Mr. Ricky 66917200
Mr. Ricky 66917200
The End of Mercedes
For the interested...
Having grown up with a W126 Mercedes 280SEL which based on the 380SEL winning Wheels car of the year the year before, I can attest to the sheer over engineering of all Mercedes Benzs constructed prior to 1995, when the accountants took over from the engineers.
My mums S class ran faultlessly for 31 years and always ran like a swiss watch, and is still one of the most comfortable cars for long distance driving I have enjoyed the pleasure of being a passenger and as a driver over less than perfect road surfaces that one faces in a great southern land called Australia. The car handled 50 degree exterior temperatures in central Australia, never over heating, never developing a crack in any of its interior materials, which would have split the dashboards of every other European make exposed to the harsh Australian sun.
Mum traded Herman the German in 2004, which was a sad day to see that car go, and I remember driving up to our 15 acre holiday house on the Surf Coast of Victoria in it, the year before, thinking to myself, " what a good car these old Mercs are." It's probably still going strong with its new owner with another 100,000km on the clock!
Mercs back then were a car for life, now they suffer components with engineered/ timed obsolescence ( like everybody else ) , which is great for the dealership selling parts but sucks if you happen to own the car. But then again, I also remember when Mercedes only had 4 models in their range, and they were bloody expensive to buy initially, $100,000AUS in my parents case back in 1983, now they have models that anybody can afford, ie they cheapened the brand quite a lot over the last 21 years ie A class, B class and C class.
I have a mate who bought a 2000 model SL500 AMG merc convertible, he's up for $140,000hkd in repairs on a 16 year old car that is now just becoming a nightmare to maintain. Not surprised that long wheel base sedan S class mercs get scrapped at the same age, lots of electronic problems and air suspension failures with that model, which makes them uneconomical to repair
2005 7 series BMW suffer the same fate, a $35,000 car that has a nasty habit of having its electronic hand break shitting itself, which costs as much as the used value of the whole car to replace. And fail they do, every single one of them.
Last edited by Skyhook; 04-04-2016 at 12:10 PM.
I still have a 2000 model E46 323i back in London
Owned it for 12 years and apart from usual wear and tear on tyres etc I've only had to repair the motor for one of the rear electric Windows.
Pretty much bullet proof
been driving the S500 for the past week, its a beast, taking off from the lights is so dangerous, a few times i looked down and Im already doing 100 kmh. my driving points is not going to be safe for long LOL
4cyl 3 series are made in Sth Africa.
X5's are made in USA
X3's are made in Austria
BMW has also started manufacturing in Mexico,so you'll see more cars made there too in the future.
4 door C class Mercs are made in Sth Africa, the 2 door coupes are made in Germany.
ML series are made in USA
A & B class are made in Finland and Hungary