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Exclusive Owners Community
Ann writes: We purchased a 2003 S55 mercedes less than three months ago. We are now being told that the new car must be started and run for 30 minutes every 24-48 hours or the battery will not hold a charge to start the car. This has been an absolute surprise to us as it was never mentioned during the purchase that the car would not start if left unmoved for a time. In the short time we have owned our new car we have had to jump-start the battery 5 times. Two of those times were after periods of 2 weeks and then 3 weeks of non-use. The other three times the car would not start after being left unmoved for 2 days-3days. A dealer in Tyler, Texas replaced the battery when we took our car to see about the problem. This replacement did no good. I did not drive the car today and will be gone tomorrow so will not be using the car. I will have to have it jump-started again the next day, I suppose. I would certainly appreciate some feedback from anyone concerning this new mercedes. Is this something to expect from a new $117,000. car? Join the Exclusive Mercedes Benz Owners Community. Share your story and interact with other owners. Click Here to Create an Account >> Taylor writes: I bought my 2001 S500 new. With very little miles on it a message was displayed on the screen "airmatic visit workshop." So I went to the dealer to put it in the "work" shop. After laeving it there they told me nothing was wrong. The message came up every few often so I took it back to the dealer. They told me nothing was wrong and to stop comming back. With about 20k miles on it I was driving down the interstate and it started to feel like the wind was blowing. I pulled over at a gas station and there was no wind so I kept going. While driving it still felt as if the wind was blowing so I pulled over and called roadside assistance. They told me nothing was wrong and to keep going. As I drove on it started to rain. I had been driving for about an hour and I had to pass a SEMI truck. When I changed lanes to the left the right air compressor went out and the suspension collapsed. I started swerving all over the road. When I got controll of the car I pulled over at a gas station and had the car towed home. One year old $80,000+ car on a tow truck. It stayed in the shop for a while. When I got it out it went back to the shop about once a week. I would tell the service rep "I'll see you in a week." The cashier called my car a "hooptie" and said they where many with the same problems. Also the tail lights would go out often, A bolt on the A-frame was broken, and the plastics on the inside were always broken. Chris writes: I have a question for anyone with the S55. We have a 2002 and it seems to hydroplane tremendously on wet roads. It has the low profile tires on it and I think that may be the reason but it shouldn't do it that much. I would really like someone to reply to this. Peter writes: I purchased a 2003 S500 last April. In the six months I have owned the car it has been back to the dealer 7 times for repairs to power seats and support cylinder replacement on deck lid. The car was delivered with a small scratch in command center screen. It is visible only with radio off and bright sun over your shoulder. The dealer & factory rep told me that they would not cover replacement under warranty. You need to have your lawyer and very sharp eyes when you take delivery! Lumbar feature on extra cost multicontour seats deflates constantly. Dealer cannot find source of problem. Memory functions erratic, passenger head rest cycles up & down every time car is started with no passenger!! I believe that this car is too complicated with computer functions that are impossible to fix by dealers. Jonathan writes: I purchased a new 2002 S430 in March 2002. I have had the air suspension replaced twice and it has gone out for the third time as of today. I have had to have the entire electronic dash replaced and the battery replaced twice. This car is optioned out and sold for 100k. This is by far the worst car I have ever owned. Ryan writes: 2001 S600. "Top of the food chain" says my dealer...yeah right. When the car works, it's the best driving experience anyone could ever ask for. The problem is that the car rarely works.
