1999 Mercedes-Benz M-Class ML320 3.2 V6 from Australia and New Zealand
Summary:
Reliable and a cheap luxury second hand buy
Faults:
Nothing really.
It got a good and expensive dealer service when we bought it. Haven't been to Mercedes dealer since.
It had a new sensor fitted for something I can't recall, but the full service cost $4,000 plus!
Since then we found a local guy with the ability to run Mercedes diagnostics and fix any issues with aftermarket bits (nothing needed so far).
Regular oil changes with full synthetic have helped perhaps.
General Comments:
Surprised me. My wife wanted it and I thought it would be a nightmare to own after reading reviews... but it's been fantastic. A really capable 4WD (and I drive a Nissan Patrol as my car). Powerful and smooth. Prefer it to my mother in law's BMW X5. Happy with the quality and no performance issues to date.
These are very under-rated cars with what I consider to be an unwarranted bad reputation. Maybe we got the good one... but others I've spoken to since I bought ours are equally happy.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 6th January, 2017
6th Jan 2017, 10:46
You got a good one, keep looking after it. Someone else took the hit for that $4K service, all the stars seem to have all lined up. Certainly, with time, and your resourcefulness, alternative parts and having an independent expert mechanic makes owning these and similar cars easier. Time also makes common problems more familiar and easier to diagnose or deal with.
I wouldn't say the bad reputation is unwarranted - magazines from different countries have run reliability surveys that back these up. It isn't inevitable that if you own one, it WILL definitely, always (or often) break down on you. There will always be enough samples out there like yours which have given little or an acceptable number of problems (or may be minor enough to be a mere nuisance), hence there will still be people who buy them. I drive a 2001 BMW Compact (hatch), had it now for 6 years and with 165K km, I've known people who have had nothing but trouble with their BMWs - 3-, 5-, and 7-series. I certainly wouldn't dismiss or belittle their experience, but I will give credit to my car as I'd have dumped it long ago if it gave me any real grief.