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superstevie May 15, 2009 3:56 PM

Your not alone there. Been into merc a few times over the past couple of months sorting out my new smart, and nothing there appeals to me. Had a C-Class as a courtesy car as well, which was beige outside and in. Who buys beige cars??? the interior was just awful! The GL is just monsterous, ML looks unfinished in design, C-class looks ok depending on spec, e-class too old mans car, a/b class is an odd pair. Only the CLS looks decent but sadly waaay out of my reach

chrispinkney May 15, 2009 4:01 PM

My thoughts exactly, apart from the old CL55 I've never seen the attraction ofa Mercedes, they leave me cold as they are souless overdesigned, overpriced cars with a great marketing history which took advantage on the poor products sold by their UK competitors in the 70's.  People have long memories and Mercs have a reputation which means a lot of people would not even think of going anywhere else or even trying a different manufacturer despite most of their models being underpowered and mediocre.  BMW are nearly the same but at least they drive well, the power of marketing, a badge and peoples perception.

TegTypeR May 15, 2009 4:08 PM

A man after my own heart.  My parents have owned a string of Mercedes over the past twelve years and none of them have done anything for me including my fathers current lump a CLK500.

In my opinion, they are over priced new, poorly made, and really do nothing to deserve the status they some how have gained.

Sad but true for a car maker I once had a great respect for.

jonfortwo May 15, 2009 4:19 PM

There is no reason whatsoever for the B Class but a knocked about, well used diesel in a dark colour parked on a seedy Paris street is pure class. i also really like the GL because its just so bloody big.

The CLS however is a big mistake, Mercs attempt to out Jag Jag is ghastly.

MrTrilby May 15, 2009 5:07 PM

My Dad is long time Mercedes fan, and replaced his E Class with a new and reasonably high spec ML a few months ago. He told me this week that the ML, along with the Mercedes ownership experience, has convinced him that this will be his last Mercedes. It's a shame because the cars that Mercedes were making in the late 1980s were utterly fantastic and something to aspire to.

MrJOD May 15, 2009 5:34 PM

Would have to say that my wife's A class is fabulous: very premium feel, well built and drives extremely well in most respects (wasn't really made for driving on the door handles...).

C and E class are very good to drive (if not quite as sporting in intent as equivalent BMW), and S class is wonderful to be driven in (never driven it). An E class estate, in particular, doesn't really have any peers as a classy load carrier.

My father's old SLK seemed a tad overpowered for its chassis (traction control on nearly all the time if you pushed it a bit) and a lot less fun then an MX5 to be honest.

I don't really see the point of some of the niche cars (B class, R class), but that's true of other manufacturers (the X6 may be the only car to make the R class seem rational...)

Howey May 15, 2009 6:21 PM

i have worked on and off for Mercedes in various capacities since 1990,starting off as a technician and i would like to add my ten pence worth.

the cars of the 70's,80's and early 90's were built to be the best they could possible be.

cars from mid 90's onwards were built down to a price and  suffered from Mercedes' desire to ramp up production volumes and fill every niche available.(the

Chysler debacle also didnt help)

cars from 2004 onwards are much improved, the new C and E class are as well made as any other competitor.

whether they are your cup of tea is down to

personal preference.

comparing a car against a car from 20 years ago is not really that fair a comparison. yes a current E may need to visit a dealership for more niggles than a W124 E, but it is also a much more complex car with an immense amount of safety and luxury features fitted ,but  ultimately they are still mechanically sound.

i suspect this is the same for most luxury car manufacturers nowadays. i have just spent the last 7

years working for Porsche and the same can be said there , for example a 996 or 997 series car will be in to the dealership more often than a 911sc,964 or993 series car would have been - it is all down to the complexities of the design.

love or hate Mercedes, the quality is back in the cars and they do 'exactly what they say on the tin'.

its all down to personal choice.

TegTypeR May 15, 2009 6:52 PM

With regards to Howeys comments....

Yes, cars are far more complex than they were twenty years ago and there is far more to go wrong, but how comes the Japanese can make them work without having to go near a dealer on a regular basis?

Personal choice or not, I'm afraid to say the percieved quality may be back but the actual durability and real quality isn't.

