In order of appearance, the four M320s I photographed for this article are 1998, 1999, 2001, and 2003 models.
Befitting of German-American Heritage Day, we celebrate the first non-commercial Mercedes-Benz made in the U.S.A., the 1998 M-Class. While not the first German car built in America, the M-Class is significant in that the very concept of it was uncharted territory for Mercedes. Designed from the ground up, a civilian-oriented SUV was a totally new type of vehicle for the manufacturer. Mercedes’ choice to produce this vehicle in the U.S. was quite a gamble – a gamble that unfortunately took subsequent generations to earn a record worthy of the Mercedes-Benz name.
After accepting the state of Alabama’s enticing subsidy package of over $250 million, Mercedes-Benz began work on its first automobile plant in the U.S., in 1993. Mercedes-Benz U.S. International (MBUSI), as it is called, was not the first Mercedes plant in either of the Americas. Mercedes had been building commercial vehicles in Argentina since the 1950s, and was also opening plants in Mexico around the same time.
The Mexican plants specialized in final assembly, component production, as well as full-production of cars. These vehicles were sold only in local markets, however. MB had also manufactured commercial trucks in Virginia back in the 1970s. MBUSI was the first American plant that would be the single production facility for a global car sold worldwide.
MBUSI’s first completed vehicle, a 1998 ML320, rolled off the assembly line in February 1997. Sales of the M-Class commenced in September of that year.
Despite all the fanfare, build quality and reliability of these early M-Classes (or W163 to Mercedes loyalists) was notoriously poor. This can be exemplified from a 1998 episode of Top Gear, where Jeremy Clarkson was able to fit his fingers between the unacceptably wide gab between the rear bumper and the body.
Interiors of the early models were also subpar for a Mercedes-Benz. Hard plastics, cheesy-looking fake wood door trim, and lack of many expected luxury features such as automatic climate control were among its shortcomings.
The M-Class even scored last place in a J.D. Power quality survey. In spite of this, the M-Class sold remarkably well in the United States. It’s timing was spot-on in the booming luxury SUV segment.
The M-Class was unique, in that it was intentionally designed as a luxury SUV from the get go. Most other SUVs sold by luxury brands at the time were gussied up versions of more modest vehicles. These included the Acura SLX, Infiniti QX4, Lexus LX, Lincoln Navigator, and Mercedes’ own G-Class.
The Lexus RX was released around the same time as the M-Class. While it too was designed as a luxury vehicle, it was based on a unibody car platform, and didn’t provide the off-road capability as the body-on-frame M-Class.
Although it scored low in quality and reliability, the W163 did get high safety marks. It was the first SUV with standard electronic stability control and side-impact airbags. Crash test results were good, with the IIHS naming it a “Best Pick”. From my childhood, I remember this “Stayin’ Alive commercial for the M-Class, highlighting its safety.
The W163 was produced through the 2005 model year. While quality was never as impeccable as buyers had come to expect from Mercedes-Benz, they made efforts to improve it to less embarrassing levels by the end of its run.
For the 2000 model year, M-Classes were given an interior makeover, replacing many of the much-criticized surfaces with higher quality materials and real walnut trim.
A more significant update occurred in 2002, which included over 1,100 new parts to the M-Class. This overhaul included further exterior and interior enhancements, especially on V8-equipped ML500 models.
My personal experience with the W163 is limited to exploring it at auto shows (that’s me above, dreaming of Mercedes ownership in 1998), my several car models of it, and occasionally riding in one as a child. Some good family friends owned a new M-Class that I vividly remember. I’m almost certain it was a 2000 model. In addition to being the first Mercedes I ever rode in, it was also the first car I ever rode in with a navigation system. Pretty cool back then!
One thing I distinctly remember was how awkward the rear seating position was (at least for a 4-foot tall 2nd grader). If you notice in the photo, the rear seat bottoms are especially long. The seat bottoms extended further out than the back of my knees. Given that our friends were 6-footers, requiring the front seats moved considerably aft, it made for a very uncomfortable seating position.
Regardless of quality issues and rear seats, I liked the W163 M-Class as a kid, and still do now. It’s appearance still looked tough while not being as utilitarian as other SUVs like it G-Class. Over succeeding generations, build quality and reliability have greatly improved to levels worthy of its big 3-pointed star. The second generation W164 (2005-2010) was an improvement in quality, as well as luxury and technology.
