Most peculiar and totally different than my experience with winter tyres
Ps. You got winter tyres for just £50 each corner. Seriously? On a 123d. That is just amazing. What make and model size were those? That is Chinese dirchfinder territory normally.
Ps. You got winter tyres for just £50 each corner. Seriously? On a 123d. That is just amazing. What make and model size were those? That is Chinese dirchfinder territory normally.
Very interesting. Reads like lots has changed.
Shame that Mercedes can't supply winter tyres for my wheels
Hi,
Firstly, I bought them in the summer from mytyres and noticed that their price nearly tripled as we got into the really cold weather (I nearly put them for sale on EBay before I fitted them - as all the forums were reporting a shortage of winter tyres!)
They were not runflats - so I made sure I bought xl - higher load tyres, as this gives stiffer sidewalls.
They were not one of the premium, known brands - but they worked and wore well. I did over 20,000 miles in them during the 18 months they were fitted.
Before I sold the car, I took them off and replaced them with the original runflats. The winters are now sitting in my garage in the U.K.
No need for winters where we live now - Abu Dhabi, although it's really cold here this week - 16 degrees C in the mornings!
Cheers
Steve
I hope you get a good result - but it's going to run a bit before then!
A bit of an anti-climax last Friday from MB-UK regarding the expected announcement. But I would expect nothing less given how they've chosen to bury their heads in the sand over the issue.
"Characteristic" is defined as a feature or quality typical to a person, place or thing. No person would ever agree that the crabbing / skipping / juddering can be considered a "feature" or a "quality". It is completely incomprehensible to think MB-UK could continue to call this faulty behaviour a characteristic and claim this has no impact on safety.
I'm not a lawyer, however I do hope MB-UK dig themselves so deep into a hole that legally they're hands are tied (especially with the Waiver being introduced) and eventually forced to recall 4MATIC RHD vehicles for rectification once the issue is deemed a "fault".
Not sure it will happen but what's life without hope!
"Characteristic" is defined as a feature or quality typical to a person, place or thing. No person would ever agree that the crabbing / skipping / juddering can be considered a "feature" or a "quality". It is completely incomprehensible to think MB-UK could continue to call this faulty behaviour a characteristic and claim this has no impact on safety.
I'm not a lawyer, however I do hope MB-UK dig themselves so deep into a hole that legally they're hands are tied (especially with the Waiver being introduced) and eventually forced to recall 4MATIC RHD vehicles for rectification once the issue is deemed a "fault".
Not sure it will happen but what's life without hope!
Sorry to hear that outcome milomaine.
Would you be within your rights to request the DEKFA inspection report determining that it there is no impact to safety? It would be interesting to see what outcomes were derived from the inspection.
Would you be within your rights to request the DEKFA inspection report determining that it there is no impact to safety? It would be interesting to see what outcomes were derived from the inspection.
So this arrived today,
Hi,
Go to the Ombudsman - as they have suggested.
If enough owners do this - then the Ombudsman will realise that it is a serious problem.
Cheers
Steve
I'm not sure about that, they've ignored the Ombudsmans ruling already!
Mercedes Dealer Refuses to Accept Ruling of Motor Ombudsman over GLC Crabbing Issue | Motoring News | Honest John
Interesting - what's the point of belonging to an Ombudsman scheme - if both parties don't do what the Ombudsman rules?
Just received a response from A E. Interesting reading and helps keep this issue alive and kicking; I hope!!
Quote:
Steve Fowler forwarded me on your note and asked me to drop you a line on this.
We're still in touch with Mercedes-Benz on the matter, so I wouldn't say we have 'accepted their excuse' or, for that matter, 'let down the common motorist' - not least because I think we're the first mainstream motoring title to even raise the issue at all.
Still, I can understand your frustration and the anger of owners who've found the problem more significant than I did - perhaps because my car was a GLC 220d with the off-road pack, and thus on 18in wheels instead of the larger 19-inchers. I can't say I'd noticed any significant tyre degradation, either; again, this could have been down to the slightly smaller wheels. I've found some evidence that the odd Merc dealer has swapped some cars onto winter tyres, and that this has improved things; this would fit with our suggested scenario, whereby the German engineers have simply failed to evaluate how the car performs on summer tyres in cool conditions.
