Faults:

Oil level sensor.

Valve cover gaskets.

Fast interior and exterior wear.

RUST ISSUES!!!

General Comments:

It handles like a Mercedes, but it is built like Mercedes should not be.

Interior is much cheaper than on the older models, and wears out quicker.

Better replace your tranny filter and oil every 50k miles, otherwise you may face tranny problems above 100K. Mercedes is back to recommending this service every 50k miles with the new model; they claimed the fluid to be lifetime warrantied for the W203.

RUST!!! DOOR PANELS!!! QUARTER PANELS!!! AFTER 7 YEARS!!!??? Come on Mercedes, take the example from Audi and Volvo on this, because probably Chinese Geely is better in this department.

SOLD in 2013 at 130k miles, rust on doors fixed by Mercedes (no issues); the front fenders and quarter panels were not the part of this recall. I paid to fix it twice, but no luck, it came out 6 months later in other spots. Just look at Sprinters nowadays - there is no way to stop it. Mercedes cheaped out on that

Faults:

1. Breather hose.

2. Both interior front door handles broke off.

3. Wiring fell out of phone cradle (super glue fixed :) )

4. Paint chips way too easily.

5. AM/FM not working properly.

6. Random rattles throughout the interior.

7. Front sway bar bushes at 60K.

8. Pads and disks need to be done every 60K (front and back).

General Comments:

This is not a cheap car to own; if you can't afford to pay a $1000 for a service, then avoid this car. I'm not even using the dealer, but costs easily climb on this car. Everything is expensive, but then again it is a Mercedes. However to be fair, the car has never broken down so far, so my main complaint is the cost of ownership.

Make no mistake though, this is an excellent car. Yes, it's got little niggly problems, and yes they are annoying, but you can see the quality, if you put the car up on a hoist; everything underneath looks like a quality part. I saw a BMW of the same age up on the hoist, and it just looks cheap below. The control arms are way thinner, and in general most parts look inferior.

Paint chips really easily, but this seems to be a problem with all modern cars. The car is excellent on longer trips, and you always feel safe in it, the doors shut beautifully, and you feel safe driving at 100 or 140, and I don't see why it would be any different at 200. It is just so well planted to the ground. This is definitely a highway car though. You can tell it was built for cruising and not for the city. On longer trips the fuel consumption will usually drop in between 6.8L and 7.1L with the air-conditioning on.

I'm very happy with the car, and I have no doubt it will easily make it to 200,000 Km's. Rattles are really annoying, but I have fixed them all, but I really shouldn't have to do this in a Mercedes. It always makes me wonder how testers miss these things.

The engine in this car is excellent, you just can't believe its pulling power on mountain runs, it just doesn't make sense. It's such a small engine, and it's supercharged, but the car weighs so much, yet it feels like it hardly matters. This car will easily hit 200 kph.

The best car I have ever owned, but I don't know if I will buy another one, I know how to check for very specific rattles now, so the new cars better not fail here, because I will not buy them just because of that.

My main advice though is to avoid the dealers and find your local specialist. This will save you thousands of dollars.