Vince's xm - 2.1TD daily driver

[Dieselman]

Vince,
Don't go showing the before pictures to any Mercedes owners, unless you want to see a grown person cry.

[Charles M]

They wouldn't believe it, their braincells would overheat as a result of the cognitive dissonance - it is not possible that a lowly Citroen could possibly be less rusty now than an MB was new - nicht moglich...

[CitroJim]

Are you saying that Mercs rust then?

[Dieselman]

Are you saying that Mercs rust then?

Hmmmm....

[Dean]

Are you saying that Mercs rust then?

Only the ones with wheels.

Vince its looking good, its nice to see some attention being lavished on an xm, there are some really nice ones about now and it will really help to preserve them, i like it.

D

[Charles M]

I was about to say it's only the wheels that don't rust, but the wheel nuts on my 10 year old Merc are far worse than those of my SM (which simply need a quick scrub but that would require to take off all four wheels).

They rust everywhere. The early ones conceal it better but it's all structural from which it is a mega job to sort, whereas the later ones resemble acneed teenagers. My 210 has had new wings and new tailgate under warranty three years ago and guess what, the new wings have got the bug. I've even seen rust on internal stainless trim.

[russ92xmsed]

Was this all down to Merc saving money and building them in South Africa for a while!

I have heard this about the 90's E class. Crusty wheel arches ect. There seems to be quite alot of cars that like to corrode, which you thought would be safe bet not to.
Mk4 Golfs go too i think around the rear arches due to rubbing arch liners. Nothing is indestructible then...not even Germany's finest!!

[Charles M]

Mercs from the so-called golden age rust immensely, it's just mainly in structural areas you don't see until far too late. The later cars were produced using cheap steel, poor design, lousy rustproofing and immense complacency. While the cars from the cost cutting period rust on the surface they are normally better structurally.

[CitroJim]

I'm shocked and we think XMs are pretty bad. Sounds like they're not really up against a Merc...

Xantias are very, very very rust-resistant in the main but they do have a couple of weak areas after a lifetime in a bad place...

[russ92xmsed]

Well I suppose, from Mercs point of view, their customers who can afford to buy these expensive cars from new, will only have them for generally short periods before up grading to a new model. So will not experience the rust ect. And then for Merc, once the cars have rotted away, it means no real parts supply ( even if they do cater for all the cars very well indeed once they are out of production) and they move on to the next car. A typical case of Planned Obselessance.