As it turns out, our own GLC has now been returned to Mercedes - not as part of any grand conspiracy, I can assure you, but purely because its scheduled six-month loan came to an end. However, as I've said, our consumer helpdesk bod Joe Finnerty is in touch with Merc's UK press office on the matter, and they're under no illusions that if a satisfactory solution isn't found in a timely fashion, or if the problem continues into the warmer months ahead, we will be back to feature the story again.
Kind regards,
John
Unquote
I have responded to John thanking him for his response but did stress that owners want a 52 week a year fix not just relying on warm weather as MB would have us believe. Might be worth taking note of Joe Finnerty's details and build up a dialog with him in the coming weeks.
My very negative experience with MB UK when escalating this issue!
Hi all,
I have had a very negative experience with Mercedes Benz UK when escalating the issue.
Heres my mail chain with MBUK CEO escalations office:
I have now also done a video of appeal to CEO MBUK Gary Savage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mhn-cK3VIQ
Hi Gary and Mark
I hope you are both well and trust you had a Happy Christmas and New Year.
I am a disabled man with below knee artificial legs and deformed hands.
In September 2016 I took delivery of a brand new Mercedes Benz GLC 250d AMG Line Premium Plus – with registration - RE06 HAN.
I have found that since delivery on day one, the car skips/jumps/judders when turning in any direction at slow speed on full lock in either direction. This I feel, is not safe at all.
The reason that I have written at such a senior level is because I don’t feel confident that any dealership would be able to manage this issue to a successful conclusion, they may but it would take a very long time I feel. This is a serious issue and I don’t want to be told, that it’s the cold weather, it’s the tyres etc. etc. I have not yet approached my dealer as I don’t want to “run around” and try and manage this issue with several escalations and so on lasting a period of months. This is why I have directly written to you for advice.
I would be very grateful if someone at a senior level could assist me with my journey into investigating this issue. As you can understand, I cannot be without a car and hence this issue is of the utmost importance for me.
Having read several blogs regarding this issue, I have found that I am not the only customer with the problem and that Mercedes have already recognised this as “skipping” and an “unwanted characteristic”.
http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/general-discussion/201420-knocking-steering-new-glc-2.html
I am looking for the following please:
1) A quick resolution to the issue if Mercedes are already aware of a fix.
Or
2) A full refund so that I can go and purchase another car.
3) There will clearly be abnormal wear on the tyres due to this issue and I would like to know what Mercedes can do regarding this as clearly I will have to replace these tyres sooner than normal.
Gentlemen, I look forward to your reply as soon as possible.
I have copied in Mercedes customer service, David Gregory my sales executive at Mercedes Brooklands and Steve Palmer the General Manager at Mercedes Brooklands.
Thank you for your time.
Warm Regards
Rehan Siddiqui
Dear Mr Rehan,
Thank you for copying me in with your email to Senior Management of Mercedes Benz UK. I just need to advise you that Mr Whittington nor Mr West work for MBUK anymore. I am sorry you are experiencing an issue with your car which will be taken seriously by MB Brooklands. I’m sure you will understand that in order for anyone at MBUK to be involved with this case and your concerns, the car will need to be inspected before any solutions can be considered.
With this in mind I have copied the Aftersales Manager, who will arrange for you to be contacted later today and arrange an initial booking and inspect the car. Once this has happened we can propose what Mercedes Benz next step will be.
I hope you find this proposal satisfactory.
Regards
Steve Palmer
General Manager
Mercedes-Benz Brooklands
Dear Mr Siddiqui
In response to your e-mail to Mr Savage, I would like to acknowledge receipt.
We were sorry to hear that you are experiencing this issue with your GLC and can appreciate your concern.
This characteristic comes from flexibility within the tyre sidewall, the grip between the front tyres and the type of road surface being driven over. It is something which can be felt only at very low speeds, and when a certain percentage of wheel lock is engaged for turning. This is demonstratively more evident in colder temperatures due to the changes in the tyre rubber elasticity.
As per the Mercedes-Benz Digital Handbook for your car, we would always recommend the use of winter tyres for temperatures which fall below approximately +7 degrees. The recommendation given to improve this characteristic would be to change the tyres on your car to suitable tyres for the winter period.
