1998 Mercedes-Benz Vito 113 review from UK and Ireland

Power steering seized at 14,000 miles.

Steering column switch unit failed 3 times resulting in losing indicators / headlights and windscreen wipers. On my 4th unit.

All 3 failing within 23,339 miles.

The alternator leads came loose at 1000 miles.

Faults nearly caused an accident on two occasions (losing headlights in bad weather conditions and wipers in the rain).

When the power steering failed it locked almost solid and when I contacted my local dealer (1.5 miles away) they told me to arrange my own way of getting the van to them.

Dealer put the blame on me for the failures and showed no interest towards my problems, and would not let me have the use of a courtesy vehicle thus causing myself to lose a days earnings. On one occasion it resulted in me having to hire another van. They did however ring their technical people to query the switch problem and were told that 1200 of the same spare parts had been issued.

I had to threaten legal action and arrange for a vehicle inspector to view the faults before they would pay for repairs. They never let him view the faults.

On the plus side the van still looks and performs better than its rivals.

My work friend with his Ford Transit much admires my van, but I have not told them of my problems as it's a Mercedes and that would be embarrassing.