Peter C1974
Senior Member
- Joined
- Feb 20, 2009
- Messages
- 970
- Reaction score
- 14
- Location
- Buckinghamshire
- Your Mercedes
- 1985 W123 230E & 1991 W124 200E & 1999 W210 E240
Ladies and gentlemen,
My C204 is 5 months old, I've had it from new and it has clocked up less than 6k miles.
These are the faults I have experienced:
The undertray shields were rattling. This has been fixed by the dealer although it took two attempts to get it right.
The driver’s seat creaks. The dealer initially replaced the squab frame, then the backrest frame and most recently the entire seat, but the seat continues to creak every time I drive the car. The dealer now refuses to take further action.
The performance of the automatic transmission is very poor. In ECONOMY mode the gearbox will randomly select higher and lower gears on a steady throttle whilst accelerating, which prevents smooth progress. At steady speeds, the gearbox selects a high gear causing the engine to bog down and takes too long to kickdown, which prevents smooth progress. Most worrying, when decelerating, the car jerks forward just before coming to a standstill as the gearbox engages a lower gear. To compensate for the jerk the brake pedal needs to be applied harder if the car is to be kept under control. I believe this is a potentially dangerous fault.
Fuel consumption is way short of the manufacturer’s figures. The majority of my daily commute takes me across A and B roads in steady flow of traffic and I rarely drive the car fast. Mid to high 30s (MPG) is the best I can expect. Mercedes Benz claim an average of 50MPG can be achieved in similar conditions.
The automatic windscreen wipers do not work properly. Often the wipers do not react when the screen is wet whilst at other times the wipers switch on at high speed at the first sign a raindrop. The system does not feature a simple intermittent setting for the wipers, which is a massive oversight in my opinion.
The windscreen wipers smear rainwater across the windscreen.
The automatic headlights come on and go off as they please. Often I find that the headlights are switched on whilst driving in bright daylight.
The automatic full beam headlight function does not work properly. Full beam automatically switches off as soon as light is reflected from the smallest road sign. This is makes driving down dark country roads a chore (I live in a Chiltern village which is accessed by unlit single track roads).
The quality of the interior trim is poor, it stains very easily, especially if the trim is exposed to rainwater.
The car pulls to the left. The problem is gradually getting worse, to the extent that to drive in a straight line I need to turn the wheel between 5 to 10 degrees to the right. I am aware that a geometry check and adjustment may resolve this problem.
As last week, the front parking sensors have begun to overreact. As the car approaches the smallest object, the system bleeps and lights up to warn me of potential contact, even if the object is located more than 10 feet away.
The above faults may be expected of a 10 year old high mileage C-Class but I am of the opinion that a brand new Mercedes, which has clocked up just over 5k miles since new, should not suffer from such a long list of problems.
Has anyone else had similar problems?
I hate my C204!
Peter C
My C204 is 5 months old, I've had it from new and it has clocked up less than 6k miles.
These are the faults I have experienced:
The undertray shields were rattling. This has been fixed by the dealer although it took two attempts to get it right.
The driver’s seat creaks. The dealer initially replaced the squab frame, then the backrest frame and most recently the entire seat, but the seat continues to creak every time I drive the car. The dealer now refuses to take further action.
The performance of the automatic transmission is very poor. In ECONOMY mode the gearbox will randomly select higher and lower gears on a steady throttle whilst accelerating, which prevents smooth progress. At steady speeds, the gearbox selects a high gear causing the engine to bog down and takes too long to kickdown, which prevents smooth progress. Most worrying, when decelerating, the car jerks forward just before coming to a standstill as the gearbox engages a lower gear. To compensate for the jerk the brake pedal needs to be applied harder if the car is to be kept under control. I believe this is a potentially dangerous fault.
Fuel consumption is way short of the manufacturer’s figures. The majority of my daily commute takes me across A and B roads in steady flow of traffic and I rarely drive the car fast. Mid to high 30s (MPG) is the best I can expect. Mercedes Benz claim an average of 50MPG can be achieved in similar conditions.
The automatic windscreen wipers do not work properly. Often the wipers do not react when the screen is wet whilst at other times the wipers switch on at high speed at the first sign a raindrop. The system does not feature a simple intermittent setting for the wipers, which is a massive oversight in my opinion.
The windscreen wipers smear rainwater across the windscreen.
The automatic headlights come on and go off as they please. Often I find that the headlights are switched on whilst driving in bright daylight.
The automatic full beam headlight function does not work properly. Full beam automatically switches off as soon as light is reflected from the smallest road sign. This is makes driving down dark country roads a chore (I live in a Chiltern village which is accessed by unlit single track roads).
The quality of the interior trim is poor, it stains very easily, especially if the trim is exposed to rainwater.
The car pulls to the left. The problem is gradually getting worse, to the extent that to drive in a straight line I need to turn the wheel between 5 to 10 degrees to the right. I am aware that a geometry check and adjustment may resolve this problem.
As last week, the front parking sensors have begun to overreact. As the car approaches the smallest object, the system bleeps and lights up to warn me of potential contact, even if the object is located more than 10 feet away.
The above faults may be expected of a 10 year old high mileage C-Class but I am of the opinion that a brand new Mercedes, which has clocked up just over 5k miles since new, should not suffer from such a long list of problems.
Has anyone else had similar problems?
I hate my C204!
Peter C