Please be assured that this is a comfort issue and does not affect the safety or overall performance of your car.
Thank you for taking the time to make us aware, and I sincerely hope our response helps to allay your concerns.
Kind regards
Kylie Skilton
CEO Office
Mercedes-Benz Cars Limited
Dear Kylie,
Thank you very much for your prompt response with this matter.
Unfortunately I cannot accept the root cause statement you have provided for the following reasons:
· I took delivery of the car in September 2016 and this issue has been happening since then.
· This has been a very mild winter apart from the last couple of weeks with temperatures around 13 – 20 degrees. It was happening in September/October when temperatures were around 20 degrees
· The issue occurs on all types of roads, on my driveway at home, on a normal road, in my work car park, in shopping mall car parks – in fact everywhere.
· The issue is especially apparent when reversing at full lock at slow speed and the car judders/skids around 2-5 centimetres – this happens in either direction
· I have been driving since 1992 and have always had premium cars including 4x4’s and have never experienced this issue.
· I cannot agree that this is a comfort issue as the car should not slip/skip/lose grip at all at slow speed. This is also a safety issue.
Steve Palmer the general manager at Mercedes Brooklands has helped me to book the car in for inspection on Friday 13th January.
If this issue cannot be remedied then I would like to proceed with a “rejection” of the car and request a full refund of the amount I have already paid including my deposit.
However I appreciate and understand that the car does need to be inspected first and Steve has been supportive in this matter.
Once the car has been inspected and any conclusions have been drawn by the dealer, I will keep you updated.
Thank you once again for your support.
Thank You.
Warm Regards
Dear Gary and Kylie,
I hope you are well.
I would like to update you with the current situation of my car.
Firstly I am quite disappointed in the fact that the CEO office (Kylie) has not followed up with me after your last mail to me below. I would have thought that you would have mailed me back for an update given my physical circumstances.
Steve Perrett at MB World Brooklands has been wonderful, although Steve was also not able to fix the issue for me, as it quite clearly is a design/production flaw. Steve demonstrated the issue himself with a brand new unregistered car to my wife and I.
Steve had my own car examined and there is no technical fault with the car but as we all know, the issue of the crabbing and skipping is occurring with all of the production GLC/C class AMG cars.
Gary/Kylie, Last week I needed to do a u-turn and my GLC did not respond at all well at low speed as whilst I turned it continued on straight for a few inches and the same happened one recent night when turning left into my home drive way, the left turn did not execute and the car continued straight for a few inches, this was not safe at all. These incidents are on top of the daily ongoing skipping/juddering/crabbing/skidding.
As you all know from my last few mails, I am disabled having no hands and I wear two below knee artificial legs and therefore I would say that safety is of paramount concern to me. My experience is that I do not feel the car is safe and I cannot trust it. I also am not having any enjoyment at all from the vehicle due to this issue. If I had been made aware of the issue before the sale then I would have not placed the order and would have bought something else.
Kylie/Gary and Steve, as an organisation at Mercedes Benz UK, I would like to please request some additional urgent consideration for my case.
What I would like; is to formally reject the car and request my deposit is refunded and any payments I have made to date so that I can return the car and order something else.
Please could you consider my case as a priority and reply back as soon as possible so that we can start this process.
Thank You.
Warm Regards
Dear Mr Siddiqui
I am sorry you are disappointed with my previous response, this was certainly not my intention.
To offer our assurances once more, following investigation completed by Mercedes-Benz Brooklands, this is a comfort issue and does not affect the safety or overall performance of your car. That said, I do appreciate your comments and we do recognise this remains a comfort issue for some of our customers and would like to reassure you that investigations are ongoing in the UK to try and minimise this characteristic.
We are therefore unable to support your request to reject your car and refunded your deposit and any payments made at this time.
Please rest assured, as soon as we have further information regarding this characteristic, we will of course let you know.
We appreciate that you remain disappointed by this characteristic, and understand this may not be the response you were hoping for, but this is our final position regarding this matter.
Kind regards
Kylie Skilton
CEO Office
Mercedes-Benz Cars UK Limited
Hi all,
I have had a very negative experience with Mercedes Benz UK when escalating the issue.
