1998 Mercedes E320 at different times, the driver and passenger doors locked by themselves while the vehicle was running. In June of 2003 the consumer heard a loud noise from the engine, the vehicle was taken to a mechanic, who immediately diagnosed the problem as the crankshaft dampner which was in pieces, the rubber drive belt damaged the engine front cover and engine oil pan. In September 2003 the doors unlocked by themselves while the consumer driving and was unable to lock them manually, also when the consumer turned the vehicle off the windows rolled down by themselves and the doors locked by themselves. The rubber gaskets around the front head lights leaked water, the dash lights burned out constantly, the engine light illuminated constantly and the vehicle burned a quart of oil per month, the air condition was rebuilt twice, the starter failed and the vehicle did not shift properly.

- Arlington, VA, USA

Approximately 10 minutes after first starting the car for the day and driving 5 or 6 miles on rural roads, I stopped at a traffic light for 20 or 30 seconds and then attempted to pull out on to the main highway. At first the car would not move until I had the accelerator pedal half way to the floor, and then it slowly responded with a very low level of power. Once out on the highway, I had to hold the accelerator pedal almost all the way to the floor in order to maintain 50 miles per hour. Since the car has been running fine otherwise I assumed that there must be some kind of computer problem interrupting the electrical signal from the accelerator pedal so I pulled to the side of the road, turned the ignition off for about 30 seconds and restarted the car. After restarting the engine the problem went away and the car is running fine. Obviously I was lucky that my intersection incident did not place me in the path of any fast moving vehicles or else the outcome may have been quite different.

- Bel Air, MD, USA