[stanjohn123]

Originally Posted by Mayavi

I take it you haven't owned any Mercedes made between 2002 and 2006, especially the C-class?

There is a reason why Mercedes took a beating post year 2000, till 2006, before realizing that they are losing market share and invested in quality. The W203 C class is one of the worst cars when it comes to quality. No wonder Mercedes emphasized their '1 million miles of testing' and showcased the engineering when advertising W204, while all the previous adverts emphasized luxury and status.

I think there are enough people on this forum who own cars built during those years and they can tell you the problems they had. I had one for 2 years before I switched to BMW, unable to keep up with the repairs. That said, I drove the newer W204 for a while and can tell you that they are not lying in their advertisements.

Perfectly said Mayavi. I think it was the same thing said on Top Gear as well. 2000-2006 was the year of pretty bad Merc's. Since their priority was mainly on profits so they had compromised on build quality.

I have a feeling Audi's are still making bad car's. Hear a lot of problems with their transmissions,electrical's and engines even post 2006 models, in fact recently Q5 of 2009 had transmission problems.

Can anyone verify the unreliability of Audi's as i have never owned one but have heard few complaints from Customers.

[dubeee]

The Merc/Beemer debate tends to polarise the crowd. With the exception of the SLs, I've always been a BMW fan and still have a 5 & 8 series which are pure driver cars. We have a 750il at the office which as stated is to be driven in. The Mercs that I know were always chauffeur driven. In Europe many of the smaller Mercs are basically utilitarian cars, especially the cabbies. I feel that with the exception of the S6/A8/R8, Audi is a brand still looking for an identity!

[sanjeev.d]

@Mayavi You're right...I owned an E-class for most of that period. Although I am aware of the trouble they had during that time, you can't possible say that no other car has had that kind of trouble. All I'm saying is that they're back to their relatively higher standard of reliability, & I for one am glad about it.

[GTO]

My list of favourites has more Mercs (W126, W140, W124 etc.) than BMWs. In fact, the only BMW I have really loved till date has been the E39 M5.

Yet, I'll say this : The new 5 series completely owns the E-Class. As an overall package, it is decidedly superior. Timeless looks, way better to drive, stunning diesels and (within the Indian perspective of things) 5-year full maintenance packages. Sure, it doesn't have the pure steering of the E60, and the Mercedes still has an advantage in outright comfort..but for the owner who drives himself (even if only on weekends), the 5 series is supreme.

I wouldn't take this magazine comparison seriously. End of the day, its someone else's opinion and only you know whats best for yourself.

[ajmat]

but for the owner who drives himself (even if only on weekends), the 5 series is supreme.

..until the owner goes for a drive out of town, runs over a nail in a rural area and pssssss. A group of us went to Pondy last weekend. One of the cars was an X5 having fun! I left a day early but I heard that they took an alternate route via Vellore and suffered a puncture, kept filling air, then got a tyre walla to patch something up. Am interested to know what the jugaad solution was !!! They reached home 2 hours late

[dr_know]

The article is just the personal view of the reviewer and I think it would be biased on ones personal preferences.

If I ever wrote a review of these two mine would be definitely biased towards the BMW as I see the Merc's as just luxurious cars not so much a drivers car!

Originally Posted by Nitin

'Ultimate driving machine'.

They changed their slogan from that to 'Efficient Dynamics' which is not to my personal liking but then again its not like I had any say!! But like you said there previous slogan was true to the word!

[volkman10]

Mercedes pips BMW and wins the Premium sales race in 2020.

- BMW brand delivered 2 028 659 units over the course of the year, representing a year-on-year drop of 7,2 percent.

- The Mercedes-Benz brand, meanwhile, reported 2 164 187 units (including V-Class and X-Class sales) over the same period, falling by 7,5 percent.

- Audi delivered 1 692 773 units in 2020, some 8,3 percent down

Performance divisions of the two brands

- BMW M sold a record 144 218 units (up 5,9 percent) in 2020

- Mercedes-AMG managed 125 129 units (down 5,3 percent).

The BMW Group (as opposed to brand)

- BMW brand, Mini, Rolls-Royce and BMW Motorrad), the Munich-based firm hit 2 324 809 units (down 8,4 percent)


- Mercedes-Benz Cars (including the Mercedes brand as well as Smart), which ended on 2 202 578 units

- Remove the 169 272 units of BMW-branded motorcycles from the equation and the picture changes. In addition, add Mercedes-Benz Vans’ commercial sales of 325 771 units to the mix and the Daimler-backed automaker’s total figure rises to 2 528 349 units.


Source:

[volkman10]

2022:

BMW narrowly beats Mercedes in 2022 annual sales.

The Munich-based company delivered just about 56,000 more vehicles than its Stuttgart rival.

BMW retained the crown for the best-selling German premium automaker last year beating Mercedes-Benz with a minimal advantage. Both brands saw declines in their deliveries but the firm from Munich managed to deliver 56,792 more vehicles worldwide to claim the victory.

BMW sold a total of 2,100,692 units around the globe last year, which represents a decrease of 5.1 percent compared to last year. Mercedes, in turn, reports 2,043,900 sales, down 1.0 percent compared to the previous year.

BMW seems to be proud of the fact that its hybrid and electric vehicles sales were up by 35.6 percent last year to a total of 372,956 units. Mercedes sold 319,200 plug-in and fully electric cars, an increase of 19 percent. Including sales from Smart, almost every second car sold by Mercedes-Benz Passenger Cars in 2022 was battery-powered (44 percent of overall retail unit sales).


Link