German View of MB quality

[Retired]

Just looked at results of a survey the ADAC (German equivalent of AA) magazine looking at members customer satisfaction with their cars and the service they receive. The survey covered 34 makes of car.

Brief analysis of the results:

In the overall rankings Mercedes was near to bottom with only VW, Smart and Land Rover worse.

Happiness with the car itself: only VW worse.

Happiness with service: only Land Rover and Smart worse

Happiness with quality of the electrics / electronics: MB comes bottom

Happiness with repair costs: next to last (only Smart worse)

Happiness with attitude to service: last (Smart next to last).​

I think these results speak for themselves.

 

[littlebrooklyn]

Who came first then? I bet it was a japanese make....maybe we should all trade in our Mercs for Lexus

Let's not forgot though just how fussy the Germans are about things. I know this first hand as my mother is German and I have just had the German side of the family over for my son's wedding. They are very hard to satisfy in most things and tend to be very demanding.

 

[peterchurch]

We are thinking about swapping our Honda CRV for a Vogue SE next year, and I cant say I have heard a bad word against one so far (although I have not tried trawling the web for a user group yet ...)

 

[maddog]

Who came first then? I bet it was a japanese make....maybe we should all trade in our Mercs for Lexus

I think that every time i watch Doc Martin with his w210 clone Lexus thats seems to age far better than my car.

 

[littlebrooklyn]

I think that every time i watch Doc Martin with his w210 clone Lexus thats seems to age far better than my car.

Yeah I think I will go buy a Lexus, sell my house and go and live in Port Wenn/Isaac too....looks a far nicer place to live than where I am

 

[television]

They are very hard to satisfy and tend to be very demanding.

I am lost for words

Malcolm

 

[shirubaby]

Yeah I think I will go buy a Lexus, sell my house and go and live in Port Wenn/Isaac too....looks a far nicer place to live than where I am

Traitors in our midst ... But will lexus have a forum as good as this?

Beside, in the Doc Martin series, everybody is lit up with high power lights, all filmed in the summer and everybody weares makeup. AND I bet the lexus only does 3 miles per episode...and washed and waxed before every shoot...

If we all had that kinda budget, well...the things I would get done on my w126...hmmmmm

 

[Retired]

Someone asked about the other (top) end of the results.

Overall rankings (Number 1 first)

Porsche
Subaru
Toyota
Honda Mazda​

.

Happiness with the car itself:

Porsche
Toyota
Subaru
Lada(!)
Honda​

Happiness with service:

Subaru
Toyota
Honda
Suzuki
Mitsubishi​

Happiness with quality of the electrics / electronics

Toyota
Honda
Subaru
Mazda
Suzuki​

Happiness with repair costs

Lada
Toyota
Subaru
Daihatsu
Suzuki​

Happiness with attitude to service:

Toyota
Subaru
Lada
Honda
Mazda​

Lexus isn't one of the makes in the survey, although the Japanese makes do seem to do pretty well.

Take the point about Germans typically being demanding and hard to please, but would suggest that this is a common factor across the survey and its the relative postions of the various makes that is of interest.

 

[jberks]

I always wonder with satisfaction surveys though. How satisified you are with something has a lot to do with what you expected in the first place. As a bunch, MB owners expect a lot and so are harder to please.
That said, there is plenty of room for improvement!

 

[ddentrec]

How satisified you are with something has a lot to do with what you expected in the first place. As a bunch, MB owners expect a lot and so are harder to please.

Very good point: it is all relative to what you expect.

Before I bought my merc (new C-Class) we had a humble 1999 VW Golf. It was slow (automatic), did not rattle, had no wind noise, the dealer was 'average' and the servicing was 'steep' at £250. In 3 years had no warranty claims.

Mercedes: Fast (auto), chronic wind noise, rattles, dealer is 'well below average' compared to VW, paint defects galore, servicing is around £500. In 2 years have had around 20 warranty claims. Now I have to check my door seams evey month to see if the tin worm has started yet.

But I think it is the dealer that make the difference: I do not mind the warranty work, but when the dealer's attitude is no better than a 1970's British Leyland Austin Rover dealer then things are really bad.

Should have bought a Ford Mondeo or Passat. Seriously. But I got beer-goggled with the MB brand.

 

[Retired]

Absolutely agree, it is down to what you expect.

Having said that, if you pay, say, £30+ for a car I think you are entitled to have higher expectations than if you pay, say, £15k.

I'll probably be banned for saying this but BMW and Audi, where expectations are probabaly quite high, wasn't too far behind the Japanese contingent.

 

[marnix]

I always wonder with satisfaction surveys though. How satisified you are with something has a lot to do with what you expected in the first place. As a bunch, MB owners expect a lot and so are harder to please.
That said, there is plenty of room for improvement!

