New E class Merc - any thoughts
"Mercedes claims the updated E-Class due to go on sale this summer will be free of the reliability bugs that have affected the current model since launch in 2002. The revised car has been put through the most intensive testing schedule Mercedes has ever undertaken with a single model. It features 2000 new parts compared with the outgoing car, including five new or revised engines and improved safety aids (see separate stories). Mercedes has also been working with component suppliers to ensure uniform quality standards at every company which provides parts for the E-Class. Its target is to reduce warranty claims to a lower level than those at Toyota, a company renowned for outstanding reliability.
Electrical glitches are among the most common problems experienced by the current E-Class. Mercedes claims to have ironed these out by testing every component separately outside the car to ensure durability under all conditions.
The braking system has also been changed. The 2002 E-Class had a part-electronic mechanism that was the subject of a recall campaign, but this has been dropped. Mercedes says it can now get the same braking effectiveness by conventional means.
In all, 1000 pre-production versions of the new E-Class were tested for a total distance of nearly three million miles. This will now become the schedule for every new Mercedes".
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Looks like MB have got the message,going to be difficult to get the warranty claims down to Toyota levels though.
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Toyoyta warranty claims have been going - albeit - from a very low base.
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With catastrophic corrosion on the W210 (1996-2002) and shameful reliability problems on the W211 (2002 to date), there's a Grand Canyon of a credibility gap to close. For things to have gone so badly wrong with the E-Class -- the model that must be MB's greatest source of gross profit, given the volume produced and the prices charged -- defies belief, but there you go. As I've said before, as an MB owner I feel more than a little sad about all this, but if I were in the market for a new car I would not touch an MB until this model is at least three years old and the turn-around case is proven beyond doubt.
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I agree with RJ - IMHO you cannot turn around reliability and customer care problems that easily. In reality to get anywhere near the Japs it will take alot longer than a few million miles road testing. It will take a complete overhaul of the supply chain - not just working with them for a few months. My guess is that it will be 5-10 years before MB are back anywhere near Toyota let alone Lexus. If it was that easy & cheap to do - every car company would be doing it. I think MB is insulting our intelligence so some gullible people can start buying MB cars again.
Mercedes will also have to start reducing the number of options it offers & include them as standard - this way it will start to produce standard vehicles time after time - that is how you reduce variability and with it increase reliability. (Everyone thought the Japs offered electric everything because it was the only way they could sell cars - it was so they could make every car the same - and get it right every time). The vast majority of MB warranty woes have been on all the optional toys is sells.
If I was top man at Toyota / Lexus - I will still be sleeping well tonight.
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Well, I don't know; looking around this part of Dundee there are plenty of Mercedes - these smallish, usually black, coupe ones are almost two a penny - while Toyotas are not that plentiful and a Lexus would be an event. Seemingly it's not how often you break down that matters, it's the badge you are broken down behind!
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In all, 1000 pre-production versions of the new E-Class were tested for a total distance of nearly three million miles. This will now become the schedule for every new Mercedes".
I would hope that it would take more than 3k miles per car for them to fall apart... (I appreciate that some won't have travelled more than 10m before hitting the concrete block and the average will include cars that cancel this out, but it's not as punishing a test schedule as it sounds).
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