What the hell happened to Mercedes? 29th out of 30 on the list. Truly awful. I've never driven one (let alone owned one) but by the marketing (and price) you'd think it was the greatest vehicle on earth.
Not saying MB quality hasn’t changed but given the large feature set the problem surface area is also very large. More opportunities for owners to find issues.
By comparison, Lexus uses tried and tested old technology to the point it’s boring to own. But it’s super reliable.
2nd thing not captured here: not all car models are equal. The lower end Mercs and other premium manufacturers models aren’t built to the same standards by my experience. There’s a difference in quality of a German car made in Germany and a German car made in Mexico. The higher end models used to be made in Germany (not sure if that’s still the case).
All of this affects this rating. You might be fine buying an E class but the experience of owning a CLA might be shit.
I have driven lots of them in 90s-20s and thought it were the best cars. And it were.
The W126 was a fairly simple car though, compared to their modern offerings, and it was built under a philosophy of building the best car regardless of cost.
My W140 was a also a well made car, great quality in materials and mechanical fundamentals, but it was too complicated and quite a bit more problematic for me.
Modern Mercedes-Benz cars don't seem as distinguished or well built as their offerings from the 1980s. With that said, my C216 CL-class is a very well built car in terms of materials and general attention to detail; it's just too complicated with hurts its overall reliability (though the powertrain is decently solid).
Regrettably quality deteriorated quickly.