The current W166 M-Class (2011-present) brought a host of further refinement, as well as a powerful injection of style. It happens to be one of my favorite new cars on the market, and for what its worth, I did push for it when my mom was purchasing her GLK this past summer. I naturally lost, as the ML was both bigger and more expensive than what she needed and could budget.
image: MBUSI
The W163’s legacy lives on, not just in the current W166. In addition to the M-Class, MBUSI now produces the world’s supply of GL-Classes, as well as the R-Class (which is no longer sold in the U.S). C-Class assembly is reportedly scheduled to begin there in 2014, as well as an additional TBA vehicle. So for better or worse, here’s to the W163, the first Mercedes born in America!
Very popular among “blue collar businessmen” (contractors etc.), the loyal Mercedes clientele. People (or their dads) who previously owned the W123 and W124 models.
Most of them had a 6 cylinder diesel, so those were used as a family car in the weekends and as a workhorse during workdays. Just like the W123 and W124 as a matter a fact. Let’s say this Mercedes certainly did not have a reputation here as, what you call, a typical soccer mom’s car….unlike Range Rovers and the BMW X5 for example.
Was this the Mercedes with rapidly rusting frames because the untreated frames were stored out in the open before going to the assembly plant and get their paint job ?
Not sure though, but I remember having read this somewhere years ago.
I don’t know if the frames rusted, but the bodies sure did, as they also did on the W210 and W202/3 during this era. The silver one pictured is especially bad. Mercedes definitely stepped up their rustproofing game around 2003, though – my parents’ now decade-old W211 doesn’t have a spot of rust, and it has spent all of its life in New England.
Yep. Roughly said, 1993-2003 were bad, BAD, Mercedes years.
Quite unbelievable what happened after the W124 and W201 models.
In 2003 I bought a new ML 350 for my wife’s use. She adored it and put well over 100,000 miles on it in a short time. It was the vehicle of choice for a few of 5,000+ mile road trips she took during the summers with our children.
It was much more trouble free than a friend’s 1999 ML 320 but it did make more trips to the dealer’s service department than any other M-B we’ve owned.
By 2010 the children were grown and the ML was looking more and more like a liability. It was traded (at a less than usual value for a Mercedes) for a 2010 GLK 350. My wife likes the GLK even more than the ML. She put 50,000 miles on it in the first two years she drove it. Now she and her sister (the modern day Thelma and Louise) take the annual road trips to places far and yon. In 2012 they went from Houston to Baltimore and back on a three week odyssey.
If 50,000 miles in two years does not sound like a lot of miles to someone who uses a vehicle commercially or has an overly long commute to work each day realize that my wife’s office is less than five miles from our house and all the normal shopping venues we use are somewhere in between.
In addition to her short drive to and from work each day she burns up a lot of Texas’ highways visiting relatives, attending festivals etc. and she really enjoys getting there in her Benz. For many years I’ve had Mercedes-Benz sedans as my primary vehicles. I never appreciated the ‘truckiness’ of the W163 and I certainly prefer the more nimble X204.
My mom purchased her 2013 GLK350 3 months ago and loves it. It’s a great little SUV that still looks tough, unlike competitors which could definitely be referred to as “cute utes”. It’s amazing how many compliments she gets on it from people.
She puts quite a few miles on it too from daily activities, so it’s good that it’s so comfortable. Much more so than her old ’07 X3. It drives great too, although I will say the X3 was a bit more dynamic.
Around here all the survivors are being driven by the wives of immigrant businessmen. Of course the nearest MB dealership being around 200 miles away, MB isn’t that popular period.
The “Bama-Benz” was very popular in the South, it seemed that every other upper middle class housewife had one. I would pass this beautiful state-of-the-art facility at least once a week on my way to visit customers in Alabama. I never could understand the quality issues with the earlier ones, did M-B deliberately design an inferior product to sell mainly to North Americans? Did they think we wouldn’t notice?
I’d say Mercedes felt pressured to cut corners to compete with the Japanese: what the Lexus LS served up at its (initial) price point was shocking. Also, the Alabama plant was entirely new, so there might have been “bugs” so to speak.
In my eyes it was general DaimlerChrysler cost cutting (it’s almost as if Chrysler was a bad influence) combined with the first mass production of a vehicle in a brand new facility with potentially inexperienced staff in a country that got its understanding of finesse and panel gaps from pickup trucks and ’70s landbarges. A car built by Americans for Americans, and that’s exactly what they got. The product quality got better when they moved large parts of the production to Austria as they overhauled the Alabama factory, but it was still behind the competitors.
Somehow US-built Toyotas have always managed to be of excellent quality. If anything it’s the reverse of what you say, D-B was a terrible influence on Chrysler, Marchionne and Stellantis have done a far better job. German cars have yet, and likely never will, catch up to Japanese quality, their poor reputation for long term reliability has persisted for decades. Caveat Emptor!
