Mercedes-Benz Vito W638 (1996-2003)

a great work horse with 5 star luxury – I have driven Vans for work since the 80s starting off with a Mitsubishi.This a van that certainly got workout with moving machines during the week and fire wood on the weekend.My next van was a Mazda .This had two engines and also did alot of work.When the rust claimed the Mazda I decided to look at something more long term and better made.I… Read more

asked a panel shop about Mercs .He gave them good rap.So I contacted West Point Star in Osborne PK.I went down there ready to go for to tie with sales man and I was totally blown away.They treated me with respect as though I could have been the CEO of BHP .they gave me a coffee and we had a chat and a look at the different Vans.We decided to take a Vito 109cdi for a test drive .The sales rep drove to Hale school ,then we he said you can have a drive.I jumped in and we headed out the car park and up Hale RD.This thing bloody flew up the hill.i asked if it was petrol and he replied.No diseil.I could believe how much power it had compared to the old Mazda.I decided on the very van I was driving.Now I don't have to worry about going on long drives if my van will make it .That was back in 2007 my van is still going after 360,000 I now have a second Mercedes-Benz van that goes even quicker

Reliable, cost effective motoring – 108CDI. Bought new in 2000. Done 210,000k as of Apr 2018. This is a list of work done (bear in mind this car is 18 years old!). Dash needed replacing half year after warranty - Mercedes paid half. New starter motor, new alternator, new battery cable, new indicator leaver assembly, new sway bar struts, break disks skimmed, new cv shaft, new… Read more

radiator, new break hoses. That’s it - apart from the dashboard, just normal wear and tear. I change the oil and filter religiously every 5,000km and do what else I can myself - it sees a mechanic maybe once every three years. Not bad for 18 years faithful service and it probably has another five good years left in it, if not ten. There is roof rust from carrying kayaks - water gets under the roof rack rail - a design fault - it should have been bedded in selastic. Maybe I got lucky with my van. Or maybe it’s that happy owners don’t tend to write reviews?! I don’t know.

my vito is as good as it was in 2002 – i bought mine as a demo in 2002. Stock standard manual 108cdi, no luxury add ons. Manual everything. I didput in an aircon, which wasnt very effective due to the volume of the van. After 14 years and 120,000kms still going very well. I did all my oil changes and servicing after the first year. Merc charges too much. Just changed brake pads all… Read more

round and front disc rotors from supercheapauto. I will never buy anothet judging by the numerous bad reviews from everyone. Maybe I am just lucky with this basic van.

Great van when it's running – I bought this van knowing it had a bad name for reliability and parts prices. I've owned two Hiaces before and wanted a better van. While it has great power and handles very well, it's so expensive to keep it on the road it's not economical. I used to be a mechanic in a Benz specialised workshop so none of the prices below are inclusive of… Read more

labour, I do it all myself.

I bought it at 115k, knowing the auto trans usually fail at 150k. I changed the oil in the "filled for life" transmission and it lasted to 165k. Got prices on rebuilds. $5000 to $8000. Bought all the parts out of Germany, including a torque converter and oil pump, for $1300 and did it myself.

I rings in fuel lines perished at 180k, replace all plastic fuel lines $300

Injector seats started leaking at 200k, replaced 4 injectors at $450 each.

Central locking has been miserable since I bought it, never had it working 100%.

Speedo was reading low, dimming not working, centre display dead, had it repaired by a guy in Victoria, $150. Works great now.

Exterior and interior plastic is very brittle.

Replace CV shafts every 100k.

Replaced cam, crank and MAP sensor at 200k as they were throwing fault codes.

Looking at a Ford Transit Custom now. If only it had twin sliding doors. At least it has bloody cup holders! It will be slower than the 112 but hopefully I can stop working on my own vehicle.

25/10/16 Update. Sold it with 260K on it. Still going well.

Worst. Van. Ever – If you feel like your life is too problem-free and that you have excess money to burn, then you should own the Vito. My experience with this van has been horrific. From the first day it has given me nothing but problems. Poor body work, engine problems, components breaking off and not working, warning lights constantly coming on for no reason. … Read more

Mechanics don't even want to look at it! The van no longer recognizes my key and needs new computer system, along with front-end suspension work and a new hydraulics compressor (€2,700). Now I own this titanic garbage bin and have to *pay* to get rid of it at a total loss. I will never own another MB vehicle!

Shocker – i bought this van about 5 years ago with about 70 000km on the clock( not bad at all) Thought that i was buying a good van but soon realised how wrong i was. Since then here are some of the things that have gone wrong with the van. Drivers electric window doesn't work any more. immobiliser had to be disarmed because it was preventing the van… Read more

from starting at times.

electronics in dashboard stopped working. By this i mean, i would be going 180km\h ( according to the speedo ) without leaving my driveway. The revs would be redlining even when i didn't have the keys in the ignition.

exhaust need fixing now..

Makes a whining noise like a whipper sniper...

