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Originally Posted by calgarygeologist
For quite some time now I've been on the hunt for a vehicle to replace our current family hauler with. I know I probably shouldn't even ask for an opinion and just stay away from them but I'm quite interested in the MB ML350 diesel SUVs. I know that in general the German's have sub par reliability and expensive repair bills but I'd really like a diesel and in terms of styling, features and price I prefer the ML over the VW Touareg. Is it possible that an ML350 diesel could be a good purchase or should I just be more realistic and buy a more sensible family hauler?
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I have 11 years of experience with the Germans (7.5 years BMW, 3.5 years Mercedes), and they have never stranded me anywhere ... except once, 30 yards from my house, and it was a warrantied throttle position sensor. But the key word... warrantied. While they're usually pretty good once the previous owners have sorted the bugs, I don't think you could convince me to own a modern German car off warranty unless I didn't rely on it. The parts are expensive, and working on them is a bitch because they are seemingly packaged by a Tetris champion, so the labour is calculated high by default (even for stuff that is actually easy to fix, speaking from experience).
What years are you looking at, and do any of them at all qualify for a Mercedes CPO warranty? If not, do you love them enough to overlook that it might get expensive, especially if it was traded in because the last owner ran out of warranty and money? I don't have a lot of faith in car dealers actually getting the important stuff fixed so much as masked.