I think that when you pay the sort of money we have to shell out for the privilege of owning a Merc, we can expect at least the same quality as a japanese model and to be able be hard to please.
looks more that when we are spending £30K on a car, we pay £10K for the car, £10K for the badge and the last £10K on the showroom and the staff's snotty attitude

 

[cavinda]

I don’t think MB owners in general are a fuzzy crowd. I am sure there are exceptions. But this survey, as flawed as any of them can be, brings out a point about how satisfied MB buyers are in general. The electrical problems in these cars are a nightmare! Most of us (I assume) bought these cars because we have come to love them from past experiences. My father steadfastly believed that MBs were the best built cars; and it was true with the older models. But the new MBs are a joke! MB should seriously re-evaluate their position and start building cars that are worthy of the star. My next car unfortunately will not be a Mercedes otherwise!

 

[Impaler]

Lexus isn't one of the makes in the survey, although the Japanese makes do seem to do pretty well.

Lexus is a division of Toyota.

 

[littlebrooklyn]

I think I would seriously consider either a Lexus or BMW next time, but I think I would have a hard time convincing my partner to agree with me. As far as he is concerned you just can't beat the 'image' of a Mercedes.

We've had problems with the attitude of the stealership too. About 6wks ago our local one in Watford checked out the 'rattle' my partner could hear and diagnosed a fault with the supercharger. We have waited since then for the part to come in. Even when the part came in, did they think to phone to tell us? Nope!

Anyway we finally took the car in today with the promise it would be ready by the end of the day. Was it ready? Nope! I wanted to go and do some retail therapy tonight, but now I can't thanks to Mercedes.

Is it just me or are the pedals on the Mercedes in an awkward place? I could just get into our Peugeot and drive it without even engaging my brain, but the Mercedes I need to sit and 'find' the pedals first

 

[television]

I think I would seriously consider either a Lexus or BMW next time, but I think I would have a hard time convincing my partner to agree with me. As far as he is concerned you just can't beat the 'image' of a Mercedes.

We've had problems with the attitude of the stealership too. About 6wks ago our local one in Watford checked out the 'rattle' my partner could hear and diagnosed a fault with the supercharger. We have waited since then for the part to come in. Even when the part came in, did they think to phone to tell us? Nope!

Anyway we finally took the car in today with the promise it would be ready by the end of the day. Was it ready? Nope! I wanted to go and do some retail therapy tonight, but now I can't thanks to Mercedes.

Is it just me or are the pedals on the Mercedes in an awkward place? I could just get into our Peugeot and drive it without even engaging my brain, but the Mercedes I need to sit and 'find' the pedals first

My best friend in Watford has his MB as a status object, He buys and sells Commercial property, As he says, when he arrives he has the right image.
Saw something on the box today, BMW sold 1.3million cars, MB,96million.
Re the pedals you are right, you have to think, or adjust, in my case with big feet they were always getting caught up with the under dash cover, never easy to drive for the first time.

Malcolm

 

[littlebrooklyn]

Re the pedals you are right, you have to think, or adjust, in my case with big feet they were always getting caught up with the under dash cover, never easy to drive for the first time.

Malcolm

It's not easy driving a Mercedes estate when you are only 5ft and wear very high heels

 

[jberks]

As he says, when he arrives he has the right image.
Saw something on the box today, BMW sold 1.3million cars, MB,96million.
Malcolm

As much as we may hate to admit it, we all care about image (or else we'd be driving Fords).
BMW unfortunatley still has an image problem. Sure the red braces may have disappeared, but they are still some of the worst driven cars on the road. (Though Peugeot drivers won the muppet award this morning - apparently they don't have indicators either!)
It isn't the car itself (they are great to drive, dare i say it, fractionally better than the Merc), but the image tends to attract more of the flighty brained amongst us. The type of folk that genuinely don't know the rest of us exist. Never say thankyou to a waiter or please to a shop assistant. Its not personal, its just that they live on their own private planet where they are king. I'd love to see a survey. I suspect BM's = 'Creatives' and MB's='engineers'.
My experience anyway and I'm sure there are loads of exceptions. It does stop me considering a BM though, apart from the fact that I think my E is one of the most beautiful looking cars on the road and the 5 series one of the ugliest. But then eye of the beholder and all that.

 

[maddog]

My best friend in Watford has his MB as a status object, He buys and sells Commercial property, As he says, when he arrives he has the right image.
Saw something on the box today, BMW sold 1.3million cars, MB,96million.
Re the pedals you are right, you have to think, or adjust, in my case with big feet they were always getting caught up with the under dash cover, never easy to drive for the first time.

Malcolm

i think the porduction numbers refer to vehicles not just cars and BMW dont make commercial stuff

 

[jberks]

i think the porduction numbers refer to vehicles not just cars and BMW dont make commercial stuff

Commercial plus I suspect it includes subsidiaries like Chrysler, Smart etc