The REALITY Behind AMG Hand-built Engines

Blobcat

Moderator
Joined
Feb 8, 2006
Messages
38,785
Reaction score
27,420
Location
Grange Moor
Your Mercedes
R171 SLK280, Smart R451, Land Rover 110 County SW, 997 C2S, R1250 GSA TE 40th, CBR600FP
That writer seems pretty bitter
 
OP
N

Naraic

Moderator
Joined
Mar 4, 2010
Messages
10,686
Reaction score
1,274
Your Mercedes
2005 CL500.
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • Moderator
  • #3

A.J.

Senior Member
Joined
May 31, 2015
Messages
21,258
Reaction score
9,581
Location
Norwich. UK
Your Mercedes
UnMerc - 2020 VW Polo 2.0t GTi Plus, DSG. Flash Red, Traditional VW GTi Tartan seat trim.
Another myth exploded :shock:
 
OP
N

Naraic

Moderator
Joined
Mar 4, 2010
Messages
10,686
Reaction score
1,274
Your Mercedes
2005 CL500.
  • Thread Starter
  • Thread starter
  • Moderator
  • #5
The myth was exploded long ago...I was just surprised to see the article in Mercedes Magazine.
 

thebiglad

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 15, 2018
Messages
410
Reaction score
233
Location
Central France
Your Mercedes
2005 CLK 270 cdi
Sadly when I look at the 'quality' of all things Mercedes today, by comparison to the days of 123 & 124 it almost makes me cry.

Mercedes used to build what could be honestly called quality cars; quality in design and execution. But not now.

Like so many other mfrs their electronics (which are used for cheapness) are appallingly poor. Bodies that rust, engines that collapse etcetc.

I'm not saying that Mercedes are alone, sadly. I'm saying that they do not deserve the veneration they are still being given.
 

John Laidlaw

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2013
Messages
26,373
Reaction score
9,163
Location
Wirral
Your Mercedes
Land Rover Discovery 4
I was in Affalterbach in May this year, and whilst the article is correct in that it is in effect ‘one man one assembly’ , that’s pretty obvious isn’t it?
Can you imagine one man crafting all the component parts of each engine? Ludicrous.
What I can say is the attention to detail is superior to anything I’ve witnessed before, the component parts being out together are of course extremely precise indeed. Cylinders with Nano Glide and such like.
You just have to see the engine test cell to understand what goes on.
Yes, hugely overmarketed but I’ll rather have my engine from there than many other places.
Oh, an inaccuracy on the article- no 4 cylinder engines are built there at all...nor 6 cylinder these days.
 

Srdl

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 8, 2015
Messages
7,102
Reaction score
5,904
Location
Hampshire
Your Mercedes
GLC43 AMG 2018 (X253)
...I was just surprised to see the article in Mercedes Magazine.
It doesn’t appear to be an official Mercedes publication though. Can’t really tell who the publisher is.
 

rorywquin

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2016
Messages
9,488
Reaction score
6,385
Location
North Yorkshire
Your Mercedes
An old B-Class.
I was in Affalterbach in May this year, and whilst the article is correct in that it is in effect ‘one man one assembly’ , that’s pretty obvious isn’t it?
Can you imagine one man crafting all the component parts of each engine? Ludicrous.
What I can say is the attention to detail is superior to anything I’ve witnessed before, the component parts being out together are of course extremely precise indeed. Cylinders with Nano Glide and such like.
You just have to see the engine test cell to understand what goes on.
Yes, hugely overmarketed but I’ll rather have my engine from there than many other places.
Oh, an inaccuracy on the article- no 4 cylinder engines are built there at all...nor 6 cylinder these days.


Ditto - also been to the factory and would love one of their engines.
 

Blobcat

Moderator
Joined
Feb 8, 2006
Messages
38,785
Reaction score
27,420
Location
Grange Moor
Your Mercedes
R171 SLK280, Smart R451, Land Rover 110 County SW, 997 C2S, R1250 GSA TE 40th, CBR600FP
I was in Affalterbach in May this year, and whilst the article is correct in that it is in effect ‘one man one assembly’ , that’s pretty obvious isn’t it?
Can you imagine one man crafting all the component parts of each engine? Ludicrous.
What I can say is the attention to detail is superior to anything I’ve witnessed before, the component parts being out together are of course extremely precise indeed. Cylinders with Nano Glide and such like.
You just have to see the engine test cell to understand what goes on.
Yes, hugely overmarketed but I’ll rather have my engine from there than many other places.
Oh, an inaccuracy on the article- no 4 cylinder engines are built there at all...nor 6 cylinder these days.
He hasn't let the facts get in the way of a story... :rolleyes:

I don't believe they ever sold AMG as blue-printed engines and the disparaging comments about the engine builders is very harsh. Why wouldn't you use electronic toque wrenches that set the fastenings to the correct torque every time?

It's a non-story written by someone quite bitter who's probably trying to save for an AMG-Line who believes it's as good as any M155 engine :rolleyes:. It will have a bodykit and a badge on the back and he's written the article to justify his beliefs "run it up the flagpole and see who salutes"...
 

rorywquin

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 28, 2016
Messages
9,488
Reaction score
6,385
Location
North Yorkshire
Your Mercedes
An old B-Class.
Sadly when I look at the 'quality' of all things Mercedes today, by comparison to the days of 123 & 124 it almost makes me cry.

Mercedes used to build what could be honestly called quality cars; quality in design and execution. But not now.

