SLK230 Kompressor--a quickie

G

gamby

New member
Customer called me Saturday and said she needed her car done that day, since she might be selling it in the very near future. I had a 4 hour window to do it, so it wasn't nearly as thorough as I would have liked. Car is an SLK230 Kompressor--I think it's an 02, but I'm not sure.



Car it typical of a black car exposed to New England Winters:



slk230-1.jpg




slk230-2.jpg




Clearcoat on the passenger front fender is failing (crappy respray that she didn't know about when she bought the car) and the clearcoat on the rear driver's side wheel is also failing. Add to that, the driver's side sun visor no longer stays up or down--it just dangles. Scary build quality from that era??? Front bumper cover is dinged up from her "parking by feel".



The paint was swirled beyond recognition and I didn't have the time to correct it to a level I'd want to. I got maybe a 50% correction out of it.





slk230-4.jpg




slk230-3.jpg




I was using some wool bonnets that I got off of ebay, but I don't htink I like them. I'll experiment on my wife's car to see if it was just the rock-hard Mercedes paint that was fighting me.



Ryobi 6" buffer w/ wool and foam bonnets



Meguiar's wash soap



Turtle Wax Ice Liquid Claybar (this stuff is actually great)



3m Rubbing compound (w/ wool Bonnet)



Trunk and hood (still marred after step 1) w/ Meguiar's #9 and foam bonnet



Meg's NXT 2.0



Meg's Quick Detailer



Hot Shine tire dressing (blotted w/ a shop towel)
 
Nice job; she must have been pleased.



gamby said:
Scary build quality from that era???
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I have a buddy who, until about five years ago, bought a new Mercedes every 2-3 years. Now he buys a BMW every 2-3 years. He said the Mercedes quality took a huge nosedive somewhere around 2002. Although my friend always bought an E Series, he said those Kompressors were the worst in terms of quality. Apparently Mercedes lost a lot of faithful customers and has been frantically trying to improve their image in the last few years.
 
Joel_MD said:
Nice job; she must have been pleased.







I have a buddy who, until about five years ago, bought a new Mercedes every 2-3 years. Now he buys a BMW every 2-3 years. He said the Mercedes quality took a huge nosedive somewhere around 2002. Although my friend always bought an E Series, he said those Kompressors were the worst in terms of quality. Apparently Mercedes lost a lot of faithful customers and has been frantically trying to improve their image in the last few years.
Click to expand...



2002 happens to be when Mercedes & Chrysler started to integrate some parts & a few models.



That's what happens when one of the best meets one of the worst. Thankfully they ditched Chrysler just in time.
 
SonicBlue05GT said:
2002 happens to be when Mercedes & Chrysler started to integrate some parts & a few models.



That's what happens when one of the best meets one of the worst. Thankfully they ditched Chrysler just in time.
Click to expand...



You couldn't be more wrong....Daimler-Benz purchased Chrysler with the sole purpose of raiding its cash reserves. They did NOT use ANY Chrysler pieces in any of their vehicles, in fact, it was the other way around. Daimler supplied transmissions, diesel motors, electronics, and general suspension designs to Chrysler. In essense, Daimler was taking older, paid off technologies and charging Chrysler for using them. It wasn't a form of cost cutting, just a way to suck more money from the American side.



Daimler is a HUGE reason why Chrysler is the way it is right now. For the few years before the merger(1998-2002), Chrysler was the hottest(Chryslers market share peaked in 2002), most profitable American manufacturer, they had excellent products and their designs were very modern and appealing.



Make no mistake, Daimler ruined Chrysler.
 
slicknickis3 said:
You couldn't be more wrong....Daimler-Benz purchased Chrysler with the sole purpose of raiding its cash reserves. They did NOT use ANY Chrysler pieces in any of their vehicles, in fact, it was the other way around. Daimler supplied transmissions, diesel motors, electronics, and general suspension designs to Chrysler. In essense, Daimler was taking older, paid off technologies and charging Chrysler for using them. It wasn't a form of cost cutting, just a way to suck more money from the American side.



Daimler is a HUGE reason why Chrysler is the way it is right now. For the few years before the merger(1998-2002), Chrysler was the hottest(Chryslers market share peaked in 2002), most profitable American manufacturer, they had excellent products and their designs were very modern and appealing.



Make no mistake, Daimler ruined Chrysler.
Click to expand...



They did indeed begin integrating materials both ways in 2002. It's a fact - I didn't pull it out of the air.



Chrysler products are nothing but trouble which is why they can barely give them away now. Most people know it except for the diehard fans. It's simple, if they honestly made excellent & appealing cars, they wouldn't be going bankrupt.



Chrysler ruined Chrysler with shoddy products.
 
SonicBlue05GT said:
They did indeed begin integrating materials both ways in 2002. It's a fact - I didn't pull it out of the air.



Chrysler products are nothing but trouble which is why they can barely give them away now. Most people know it except for the diehard fans. It's simple, if they honestly made excellent & appealing cars, they wouldn't be going bankrupt.



Chrysler ruined Chrysler with shoddy products.
Click to expand...



I'm sorry to inform you, but you're wrong. Could you show me the facts that state Chrysler provided Daimler with existing parts/technologies?? There are none! Daimler provided Chrysler with transmissions (W5A580 tranny), seat structures, complete electronics systems(Almost entire IP) and diesel engines (Pop open the hood of either a Jeep Liberty or Grand Cherokee diesel model and you'll find a Mercedes Diesel). The current Chrysler LX (300, Charger, Magnum) cars were designed off of the previous Mercedes E-Class (W210 Model). There are many more examples, look them up. You don't see Benz' riding around with HEMI's or Chrysler 545-RFE tranny's, you'll never see it. The part sharing worked ONE way and ONE way only... it was a way for Daimler to charge Chrysler for it's already paid for technologies and continue to drain capital from Chrysler.



The information is out there, I hope you'll educate yourself.



Prior to the merger Chrysler was arguably the healthiest American automaker...With great products like the 1993-2001 Dodge Ram, all the cab forward cars (LH), Jeep was selling well with the new Grand Cherokee.. etc. Quality wasn't the greatest, but that wasn't a focus of the Big Three at the time, Toyota/Honda had yet to erode into their market share by that time. If you go back to the era we're speaking of and look at JD Power ratings, you'll see Mercedes was anything but 'Class Leader' in quality. They were far from it and still are to this day. JD Power just released Industry Quality rankings for 2009 and guess what? Mercedes-Benz is still BELOW the industry average for quality.



You'd be blind/stupid to say that current Chrysler products were the fault of Chrysler itself. The average car takes approximately 3-4 years to start life as an idea and make its way to the production line. EVERY Chrysler you see for sale today (With the exception of the 2009-10 Dodge Ram) was designed under the direction of/and approved by Daimler. It's fact.



I'm not sure if you're a die-hard Ford/Chevy/Toyota fan, but it's clear you have a personal disdain for Chrysler. And I'm not a Chrysler die-hard either, I've owned one of their products that was pre-merger and now I own a Lexus.
 
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