Bill writes: I owned a new 2000 S500 and now a new 2003 S500 4 matic. With cars you have cheap junk and more expensive junk.I think this is my last Benz, I owned 2 previous to 2000 car.They get worse with every model year. Consumer reports with the best models and worst models came out today and big surprise,not,the S500 the worst,I should know since I filled out one of the surveys. Name something and I have replaced or fixed it several times.My problem is that I live 130 miles from the dealer here in the mountains of Colorado and also own a restaurant so that is two strikes against me to get the problems fixed. Buy a used Yugo and you should have better luck. Jeffry writes: Where do I start? I had a 2000 S 500, nice car overall until it was in the shop 7 times because the brakes would go on FULL FORCE when you just touched them, not every time but somewhat often, caused a minor accident one time. I am switching to BMW, and Mercedes Benz (CHRYSLER) has not heard the last of this. I have stopped paying for the car, and next week I am dropping it off at the dealer with a letter from my attorney, the vehicle is not safe to drive, they have voided my warrantee without cause, and the district manager from MB is an ass! I lost service for more than a month at one stretch, and several days at a time with the other visits, they got to the bottom of the problem and replaced some control module, lost about 3,000.00 in lease payment costs as a result of downtime, of course they never gave me a penny, not to include insurance costs, about another 600 - 1000.00 Join the Exclusive Mercedes Benz Owners Community. Share your story and interact with other owners. Click Here to Create an Account >> Audrey writes: I purchased a new 2000 S500 sport from a dealer. I have had many Mercedes vehicles, all great autos. We also currently own a '99 ML430. This is the worst vehicle I have ever owned! Immediately upon purchase the brakes had problems they replaced pads, etc. and both front control arms failed several times. Both front seat supports cracked several times as well. Mercedes put the wrong tires on the S500 Sport and the ride was terrible. After 20+ times in the shop the first 3 months, no loaner car available and after months in the shop with one dealer and again at a different dealer in FL, and after contacting MBUSA-Jax FL, they finally replaced the tires for new/appropriate sport tires(over 3 years passed),( we had put three different sets on the car out of our pocket before this). It has now 35K miles and is once again in the shop for another broken seat support, another electronic issue with my CD changer, Crank Shaft, Engine Noise, Transmission slip issues, gas gauge falling past empty with light(when full), ABS dash lights coming on repeatedly and many more problems. Now I have an extended warranty and it doesn't cover the estimated $1,200 this visit. I just paid another $2,400 for an additional warranty and SURPRISE it doesn't cover the needed repairs. I will NEVER purchase another Mercedes and guess what MB-USA doesn't give a rip! They refuse to send someone out to discuss the ongoing obvious manufacturer defects with this car. I think we should all seek a class action on these vehicles. Kam writes: 2000 S500 with 18,000 miles. Thank god I bought the extended 3 year starmark warranty! This car is CRAP! Poorly designed and poorly built. I wished that I had read these sites before I bought this car. I have had all the same problems. One funny one I will tell you about. On or about the 3 oil leak, I got the car back from service. The engine had been leaking from below the oil fill cap. I have learned to look and test things out before leaving service. I popped the hood and saw that they had removed the oil fill cap and put 2 inches of gasket material to fix the problem. The car look like it had been repaired at a sidewalk gas station in Tijuana! No, let me take that back, a sidewalk gas station in Tijuana would have done a better job. What a joke, when I showed it to the service manager, he just rolled his eyes and offered to redo the job. Mercedes SUCK! This for sure is my last one. One last thing, when I was complaining to the service adviser about the car, is statement to me was,"When you buy a Mercedes, you are buying Luxury, NOT PERFECTION!" Kam writes: More crap from Mercedes, see my previous post (ABOVE). I was driving down the street a few weeks ago when all of a sudden my S500 started rattling like I was driving on rocks. I thought I had gotten a flat so I pulled over. No flat. I restarted and kept driving, everthing was ok and then it came back, and then my suspension warning light came on and my Navigation went out. I brought the car into the dealer to find out that the compressor on the suspension went bad. They fixed it and then told me that they wanted $3,000 to fix the Navigation system. What a hoot! They told me that incidental damage of a warranty item is not covered! God, I can't wait to sue Mercedes. David writes: Purchased 2000 S430, and immediately began having problems. Power window inoperable, steering wheel lowering while driving, etc. after threatening to sue under lemon law and a meeting with MB reps where I was treated as if I were trying to rip them off, they finally agreed to replace it but I had to ante up an additional $5000. I agreed and they replaced it with a 2001. Everything was fine for the first 14000 miles. Then one day with my family in the car the brakes just went. Totally gone. Fortunately we were driving slowly in a residential area close to our home so was able to nurse it back with the emergency brake. The dealer sent a tow truck and off it went. Several days later I picked it up, they said the ABS control unit had failed and they had replaced it. On the way home I could feel the brakes getting spongy, it worsened until by the time I got home they were completely gone again. This time in was in the shop for about a week. Now I have had many automobiles in my 40 years of driving experience but I have never had a total brake failure. To have two with the same car in such a short period gives me