Uncle Mellow May 15, 2009 7:10 PM

   Ruppert is being a bit unkind perhaps. Latest C class looks good , and they've made it taller than before so OAP's can get in more easily. CLS is quite nice as well , tho' too dear and much too bulky for me. I actually fell in love with the old 190 saloon after I'd had about 10 years to warm to the styling and would have bought one if I hadn't been seduced by a certain Japanese marque ( which has to visit the dealer every 60K for a timing belt change )

drivenfromtherearplease May 15, 2009 10:31 PM

The W123 (my fave), W124 and 190 were just sooooo solid. Colleagues have the new C Class and after a few months of smiles they are all now bored/back and for the the garage with issues. I had 1994 C220 some years back but after 3 months swapped for an Alfa GTV T/Spark. So glad as the GTV was fantastic and gave no probs. Honest! Ok the locks froze one morning at -3.

There is not one Merc that interstes me presently, including the C63.

A friend of the family has just swapped his CLC for a BMW 118d and is amazed at the difference in the drive and the build quality.

Lexus is the new Merc I think. As Teg sayes Japanese engineering is quality.

W124 May 15, 2009 10:55 PM

The A class is the only real Merc now.  Design genius of the highest calibre. Though the new E looks good.  I might add that, having had 4 W124 models in a row, I can honestly say they are totally brilliant cars.  Not as reliable as people make out but all other cars feel cheap in comparison - I can also vouch for the W124 in an accident, properly tough.  Also they are amazing machines for long distances.

The most reliable cars I've had have all been Peugeots.

ESB May 16, 2009 6:17 AM

Spot on. No emotional appeal whatsoever. Questionable design (look at new C-class A pillar meets bonnet disaster). Duff image. Low tech engines, or at least perceived low tech engines (who aspires to have KOMPRESSOR scrawled over the back of their car!). Then again, these failings don't surprise me from a company that though it a shrewd business move to ally themselves with the worst car company on the planet . I'd take a BMW or Honda anyday

Howey May 16, 2009 10:31 AM

i totally agree re W124s comments. i have owned a couple of W124 models and they were such fantastic cars , comfortable, a real sense of presence when driving and screwed together well. they did go wrong though and i remember the early years of my career were spent replacing head gaskets, fixing leaky rocker covers, replacing leaky differential seals etc.

Mercedes saloons never used to have sporty pretensions, they were built as form following function and to cover huge mileages safely and comfortably.We were never trying to be at the height of fashion.We

are hopefully re-embracing these values more as each new model line is released but with a bit of design flair thrown in for good measure....

Howey May 16, 2009 10:36 AM

Hi Teg,

with regards to the Japanese cars, i have owned 3 civics recently (1 type-R and 2 cdt-i diesels) and they were awesome cars. i wouldnt really say there was

any groundbreaking tech on them though and this is

the issue with Mercedes sometimes. they fit new safety and comfort systems to their production cars and it can sometimes be 'troublesome' to say the least but at least they are pushing the technological boundaries.

Lexus - a nice range of  saloons packed with safe old tried and tested Toyota technology.i am sure if Mercedes followed the same principle and played it safe then the percieved reliablilty of the cars would improve no end but then who will innovate?

where Mercedes lead the rest tend to follow, in my humble opinion.

blktoy May 17, 2009 1:23 AM

Whilst most of the cars are very good i`m afraid that the lineup has become too confusing.

julianphillips May 17, 2009 8:54 AM

"Mercedes saloons never used to have sporty pretensions, they were built as form following function and to cover huge mileages safely and comfortably."  What about the 6.9 SEL saloon?

Dan McNeil May 17, 2009 9:31 AM

Howey:   "where Mercedes lead the rest tend to follow, in my humble opinion."

-------------

By Merc leading and others following, do you mean the way Merc introduced electronic anti-lock brakes in the early 1980s, after being inspired by Chrysler introducing a mechanical version to their cars in the early 1970s?

Or, by this, do you mean Merc introducing air suspension to some of its high-end cars in the 1970s, after being inspired by Citroen's introduction of hydropneumatic suspension in the 1950s.?

Merc are a deeply conservative car company.   They don't lead, they follow.

