You would instantly assume that buying a luxury car like a Mercedes guarantees high-end engineering. But look beneath the sleek exterior, and you’ll find a complex engineering nightmare. Creating efficient, high-performing engines often means sacrificing the engineering tolerances that ensure longevity.

The feeling of quality that Mercedes offers isn’t fully realised once you factor in reliability. In fact, German marques consistently rank among the least reliable cars on the market. And maintenance doesn’t come cheap either — if it looks like luxury and drives like luxury, it will also have a luxury price tag to maintain.

The truth is, Mercedes’ quality has been on a downward trend for the past few years. The bulletproof reliability of the past is long gone — a distant memory — and the interior luxury now feels closer to IKEA-levels of refinement.

Take, for example, the YouTube channel ExoticCar PlayPlace. The host owns a 2018 C-Class Coupe: it’s nice, but it doesn’t live up to the luxury image the sleek marketing would have you believe. It’s also expensive to own and maintain, and he details the high costs involved.

In short, owning a Mercedes can feel like an endless money pit.