For Mercedes experts: W203 and W211 reliability

Well if you just want to talk W211 problems, the things I've done over the past 7+ years not including engine stuff are the motor/transmission mounts, steering angle sensor, front springs/struts, just did rear shocks, going to do the rear springs soon, new pads/rotors all around, new parking brake shoes/spring kit, sway bar links, tie rods, upper/lower control arms. Had some bad luck with CV joints, but MB sells just the joint for $40 so I actually had the left and right cv joints rebuilt instead of getting an aftermarket cv joint, did that to the left one first and it was junk, caused a vibration. Right now I have a bad keyless go door handle, the passenger side, probably won't replace it as the other 3 are still good, they're over $200 each, the W212 has a better design, on the W211, it's a rubber membrane that covers a switch and it corrodes, but on the W212, it's just a sensor where water doesn't get into it. Seat belt retractor stopped working once, took it apart and blew it out with air and it started working again. Biggest pain is probably the 18 inch tires, lots of flat tires and bent/cracked rims, think it's over 3 cracked rims and 2+ bent ones. Oh and the wires in the trunk are badly routed so a ground wire goes so the license plate light, power trunk closer might go out, but it's an easy fix to patch the wire. Mine is loaded though, bixenons, parktronic, pano roof, power trunk closer, folding rear seats, bluetooth, ipod cable, real leather, keyless go, etc.
 
I paid a little more attention and W203s are all over the place in France. I sat in one and i was a bit disappointed. It felt more flimsy and more dated compared to the W202 and doesn't have the square glass headlight cool factor. The W211 seems closer to what a Mercedes should be but not sure they're what i'm looking for. My parents had a 1970 280SE automatic and a 1982 240D 5 speed manual so i grew up with those and they were both awesome cars. The W124 still retains the classic sturdy Mercedes feel, so does the W202 to an extent but i didn't even feel that with my (late) W210. Maybe i should just stick to a W124 and wait for the right one to show up. I don't think i want a modern car, or at least not a modern Mercedes. An Honda would do the trick in that case. Each time i sit or drive any W124, it feels like a confortable old pair of slippers i'm used to.
 
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Did it have real leather or was it MB-tex? I have the real leather in mine and it's nicer. Real leather had ruffles in the door and Mb-Tex was smooth. They also had massage seats as an option but very rare so hard to find, I have that option in the W212. The W211 also had an open assist on the doors so they popped open a little when you unlocked it, they got rid of that on the W212 but they both sound solid when you slam the door.
 
This may sound negative, but the overall experience was good:

My parents pre-ordered an '05 E320 CDI w/ most of the options. They drove it ~ 12 years and 120K miles before selling it to a friend, who may still be driving it.

They had the usual issues, diesel smell in the car, requiring tank replacement. The brake pump/controller ran out of cycles and needed to be replaced. Some kind of hard tar-like build-up on the top of the engine that was expensive to remove. I think it may have been from bad injector seals, and the head may have had to come off to clean it? The transmission needed to be replaced at around 100K miles. They had other minor issues with fiber optics and random speakers that didn't always work. Both headlights had to be replaced when they lost their active control and pointed at the ground within about 2 months of each other. They had to replace most of the front suspension bushings. Normal stuff for a luxury car over a 10 year period. Their come to Jesus moment was when the turbo came apart and had to be replaced shortly after the transmission. Overall, they were always very pleased with the car, and originally had visions of driving it forever, thinking it was like the old manual transmiision, mechanical diesels that you really could drive forever with nothing but oil changes and tires. Once they realized that it was like a regular car, but with a diesel engine, which still had regular car issues, it kind of lost its luster for them. The tank and brake controller were covered under warranty, I think one headlight was covered.

It was always dealer serviced and it was a tank. It drove very well and performed much better than people were expecting in 2005 - especially for a diesel, the power was downright impressive, the cornering ability was also impressive given the soft ride and tall tires. I never could decide if the Active seating was worth it. The stereo sounded great when all of the speakers were working. My parents did the math, though, and realized it had been costing them an average of nearly $600 a month to own it after the warranty expired - that's everything except depreciation and fuel. They were envisioning something that they could buy new and keep forever w/ no real repairs. They decided that for the cost, they would switch to leasing new vehicles for not much more money per month.

