05-26-2024, 01:12 PM
(05-26-2024, 12:32 PM)KKLoco Wrote: Just about everything except for the engines. They are great up until about 60k miles. Then they turn to shit. And everything costs at least 4 times what it would on an American made car. Hell, I even had a heater go out in the DEF tank with only 26k miles on it. It was $4k just to replace the heater. Not the whole DEF tank, just the heater. It doesn’t help that Mercedes makes it so everything Has to be programmed by a Mercedes computer. That same vehicle had the transmission start slipping at only 40k miles.
Another example, if you want a spare key, they key costs $145. Then you have to pay Mercedes $225 to program it. It takes them one minute to program it, but they charge a full hour shop rate - BASTARDS!
They aren’t that expensive to purchase new. Mercedes makes all their money off of them through maintenance.
Got it! Appreciate the insights.
I hear you on the rip off that is keys or otherwise.
It’s the “Gillette Razor Model” for cars. Sell you a razor and a few heads for 10 bucks.
Sell you 5 new blade heads for $20 which cost basically cents to produce at scale.
MB is notorious for this kinds of electrical issues. Over engineered. Good news is you can typically find the Bosch generic parts and save a whole lot of money - and it’s literally the same part.
Jay Leno once said “if you’re restoring a car and making money you’re doing it wrong”. He’s right about that with various classics or exotics, but you shouldn’t have to feel that way keeping a van going. Appreciate your review and hopefully the automotive gods will give you a reprieve on the maintenance for a bit.