the genuine "willies". In fact the dealer agreed with me and said he would have the MB rep contact me. Well, he never did. When I wrote the customer service in NJ, they informed me it was a dealer problem. I have written letters, threatened lawsuits, etc. to no avail. To this day the MB rep refuses to speak with me. For THE major safety feature of an automobile to fail twice is in my opinion unprecedented. My entire ownership experience, from January of 2000 till now has been one long battle between dealership and Mercedes. My only satisfaction to date is I have been able to convince three persons who were prepared to purchase a Mercedes not to do so. Denise writes: My 97 s320 is the biggest most expensive lemon I've ever owned. from the 1 day as a buying experience to now I've had nothing but problems and attitude I am now trying to dump this lemon which I bought as a demonstrater for 80,000 and they'll only give me 20,000. I had a honda accord that I resold 4 years later for great value and no problems ever I have threatened legal action and got very little compensation. I use my vehicle for a personal conceirge and chauffuer service and have mercedes benz on my business card. When talking about getting a new one and asking for a little incentive to keep me loyal they refused. everything that can go wrong with this car has. Kevin writes: S600. ASR (Anti-slip restraint) wrongfully activated with no reason in several occasions and driving conditions, even when there was clearly no evidence of traction loss. These caused permanent power cut off (instead of just temporarily cut off, and power restoration once traction is regain). The ignition must be turn off and then restart in order to get the vehicle moving again (this had caused some embarassing moments at traffic light pull-off, and some real horrifying motions during highway crusing). The dealership service had tried three attempts without success, these included replacing new wiring cables and ABS sensors. Finally at the fourth time, the dealership has gotten approval from the factory to have the ASR computer module replaced under warrenty(a $7,000 item!)... Still no cure for such problem. Meanwhile, I continue to drive the vehicle with extra caution, there were a couple of re-occurrences, and mysteriously the problem had ceased so far for 5 months until now??? Viresh writes: I have a 2000 S430. Had problems with it from the begining. The problems were too many, but I will list them here: 5. Breaks were changed every 10,000 miles Join the Exclusive Mercedes Benz Owners Community. Share your story and interact with other owners. Click Here to Create an Account >> Shaul writes: I have S500 that I bought 2 1/2 years ago and it has 12,000 miles. Over the past two years, this car may not be defined legally as lemon but certainly it is the worst car that I had from quality perspective. This statement in based on my family's previous new cars that included not just BMW but also Infinity, Ford, Buick and Pontiac. None of these cars required me visiting the dealership so many times with such a low mileage. This car so far had an oil leak, bad garage door opener, bad temperature sensor, dead battery and windshield noise. I may have missed something since I was at MB service too many times. I have a feeling that this is a precursor of problems to come! When I contacted the US headquarters, MBUSA NJ customer relations representative, Arnold Almagur who told me "Any automotive car will require service from time to time" explaining to me that legally they are covered by the warranty. When I bought the car, I thought I was buying a premium car that has the quality to support the brand name. I guess the Lexus salesman was right talking about ancient history. Dave writes: 2000 S 500 mileage at purchase about 12,000 - purchased pre-owned on Mercedes StarMark program in January 2002. Within 30 days of purchase the suspension collapsed (which I understand is a frequent occurrence with this model year and model), and I had other problems. The dealer kindly bought the vehicle back (though I still had a financial loss). I got access to the car's history, it turns out it had had several warranty claims in the previous 2,000 miles prior to my purchase - which is presumably why the previous owner had sold it - I didn't think this vehicle should have been StarMarked! Joe writes: My 2000 S430 airmatic suspension has collapsed, the car has no warranty and a mechanic is telling me it needs a new computer for about $1500 to correct the problem. I just dont want to get robbed again! Do you have any insight on this problem. I just want to get the car repaired so I can get rid of it. Thanks in advance for any & all information. George writes: I have a 2003 SL55 and a 2004 S600. They both have had numerous problems with different items, and to the dealer's credit they have ironed out every one of them after 4 months of working on both cars. One problem that both cars have though and the dealer has never heard of this before, is that as I tried to get into traffic from an onramp, both cars jumped out of gear and went into neutral. One of those times was scary indeed as a truck almost hit me. The car seems to be running fine and the gear shift is in Drive but has no transmission power. If you take it out of Drive shut it down and start it back up it runs fine. Until next time? Both cars have done this once each. Has anyone had that happen before? The dealer has been good about fixing all the short comings of the Mercedes but as a long time owner of Mercedes (have had six cars in the past) I am sure that I will not buy them anymore. Scott writes: I own a 2000 s430 and just recently ran into problems with the transmission. Thanks to the down pours of Ivan and Gene teh car is stuck in first gear. The car dosen't register downshifting or upshifting. The mechanic told me that wiring might of been soaked and give it a couple of days to dry out. Since then it still will not shift pass 1st. Park, nuetral and drive work but car wil not do more then 40 mph due to rpms.
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