A238 E Class Convertible Roof strings worn and snapped

[chyperie]

My headliner cords are frayed. I have contacted the Mercedes dealer that I purchased the car from and they have got Mercedes-Benz UK to agree to supply the headliner and cords FOC. However, the dealer insists on me paying the labour charges. Obviously I will go down the Ombudsman route if I have to but am building a case to persaude the dealer they should fit FOC.

I have a copy of Tony Patersons Ombudsmans decision (many thanks for posting that Tony) but would be grateful if other members would post there Ombudsmans decisions as well.

Interestingly my dealer says that Mercedes-Benz UK say the Ombudsman decision in Tony's case only refers to one car and not all cars!

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Spro368]

My headliner cords are frayed. I have contacted the Mercedes dealer that I purchased the car from and they have got Mercedes-Benz UK to agree to supply the headliner and cords FOC. However, the dealer insists on me paying the labour charges. Obviously I will go down the Ombudsman route if I have to but am building a case to persaude the dealer they should fit FOC.

I have a copy of Tony Patersons Ombudsmans decision (many thanks for posting that Tony) but would be grateful if other members would post there Ombudsmans decisions as well.

Interestingly my dealer says that Mercedes-Benz UK say the Ombudsman decision in Tony's case only refers to one car and not all cars!

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Spro368]

My car (2018 AMG C63 w205) had 3 cords replaced FOC by the dealer after threat of Ombudsman and a fight.They took 2.5 hours to do it but that seems a long time.There are specialists that do the lot for about £700.
I have the remaining cords if anyone wants to make an offer.

 

[peeaagh]

I was very interested in this thread as we have suffered the same worn/frayed hood string problem that many others have, and I thought it worth posting some things I found out from the Motor Ombudsman today.........
Ours is a Sep 2018 C63 W205 convertible bought just over a year ago in July 2023 from a local independent performance car specialist (ie not a Mercedes dealer) and the frayed strings were highlighted a coupe of months ago during an MOT 'health check' at our local Mercedes dealer. Initially they said they should be able to just replace the worn strings and do a small plastic weld on a broken clip. They denied they broke it during the 'health check' but it wasn't like that before the MOT, impossible to prove either way and the real problem was the frayed strings anyway. Mercedes refused to contribute but the Mercedes dealer offered to pay 50% of the cost themselves (£300) and I would pay the same. However when it went in to be done, they said that on further inspection the headliner and all strings would need to be replaced at a cost of approx £3500. I took the car back from them and after a few weeks the Mercedes dealer said that Mercedes had offered to pay one third of the cost and the dealer would pay another £300 themselves so I would pay just under £1800 in total (approx half the cost). I had already seen Tony Patterson's original post about his successful Motor Ombudsman case but decided to go ahead with the repair as it was August and summer might soon be over !!.........thinking that I would subsequently raise a case with the Motor Ombudsman to reclaim the £1800 or so that I had paid.
I emailed Mercedes Customer Services myself and asked if they would reimburse me as I believed the full repair should have been FOC but they replied last week declining to make any further contribution.
I called the Motor Ombudsman today and they said that they can only raise a case with a motor manufacturer (Mercedes in this case) if the vehicle is still within the manufacturers warranty period. Ours is just under 6 years old so out of manufacturers warranty so they could not raise a case against Mercedes.
They also checked whether the independent performance car dealer I bought it from was signed up to the Motor Ombudsman scheme as they could raise a case against them if they were.......but they weren't.
They say my only course of action would be private legal action against either Mercedes or the car dealer I bought it from. The car dealer may or may not have known about the fault but it would not seem 'right' taking them to court for something that is clearly a manufacturing defect and the responsibility of Mercedes.
I have not decided yet whether to try a small claims court action against a massive company like Mercedes so might just have to 'suck up' the £1800 cost.
The reason for this post is to make others aware of the Motor Ombudsman rules so unless your car is under 3 years old, or was bought from a used dealer that is signed up to the Motor Ombudsman scheme, you will almost certainly end up covering the cost yourself. The only positive for me is that I had a couple of quotes from Mercedes independent specialists to supply and fit a new headliner and strings and they were around £2200 so at least I ended up paying a bit less than that and a lot less than the full £3500 main dealer cost.

 

[Jimmcb]

Very interesting PA
Did they say why the headliner needed replacing?

The team I used said they hear that a lot and there is no real reason to do so unless it’s damaged or torn.
Jim

 

[peeaagh]

Very interesting PA
Did they say why the headliner needed replacing?

The team I used said they hear that a lot and there is no real reason to do so unless it’s damaged or torn.
Jim

Hi Jim, There are hard plastic flat parts on either side that are part of the headliner and they have one or more anchor points on them that the end of some of the strings attach to. It was one of those that they thought they could just plastic weld back on, but subsequently said the complete plastic anchor point(s) had broken and could only be replaced as part of a new headliner and not separately. One of the independent soft top specialists I spoke to also said that they used to just replace strings and had previously done plastic welds on broken clips, but they now only did full headliner & string replacements as it was a more permanent fix. Cheers, Paul.

 

[Jimmcb]

Hi Jim, There are hard plastic flat parts on either side that are part of the headliner and they have one or more anchor points on them that the end of some of the strings attach to. It was one of those that they thought they could just plastic weld back on, but subsequently said the complete plastic anchor point(s) had broken and could only be replaced as part of a new headliner and not separately. One of the independent soft top specialists I spoke to also said that they used to just replace strings and had previously done plastic welds on broken clips, but they now only did full headliner & string replacements as it was a more permanent fix. Cheers, Paul.

Great stuff Paul and thanks.

Makes me wonder why on earth we have 2 mercs in the family given their customer support!!

All the very best

Jim