E300 Hybrid Reliability Issues

[simonrip]

Thanks very much. That is certainly food for thought.

Simon

 

[John Laidlaw]

Simon, the other difference is that the E Class made me feel special, at least in the beginning (although towards the end of my 2 years they were becoming ten a penny), and I for sure bonded with the car, it had 'soul'. The A6 in the beginning hasn't given me those feelings yet, I guess I'm just 'spoiled'!
It is early days however.

 

[simonrip]

John,

I agree, I have also found the E300 to be a delight - after the rather inauspicious start. The only niggle is the total lack of any lumbar support, which is unforgiveable on a 40k car. My wife, who generally doesn't think much of big executive barges, absolutely loves the power and luxury, and would happily drive it every day.

Mercedes must wonder what on earth is going on when customers, who are thrilled with their car, choose a different brand next time just for the sake of change!

Given how fast these premium cars seem to depreciate now, I think it is high time I stopped wasting money, and bought a 3-4 year old car with all the toys to hang onto for a good few years. Your experience of the A6 chimes with mine when I owned one quite a few years ago. Very competent in all areas, but no wow factor.

Simon

 

[John Laidlaw]

good summary Simon!
I had forgotten on the lumbar support, there was a very basic mechanical one in mine which didn't do a lot the A6 seat has 4 way electronic which seems to be fine.

 

[Rob Thailand]

My experience with my E300 Hybrid has been a disaster. It is 2.5 years old and has only covered 11,000 kms. It has been picked up on a transporter twice as it was totally dead. It has spent 2 separate weeks in the MB dealer. After sending an e mail to the CEO in Thailand (a German friend gave it to me) I thought at last I would receive some sort of help which was not forthcoming from their Thai technical department. The after sales director contacted me and after rubbishing the local MB dealer arranged to have it taken to a dealer in Bangkok. It was driven to Bangkok and back and not transported which was not pleasing - anyway they kept the vehicle for 2 weeks. It still is not right but I asked for the vehicle to be replaced as I didn't think it was fit for purpose - since this he refuses to answer my e mails! It has had two auxiliary batteries replaced and a recharge on another occasion. He did extend the warranty to 5 years which I would imagine will be a Godsend.
I also complained about the vinyl interior instead of the leather which is advertised together with swatches with the leather symbol stamped on them, as I had sat in a C300 (3 million baht) Hybrid that actually has a leather interior. The salesmen in my local dealership could not believe the the E Class interior was not leather.
I also find the delay of the automatic gearbox is unacceptable - feels like a mid 90s Honda Accord that I took for a test drive in those days. This E Class amg wheels spec cost me 4.1 (now 4.2)million baht (then about 82,000 pounds). Would I buy another? Well I love the looks and nothing else I'm afraid. What I really dislike is the pompous attitude of Mercedes Benz Thailand, makes one feel helpless. Luckily my Toyota Hilux pickup at 9.5 years has never missed a beat.

 

[lochetive]

John,

I agree, I have also found the E300 to be a delight - after the rather inauspicious start. The only niggle is the total lack of any lumbar support, which is unforgiveable on a 40k car. My wife, who generally doesn't think much of big executive barges, absolutely loves the power and luxury, and would happily drive it every day.

Mercedes must wonder what on earth is going on when customers, who are thrilled with their car, choose a different brand next time just for the sake of change!

Given how fast these premium cars seem to depreciate now, I think it is high time I stopped wasting money, and bought a 3-4 year old car with all the toys to hang onto for a good few years. Your experience of the A6 chimes with mine when I owned one quite a few years ago. Very competent in all areas, but no wow factor.

Simon

Hi there. Re your comments on lumber support. I couldn't agree more - however I can suggest a solution. I had a similar problem with my back and my mercs and purchased a Mercedes inflatable/adjustable lumber support from the dealer. It was about £80 but a fantastic purchase and thoroughly recommended. It may sound a lot for a "cushion" but it really does work a treat. I would however get the dealer to fit it as its not as easy as you'd think. Cheers.

 

[John Laidlaw]

Hi there. Re your comments on lumber support. I couldn't agree more - however I can suggest a solution. I had a similar problem with my back and my mercs and purchased a Mercedes inflatable/adjustable lumber support from the dealer. It was about £80 but a fantastic purchase and thoroughly recommended. It may sound a lot for a "cushion" but it really does work a treat. I would however get the dealer to fit it as its not as easy as you'd think. Cheers.

That sounds like a good solution. You are in a fantastic part of the country and I guess you will be enjoying the 300h on the ride there!

