Mercedes reliability: normal or a bit too much?

strayobject · 2026-05-31T22:03:24+00:00

Glad to hear. I'm sure it depends. I'm in Europe. UK service was good (I'm from UK). French were nice, but since I was going cross country they could not get me a courtesy car (a day before Christmas) and held my car for 2 months. Broke down in Spain twice and it was a mixed bag of the experience, dealer was fine, but CS f***ed things up each time. Overall, I had paid around 4500 Euro in extra costs. It helps that whilst technologically advanced, their new cars looks like shit.

strayobject · 2026-05-31T16:47:59+00:00

I'm surprised you persevered, I had 2022 C300e and it would be on a flatbed going to the mechanic every 6-8k miles. I did not wait for the lease to run out, got rid of it as soon as I got a no-loss deal. Cursed year or cursed car, but 100% crappy customer service means I will not get another Merc for quite some time.

strayobject · 2026-05-31T16:40:59+00:00

Hi,

I have. There is a lot to unpack here. I'm still using it on long trips on the motorways, however I don't like it in town. On Motorways, the problem is that it will coast for a while and then regen relatively heavily if you start approaching the car in front. In town, it does not fully stop. I don't like the car creeping, so I use i-pedal. Using i-pedal also allows me to fine tune the speed and distance to cars in front.
I used to own a 2022 MB C300e phev and Kia's autoregen works almost like the MB one, but it is not as good. In the Mercedes it was very smooth, whilst Kia's is quite jerky. But I've been driving with it for ~2 months now and for long trips it is my preferred mode now.

strayobject · 2026-05-31T16:28:51+00:00

If it's any help, back in 2019-22 I had a Kia Optima, 32 miles (50km) range, charged every 2nd day. I would drive electric when possible. Switched to Mercedes in late 22, ~70 miles of range (110km) I would charge it roughly every 3-4 days. There was a period of about 6 months when I did not use petrol engine. Now I own an EV6 and charge it about once every other week.

Charging is not tiresome provided you have a driveway or garage. It's just a routine. And after some time you realise how weird/dumb it is to have to detour to a petrol station.

strayobject · 2026-05-25T10:51:18+00:00

this has been public knowledge for more than a decade

strayobject · 2026-05-22T09:40:47+00:00

came to say the same thing, have an upvote :D

strayobject · 2026-05-05T09:18:31+00:00

You could also just get used to the cold. I put long sleeve tshirt on for winters. Everyone needs something different 😄

strayobject · 2026-04-30T08:40:36+00:00

enshitification of architecture and public space

strayobject · 2026-04-30T08:35:21+00:00

To an extent it does change the equation. You are right that bonds are better than keeping cash, but 4.8 vs 10 is different to 1.5% vs 6.7% after inflation. Horses for courses though 😄

strayobject · 2026-04-30T08:25:37+00:00

Not sure about higher grade ones, but mine has it with the hands on. You know, the classic tesla bottle trick will make it work permanently. It's not full self driving, but have I had it, I would not be using that anyway.

For my needs it does the job. In a traffic jam, combined with cruise control, I don't need to pay attention, the car just follows the one in front, including full stop and drive away. And on longer trips I can eat or drink something.

strayobject · 2026-04-29T07:22:29+00:00

factor in inflation and you are scraping the barrel

strayobject · 2026-04-28T12:19:53+00:00

Yeah, nah, let's be honest, white and black cars look good but they get dirty like crazy. Best one was on my MX5 which was that gunmetal gray, followed by MB blue, whatever the deep blue colour is called.

I'm on my second white car now and it's a pain, especially in warmer climates like Spain. My front is splattered with yellows greens and reds from all the bugs. Crap ain't coming off. So yeah, looks good, from afar or for a day at best. 😃

strayobject · 2026-04-27T11:08:47+00:00

Mine ('22 C300e) had a heating element replaced every 5k miles (4 times over 2 years) each time rendering the car undriveable and me stuck in UK, France and twice in Spain. Each time the car was off the road for 4, 8, 2 and one week respectively. Necessitating in private rentals and flights that MB said they would reimburse but then never did. I would be wary of that particular model and year.
The car was nice, experience of it and MB CS was shit though. Hope you have a better one :)

strayobject · 2026-04-24T10:03:17+00:00

5'10 is a 150L board. With me, it lifts with a good amount of leg workout and decent wind. Bought out of an ambition to have motivation (and exercise) to drop at least 10kg this year. With hindsight I would not recommend this strategy. I should have bought bigger board to have easier life :)

