Faults:

Suspension - including struts and bearings - $2800.

Front and rear lamps.

General Comments:

Overall the car has been wonderful to drive and a very comfortable too. Bought used for 8990 and I love it so far.

My dad has a ML-320 as well, and it has done 120000 miles without any problems whatsoever.

AWD is nice in the snow.

Lots of room for guests and their luggage.

Faults:

None. I have just done normal service and they have changed the necessary parts at the indicated times, and nothing has gone wrong. Everything has always functioned perfectly.

I can only remember an slight gasoline odour, that was immediately fixed by the dealer.

General Comments:

This has been a very good car and has seen a lot of off road, as my house is far away from paved streets.

This car handles and drives very well, like a car. I have taken it all the way to Northern Germany, when it was 170,000kms, and I could go at top speed very nicely, comfortably and safely.

The ML 430 of the same generation is extremely powerful and fast, I drove it once, but the ML 320 is perfect for every day, and it is also powerful enough.

At this age and amount of kilometers, I can say that this is a very tough SUV, very rugged, reliable, it seems it will last forever, as everything works perfectly. I don't plan to change it in a long time.

I think the driving is very much like in some American cars, it is their main market for this car, but with the safety of Mercedes.

Faults:

Rear Bearings

Brakes

Rear Axle

Power Window motor

Air sensor

Alarm

Fuel Pump

Paint Chipping.

General Comments:

Like all Euro "performance" cars, this one corners like it's on rails. No question it handles better than any US car I've had... but aside from the Corvette, that's what you get with US cars. It's the NASCAR vs. Formula 1 mentality.

ML320 is a tank, but it's almost as loud, is about as reliable as the Bradley, and probably costs as much to maintain. I have to say that I'm really puzzled by the Mercedes reputation of being the finest engineered car in the world. If you talk to a dealer, they'll tell you they engineer for performance. In my mind, "performance" includes not only road handling, safety etc... but also durability. Heck, I could engineer part that only lasts for 10,000 miles!! They really need to get in touch with the US consumer.

My wife has a C230 4Matic Wagon and it's not much better. Probably move to another brand next.

Faults:

Occasionally the engine would idle really rough. It was amazing that the it would stay running. We took it in to two different dealerships who, of course, could not find the problem because they couldn't feel the rough idle when they drove it.

Every single time a rock or even a grain of sand from the roadway, or somebody's door lightly bumped the vehicle, the paint chipped off all the way to the metal. There were paint chips missing from every section of this car including the rear door.

The backseat made a strange vibrating rattle that nobody could identify or fix.

There was a strange smell that came into the vehicle every time the heater or air conditioning came on. All the air filters were changed out and still this smell could not be tracked down or eliminated.

General Comments:

The backseat (moves forward and back and lies down) was impossible for me to move on my own. It was very heavy and the levers were made for someone with very strong arms.

The costs of operating this vehicle are very high as it requires full synthetic oil, and super unleaded gas.

The vehicle drove very nice, accelerated great, had comfortable seats and was fun to drive.