Buying review Mercedes-Benz R-Class (W251) 2006-2013 Common Issues Engines Inspection

Thanks for watching another buyers review, today we review a rare kind of modern Mercedes-Benz, the Mercedes R-class. Rare in a sense that you did not see them often on European roads. The car with the internal code of W251 was built from 2006 until 2013. In China production of the car seized in 2017.

The R-Class is in a sense a big B-Class Mercedes. It’s a MPV from Mercedes that looks like a tall station wagon. The R-Class was never a big success for Mercedes, but if you do not want an SUV or station wagon this is the perfect compromise.

Lets check some of the issues that can occur during the ownership of this car.

There are reports of rust issues, check the boot lit and bottom of the doors. If you find early signs of rust you best sort it out as soon as possible before its spreads throughout the car. This is a typical Mercedes-Benz issue from the era. Mostly caused by the quality of the paint. The paint was on a water bases, Mercedes did this to cut cost. Keep this in mind.

Then the front springs of the R-Class are a weaker part and prone to cracking. This being a heavy car, it will effect drive ability quite a lot if you drive around with broken of worn springs. Keep in mind, this car is rear-wheel drive and sometimes all wheel drive.

The Mass Airflow Flow Sensor is a weaker part on these cars. When this part breaks you will notice a big decrease in power and acceleration since the computers will not allow the engine to release all its power. The reason behind this is to prevent engine damage. Airflow is important to cool the engine and to calculate the correct mixture of petrol and air to combust inside the cylinders. Keep this as a spare part if you decide to keep this car for a long period of time. Luckily Mercedes still makes parts even for cars that went out of production, it is a good idea to have some spare parts laying around.

This car is heavy in terms of weight, it weighs more then 2 tons. So if you still want some acceptable performance I would opt to the 3 liter petrol like the R300 with a V6 engine with 234 HP and 300 NM of torque. As every Mercedes-Benz there is a wide variety of engines to choose from.

Petrol wise the R300 or the R350 with a longer wheel base make the most sense. The range topping R500 and R63AMG both come with 4matic all wheel drive. Lower in the range 4 matic is also available starting with the R320.

If you do lots of miles a diesel engine will be a better choice, sensible choices for this car are the R300 CDI 4matic or the R300 with the longer wheelbase with a blue efficiency engine and 4 matic.

In this generation the base engine is a v6 both for petrol and diesel and the R63 AMG has the 6.2 liter naturally aspirated V8 with the engine code M156. In the R model this engine produced 510 HP and 630 NM of torque, making this an absolute beast that is equipped with 4 matic and a tons of space.

When doing an online search I found mixed reviews, so always test drive your car and feel the ride, check the built quality and listen for rattles and squeaks. Engine-wise they are quite good, especially the diesels. Older German performance engines can be a nightmare to repair.

The more down to earth models are the ones to pick.

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