Like so many other mfrs their electronics (which are used for cheapness) are appallingly poor. Bodies that rust, engines that collapse etcetc.

I'm not saying that Mercedes are alone, sadly. I'm saying that they do not deserve the veneration they are still being given.

I wonder how many on the forum would be driving a MB if the prices weren't competitive? MB have to be competitive or die. I would still rather drive a MB than many other brands though.
 

ajlsl600

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 18, 2013
Messages
9,031
Reaction score
6,029
Location
france
Your Mercedes
clk3202001,sl6002003 with everything regrettably sold ,A class 170cdi auto. NG/TF1800 ML250
they, benz make some beautiful cars ,shame is they have been engineered to be beyond of its day ,ones driver to fettle and keep going . unfortunately like most makers ,they are stuffed with unreliable electronics ,which even the dealers struggle to master much of the time. i get the distinct impression that many on here at times know more about the cars than the dealer does ..necessity being the master of invention and the dealers lack of interest in anything over 4/5 yr old almost speaking for itself...
 

McDonald

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 11, 2017
Messages
1,958
Reaction score
1,841
Location
Surrey
Your Mercedes
SL500 2004
Amusing that the article is full of typos and incorrect grammar. He's offering a fine critique of an engineering process, without checking the quality of his own output.
 

John Laidlaw

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 15, 2013
Messages
26,373
Reaction score
9,163
Location
Wirral
Your Mercedes
Land Rover Discovery 4
Amusing that the article is full of typos and incorrect grammar. He's offering a fine critique of an engineering process, without checking the quality of his own output.
Yes, noticed that myself and that is a pet hate of mine ....:oops:
 

Graveworm

Active Member
Joined
May 16, 2018
Messages
34
Reaction score
17
Your Mercedes
AMG E63S 4Matic + Estate 2018
Another person who has been there. (September) and I have also seen Mclaren and Bentley.
All three are very impressive but actually the AMG made most sense as a means to quality control. If your name is on the top and everything was assembled by you. There would be very little wriggle room if it had been assembled wrong. They were really proud of the process, which is monitored by computers and of course uses dozens of machines but no Robots. The GT bodies are also mostly hand made (but on assembly lines) however they do use some Robots where they make a difference eg gluing as they are way more repeatable than humans for that.
 

Westheath

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 6, 2015
Messages
1,487
Reaction score
490
Location
South London
Your Mercedes
Empty garage, awaiting new toy :)
Well what idiot really thought AMG engines were individually hand built by master engineers.

Partially assembled by a single individual might be a better description.
 

McDonald

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 11, 2017
Messages
1,958
Reaction score
1,841
Location
Surrey
Your Mercedes
SL500 2004
I imagine Aston Martin have a similar process. The writer seemed to be suprised that nuts and bolts weren't hand made by the individual engineer.
 

Craiglxviii

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 6, 2015
Messages
17,781
Reaction score
7,426
Location
Cambs UK
Your Mercedes
970 Panamera Turbo; W221 S500L AMG Line, C215 CL500, W251 R350L AMG Line, plus several more now gone
Just need to unpick this.

Sadly when I look at the 'quality' of all things Mercedes today, by comparison to the days of 123 & 124 it almost makes me cry.

Mercedes used to build what could be honestly called quality cars; quality in design and execution. But not now.

What is your definition of quality? Build quality? Vehicle longevity? Corrosion performance? Perceived quality? Touch and feel response? All of those are massively improved over what they were 20 or 30 years ago. We can measure it empirically and those measures show significantly reduced failures over time as the designs have progressed. Any claims to the contrary are pipe dreams combined with rose tinted specs.

The big issue isn’t that MB have become worse. They haven’t. They’ve become a lot better. However they sit at the very top end of the market. Their aspiring competition- Lexus, Infiniti, Genesis etc. have all massively improved from where their models were 20-30 years back; the aspiring end of the market has improved more at a greater rate across all metrics than the top end of the market has. That’s a result of the state of industrial technology allowing the cost of technology content within the vehicles to be reduced hugely over time. As an example, now 80% of the cost of a car’s satnav unit is the map data license fee; in 2000 it was 25% (the license fee hasn’t changed...)

The same with very many other things. The cost of NVH isolation now dramatically reduced after VAG spread their in-metal tech across the development of A, B and C segment lineup from 1998 to 2005.

Like so many other mfrs their electronics (which are used for cheapness) are appallingly poor. Bodies that rust, engines that collapse etcetc.

I’ll let you into a secret. There are about 4 automotive electronics manufacturers. Valeo, Bosch, Alps and Koito. That’s literally IT- there are a few subcontractors mainly on the lighting side for pick and place/ SCEM work. They design and manufacture the electronics for the whole industry with the exception of the domestic Chinese cars.

Where is your data and fact on rusting bodies or collapsing engines? Not anecdotal evidence. Actual data.

I'm not saying that Mercedes are alone, sadly. I'm saying that they do not deserve the veneration they are still being given.

MB, BMW, JLR, & Audi form the top end of the main volume European car market. Due to that they still maintain a committed base of devotees. As to whether or not they deserve it, why not and who does over them?
 

Avantgarde Automotive, Mercedes-Benz and SLR McLaren specialists. Service, repairs, diagnosis and motorsport preparation.
Unit 14 Hither Green Trading Estate, Clevedon, Somerset, BS21 6XU Tel: 01275 217270 Email:steve@avantgarde-automotive.co.uk
www.avantgarde-automotive.co.uk
Top Bottom