Satellite navigation system failed on day 2 from new.
Power steering pump and steering rack failed in week 2 about 400 miles from home. Remote dealer messed up the sand-coloured interior, scratched left-side front wing and damaged right-side rear alloy wheel and tyre.
Rear right shock absorber leaking in week 3. Local dealer failed to note my comment that the car has AirMatic Dual Control suspension and ordered the wrong type of shock absorber requiring 100 extra miles of driving and an extra wasted day to fix.
The car is a joy to be in and to drive as long as everything is working. Sadly it has rarely been fault-free in its short life so far. See Autocar magazine dated 21 October 2003 page 15 for shocking revelations about new E-class faults.
The E320 CDI is a nice car, but it lets itself down with the problems I have encountered from new.
The morning after I got it the Auto gearbox completely failed and had to spend the day being fixed.
Five days later the COMMAND APS system started 'Playing Up' with a loud fuzzing noise coming from the front speakers and resulting in the system completely re-setting, coming back in German, with the saved pre-sets lost and the SatNav needing to be reloaded. Luckily I've since had no problems apart from the cruise control disliking being set at 50mph.
My E320cdi estate with 7500 miles has developed a serious fuel leak which was spraying fuel on to the exhaust also the most serious fault has been the failure of the brakes without pre warning from the car computer system. This has left us without transport even though Mercedes know I need the car urgently to go to Geneva. We are rejecting the car and requesting its renewal, but are very concerned that this a design fault and may be an electrical problem according the engineer that has inspected the car on our behalf. can anyone help please? Has any one else had the same problems? michaelhencher@yahoo.co.uk.
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