Benz makes amends

SERIOUS quality issues which have plagued Mercedes-Benz vehicles over the past few years are now behind the brand, according to Mercedes Car Group (Australia) managing director, Horst von Sanden.

Mr von Sanden told GoAuto at the launch of the CLS coupe last week that the German car-maker had turned the corner with increased quality levels across its entire range of vehicles after a global recall and a concerted campaign to lift its game.

At both an international and Australian level, the prestige car manufacturer has acknowledged electronic issues in areas including its Comand navigation, telephone and stereo control and braking systems.

Around 1000 new-generation W211 E-class sedans were affected by electronic maladies here and had their Comand systems replaced.

In April, Mercedes-Benz announced a worldwide recall on 1.3 million vehicles, involving about 12,000 V6 and V8 models in Australia, to repair potentially faulty brakes and electrical systems. Of those numbers about 8500 vehicles were for specific brake issues but only 853 vehicles were actually found to have had problems.

Auto analysts put the global bill at $500 million, with the recall on the Sensotronic braking system on 680,000 cars costing an close to $30 million alone, according to Mercedes-Benz in the United States.

In six-cylinder and eight-cylinder petrol engines built between June 2001 and November 2004 the voltage regulator in the alternator needed checking and replacement if necessary.

E-class and CLS-class models built from January 2002 to January 2005 required new battery control unit software to enhance the on-board power supply. In addition, the braking systems on E-class, SL-class and CLS-class models built from June 2001 to March 2005 also required updating.

Despite these issues, since its introduction in Australia in late 2002 the E-class series has still managed to top the sales charts, beating arch-rival BMW's 5 Series in 2002, 2003 and 2004.

DaimlerChrysler has now widely acknowledged that problems with some multi-media technologies, such as internet connection and text messaging, has forced it to rethink development on emerging in-car functions to ensure failures do not happen.

"As you saw from that world-wide recall, the idea behind that was clearly to put all the quality issues to bed and this is all under control now," Mr von Sanden said.

As a result of the quality problems, Mercedes-Benz's quality and customer satisfaction standing in the annual JD Power quality study in the US had slipped, only to recover in the latest survey results.

Mr von Sanden grudgingly accepted that such US-focused quality audits were here to stay but did not believe they were relevant to Mercedes-Benz vehicles sold in Australia.

"I think JD Power is nothing which we necessarily see as the real benchmark," he said. "But people look at it, so whether we like it or not ... it's a bit like the NCAP testing. Some people use it so therefore we should at least be good at it.

"Customers will realise if they drive our cars and the quality is first-class they will make their own judgment (as to) what they perceive as top quality, so I don't think we need a tool to compare ourselves against others."Earlier this year the head of Mercedes-Benz Car Group, Dr Eckhard Cordes, acknowledged the past quality problems but said the company was now producing the "best product quality ever".