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.
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.
Have you ever driven a Mercedes. It sounds like you rolled it over to get all those paint chips. You most be some old lady if you can't get the backseat to go down. The car is a great car. And oh that smell you are smelling. That is the smell of a nice SUV, but to you its probably a bad smell because you are some stuck up rich person that thinks they know things about cars.
To the 15th of October commenter, there's no need to get ultra defensive of the Mercedes M-Class. The original poster just had a bad experience with theirs and it's their opinion. The fragile water based paint on the M-Class is a known problem and complaints of paint chips all over are common on this and other real world owner review sites.
The first commenter on here obviously does not own a Mercedes. They are probably one of those dreamers. If you own a ML320, ML430, or ML500 you would know the problems they have. The main problems are the brake pads, electrical, and paint. I unfortunately bought a ML320 for my wife which was great until around 30,000 miles. Several times she called me at work saying the car was running very rough and the transmission was shifting with a clunk. Mercedes of course found nothing and said it was fine, but it happened again within month. The Mercedes dealer service is horrible. I tried 3 different dealers in the LA area and all were the same, snobby. In early 2004 I bought her the Lexus RX330. Buying this was such a relief. From the second we arrived at Lexus they treated us with respect, like we were their only customer although every salesman in the dealership was busy with a customer. Unlike Mercedes, Lexus service is amazing. They give you a loaner car for the simplest thing like an oil change. Lexus I now see why you're the number one luxury car in the US.
DId you service the Transmission at 30,000 miles like you were supposed to???
Transmission guy told me once that the main reasons transmissions fail is due to owners lack of maintenance. I don't know why people think a car does not need maintenance.
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