First look UP -- open it -- the back hatch door of your ML

If you own a MERCEDES ML of any motor size, I want you to make the discovery I made: the thing is designed to rust from the inside out.

MB engineers decided to do something really wonky: let water get in the car. By design. Seriously. The doors and rear latch are DESIGNED to allow water into the doors and the car. The doors have weep holes, for the love of god! I will cover this at length later. I mean, a car wash -- heaven forbid you drive in the rain --  puts this $40+K vehicle at risk and I will show you why and how.

Anyway,that's what kicked off the journey that ended up, two years down the road, with me writing this blog. I got what I thought was an innocent explanation of a paint bubble on the body but then the discovery, the insight that something was deeply wrong, not just a road scratch.

That is, I noticed that one of my license plate lights -- there are two, on either side of the release, just above the license plate frame, I'll be setting up a photo section, by and by -- was out on the rear hatch door. I go to look and, low and behold, lift the door and the bulb is burned out and fried, because its been hit by water. That whole assembly is toast, I'm not just replacing a lightbulb. But more: there's rust coming out of the handle. Invisible until you look up into the door. I've stopped other ML owners in parking lots and on the street and they all have it, some worse than others. 9I will be posting pictures by and by. One fellow nearby has rust coming out of every opening an ML has: door handles, gas door, it's gross.

Now this is an interesting problem because every state here in the US requires that that rear license plate be illuminated at night and Mercedes has sold me a car that is slowing going to force me to be breaking the law just driving a Mercedes ML because they designed it to rust out.

That's just the beginning though.

There is so much more to this story.

PS did you know that this designed-in rust problem is so well-known, despite Mercedes' denials there's even a problem here in the US, that two countries -- England and Germany -- have passed laws requiring Mercedes to sell their vehicles with 30 YEAR RUST PROTECTION WARRANTIES. That's just for rust. It goes on top of the regular warranty.