I'm sure if it was my car, the cost to own would have been significantly lower without the dealer servicing & repair. I potentially would also have not had the transmission issue, and may have caught other issues before they became expensive - at least partly due to being a member of BITOG. Overall, it was very solid, and it felt as solid the day it was sold as it did when new.

10 years ago, I probably would have recommended it. Today, I'm not sure, because it's 10 years older, and finding a well maintained example might be hard.
 
The fuel tank on a W211 had a 15 year extended warranty in the US. Hope that was covered. The 2005 had the SBC too, but originally it had a 10 year extended warranty but now it's extended to 25 in the US. Originally they had a sealed for life transmission fluid but later it was updated to change it every 39k. The conductor plate going was very common, maybe that's all it was needed but the transmission got changed instead? The injectors leaking I think are a known problem and called the black ring of death or something like that. Audio gateway problems are also possible but not that common. Same with electronic ignition lock, sometimes the key doesn't work. Active cornering was nice, sounds like either the level sensor was bad or the motors which doesn't require the headlamps to be replaced but that was probably easiest, sometimes the ballast goes bad too. I haven't had to do the front bushings on mine yet, but yeah, if you need to replace the sway bar bushings, you have to order the entire sway bar because the bushings are glued onto the bar. Otherwise things like sway bar links, tie rods, upper/lower control arms, springs/struts, ball joints have been replaced on mine and I'm over 120k now. I don't take mine to the dealer so it's 1/4 to 1/2 the normal price and I get the parts.
 
This may sound negative, but the overall experience was good:

My parents pre-ordered an '05 E320 CDI w/ most of the options. They drove it ~ 12 years and 120K miles before selling it to a friend, who may still be driving it.

They had the usual issues, diesel smell in the car, requiring tank replacement. The brake pump/controller ran out of cycles and needed to be replaced. Some kind of hard tar-like build-up on the top of the engine that was expensive to remove. I think it may have been from bad injector seals, and the head may have had to come off to clean it? The transmission needed to be replaced at around 100K miles. They had other minor issues with fiber optics and random speakers that didn't always work. Both headlights had to be replaced when they lost their active control and pointed at the ground within about 2 months of each other. They had to replace most of the front suspension bushings. Normal stuff for a luxury car over a 10 year period. Their come to Jesus moment was when the turbo came apart and had to be replaced shortly after the transmission. Overall, they were always very pleased with the car, and originally had visions of driving it forever, thinking it was like the old manual transmiision, mechanical diesels that you really could drive forever with nothing but oil changes and tires. Once they realized that it was like a regular car, but with a diesel engine, which still had regular car issues, it kind of lost its luster for them. The tank and brake controller were covered under warranty, I think one headlight was covered.

It was always dealer serviced and it was a tank. It drove very well and performed much better than people were expecting in 2005 - especially for a diesel, the power was downright impressive, the cornering ability was also impressive given the soft ride and tall tires. I never could decide if the Active seating was worth it. The stereo sounded great when all of the speakers were working. My parents did the math, though, and realized it had been costing them an average of nearly $600 a month to own it after the warranty expired - that's everything except depreciation and fuel. They were envisioning something that they could buy new and keep forever w/ no real repairs. They decided that for the cost, they would switch to leasing new vehicles for not much more money per month.

I'm sure if it was my car, the cost to own would have been significantly lower without the dealer servicing & repair. I potentially would also have not had the transmission issue, and may have caught other issues before they became expensive - at least partly due to being a member of BITOG. Overall, it was very solid, and it felt as solid the day it was sold as it did when new.

10 years ago, I probably would have recommended it. Today, I'm not sure, because it's 10 years older, and finding a well maintained example might be hard.
Sorry to hear about your woes, mine was a European delivery and not heavily optioned. Relatively low mileage of 131k so far. I did had SBC brake reach its count and was fixed for free as was the adhesive on sunroof. Otherwise it has been a solid performer.
 
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