Well, these cars are very complex, so quite a bit!
-The suspension is an auto-leveling adaptive sort, so the nitro-spheres have required replacement twice over the years. These are quite pricey, but they are cheaper and last longer than on other cars with this setup such as the Lincoln Continental.
-The car has required various bushings, ball joints, etc. for normal wear over the years.
-Various interior trim pieces have come apart over time. For the most part, the interior is perfect. There are just some small details that were of a cheap design.
-The electric seatbelt arms that hand the belt to you have been broken for years. They were really an unnecessary feature to begin with because it is not a long reach back to the belt.
-The original Becker stereo was completely fried. The head unit was returned from the factory after several tries at recoding it with a note saying it was an impossible unit to repair. Too bad as it was a very fancy unit.
Overall, this is a very reliable car, but it is not for the faint of heart because there is a lot of maintenance to be done to prevent trouble and it consumes premium fuel at the rate of 16 MPG on average. I have gotten 19, but that was only on the highway.
A close family member bought this car from his best friend in 1994 when it was practically new. At the time, I considered the car to be nothing short of amazing because I had never seen a finer piece of machinery.
This car's performance is amazing. Acceleration is huge, but you can potentially land a speeding ticket very quickly as the car is really too fast for American roads. Handling, while not that of my BMW, is remarkable for a large car and it will scoot in and out of traffic with no drama. The turning circle is very tight.
In many ways, the car is over-engineered. Almost everything is made in the best-possible way to look, feel, sound, and smell just right. A lot of the little features such as the headlight wipers w/heated jets still work flawlessly. The heated seats are wonderful on cold winter nights and mornings. The seats are 10-way power adjustable with memory on both sides, even the headrests are power-adjustable!
A lot of people criticize these older Mercedes' for driving "like trucks," but I think that they are unique and relaxing to drive. At the same time, one will not fall asleep very easily in this car because it actually requires you to think while driving, what a novel idea! =-)
It's neat to drive a car with 208,000 miles on it and not feel like you're going to be stranded anywhere, especially considering that our place is so far from town!
My 1991 560SEL has 194,000 miles and runs flawlessly. My dad gave me the car in 1999 after driving it 50,000 miles. My dad had about $12,000 worth of receipts all from Mercedes Benz Beverly Hills. I have had close to $8,000 since from Mercedes Benz Laguna Niguel. I just do normal services and the car keeps going. Nothing major has gone wrong with the car except the A/C. I feel older than 25 driving this car since its usually driven by older people. My wife drives a 1998 Lexus GS400 with 52,000 miles on it. I had just bought the Lexus when the Mercedes was given to me. I kept the Lexus, but drove the Mercedes over it. My wife has been driving the Mercedes since the birth of our first child. She says the car has a "tank" like feel which makes her feel safer driving with a child. Last year I drove the car to Texas and cruised at 90MPH with no problem. I well keep this car till it dies.
Totally agree with you.
Just had a 150 mile round trip in my 1991 420 SEC and it was (again) such a pleasent experience. Had few girls on board and for two hours they were asking: "what's this, what's that" (about all the small "aspects" this baby has: electirc curtains, cruise control with cyroscope etc). After every explanation, the reaction was: "wow!".
This is one of the most beutiful and over-enginered cars ever made. I feel that I belong to a very privileged club of motorists.
560SEC - Simply the finest Art of Machinery I came across in my now 50 years of experience - from Aston Martin DB6, Rolls Royce Corniche, all Audi and BMW. I still have a 560SL Convertible (Summer-Benz) and 2 560SEC (Winterbenz), and I prefer the built quality of those cars over the built quality of recent MB. Unfortunately, I turned 66 this year, decided to downsize, sell my property, which also means, I have to part with those...
Interesting for a car website, the spell checker suggests Cor niche or cor-niche for that RR Corniche... ;-}}
I have owned a Mercedes-Benz 560 SEC 1988 for 18 years... I only can say one thing.. it's the best.. it's fast, comfortable, big.. I prefer it to the newest BMW... I even installed 19 inch rims on it.. it looks dangerous... so I hope that you will all know the value of such cars :)
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