I thought MB hit a run to first with this truck but the BMW X5 was a line drive as far as handling and styling. I loved those original X5s and conversely, always thought the M-Class as true soccer mom’s car.
I think the w163 has fallen farther and faster than any other MB model. They quickly shifted to the buy-here pay-here lots, and those on the road are disproportionately likely to be in rough shape.
Meine gute! Das ist eine Mercedes? Isn’t this the SUV that played a bit role in an episode of The Sopranos? If I recall correctly, Tony was trying to sell stolen American cars in Italy, and he was using the fact that this Mercedes was made in the US as a selling point, without much success.
Mercedes plant employees got really nice deals on any Mercedes product – the number of Mercedes on the road increased dramatically overnight in west Alabama when the plant opened, especially the home built M-Class – Iike from none to you couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting one. When Mercedes joined forces with Chrysler and their employee discount applied there too the number of 300s and Durangos on the road here shot through the roof.
My girlfriend’s mother owns a 2001 ML55 (the AMG) version.
I am not a Mercedes-Benz guy, nor am I fond of SUVs, but man…that car is fast & extremely comfortable. The downside is not the build quality but the typical expensive stuff to deal with, like a constant check engine light & expensive EXPENSIVE tires.
“Mercedes W163 (1998-2005 M-Class) – Conceived in Germany, Born In America”……. and complete rubbish. Nothing epitomized Mercedes fall from grace as a maker of well thought out and well made cars then the first generation of M Class. The M Class may have beaten the Acura MDX to market by 3 years and the Lexus RX by year, the Acura and the Lexus were so much better in most respects and the fact that there are loads of first gen RX and MDX roaming the roads and the first gen M Class is a rarity on today’s roads is telling by itself.
Heck even the Land Cruiser based Lexus LX(starting its second gen in 1998) was light years ahead in terms of refinement and reliability(not a surprise due to it based upon the Land Cruiser)
I hate sounding so negative on any car because I like to think that if I look hard enough at any car(except the Smart FourTwo) I can find a redeeming quality but there is none on the 98-05 M-Class. It is huge POS that dragged Mercedes name in the mud and on top of that they did not seem to get the memo about correcting the issues that car had at all during the whole first gen run. QC issues abound on the things. Take the example car in the pics. The paint is shiny and the body looks great with no rust EXCEPT on the fuel door. How is it possible to only have rust on the fuel door? How many cars out there with metal fuel doors do you see rusting?
Coincidently enough, the people I mentioned who owned the 2000 M-Class did have numerous problems, and replaced it only 2 years later with a first model year 2002 Acura MDX. Now that was a amazing car for its time. Extremely high levels of fit and finish, and one of the first cars I remember with the now popular “saddle leather” color.
**No** redeeming quality on the 98-05 M-Class?
Seriously?
I personally own a 99ML430 with 350,000 miles on it….. I have a construction company and have a bobcat I haul around every day weighing in at 6,200 lbs- I also have a pickup truck for this——. This Mercedes pulls that equipment like there’s NOTHING attached to us at all! I mean I can zip around a semi on a two lane road in a couple quick seconds losing no power and the car handles like it’s got no load on it whatsoever! And it puts my pickup truck completely to shame in this area….. Drop the trailer and head to Ouray Colorado for Imogene pass (a treacherous pass in the jeeping capital of the world) and me and my two dogs with the sunroof back and windows down, rock right up the mountain with the ear-gasmic Bose stereo system cranked up…. short wheel base, high ground clearance, heated seats for the crispy air up top and room for the hot guy in the Jeep he just got stuck- plus a cooler of beer in the back…. hey- I wouldn’t have chosen to have lost my best friend to inherit this car- but “ cheers, thanks George- she’s almost as fun as you were!”
Pull a 6200# Bobcat with an M-class? Absurd. Pure fantasy.
Pure fantasy, yet only in theory. A W163 M-class can easily tow 3,500 kg/7,700 lbs. Just like any comparable SUV. Both center-axle trailers and full trailers (in which case tongue-weight is a non-issue).
My ml500 will beat most cars flat out. It’s reliable and tires are consumable. Better tires save lives
My neighbor was a schoolteacher who had a big shot lawyer for a husband, and she bought one of the first ones of these, in black. My dog and her dog were best buddies and once in a while, she would actually talk to me (snobbish is the perfect term for her, that my mutt and her insanely expensive Flat Coated Retreiver and my dog loved each other about killed her) while the dogs were visiting. I sat in it and thought it was ok inside, but not what I expected a MB to be. At first, she loved it, then it began having issue after issue, and about 2 years after she got it, it was suddenly gone, replaced by a Land Crusier, in black again, and she had it for about 10 years, until just before they moved away to a much fancier part of town. She had no complaints about the LC at all.
