise that.. I mean if they have the moolah, its just the mercs they can think of.. And especially here in Kerala where the roads(except for a handful) are not good , I dont understand how they go about driving them around hassle free... Lots of new mercs around, its a status symbol here and will remain for a long long time until people read this thread and think for once... hehehee..

Guess its slowly loosing its charm...

[Vulken Auto]

I see the population of benzs in hyd are incresing at alarming rate

[Rtech]

I think what sum's it up best for me is when you have to decide which car you want to take on a long distance trip with the family.

GTO, I think you mentioned more than once that you've picked the City or even the Esteem over the C class many times as you were just not sure of making it to your destination and back without a problem.

To have to do that with a 25 lakh automobile in the year 2005 is a disgrace.

[RX135]

My full sympathy is with you, GTO! And whatever remarks you have made against Merc are fully justified. I also have seen many problems reported worldwide with their cars in recent past.

DC always provide state-of-the art cars including latest eletronic gadgetry. (Off late, they break down on roads is a different part). Unfortunately, electronics is far behind in reliability when compared with mechanical parts. Why, even Nasa blows up their rockets and formula one cars break down in few laps (I am not comparing them directly with production street cars, but this is more of example).

DC sure has gone down, but it is not out yet. They have been refocussing on quality (or so they claim) and results will be seen in few years to come. But till then, poor customers like you will suffer for no fault of them :-( (I believe, you did not have to pay expenses from your pocket, since it was covered under warranty.)

There are phases in life of every great organization, where it nose dives downward, but surely and certainly bounces back. Daimler has been pioneer of Automobiles and they are not going to let the brand name go down that easily.

[GTO]

RX,

Dont keep any sympathies for me or any other Mercedes owners. If anyone needs this sentiment, its Daimler-Chrysler itself.

DC always provide state-of-the art cars including latest eletronic gadgetry. (Off late, they break down on roads is a different part). Unfortunately, electronics is far behind in reliability when compared with mechanical parts.

I totally disagree. There are many other manufacturers who provide a fair number of electronics, but yet are extremely reliable. Lexus is one that comes to mind as a high end player with a lot of techno in their cars, and Lexus is known for the least problems in its cars.

The Indian Honda Accord has almost every electronic that my C Class has : Traction control, ABS, electric mirrors/seats etc. How come the Japanese version is so much more reliable?

DC sure has gone down, but it is not out yet. They have been refocussing on quality (or so they claim) and results will be seen in few years to come.

Mercedes' downfall began with the launch of the first twin-lights E-Class in 1995, their slogan was "See Mercedes with new eyes". For sure everyone saw them with a new perspective. Only problem? It was negative.

One person to blame for this is a certain Mr. Jurgen Schrempp who focussed too much on the numbers and cut jobs/R&D/supplier costs significantly. For the first time in its history, the bean counters dominated. Mercedes were no longer over-engineered cars and were trying to replicate the Japanese mass-manufacturing and techniques (for cost savings and efficiency).

Consider this, the W126 S Class ruled the roost over a life span of 15 years uptil 1992. In that time not a single competitor even came close to it - in terms of sales, safety, engineering or quality. Current S Class' have generations lasting only 5 - 7 years with not too much differentiation from the competition.

I will be only too happy if Mercedes ever get back to the good old days. But it has two question marks. One is the "IF" factor. The second is, how does it benefit current owners?

For a change, its not everyone else....Its Mercedes whos trying to catch up

GTO

[GTO]

GTO, I think you mentioned more than once that you've picked the City or even the Esteem over the C class many times as you were just not sure of making it to your destination and back without a problem.

You said it, Rtech. And believe me when I say this - My 8 year 110,000 km Jeep spends a cumulative week of the road per annum - tops compared to this German piece of crap which spends a quarter.

On one trip, me and my family got the courage to take the C. Reach the destination fine. Suddenly in the evening, the malfunction display comes up and my father nods his head saying "Not again". Luckily, it was only a rear brake light bulb that time

GTO

[RX135]

Originally Posted by GTO

The Indian Honda Accord has almost every electronic that my C Class has : Traction control, ABS, electric mirrors/seats etc. How come the Japanese version is so much more reliable?

Alright, I'll reserve sympathies for DC (if required). But point I was making that, they always do provide state-of-the art gadgetry.

Who first provided ABS? Who invented traction control? Who provided electric windows first which are standard now? Who provided air bags first in production cars? and which company invented ESP? Which car provided Electronic braking first? No. They were not Japanese. They were Germans. Interesting, Daimler has always let others use the technology without filing patents and prohibiting it.

Japanese are traditionally good at manufacturing with high quality standards. Europeans are innovative, which sometimes are bound to fail.

In your case, it was a nightmare. But again surprisingly, DCIL is selling more and more cars in India.

[GTO]

RX135,

No one is doubting that Mercedes were supreme, and innovators. Look at my signature, I love the marque for who they were.

The problem is what they are right now : A Manufacturer of sub-standard products.

DCIL may be selling a good number of cars but that is because of a lack of awareness (which is the point of this and previous Merc threads by yours truly). No one knows about the problems to be expected, the exorbitant service costs or the lack of extended warranties.

If only I had access to such a thread before...I would have made an entirely different purchase decision.

GTO

[RX135]

I do understand the rational behind your thinking. But, I had intentionally quoted some innovations which happened in previous 2 decades. Unfortunately being "the first", these innovations also invariably face initial reliability hiccups, which is why so many issues are reported against Mercs.

If this continues further for another 5-10 years, I'll agree with you that DC has lost that status symbol and do not deserve the premium which they command.

And trust me, GTO, even if you had read such report earlier, you would not have made your decision entirely based on it. You would have talked with different owners (I am sure, you must have done that even now, when you bought your current car) and would have formed an opinion only after that. You can see, some of the folks on this forum have no issues Mercs (Was it Steeroid?).

[GTO]

RX,

I absolutely respect unbiased information that is available - Something that the auto magazines would not necessarily provide! As such, if I had access to a Team-BHP then...I had known the disaster that the new Mercedes is...of the high service costs and the below-par reliability levels, there is no way I would have picked up a Benz. Does it look like I will buy another new Merc?

There is a reason why Mercedes-Benz is ranked terribly in quality surveys - surveys which take customer feedback into account.

Fortunately, the innovations you speak about happened when Mercedes was at its best - producing quality machinery. None of the Mercedes' then had such severe quality glitches despite being fresh with abs systems and airbags. I would suggest going back and seeing the problems relevant to my car - Its not restricted to any breakthrough technologies!! Air-conditioning, suspension components, CD players and engine related problems fill the list. I even had interior bits falling off, where the heck is innovation in there?

The reason that Mercedes-Benz is in such doldrums in NOT innovation...its simple $$$ reasoning!

GTO