2005 Mercedes-Benz Vito reviews

Mercedes-Benz Vito 109 cdi 2005

My Vito is on long term lease and currently has 125,000 miles on it. Faults: Electric windows fail regularly, paintwork shoddy around doors, sides and rear. It had propshaft failure at 110,000 miles, with excessive vibration around 60+ mph for many miles before. The rear springs have broken twice, the tyres ware irregularily despite numerous tracking corrections and balancing. The accelerator pedal broke on the motorway and poor quality plastic materials have been used. It’s had three sets of discs, numerous pad changes and brake overhauls. It has wobbly electrics all round, with literally a dozen plus headlamp bulbs needed so far and rear bulbs blow on tailgate regularily. I suspect a poor power supply to electrical points throughout the van. The central locking is faulty and the alarm has a mind of it’s own in hot weather. The dash display lights up with warnings for no reason, sometimes all the lights come on for a while. The rear door latch fails at times - nothing like the tailgate opening at speed! There was an overheating problem early on and it has had a problem sticking in first gear from new; it pops out at the traffic lights as you engage and rev. The seat is also rigid and this makes it difficult to find a comfortable position with the bulkhead so close. The passenger seat is rigid and the middle seat is impossible to use unless you are from a circus act. The CD player is erratic at times, the n/s speaker works when it feels obliged to and the interior light refuses to go out from time to time. It uses a fair amount of oil for a six+ year old van, with fumes noticeable in the cab from cold. The SRS warning light fails to extinguish from time to time, the engine bay is excessively dirty due to poor shielding from splash/road dirt. The wishbone was replaced before the propshaft failed. There are various suspension knocks from cold and under load. The vehicle pulls to the left despite numerous corrections. The battery seems to struggle in cold weather and the reversing lights only work if reverse gear is engaged and held painfully slowly. The handbrake cable is like old knicker elastic and the spare wheel fixing was subject to a recall as it was known to fail and dump any cargo on the highway. It has poor overall mpg and poor performance under load. The vehicle dips and lurches on indifferent surfaces and there are traction problems in wet weather; antiskid device has its own agenda when negotiating roundabouts. The above list is not exhaustive; if you buy one of these lemons you will expect to see some/many of the above faults at any given time throughout the history of your bitter ownership. And don’t expect any help from Mercedes main dealerships; they are indifferent and aloof to the more obvious shortcomings of the above vehicle. Mercifully for me the vehicle is leased to a company who have very deep pockets indeed. Avoid at all costs. Seriously.