These real estate agent haulers were symbols of a dark time in automotive history. Daimler was was cost cutting as rapidly as it could, which can only have been accelerated by the success these heaps met. I wonder what percentage of these were leased, only to be dumped back at the dealer three years later in sorry shape.
I considered the existence of these to be the first clue something was wrong in DaimlerChrysler-land. Why compete with Jeep using a brand that had always been about luxury sedans and a few standout sports cars, when you just bought Jeep?
I’m surprised nobody mentioned the ML’s appearance in Jurassic Park.
A lot of Euro-luxury buyers jumped into the SUV’s when these and the X5 came out purely due to the price advantage which was helped by lower import duty that applied to SUV’s at the time. In 1998 an ML320 cost $67,400 against an E320 sedan at $117,000!
I personally own a 1998 w163 ml 320 and I have had 0 and I mean No problems what so ever. My mother has owned one since new and I myself have had mine for over 100k miles and it STILL RUNS LIKE THE DAY I BOUGHT IT. I drive this vehicle daily and I can’t even think of a better car with this type of longevity. Maybe mine is a rare find, but I will say this, I’m a believer and I will definitely buy another Benz.
How about this I own an ML320 1998 with well over 500, 000 miles just recently I replaced the engine the trans and the rack. This car is the best car ever made in the US.
Great job Jeff. Kudos for keeping it on the road. The other posts spew negativity with a vengeance as if the ML W163 is a mortal enemy. They should all shut up and be thankful that we have a plant in Vance Alabama that’s is building vehicles with american labor. I own 2 ML350 2005 MY. one has 140 K and the other is at 120 K. Best trucks I have ever owned. No issues whatsoever. Reliable, safe, surefooted and has a true off road low gear transfer case, not like the passenger car based Lexuses and Acuras that I consider sissymobiles.
So, for the naysayers, do stop the whining and moaning about the W163 and go drive your Durango or Kia Sorento.
I worked at a multiline luxury dealership from 2004-2008…these were known as Alabama trashcans. Yuck.
I have always had a special connection with the W163. I did not like the truck at first as my neighbor had one of the first 1998’s to roll off the production line, I was never a fan of the grey bumpers of the first two years. His ML320 was later sold back to MBUSA under the Lemon Law.
I fell for the refreshed 2000 ML, when on of my very wealthy friends got one for her 16th birthday. It was that unique Azure Blue with the beautiful Java Leather. I remember thinking how much I loved this car and how I am going to get one.
Well, I ended up getting a Lexus LS400 and it was not until 2013 that I picked up a PRISTINE 2001 Black on Black W163 from a very wealthy family in Northern Jersey. The car has had many of the nasty bugs that plagued her generation worked out and now she serves as my unstoppable snow beast here in Chicago.
I plan on keeping my ML for many more years, I feel the early W163’s that you see on the roads today had early owners who did not throw in the towel on them or at least had deep pockets! 🙂
Great job Jeff. Kudos for keeping it on the road with 500 K miles. The other posts spew negativity with a vengeance as if the ML W163 is a mortal enemy. They should all shut up and be thankful that we have a plant in Vance Alabama that’s is building vehicles with american labor.
I own 2 ML350 2005 MY. One has 140 K and the other is at 120 K. Best trucks I have ever owned. No issues whatsoever. Reliable, safe, surefooted and has a true off road low gear transfer case and a full frame, not like the passenger car based Lexuses and Acuras that I consider sissymobiles.
So, for the naysayers, do stop the whining and moaning about the W163 and go drive your Durango or Kia Sorento.
2005 ML350 owner with 260,000 miles. Still drives like a new car, but with its age, you really have to keep up maintenance on your own. Any repair costs at the dealership is more than the car is worth. While I think the early W163s may have had its problems, however, I think by 2005 they were addressed adequately. I love my Benz.
2003 ML350. Bought it with 48k miles in May of 2017 and mileage rapidly increased to 105K in three years as I have a daily 75 mile interstate work commute.
The car has been flawless and it has done everything I’ve asked her to do, from cruising at 85 mph for 40 minutes on my way to work (I-75 is empty at 5:30 am), to pulling a trailer with a massive Mercedes 300SEL 6.3 on it, to mudding and water crossing in Florida swampy woods.
Basic cleaning to keep her looking “new” along with basic maintenance (un-expensive thru an independent mechanic if you can’t, or do not want to wrench yourself) and factory parts replacement as components wear out should allow this truck to run for ever.
1998 ML320 with 363K and original motor and trans. No rust. All original body panels. Great workhorse. Love the car.