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Many, many Mercedes from the late 90s and early 2000s were sent to an early grave from their absolutely disastrous water-based paint, done in the name of being environmentally friendly. (Mine was one of them after several also not eco-friendly trips to the body shop along the way.)

It’s not particularly environmentally friendly to have to make 10 million extra cars to replace those which rusted out prematurely.

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That was also the era of Mercedes-Benz using biodegradable insulation on their wiring harnesses and it resulted in all sorts of cars having to be scrapped long before they broke down mechanically.

Was it because pests chewed on the insulation, or did it actually break down?

Fires, too!

IIUC like actually biodegraded. Same happened with biodegradable ID cards.

Afaik insulation bio-degraded on cars in use resulting in shorts.

I'm guessing the harness of the paint was the issue - virtually all of them would start to rust from the beltline door trim, presumably because the trim itself managed to wear through the paint.

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