I don't want to get into to much detail with this as it just makes me cross. All i can say is don't buy one of these vans, unless you want to buy mine from me then i will do you a good deal.

my van has about 150 000 km on it. shape and the fact it was a Mercedes electronics are bad, hard to find people to work on it at times, ie trying to get people to put cruise control in was tough. You may find someone to service it once or twice but after they realise how hard it is to work on they tend to send you else where. and all the stuff mentioned above.

Terrible – Really bad van! Mercedes should be embarrassed and should have, a long time ago recalled these vans and fixed their many known defects. I bought this van thinking that Merecedes had a good and proud reputation...I feel very stupid to have believed that. Looks nice, great double sliding doors...if they both worked! Well,well,well...I'm another… Read more

sucker that wishes she had seen these reviews before buying a 2000 113 Vito in Aug 2010, I know you will say it’s 10 yrs old but it had only done 79,000km. Nice looking van but...I really don’t care about its looks if it’s a bad van, which it is. I have 2 children, one is a disabled teenager who requires a wheelchair permanently for her transport. I finally saved the funds to buy a good van (or so I thought) and spent $15,000.00 to buy it...Blah!!!!! Before I knew it the radio began flickering on and off, then realised i was going too fast...the speedo reads incorrectly, 30kph is about 60kph, makes speed camera navigation difficult, thanks for that!...And now the speedo doesn’t read at all, thanks again. A light that reads EMS is permanently on, had it checked by a Merc dealer...they couldn't fix it,three days down time and a $300 fee and that's just the very beginning of the costs. The petrol gauge reads incorrectly and remains stuck on 3/4 of a tank. This makes it VERY hard as you cannot even work out how much petrol you have or used as the speedo doesn’t work, thanks once again Mercedes, it’s very difficult to push a VERY large van off the road while your wheelchair bound daughter sits in the van (cant get her out in the middle of the road in peak hour traffic!!)...Mercedes make the VERY worst van ever!!!!!! Next, the driver’s door handle snapped on the inside and now doesn’t work and I have to wind the window down to open the door from the outside, nice when it’s raining, or I have to climb over and get out the passenger side…very elegant I must say!! And even better it now doesn’t lock either, thanks Mercedes. I have a portable fibreglass/Kevlar? ramp ($800-$1000) and now i risk it being stolen every time i go out. What else? Oh, yes, wait there's more, it has two sliding side doors, they worked for the first month and now only one opens, the other doesn't work at all. Lastly the fuel pump went and stranded us on a main hwy, Christmas eve at 9pm, it then took 2 months to get someone to fix it. No-one wants to touch it, they know their rubbish vans obviously...ha, ha, ha. I can only laugh otherwise I’m just going to cry. WHAT A LEMON...Never again Mercedes, Never!! And, I will make sure that as many people as possible know that Mercedes are bad and to not waste their money.

Bad – In short if Toyota had this platform to make a van before Mercedes did it this would have taken the world Van Scene over like the I Phone did the phone market, Mercedes had a chance to make this an almost legendary Van and sadly fell way short of the mark with dodgy electronics, Very sub standard Service, secretive behavior with faults and and… Read more

service pricing and Mercedes Tech's trying to re invent the wheel. whats wrong with a throttle cable, its worked on cars for nigh on 100 years now? Get the bloody computer out of the loop or use two, one for engine management and one for Systems management on either side of the dash board, not together, a van is not a Faraday Cage, Electromagnetic interference causes weird stuff to happen. I drive mine daily and would buy another, next time a 5sp diesel. If you are a handy man like me you will get both the Joy of Driving a Merc and the Warm feeling of accomplishment every time you repair a fault at 1/4 the price Mercedes could or would not, If you want you vehicle to be a reliable work horse by all means buy one but sell it just before warranty runs out, If you have a fat wallet and no brains buy a second hand one with no warranty, your wallet wont be fat for long.

