Faults:

Faulty tail light bulb and loose turn signal lever.

General Comments:

This vehicle is primarily driven by my wife as her daily driver. The car drives very well, handles very precisely and performs adequately.

Due to the small (2.6L) V-6 engine and transmission/rear end gearing, it revs on the high side at highway speeds above 65 mph. As a result, the best we can manage is around 26 to 27MPG on the highway, using premium fuel of course.

As far as comfort goes, the cabin is well appointed, but on the small side for folks like myself who are on the tall and thick side. My wife, who is not very tall, loves the way the car "fits" her, and she loves to drive it.

Mechanically the vehicle has been very solid with only routine oil changes (which I perform myself using the MB approved synthetic oil and fleece oil filter).

At 60K miles, I had the transmission fluid and filter changed at our local MB dealer ($365.00).

The only minor issue so far has been a couple of tail light bulbs failing.

Brake dust on the wheels requires that the wheels (especially the front) be washed weekly. Minor pain due to soft OEM brake pads.

Faults:

All electrical problems.

Voltage regulator went out at 32k.

All below at 54 to 57k:

Driver window motor bad.

Passenger head rest stuck.

Driver door lock won't open by keyless remote.

Brake light sticks.

Passengers head rest will not go down.

Alarm goes off for no reason.

Alarm horn needs to be replaced.

Pulsating brakes.

Oil fill cap impossible to remove without wrench.

Car has depreciated 10k in less than 2 years.

Mileage not great around town.

General Comments:

The car's electricals are not great, I seem to have an ongoing problem with this. The drive train is built well. Performance is excellent for a 4 cylinder motor. I can take most 6 cylinder cars with no problem.

Handles good. You have to be very careful as the visibility out the back and sides is not good. Also when parking, it is easy to hit the curb with your rims.

Faults:

Car has 34,500 miles on it - it's only 5 years old.

We just found out that we have to replace the transmission. Our mechanic said we had to take it to the dealer, so we did and they informed us that the radiator leaked internally, into the transmission, causing it to fail. When we told our mechanic, he called a transmission person he knows, who only works on Mercedes. The guy said that he's seen it before, that it's a defect with the radiator, and that it should never be able to get into the transmission. He also said that Mercedes knows about the problem, but doesn't put it out there to the rest of us.

We don't want to pay for this! We've taken good care of this car, and it's our third one, but feel that the quality has really been built out of them. They want us to pay for half and the bill is $7,400. It's too much to pay when the mileage is so low. It shouldn't have happened.

Last year the catalytic converter died and had to be replaced. It fell within the warranty period, and certainly the mileage, so Mercedes took care of it. They would not, however, replace the left one, only the right one. Our mechanic suggested that we request the replacement of both, but Mercedes said they only replace what's broken.

General Comments:

We've loved this little car. It handles beautifully, it's peppy, and solid and has an amazing turning radius.

It's a smaller Mercedes, and a sports version, which we got because of its added handling ability, but to have the transmission go out because the radiator leaked into it, at 34,000 miles is ridiculous. To pay $44,000 for a car that needs this kind of work, with such low mileage is stupid.

We bought the car thinking we were investing in a vehicle that would last 150,000 - 200,000 miles, like so many of them do. We're finding that they're just not made the way they used to be.

I'd take all those old knobs back and get of this computerized crap in a heartbeat. Whatever happened to a dip stick? I wished we'd bought a Toyota for half the price - we'd still be driving it.