USED Mercedes-Benz S-Class Saloon (99 - 06)

My car

What a fabulous vehicle, fast, smooth, effortless to drive. I have never owned a car which leaves me feeling so fresh at the end of a long journey. But....

Truly terrible reliability. My history with the car is littered with niggling technical problems which the dealership has been unable to fix. I think a list is best:

Squeaking windscreen wipers - replaced twice - still squeak - drive me mad. Air Conditioning doesn't currently work. There is a leak but it can't be found. Air suspension failure (twice) - car collected on low loader. Fuel gauge is erratic. Car refuses to start at all on some occasions - fault never found. Telephone system replaced

All this in 60,000 miles. I believe that MB have adressed the quality issues now, but I will take some tempting back.

My car

After 20 years, my days of owning a Mercedes are over because I am not happy with the cars' quality and reliability.

On a £55,000 car, rain water leaked into the cabin causing damage to the interior and the heating system.

Another Whatcar.com reader has changed to a BMW, and I will be doing that soon.

My car

I am under the impression that UK dealerships do not want to sell their cars to anyone, as I went to three sites in Essex & London where I was kept waiting for up to 10 minutes before assistance was offered.

I was in jeans on one such visit & was asked if I had "Won the lottery".

The car itself is not quiet as your review suggests & suffers from excessive road noise on concrete roads even though it is fitted with factory fit tyres. It is whisper quiet on some tarmac roads, but so is my wife's Ford Focus. Wind noise is also a problem at 70mph.

Build quality is poor as I had to have the dashboard re-positioned due to a huge gap one side, and nothing on the other. The car has suffered two diesel leaks in the engine compartment and a new gearbox was installed at only 51,000 miles.

Three colleagues also suffered the same fate and worse. The car is 2 years old with 89000 miles on the clock.

My car

There is a certain pride in owning this car, but this pride is dented at regular intervals by one fault after another, which were delt with efficiently and effectively until the day the warranty ran out. My car had electrical faults to several features and even had the instrument binicle completely replaced, Air suspension collapse, leaking rear axle, headlight washer units self ejecting and a piece of trim to the side of the driver's seat broke and replaced four times amd I almost forgot that the catalytic converter had to be replaced because it rattled inside the cans. When it's good it's very very good but when it's bad etc. Have now gone back to Jags, and although I am now in the minority in the golf club car park I can hold up well to any of my friends' comparisons.