Mercedes-Benz R-Class W251 (2006-2013)

My 2006 wagon had an elderly lady owner before it was purchased in 2016 for $20 000 – 68000km's in 2016, from that time up to last week the car was plauged with problems, $10000 was spend on the car. Such problems as the ignition/keys, the steering locked up as if the safety/theft precaution malfunctioned, starter motor (that was understandable after a decade) but when something called a crank angle sensor went and the last thing… Read more

was a timing chain snapped and also snapped teeth on the cog which drives the timing chain, all these problems lead me to believe (my experience) the Mercedes C class compressor is a vehicle which tarnished the famous German manufacturer brand. Far from reliable in the big picture of its lifetime it is now being towed to be scrapped in Kunda park, sunshine coast unless someone want to buy for $1000 and spend 5000k to get it working (for 6-12 months) until the next problem comes along. For 20k I could have bought a nice Holden Commodore or Honda Accord which from what I've seen would be fine today and I wouldn't have caused me so much distress

The perfect SUV – I’ve owned the R350 for over a decade now and am a fan of the brand; having owned many A, C, ML and SL models. But my R is by far the best. I have the 6 seater long wheel base 2006 model. It is extraordinarily comfortable, quiet and easy to drive. Fuel economy is great, particularly on a long drive and it’s surprisingly good in the city. At 5… Read more

metres long, it’s big, but it doesn’t feel big. It drives like a sedan and visibility is excellent, so when combined with parking sensors it’s a breeze to drive and park in the city. The interior finish and the fantastic interior space make it a luxurious ride for all passengers. The styling is still contemporary and I get plenty of positive comments from friends, colleagues and strangers about how good it is. A great car for towing and it can turn into a van in no time with space enough to carry a single bed - speaking from experience! This is the best, most versatile car, Mercedes made - it has none of the issues that high 4WD drives have from an access perspective (I recently drove the latest GL and it has nothing on the R class for access and drivability). Get one if you can, what a shame Mercedes didn’t maintain the class.

Can't find anything to replace it – We have now owned one for just over 4 years & have completed over 90,000km, the combined av fuel economy for every km travelled has been 7.8L/100km. I have not found a 7 seat AWD people mover (where adults can sit in 3rd row) which could match that sort of economy. Admittedly we have added a couple of Hiclones & a MorePower chip from the guys at… Read more

Hiclone in Victoria. But for such a large car with over 200kw to get such good economy is amazing.

The only issue we had was tyres, the 21" Conti's side walls failed so fast (10 months). We switched to 19" wheels & the problem went away (2 years). For the last year we tried the 21" wheels again with some much cheaper Atturo tyres & these are still going strong after over a year. Conti still deny there is anything wrong with the tyres but the fact they have released a 2nd heavier duty tyre in exact same size, to me, is an admission they were faulty, & they are still over twice the price of the Atturo's.

Despite the km's we travel each year the car only requests to be serviced once a year. MB services are not cheap, usually $600-800, but we have had 3 new Mercs in 6 years, we found that switching to a normal mech for our other 08 Merc reduces this to normal car service prices. The only other thing wrong with the car is gps maps can be expensive to update, the dealer offered as part of the sale to update the maps every year while car was under warranty, but back-flipped on this after the purchase, this may only be a trivial thing but it still is not the way to treat customers.

Love our R class – Bought new in 2007, been fantastic. Heaps of room. Well engineered. Relatively inexpensive to run. Eats up kilometres on a long drive. All seats can accommodate adults. Great back up at Melbourne Mercedes in Kings Way. Great controls. Great brakes. Had to sell ours but would buy it back in a flash Engineering, finish, quality, dynamics seating, child seat restraints Thick front pillar Show details ·  4