Lacquer peel on W204 C Class - not red!

[kam05]

Hi all

I need some advice please. I have noticed some lacquer peel on the front drivers side wing and bumper. The car is a W204 C220CDi Sport on a 57 plate. I know of lacquer/paint issues on the red W204's. My car was recently in the local MB dealer for an MOT and it looks like they have been too heavy handed with a pressure washer when washing the car. So the damage appears to be inflected by the MB dealer.

I have emailed the MB dealer including damage/pictures of the lacquer peel. Should they not accept liability then do I have a claim under the MBUK paintwork/ 30 year corrosion warranty?

Some facts:
1. The car is a W204 C220 CDI Sport, registered on 21 December 2007. Colour is Iridium Silver.
2. Current mileage is 97k.
3. I purchased the car as Mercedes Benz used approved in February 2011 from an MB dealer. The car had done 24k at time of purchase.
4. The car has full MB service history (never been serviced or MOT'd outside of the MB dealer network). The last service was done at the MB dealer in October 2016.
5. To my knowledge/under my ownership the car has not had any paintwork repairs done.

What are my chances of a successful warranty claim based on the above information if the MB dealer doesn't accept liability? 8/nearly 9 year old car - hope I don't get told to jog on...

Some pictures of the damage below:

 

[st13phil]

Sorry to say this, but unless they're feeling generous, I suspect any form of restitution will be unlikely purely based upon it being your word against theirs that it was fine before they had it in their possession.

Is there any evidence of lacquer peeling anywhere else on the car, or is it localised to the spot you've shown? If it's localised then it's most likely the legacy of a repair.

Although you haven't had any bodywork done on the car during your ownership it's quite possible that it did have some paintwork done in the first 4 years before you bought it. A few paint depth readings should bottom out whether it has or not.

 

[kam05]

@st13phil:

1. Yes - I guess its my word against theirs.
2. No lacquer peel anywhere else on the car - just on the localised areas shown.
3. I'm taking the car into the MB dealer later in the week as they want to assess the damage.

 

[SomebodyCalledJ]

From my experience the Paintwork warranty only covers the metal body panels, not the plastic bumpers. Though if they are willing to accept responsibility for the damage then I'm sure they will cough up and rectify both metal and plastic body parts.

Good luck, I hope they are not awkward.

 

[vijilants]

I've been down this road....They will inspect the car visually and with the paint depth guage and if there is any evidence of a paint job on the panel which was not done by the dealership, they will reject the claim.

 

[cws196]

Red seems to be the only colour MB have had issues with on the W204, so it may not be the original paint...

Please keep us updated.

 

[poormansporsche]

I had exactly the same on a car once and the body shop blamed it on speed humps compacting the bumper and wing. So good luck with that !

 

[kam05]

An update to this:
Car has been inspected by the MB dealer's approved body shop and the paint readings confirm that the car has had paintwork repairs in the affected area in the past. Their report states that the lacquer has peeled due to poor prep of the previous repair and the repair wasn't carried out by an MB approved body shop. I have no way of confirming whether what the report says is true or not?

As the lacquer has peeled off due to excessive pressure washer force by the MB dealer the dealer (warranty manager) is trying to get approval from the DP to see if they can repair the lacquer damage - goodwill gesture as I am a repeat customer of said MB dealer.

I'm not hopeful of being successful with this as the DP will claim wear and tear but my point is that the damage has been caused whilst the car was in their possession. I reckon best I can hope for is a 50-50 repair bill split with the MB dealer?

 

[rf065]

As the lacquer has peeled off due to excessive pressure washer force by the MB dealer the dealer (warranty manager) is trying to get approval from the DP to see if they can repair the lacquer damage - goodwill gesture as I am a repeat customer of said MB dealer.

I hope you get it fixed under goodwill but a pressure washer did not cause this to happen. The lacquer must have been ready to peel off before a pressure washer could have done it. You just need to try and blast dead flies off the front of a car in summer to see how stubborn they are to remove and no paint damage will occur no matter how long it takes.

Russ

 

[SomebodyCalledJ]

Shame that it was repaired by a third party in the past, I suppose we all take that risk buying second hand!

I hope that the dealership can at least contribute to the repair and it sounds like they are going to be reasonable as they are taking steps to start that process of assisting.

Good to see a dealership looking at the whole life span of a customer, not just one offs that can make or break a customers return to that product or dealership!

 

[kam05]

Thought I'd finish this thread off...car is with the dealer today and they have accepted responsibility for the damage and they are now sending the car off to their approved bodyshop for the wing and bumper repainting - meaning 97k's worth of chips etc will be no more.

Thanks to those of you who contributed to this thread. Faith now restored in MB and my local MB dealer.

 

[Chrishazle]

Kam, just to add to the fun with your car, I see it is an early one with Comand, which means that, like me, the most recent map update you can install is V12 2014/15. If you're also on MBOA, I have a thread running on there about this problem, MB Customer Service have so far been pants. MB themselves now put a warning on the back of the V13 DVD's saying it's not suitably for pre 10-18 (i.e. MY09) cars!! We think it's the nav partition size on the early hard drives is too small, but have not yet confirmed that - ongoing investigation with help from comand.co.uk.