It's everything I hate. I still want to buy it.

While I have never met anybody who owned an ML,  All my co-workers with MB products make me glad I drive a Disco.  Seems they are always in the shop while my Disco keeps chugging along.  It's also weird that different MB cars owned by them always have different issues.  One always has suspension and brake issues,  Another has re-occuring transmission problems,  and a Third had brake and electrical incidents... but the rest  of those particular cars would never break.

I guess you need to buy several and make one good one out of them?

John Welsh (Moderate Supporter) said:

I say no but my reasoning is not reliability (which it may be unreliable.)  Since you own your own business, my reason is image that it portrays.  If you were to go out and drop $40k on a new Camry the world would see you as a "smart businessman" but I bet if you drop $9k on what people perceive as a $60k "high lux" vehicle you'll be seen as "wasteful" and maybe "uppity".  Your employees may perceive that you are "making too much money."  

I agree that these impressions may not be correct and they may not seem valid but that doesn't mean they do not happen.

 

I used to work for a midsized privately held company at the same facility the CEO worked at.   The CEO had a decent condition but not perfect 308 he drove.  This was northern Wisconsin so everyone has boats, Sleds, cabins up north, and Harley's.    The number of people I heard get off their chromed out Hog or out of their Brodozed F150 Platinum and make a comment about how it must be nice for the CEO to be able to buy a Ferrari.  Most of them couldn't comprehend that that 308 was probably about the same value as they had tied up into Toys on much lower pay than the CEO.  Now he later sold the 308 and bought a Murcialago.  I no longer could make that comparison..   

Is the smaller GLK diesel any better?

I think they're sharp, and SWMBO points out just about every one we see, claiming "that's her next car."

I've got better than a decade of common rail TDI VAG ownership and two plus decades of FWD Volvo ownership under my belt, so I'm an "adventurous," shade tree mechanic.

mad_machine (Forum Supporter) said:

While I have never met anybody who owned an ML,  All my co-workers with MB products make me glad I drive a Disco.  Seems they are always in the shop while my Disco keeps chugging along.  It's also weird that different MB cars owned by them always have different issues.  One always has suspension and brake issues,  Another has re-occuring transmission problems,  and a Third had brake and electrical incidents... but the rest  of those particular cars would never break.

 

I guess you need to buy several and make one good one out of them?

But haven't you spent years and 5 figures on things like an engine rebuild and other stuff............or is that someone else?

z31maniac said:

mad_machine (Forum Supporter) said:

While I have never met anybody who owned an ML,  All my co-workers with MB products make me glad I drive a Disco.  Seems they are always in the shop while my Disco keeps chugging along.  It's also weird that different MB cars owned by them always have different issues.  One always has suspension and brake issues,  Another has re-occuring transmission problems,  and a Third had brake and electrical incidents... but the rest  of those particular cars would never break.

 

I guess you need to buy several and make one good one out of them?

But haven't you spent years and 5 figures on things like an engine rebuild and other stuff............or is that someone else?

There was someone on here that nonchalantly said "Once I had the engine rebuilt at 30k miles, plus another $15,000 worth of work covered under extended warranty at the same time, it''s been a very good truck"" like that is to be expected of all vehicles. That was the point where I began to realize that Land Rover owners are just a little off.

So is the glK just as bad?  Ive had the hots for those.

My mom has a 2008 Grand Cherokee with the Mercedes 3L diesel and it's been remarkably reliable. It's currently at about 170,000 miles and the only engine problems have been a failed variable vane actuator on the turbo, the EGR valved got caked up with crud and needed cleaning, and the last time I changed the oil I somehow cracked the screw on plastic cover for the oil filter (the filter is just the filter element, there's no metal shell and drops into a cavity from the top) so I ended up with an Exxon Valdez level oil spill in my garage before I noticed and could turn it off.   That last one is obviously the fault of the moron changing the oil (me) and not the truck.  Also, the alternator failed a few months ago leaving her stranded, but she said she ignored the problem for several weeks because the battery light always went off after a few minutes of driving.

I'm pretty sure the engine in the Mercedes you're looking at is the same as the one in her Grand Cherokee but probably with some updates, so based on my experience the engine isn't horribly unreliable. But I'm just one data point.

As someone who has been long afflicted with GCSS (German Car Stockholm Syndrome), Mercedes is probably the last place I would look if I want to buy an out of warranty diesel SUV. Obviously, with enough luck or determination, you can daily drive and DIY anything, but you'll spend a lot more time or money looking for the right fix when things go wrong. At least with BMW/Audi/VW, there is a large community that you can rely on for information.

If you want a diesel luxury SUV I think you'd be far better served with a Cayenne/Touareg. Outside of some emissions equipment niggles I hear very positive things about them, and they have a very healthy towing capacity (7700lbs).

I will add this.  I had a neighbor who worked for MB NA and talking with him he said do not buy a new diesel from Mercedes.  He said they don't play nice with our fuel and cause issues.  With that being said our 06 R350 has not been a nightmare to own.  It had 75K on it when we bought it 10 years ago, now has 165k.  I have replaced the air springs once, the compressor once and the intake manifold.  Other than that is has only needed normal consumables.  

Buy it only if you want to live in fear the dealership courtesy van is waiting in your driveway everyday.

Buy it, and buy wae’s to use as a parts car.  

I would have no problem with purchasing one of those.  I kept my TT v12 CL600 going past 200k miles and it never visited a dealer or 3rd party shop under my ownership.  I did purchase a $600 STAR diagnostics system,  but outside of that never needed any other special tools.  Yes they are complicated vehicles,  yes things break,  but they are absolutely DIYable.

Toyman I've followed some of your builds over the years and don't see you having any problems keeping one of these on the road.

I would buy at least four of them. One as a dialy, one to keep pretty (for my wife), one as a back-up, and one for parts. More if I found out I really liked them.

-Jon with 7, or 8, maybe 9 Boxsters.

My uncle has a gas model. He loves it, through about 100k miles now. 

He has told me it has been more reliable than both the Chrysler Aspen (aka Durango) and 3rd gen Honda CRV that it replaced (one was his, the other my aunts). He gets his maintained at an Indy shop, same place that he's been going to for everything for many years, and the Merc has costed more just because of cost of parts.

EDIT: Need to mention, I believe that his CRV was something of a lemon. 

NickD said:

z31maniac said:

mad_machine (Forum Supporter) said:

While I have never met anybody who owned an ML,  All my co-workers with MB products make me glad I drive a Disco.  Seems they are always in the shop while my Disco keeps chugging along.  It's also weird that different MB cars owned by them always have different issues.  One always has suspension and brake issues,  Another has re-occuring transmission problems,  and a Third had brake and electrical incidents... but the rest  of those particular cars would never break.

 

I guess you need to buy several and make one good one out of them?

But haven't you spent years and 5 figures on things like an engine rebuild and other stuff............or is that someone else?

There was someone on here that nonchalantly said "Once I had the engine rebuilt at 30k miles, plus another $15,000 worth of work covered under extended warranty at the same time, it''s been a very good truck"" like that is to be expected of all vehicles. That was the point where I began to realize that Land Rover owners are just a little off.

and it's been fine ever since.  My co-workers have their MB in the shop constantly for the same issues over and over and over again.  One of them was very happy that his got totalled as it meant he would never have to rebuild the rear suspension on the wagon again.  Of course he went out and bought an S-class.  That one actually seems to be doing ok.  

To put it in other terms.  One of our co-workers Drives an Audi Q7.  It has honda like reliablity compared to the MBs

I'm willing to follow this out of morbid curiosity.