 

[danny111]

John,

I agree, I have also found the E300 to be a delight - after the rather inauspicious start. The only niggle is the total lack of any lumbar support, which is unforgiveable on a 40k car. My wife, who generally doesn't think much of big executive barges, absolutely loves the power and luxury, and would happily drive it every day.

Mercedes must wonder what on earth is going on when customers, who are thrilled with their car, choose a different brand next time just for the sake of change!

Given how fast these premium cars seem to depreciate now, I think it is high time I stopped wasting money, and bought a 3-4 year old car with all the toys to hang onto for a good few years. Your experience of the A6 chimes with mine when I owned one quite a few years ago. Very competent in all areas, but no wow factor.

Simon

Hi

I just thought I would share my experience with my E300 ~Hybrid Estate.

I have completed 230 k miles in the 3 years I have had mine, I use it as a chauffeur car, the only problem I had was injectors that went one after another at around 160k miles.

A good judgement of a car for me is, would I buy another one, in the case of the E300 Hybrid, I would definitely do so.

My only complaint is always the treatment you receive from the Main Dealers, in my case Stratford On Avon, I have stopped having the car serviced there anymore, they seem to try there very best to just be dam awkward.

I have used MSL in Birmingham for all the servicing on this car and would highly recommend them for anyone in the area.

 

[AndyMills]

I seem to have a new problem with my 2015 E300 hybrid, Ive had it 3 months and its now done 55k miles and since Ive had it Ive noticed its not charging above 81%. The engine warning light comes on for about 10 mins every month or so and goes away again and I get a "Reversing not possible, consult workshop" message pop up now and again, (it always is possible so no problem there). It has been to the dealer and had a service and they have looked at the hybrid battery and say they cant find a fault with it (they are now 11k !) and they say there is a problem with the gearbox and its going back to be fixed this week after 2/3 weeks of waiting for the part. They hope this and some gearbox tuning may solve the problem.
So my question is how high do they charge up to? Anybody get it to 100% ?

 

[V6Matty]

My lug never got to 100% charged, normally around 85% unless I'm on a lot of down hill stretches and it's recovering energy on lift off. Most batteries like to sit between 30-85% charged at any one time to give longevity. So it sounds like yours is doing what it should in that respect, gearbox on the other hand does sound wrong but hopefully the part and software update will get you sorted.

 

[AndyMills]

My lug never got to 100% charged, normally around 85% unless I'm on a lot of down hill stretches and it's recovering energy on lift off. Most batteries like to sit between 30-85% charged at any one time to give longevity. So it sounds like yours is doing what it should in that respect, gearbox on the other hand does sound wrong but hopefully the part and software update will get you sorted.

From the new Mercedes advert for the cars coming out next year " Mercedes says a 7.4kW charger will replenish the car's battery from 10 to 100% capacity in under two hours." Got me worried mine was faulty but yes mine doesnt go below 35% before the engine cuts in and not over 81% , was just wondering if that was normal and not just a case of Mercedes waiting until any warranty on the battery was gone before they say its faulty lol
Its a shame it doesnt go higher as this would give longer runs on electric but its not a tesla is it, even if the battery prices are the same
Thanks for the reply.

 

[John Laidlaw]

Yip ain’t gonna go much above that really- gearbox is attached to the electric hybrid motor in these too so get that looked at ASAP

 

[PeterParker]

I'm having a "diesel-electric engine handover" problem resulting in total loss of power. I bought my E300 Estate BlueTec Hybrid in 2016 2nd hand (from a Merc executive) and the problem occurred about twice a year - re-starting the engine clears the problem. The dashboard shows a Malfunction message. The internal system did not log anything and no garage was able to fix it. This weekend the problem occurred about 7 times and I was able to notice that the READY word always went from yellow to green when the power loss occurred. With this frequency the problem is a hazard and it's now with the local Merc dealer to try and fix it with the benefit of a detailed report on when the problem happens. I'll report progress. I think it is important that owners share their experiences to understand to what extent Mercedes knows about this issue.

 

[AndyMills]

Well I had my gearbox problem fixed (50% discount, thanks Mercedes Watford) and not had a problem since, battery now charges higher but engine still cuts in at 33%, might try and see if this can be lowered at next service. Overall still very happy to be driving this car.

 

[PeterParker]

This is a followup to my entry 10 Apr 2019. The merc dealer (Lincoln) had my car for a week. They initially struggled to identify the problem. Their engineer attached probes to the engine and in test drives was able to reproduce the fault and capture log data (up to now there was no log data to work on). This helped to identify the fault as being the starter engine. The bill was reasonable and clearly at a discount to the time they worked on it so a big thank you to Lincoln merc dealership engineers. The car now drives superbly.

 

[V6Matty]

Good to hear Lincoln Merc come good again, they do seem to have a good reputation.