Mercedes ML - what year do I need to buy to avoid the rust?
Discussion
A few years ago I looked at buying a Mercedes ML 320, but every one I looked at had rust on it. I was looking at 2003 -4 cars at the time. I gave up in the end...
I quite fancy one again and notice they changed model in 2005 which ran to 2012. Do these still have rust problems?
Also any tips on which engine / specification to go for on the 2005 - 2012 cars?
I quite fancy one again and notice they changed model in 2005 which ran to 2012. Do these still have rust problems?
Also any tips on which engine / specification to go for on the 2005 - 2012 cars?
Edited by buzzer on Saturday 21st January 15:01
I have posted some of experiences with my ML here previously but...
... we bought our 08 ML320CDI in 2010 at about 30K miles. In that time it proved to be strong and very capable. It towed a nearly-2-tonne caravan with absolute ease, and with a massive roof box on top, and 4 bikes on the towbar mounted rack, it took all 4 of us to Atlantic France at high speed in complete comfort and security.
My wife owned it for 3 years then I took it on as a "freebie" (because we had paid for it by then). In the time I had it, it was driven very fast and just kept giving.
We replaced the tyres with a set of General Grabber ATs, and it drove through snow and mud with laughable ease. Apart from that and the towbar, we kept it as standard. It had half leather (which I loved - the seats were very comfortable) and the NTG2 COMAND which was a little limiting (only 5-digit postcodes) and had an unintuitive interface yet was surprisingly clear. The stereo was an upgraded version (an option from new) and sounded excellent.
Over the 6-years we replaced 3 (I think) starter glow plugs and the glow plug controller. The powered tailgate was a consistent pain which I attribute to the fact that it was one of the earlier implementations. All current powered tailgates seem to work well these days.
Mine was on coil springs, and because of its heavy use, a crack developed on one rear so I replaced both at an independent garage quite cheaply (under £100).
There was a persistent issue with mine where, if you drove over a shallow pothole, as the rear wheel passed over it, the rear of the car would appear to be pulled sideways. I have since read about someone else experiencing this on one of the American forums but his was the only other report I've found so I don't think it's widespread.
For the last 10K miles, the turbo became noisy. Where you could never hear it's whistle originally, it became quite audible when the stereo was off. I agreed the local Halfords could replace it for a recon replacement for £1200 which was very reasonable (£3000 for a new one) but I already had my eye on a newer car.
I PX'd mine for my newer GL. The agreed price was £7K which is a stupidly low price for such a capable machine however that appears to be the going price for them and I just didn't fancy replacing the turbo.
... we bought our 08 ML320CDI in 2010 at about 30K miles. In that time it proved to be strong and very capable. It towed a nearly-2-tonne caravan with absolute ease, and with a massive roof box on top, and 4 bikes on the towbar mounted rack, it took all 4 of us to Atlantic France at high speed in complete comfort and security.
My wife owned it for 3 years then I took it on as a "freebie" (because we had paid for it by then). In the time I had it, it was driven very fast and just kept giving.
We replaced the tyres with a set of General Grabber ATs, and it drove through snow and mud with laughable ease. Apart from that and the towbar, we kept it as standard. It had half leather (which I loved - the seats were very comfortable) and the NTG2 COMAND which was a little limiting (only 5-digit postcodes) and had an unintuitive interface yet was surprisingly clear. The stereo was an upgraded version (an option from new) and sounded excellent.
Over the 6-years we replaced 3 (I think) starter glow plugs and the glow plug controller. The powered tailgate was a consistent pain which I attribute to the fact that it was one of the earlier implementations. All current powered tailgates seem to work well these days.
Mine was on coil springs, and because of its heavy use, a crack developed on one rear so I replaced both at an independent garage quite cheaply (under £100).
There was a persistent issue with mine where, if you drove over a shallow pothole, as the rear wheel passed over it, the rear of the car would appear to be pulled sideways. I have since read about someone else experiencing this on one of the American forums but his was the only other report I've found so I don't think it's widespread.
For the last 10K miles, the turbo became noisy. Where you could never hear it's whistle originally, it became quite audible when the stereo was off. I agreed the local Halfords could replace it for a recon replacement for £1200 which was very reasonable (£3000 for a new one) but I already had my eye on a newer car.
I PX'd mine for my newer GL. The agreed price was £7K which is a stupidly low price for such a capable machine however that appears to be the going price for them and I just didn't fancy replacing the turbo.
I've had several MLs (W164 model 2005-2012) and they've been pretty reliable/rust free. Only place I'd check is in the side compartments in the boot. Water can seep in around the trim at the top of the boot hatch frame and trickle down into the compartments below (ie just behind the rear wheelarches) -particularly problematic on the offside one as that's where the fusebox is. The other niggly issue I had was condensation on the inside of the headlight lens -by which I don't mean the 'external' lens cover, I mean the back of the 'bullseye' lens inside the actual sealed headlight unit. This was a pain as you cant get in to clean it off and it seriously reduced the dipped headlight output to the point of being dangerous to drive and I took to driving with the front fog lights on permanently. that aside only issues I had were a new shock and a dead battery.
I had a 2002 ML270 CDI which appeared rust free when I bought it in October 2018.
Within months patches of rust started appearing (car had not been touched up previously) but I think a lot of this is down to the excessive amount of salt on the roads in Scotland during winter!
The engine was very thirsty and I found the front seats to be the most uncomfortable seats ever! A few friends/family also commented on the uncomfortable seats on any journey longer than an hour!
Engine developed many issues too, so I ended up scrapping it to avoid a four figure bill, the bodywork was shot by this point with rust. Wouldn't buy that gen of ML ever again.
Replaced with a P38 top spec RR Vogue Autobiography which was a joy to drive, was actually more (just a bit) reliable than the ML and was just a nicer all round car, shame about awful fuel economy (11mpg in sport) but don't regret having that car.
Within months patches of rust started appearing (car had not been touched up previously) but I think a lot of this is down to the excessive amount of salt on the roads in Scotland during winter!
The engine was very thirsty and I found the front seats to be the most uncomfortable seats ever! A few friends/family also commented on the uncomfortable seats on any journey longer than an hour!
Engine developed many issues too, so I ended up scrapping it to avoid a four figure bill, the bodywork was shot by this point with rust. Wouldn't buy that gen of ML ever again.
Replaced with a P38 top spec RR Vogue Autobiography which was a joy to drive, was actually more (just a bit) reliable than the ML and was just a nicer all round car, shame about awful fuel economy (11mpg in sport) but don't regret having that car.
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