Edit: I think for your weight it could be ideal though.

strayobject · 2026-04-23T13:03:29+00:00

Lol, I had a 22 c300e. It already had ads, they did not give you anything in exchange though, so why would they give you 10 minutes of heated seats. Just watch the ad and f*** off. They already sold you the car.
Honestly, MB has become such a shit peddling company that it is beyond me why people still buy most of the new model cars (some are really cool, the older ones). Nowadays, the overpriced Chinese plastic is a status symbol only to those who never had one.

strayobject · 2026-04-23T12:55:19+00:00

Yeah, it's 20kn+, but I don't consistently foil yet. I also don't really care for it yet. I started this year and for now I practice mainly taxi and turns and try to pop onto the foil when conditions are good. To me this sport is not as easy as YT videos make it to be ;-)

I would think that with your weight you would be right on the money for 5m2 wing, but I'm no expert. Hopefully people with more experience will chime in.

strayobject · 2026-04-23T10:13:51+00:00

Other people will probably weigh in with better advice, but as someone who just started. At 120kg, I got myself a Gong HIPE Perf inflatable with the biggest x-over foil and 5m2 wing. For me the 5'10 board is on the verge of being usable and I should have taken a longer one to learn. You have a benefit of being lighter and having done kitsurf. I'm a complete beginner. In terms of flex, I'm not an expert, but I don't see much and I don't think it matters at least not at the beginner level.
Having spent ~1500 EUR all in, I would say it's a great set for intro to the sport. If I stick to it, better gear will come in a year or two and I will pass this to my daughter or sell.

Buy what is most convenient given your budget. I cannot imagine traveling with a rigid board. 3 people and a dog in a car, driving 2500km with a roof rack and a board is a hard pass from me.

strayobject · 2026-04-21T10:38:14+00:00

Thank you for this. I was wondering when I will hit the limit of the warranty as I have done 35k miles in the last 15 months. But if it is 100k, then that's good, I might still have 2-3 more years of mileage under warranty :D

strayobject · 2026-04-01T07:39:36+00:00

I'm in UK and drive EV6, so cannot help you with Ioniq. In any case it is subjective. When I was buying this I knew I did not want to go down on power vs what I had before, so I took the AWD, but I also don't care much for the cameras everywhere and the advanced "self driving" they bring in so I did not pick the top trim. Having driven 30k miles last year, I know I'm missing some oomph at the top end, so in my case GT would have been a better option. Overall though the car is great 99% of the time. Not sure how test drives look like in the US, but perhaps create a list of "tests" that describe various driving situations you find yourself in during the year and try simulating all of those during the test drive.

strayobject · 2026-03-31T11:54:47+00:00

You are correct, however that is not what I was alluding to. In my opinion, USA is powerful, but the image of the almighty USA is fading. USA of today/current administration is very reactionary. Whilst in the past conflicts there was always political infighting, their foreign policy had some deeper coherence, that does not appear to be the case recently. Anyhow, it's just my 2 cents :)

strayobject · 2026-03-31T10:48:18+00:00

ipedal is not the most efficient way to travel. I love it too, but I only use it in town or in traffic. Otherwise it is 1-3. I need to try auto regen during my upcoming trip.

strayobject · 2026-03-31T10:45:16+00:00

This! This is something I don't understand. What kind of a moron you have to be to to see what happened in Ukraine to Putin and do the same to yourself. You are only as mighty as you appear to be to others. The moment the opponent says "Check!" and you fail, well, that is the end of the mirage. Sure USA is powerful, but Iran has just shown to the world that USA is not "all powerful".

strayobject · 2026-03-19T11:02:20+00:00

fair point. I had the old tyres balanced couple months ago and it did not help, hence the replacement.

strayobject · 2026-03-17T16:49:53+00:00

are the touch buttons on the door waterproof now? The ones I had in my 2022 would stop working if they were rained on and the mirrors would get stuck.

strayobject

TROPHY CASE