Graeme Power My Year 2000 Vito SWB 5 speed petrol Van, Quite probably the best van I have ever driven, I have driven Vans professionally for about 25 years, its roomy, I feel safe as a driver, seat belt comes to hand quick and easy and is well positioned, seating position and seats good, speedometer well laid out, rear vision mirrors well positioned and generous in size, fuel consumption good, brakes are good and have excellent foot to road feel, load capacity excellent, overall appearance excellent. The Red paint faded quickly and now has a white film that buffing cant fix, Thank you Mercedes! The gear shift a little tricky and slow to engage, probably the linkage set up not being what it should, I had this looked at with no improvement, turning circle is not good and clipping gutters with the rims is common, do not change your 15 inch rims for 16's if you are a delivery drive or you will be replacing tyres often (at over $300.00 a case) after punching holes in the side walls when you clip gutters, the low profile 16inch tyres bulge just enough to become a pinch zone between the rim and the gutter and goodbye tyre every time you clip a curb, (stick with or get, 15 inch standard steel light truck rims & tyres) air conditioning not up to scratch, very poor even after a couple of re gasses, The petrol 5 speed I have is a bit down on power for towing but if your not in a hurry and don't mind engaging low gear often on trips you can do it and the cooling system is up to the job even for very heavy loads, CV joints don't last long and seem to average about 90k, don't go to Mercedes for any parts if you think you can diagnose your own problems, I buy cv's off the net for $165.00 and $70.00 a side to fit, my hearts skips a beat when I look at Mercedes charges on this simple job. I have had every electrical problem imaginable with this van and I fixed every one myself without Mercedes help. If a Mercedes technicians brains were dynamite the explosion wouldn't even lift his hat, MAF sensor (bought aftermarket from China $60.00, Crank angle sensor off the net $40.00, Throttle body repair (had to send it to England to have this done $340.00) Re Map computer $650.00, Replace Speedometer Cluster (twice) buy these New in England for about $700.00) dont even think of Mercedes for this one they wanted over $3500.00 fitted with limited warranty, apparently the speedo is famous for stuffing up. I firmly believe it should be illegal to make electronic speedometers that interface with a cars computer, They should be stand alone so you can maintain/repair/replace them separately, it is one of the most valuable instruments in your vehicle with speed cameras the way they are now days. I wanted to put LPG in the van but could not position a useful size tank anywhere on the exterior as the van is too low and could not afford to loose load space for a tank inside.

Terrible – Would recommend you buy 1 Mercedes in your lifetime if your experience is like mine, you'll not own another. Should have listened to my father in-law, his experience was similiar in 1977 with Merecedes. Often had a little smile to myself when a start up "Autohaus" tried to direct mail me some time ago with an exciting offer on the new Vito. The… Read more

ability to stay planted on the road is like no other van of the era I had driven. Sliding doors on both sides. Can walk into cargo area direct from front seat. Pity the rest of the vehicle wasn't to the standard. If your after a reliable car which stops,tows and is cheap to service and doesn't breakdown buy a something else 4 cyl. petrol auto too highly geared to suit Aussie road driving. Wouldn't accelerate even to a poor level. A/C useless above 30 deg C. Ground clearance too low if used on a building site but that's why it stuck to the road I suppose??? Very easy to get bogged. Useless at towing. Brakes on this van are abysmal. Would not lock the wheels even if I applied a full 90 odd kg of pressure "stood on them" Most unreliable and costly to repair vehicle ever owned. Bought 2nd hand at 98,000k 1/05/2000 sold at 162,500k 19/09/2002. Serviced by Mercedes comercial repair agents initially so the list of faults follows:Top Transmission cooler hose weeping x1 at 105,00 service told water pump noisy would replace under warranty if I paid labour. Agreed, remember this because it comes up again later. Replace water pump and top trans oil cooler hose . Told bottom one now leaking seriously question their ability to diagnose the source of faults but get hose replaced. Car gets 120,00k service "{I'll speed up now)".Car develops a significant hesitation in initial acceleration take to different Mercedes service agent at 128880. This agent takes the van for the day and at the end of the day tells me that the reason for the hesitation is a faulty water pump he has replaced ???. I tell him he has his hand on it and explain its only 20,000 k old and ask him to show me the pump . He then tells me that he thinks it non genuine. I ask him to go and get the pump, again, he gets the pump and surprise surpise there's nothing wrong with the pump and the impeller is embossed with the merecedes pensioner spotter symbol. This causes a considerable stand off. I pay his bloody ridiculous invoice of $907.95 and tell him that if anyone asks me for an opinion of their level of service I'll tell them straight!. At the next 135000 service I hunt up a non accredited Mercedes repairer I tell him about the trouble I've had . He's up front and tells me he's not worked on Vitos before but he'll have a go given the history. He gets the car and within 2 hours rings me and asks me to come and look at what he's found . The head gasket been leaking for quite some time and the rear brake lines are perished. These get replaced and car has a brief hiatus of OK running. Next it breaks the passenger side CV joint . I'm so pissed off with the service repairs by the stage I replace the CV myself . I change both because after talking to the very first accredited agent to get the parts his rep tells me it's a common problem on Vitos and the run around van of theirs has already broken several CV joints!!!!Then one morning the trans fault light comes on . I ring the non accredited repairer and ask his opinion he says he won't be able to help and to take it to a mercedes accredited repairer. I take it to the closest one to us and we,re without the van for over 5 weeks and $3,500.00 plus later. When I pick up the van the mechanic is unusually candid with me "probably cause i've spoken to him every day for the last few weeks" The mechanic tells me that they've changed 2 solenoids and that the problem was probably in the trans plug. He tells me that that Merecedes dealerships cross their fingers when they sell the autos as at the time they don't even keep trans fluid in the country for them. Not long after this repair the trans light briefly does a little flicker when it's not suppose to . So I sell the car about 2 hours later and enjoy the most reliable driving van/car I've owned but thats for another review