Heres my mail chain with MBUK CEO escalations office:
I have now also done a video of appeal to CEO MBUK Gary Savage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mhn-cK3VIQ
Hi Gary and Mark
I hope you are both well and trust you had a Happy Christmas and New Year.
I am a disabled man with below knee artificial legs and deformed hands.
In September 2016 I took delivery of a brand new Mercedes Benz GLC 250d AMG Line Premium Plus – with registration - RE06 HAN.
I have found that since delivery on day one, the car skips/jumps/judders when turning in any direction at slow speed on full lock in either direction. This I feel, is not safe at all.
The reason that I have written at such a senior level is because I don’t feel confident that any dealership would be able to manage this issue to a successful conclusion, they may but it would take a very long time I feel. This is a serious issue and I don’t want to be told, that it’s the cold weather, it’s the tyres etc. etc. I have not yet approached my dealer as I don’t want to “run around” and try and manage this issue with several escalations and so on lasting a period of months. This is why I have directly written to you for advice.
I would be very grateful if someone at a senior level could assist me with my journey into investigating this issue. As you can understand, I cannot be without a car and hence this issue is of the utmost importance for me.
Having read several blogs regarding this issue, I have found that I am not the only customer with the problem and that Mercedes have already recognised this as “skipping” and an “unwanted characteristic”.
http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/general-discussion/201420-knocking-steering-new-glc-2.html
I am looking for the following please:
1) A quick resolution to the issue if Mercedes are already aware of a fix.
Or
2) A full refund so that I can go and purchase another car.
3) There will clearly be abnormal wear on the tyres due to this issue and I would like to know what Mercedes can do regarding this as clearly I will have to replace these tyres sooner than normal.
Gentlemen, I look forward to your reply as soon as possible.
I have copied in Mercedes customer service, David Gregory my sales executive at Mercedes Brooklands and Steve Palmer the General Manager at Mercedes Brooklands.
Thank you for your time.
Warm Regards
Rehan Siddiqui
Dear Mr Rehan,
Thank you for copying me in with your email to Senior Management of Mercedes Benz UK. I just need to advise you that Mr Whittington nor Mr West work for MBUK anymore. I am sorry you are experiencing an issue with your car which will be taken seriously by MB Brooklands. I’m sure you will understand that in order for anyone at MBUK to be involved with this case and your concerns, the car will need to be inspected before any solutions can be considered.
With this in mind I have copied the Aftersales Manager, who will arrange for you to be contacted later today and arrange an initial booking and inspect the car. Once this has happened we can propose what Mercedes Benz next step will be.
I hope you find this proposal satisfactory.
Regards
Steve Palmer
General Manager
Mercedes-Benz Brooklands
Dear Mr Siddiqui
In response to your e-mail to Mr Savage, I would like to acknowledge receipt.
We were sorry to hear that you are experiencing this issue with your GLC and can appreciate your concern.
This characteristic comes from flexibility within the tyre sidewall, the grip between the front tyres and the type of road surface being driven over. It is something which can be felt only at very low speeds, and when a certain percentage of wheel lock is engaged for turning. This is demonstratively more evident in colder temperatures due to the changes in the tyre rubber elasticity.
As per the Mercedes-Benz Digital Handbook for your car, we would always recommend the use of winter tyres for temperatures which fall below approximately +7 degrees. The recommendation given to improve this characteristic would be to change the tyres on your car to suitable tyres for the winter period.
Please be assured that this is a comfort issue and does not affect the safety or overall performance of your car.
Thank you for taking the time to make us aware, and I sincerely hope our response helps to allay your concerns.
Kind regards
Kylie Skilton
CEO Office
Mercedes-Benz Cars Limited
Dear Kylie,
Thank you very much for your prompt response with this matter.
Unfortunately I cannot accept the root cause statement you have provided for the following reasons:
· I took delivery of the car in September 2016 and this issue has been happening since then.
· This has been a very mild winter apart from the last couple of weeks with temperatures around 13 – 20 degrees. It was happening in September/October when temperatures were around 20 degrees
· The issue occurs on all types of roads, on my driveway at home, on a normal road, in my work car park, in shopping mall car parks – in fact everywhere.