Steelydan May 17, 2009 12:10 PM

The article is bilge. Get out of a Mondeo and into a C class and you'll soon know which one you prefer. I'd also take the C class over the c*ckmobiles that are the A4 or the 3 series. Get back to your 25 year old Saabs, Ruppert. You don't belong here.

patter May 17, 2009 6:40 PM

Clearly your all wrong the point of all these classes is not for ordinary folk its so that they can have a class for every letter of the alphabet and then instead of a rich oil sheik having a personalised number plate with his name on it he can have a personalised Merc fleet that each car spells his name!!

hohum May 17, 2009 10:20 PM

In the rest of Europe it's easier to classify Mercs.

Some have 'Taxi' signs.  ;o)

James Ruppert May 17, 2009 10:59 PM

My Saab is only 12 years old...

Dan McNeil May 17, 2009 11:08 PM

"My Saab is only 12 years old..."

------------------

...and better looking at 12 than the designed-by-a-committee-that-never-met horror that is the current C-class will be at the same age...

Dan McNeil May 17, 2009 11:13 PM

Do Merc still use the risible specification nomenclature such as 'Avantgarde' (and I always thought Germans, like Yanks, didn't do irony) for their cars?

Steelydan May 18, 2009 1:18 PM

Dan, Dan, Dan...when have you ever seen a Mercedes that doesn't age well, hmm? They all do.

Dan McNeil May 18, 2009 1:58 PM

Tell you what - let's meet on here in 12 years time and discuss the current Merc line-up.  

Steelydan May 18, 2009 4:54 PM

I'll be there. Seriously though, Mercs always age really well. There isn't one that hasn't.

Dan McNeil May 18, 2009 6:40 PM

You may be right.   I'd prefer to be alive though when the current crop reach mature status!

Broom Broom June 16, 2009 9:08 PM

As with all cars, the storyline of Mercedes products has to be set against the context of the time in which they were manufactured.

The backdrop in the 1960s and '70s was that of a starkly divided society, where the working class driver was as likely to consider getting into debt with a loan for a vehicle as he was to think about leaving his wife and buying a pile in France as a renovation project. This meant that prestige cars could afford to be expensively over-engineered, and the perceived quality differential was relevant.

In the '80s, with the wash of newly-moneyed low-to-middle classes still perceived as distinct from the floundering oiks, Mercedes and BMW could afford to adopt marketing and design values that implied theirs were rarefied products.

In the '90s, things began to change, with the now long-established nouveau-riche's liquid cash filtering through to markets where once only the less materially neurotic, urbane establishment spent its money. Subtlety was overtaken by a need to have a superficial and immediate impact on the owner's vulgar peers, and so reliance on understated impressions of quality that would be imparted by a manufacturer to the more discerning buyer became a financial liability. Where Volkswagen forged ahead with supplying probably the best build quality of any company in the mid-to-late '90s, Mercedes was forced into a position where, with cars like the E55 and C36 AMGs, vehicles that were dynamically below par struggled to compete, and for a few years made-do with more easily accessed increases in engine performance.

Throughout this period, build quality simply became a forgotten postscript, and after almost a decade of producing cars that catered to the crass inadequacies of the sort of people who believe that adding-up their credit card limits equates to genuine wealth, they have finally been able to concentrate not only on performance, but also, now, on coming close to matching the quality of VW Audis, and, to a large degree, the excitement of BMWs.

I feel they have finally regained some status as purveyors of quality, style, and understatement with the new C-Class and E-Class. Once models like the B-Class and SLK, that are testaments to the limbo of lazy design and mass market imperatives, have been either removed from the range or recreated with some inspiration, then Mercedes will have reformed itself to a large degree, and will again be making desirable cars that offer some interesting and unique qualities.

We will probably never return to a time when cars spiritually mean what they meant to us in previous decades, partly because of the sheer scope that modern engineering affords manufacturers, and partly because society is unlikely to return to the economic class divides of yesteryear.

Ironically, for the most part, cars have now become fundamentally less aesthetically attractive, with most brands succumbing to infantile design devices, such as the compulsion towards cartwheel sized alloys, to mask an underlying lack of inspiration and the inherent ugliness that modern aerodynamic and packaging requirements prescribe. This latter problem is only likely to become more pronounced, yet, at present, Mercedes seem to have discovered the flare to create a new and attractive design motif to roll out across the range.