 I've owned my car since purchasing it new from a dealership. It has about 86,000 miles. I've owned it since October 2010, have completed all recommended service on time, and kept the car in a garage for 5 of 6 years. Recently the torque converter went out. The Mercedes Benz dealership in the city where I now live quoted $4000 for the repair. After looking further, they also told me the battery ($450) and starter ($1400) need replacing. Further they said the brake rotors are uneven and that is causing a wobble in the brake pedal. Their proposed solution is to replace both the rotors and brake pads (which are only 50% worn I will add). I didn't even ask the cost. But why would the rotors on a car that supposedly has lifetime brake pads go bad unless they were defective to begin with. Inside the vehicle the handles that are used to move the seat backs forward have started to peel up and the sharp metal cuts almost every one of the people who get into the back seat. I had zero passengers in the backseat for the first three years of ownership, and that's when the handles started to peel. The wood trim is coming loose on the front dash, the steering wheel leather is worn through, and the carpet on the driver's side floor is has holes worn in it. I'm not hard on cars, and have taken care of this one to the extent possible. But there are far too many problems on a car that should be more reliable for the price paid for it. When I first purchased this car, I had such pride of ownership, and loved the uniqueness that comes with the model design. But now I'm just disillusioned and will never purchase a Mercedes Benz again after experiencing the lack of quality and reliability I have with this car. Not to mention the awful customer service I received at the dealership (never get calls back, service manager says he will do something but never follows through, etc), and when I called MB corporate to complain about the quality of the car at such low mileage (again no call back and extremely discourteous  customer service manager). I guess it is true what they say about first year design models (in this case it's actually the second I think. But either way, hopefully MB got it right the third time and isn't still selling cars with such a disregard for quality. Beware if you are buying one of these used, quality is poor, repairs are imminent and costly, and MB cares nothing about it customers.