· The issue is especially apparent when reversing at full lock at slow speed and the car judders/skids around 2-5 centimetres – this happens in either direction
· I have been driving since 1992 and have always had premium cars including 4x4’s and have never experienced this issue.
· I cannot agree that this is a comfort issue as the car should not slip/skip/lose grip at all at slow speed. This is also a safety issue.
Steve Palmer the general manager at Mercedes Brooklands has helped me to book the car in for inspection on Friday 13th January.
If this issue cannot be remedied then I would like to proceed with a “rejection” of the car and request a full refund of the amount I have already paid including my deposit.
However I appreciate and understand that the car does need to be inspected first and Steve has been supportive in this matter.
Once the car has been inspected and any conclusions have been drawn by the dealer, I will keep you updated.
Thank you once again for your support.
Thank You.
Warm Regards
Dear Gary and Kylie,
I hope you are well.
I would like to update you with the current situation of my car.
Firstly I am quite disappointed in the fact that the CEO office (Kylie) has not followed up with me after your last mail to me below. I would have thought that you would have mailed me back for an update given my physical circumstances.
Steve Perrett at MB World Brooklands has been wonderful, although Steve was also not able to fix the issue for me, as it quite clearly is a design/production flaw. Steve demonstrated the issue himself with a brand new unregistered car to my wife and I.
Steve had my own car examined and there is no technical fault with the car but as we all know, the issue of the crabbing and skipping is occurring with all of the production GLC/C class AMG cars.
Gary/Kylie, Last week I needed to do a u-turn and my GLC did not respond at all well at low speed as whilst I turned it continued on straight for a few inches and the same happened one recent night when turning left into my home drive way, the left turn did not execute and the car continued straight for a few inches, this was not safe at all. These incidents are on top of the daily ongoing skipping/juddering/crabbing/skidding.
As you all know from my last few mails, I am disabled having no hands and I wear two below knee artificial legs and therefore I would say that safety is of paramount concern to me. My experience is that I do not feel the car is safe and I cannot trust it. I also am not having any enjoyment at all from the vehicle due to this issue. If I had been made aware of the issue before the sale then I would have not placed the order and would have bought something else.
Kylie/Gary and Steve, as an organisation at Mercedes Benz UK, I would like to please request some additional urgent consideration for my case.
What I would like; is to formally reject the car and request my deposit is refunded and any payments I have made to date so that I can return the car and order something else.
Please could you consider my case as a priority and reply back as soon as possible so that we can start this process.
Thank You.
Warm Regards
Dear Mr Siddiqui
I am sorry you are disappointed with my previous response, this was certainly not my intention.
To offer our assurances once more, following investigation completed by Mercedes-Benz Brooklands, this is a comfort issue and does not affect the safety or overall performance of your car. That said, I do appreciate your comments and we do recognise this remains a comfort issue for some of our customers and would like to reassure you that investigations are ongoing in the UK to try and minimise this characteristic.
We are therefore unable to support your request to reject your car and refunded your deposit and any payments made at this time.
Please rest assured, as soon as we have further information regarding this characteristic, we will of course let you know.
We appreciate that you remain disappointed by this characteristic, and understand this may not be the response you were hoping for, but this is our final position regarding this matter.
Kind regards
Kylie Skilton
CEO Office
Mercedes-Benz Cars UK Limited
It is just unbelievable how they keep on ignoring the key points. I appreciate that they cannot deal with the rejection, but how they can respond with a straight face that you just have to deal with the comfort issue is beyond believe.
I'm just lost for words.
I'm just lost for words.
grober
MB Master
I should perhaps point out there is no such organisation as DEKFA its DEKRA!
http://www.dekra.com/en/automotive
Maybe of some use in the future if you pass all the salient information to Joe Finnerty at Auto Express as should they decide to run with this come the summer then it will be useful ammunition.
John Jones Jr
MB Enthusiast
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2013
- Messages
- 4,620
- Location
- London & Dublin
- Car
- Mazda MX5 10AE, W201 2.5-16, W202 230K Sport man, Honda Accord & Suzuki 'Ricer'.
So, are Auto Express implying the problem occurring in the colder months is acceptable?
