George Fraser - Outstanding!

[SimonsMerc]

So, just over a week ago, my car (2000/W E320CDI Elegance Estate - Zircon Green, not silver!) suddenly lost power at 80 miles per hour on a dual carriageway. I'd hit the gas, and it just wouldn't go forward - slowed down to 40, 30, then pulled over. Couldn't work out what was wrong, so I limped home at 15mph in 2nd gear with the W switch turned on (it was sorta almost half driveable perhaps like that) and phoned the AA.

The AA man went with me to my local dealer (MB of Lakeside), who took the car for a day and diagnosed that a pipe leading to the intercooler had popped off. It was put back on for me (paid about £80 all told - and had to hire myself a car to drive while it was being fixed!), and I was told that it would need replacing because it was "soft", and wouldn't last more than a week or two! They also said that I should drive slowly over the next couple of weeks, no long journeys and no fast acceleration. Of course, the repair was a good couple of hours work, and was going to cost about £160 plus £35 for the part, plus VAT.

So I drove over to Alperton, and had a word with George. He suggested I book the car in for next Saturday, and he'll sort me out a loan car while he looks it over to make sure things are OK.

Well, today was next Saturday. I drove over around 10:30am, and George asked exactly what I'd like him to look at. Figuring I'll end up paying some labour anyway and they're going to open up the engine to look at things, I put together quite a list - lower the oil level slightly, check the fan belt as it's screeching slightly at idle, check over the car for rust (it's a W210 from 2000, I've heard bad things), and so on.

As a temporary car, I got a beautiful F reg 300S cabriolet. It was wonderful to drive, lots of fun and I drove around for a couple of hours feeling great. ;-) When I came back a couple of hours later, the car was still up in the air, with two mechanics just finishing putting the protectors underneath back on. They talked through everything they'd done, showing me the pipe that had fallen off. It was in perfect condition, and did not need replacing in any way shape or form - the suggestion was that at the last service someone might have loosened it or something, which is why it probably came off.

Now, guess how much I paid for this? Note that the Merc dealer wanted over 200 plus vat for the work, to replace a pipe that didn't need replacing. Note also that George had two mechanics working on the car for over two hours, and that he spent quite a lot of his own time talking over the car with me and explaining things. And for this, I paid...

NOTHING. Not a penny. George said that he wasn't going to charge me, because they found nothing wrong. If he had found something that needed fixing or replacing, he'd have phoned me and told me - but as it was, he wasn't going to charge me a single broken ha'p'ny.

So now I know exactly where I'll be going for anything else that needs doing to the car

-simon

PS. The underside of my W210 doesn't look rusted at all, not in the slightest. I have a little bit on the door frames, but just a tiny amount under the seals. But apart from that, great

 

[uumode]

I'd love to give George Frazer a try,
as on his FAQ page it says:

"Q.My main dealer stamps my book after a service if you do that won't it invalidate my Mercedes Warranty?
A.No on the contrary we can stamp your service book anytime even if you only bought the car yesterday"
http://www.georgefrasergarage.co.uk/home.asp?page=information

In the Mobilolife booklet (maybe Mobilolife is an extension to the MB warranty)
It says:
"Mobilolife is initially valid for new cars for two years. After this time, Mobilolife will be renewed with every service carried out by a Mercedes-Benz Authorised Repairer and remain valid until the time the next service is due, for a maximum of 30 years"
Also found it online here which seems to imply that after the second year it 'has' to be serviced by an Mercedes-Benz Authorised Repairer and 'suggests' that in the first two years that you can service the car anywhere or at least does not stipulate that fact in the first two years.


So if I interpret this correctly, MB cars 'only' have a 2 year anti-corrosion warranty (unless extended by Mobilolife)?? Surely not.