C350e owners club

[RTR1879]

So, on Saturday morning, I went shopping in town early after dropping my daughter off at work. Parked it in an EV bay and plugged it in for only it's 2nd ever charge that wasn't on my drive. 30 mins later, came back and the little flap is on the floor and the hinge broken. I reckon someone has squeezed through, probably watching the cables and where they stand, and snagged it with a bag or something. I don't think I've ever felt more gutted than seeing that on my 10 day old baby.

Has anyone else snapped theirs off? It still goes back on and locks in place, but there is no chance of supergluing it as the hinge arm is a bit mangled. I took it up to the local MB dealer and they are preparing me a quote for repair. Do I need to sit down ready for when it arrives? They did mention the fix is quite complex and involves taking the whole bumper off.

 

[Deleted member 126969]

So, on Saturday morning, I went shopping in town early after dropping my daughter off at work. Parked it in an EV bay and plugged it in for only it's 2nd ever charge that wasn't on my drive. 30 mins later, came back and the little flap is on the floor and the hinge broken. I reckon someone has squeezed through, probably watching the cables and where they stand, and snagged it with a bag or something. I don't think I've ever felt more gutted than seeing that on my 10 day old baby.

Has anyone else snapped theirs off? It still goes back on and locks in place, but there is no chance of supergluing it as the hinge arm is a bit mangled. I took it up to the local MB dealer and they are preparing me a quote for repair. Do I need to sit down ready for when it arrives? They did mention the fix is quite complex and involves taking the whole bumper off.

Sadly, this seems pretty common. Not suffered it myself (yet....). Apparently you can get lucky and the bumper won't need replacing....or you can get unlucky and the whole thing needs doing. Crap design whichever way you look at it.

Bit late now, but one poster here had the great idea of holding the door against the charging plug with an elastic band. Won't stop the malicious but would certainly help with the clumsy.

 

[RTR1879]

Yeah, I saw that Chris. Hindsight being 20/20, and all that....

Just got the quote emailed to me. £296 + vat. Wowsers

 

[Deleted member 126969]

Yeah, I saw that Chris. Hindsight being 20/20, and all that....

Just got the quote emailed to me. £296 + vat. Wowsers

Ouch.....but if there is a bright side.....it could have been a lot worse. Pretty damned galling on a shiny new car though.

 

[Jeddy]

I'm not sure I'd ever bother using an public charging point.
I tend to consider how much money I'd save by giving it a charge (maybe 70p if I'm paying cost price for electricity, possibly up to £1.40 if not) and ask myself if someone were to give me 70p would I park in a particular bay, get my cable out, plug it in, risk annoying someone driving a pure EV who's out of range, then put it away again afterwards.
While I'm not made of money, I'm driving an expensive car so am not that bothered by 70p.
Having said which, if this is something you do every day, I can see why some would do it as it can add up, so I do plug it in at home - where I also leave the cable plugged into the mains so it's also less effort.
Actually, rather usefully, I have a power socket on a garage joist. So I've arranged for the cable to drop down to the rear of the car and just tuck it away on the side of the garage when not in use.

 

[Deleted member 126969]

I'm with you on public charging. It's of so little use to me personally, and the potential pitfalls are many and varied.

Not strictly C350e specific, but the car goes in to have the clock spring recall done tomorrow. I'll be asking about the Satnav map update as the current one is V11 and I have V8. They should(!) do this automatically, the recall letter specifically states that they will do any firmware updates but pound to a penny they don't. I'll be happy to retract, that should the unlikely occur......

 

[CaptainChaos]

Chris, is the clock spring the "Inadvertent Driver Airbag Deployment recall?
I've had a letter about that for a while but I'm hoping to combine it with a service later on so I only have to dealer with them once...

 

[Deleted member 126969]

Chris, is the clock spring the "Inadvertent Driver Airbag Deployment recall?
I've had a letter about that for a while but I'm hoping to combine it with a service later on so I only have to dealer with them once...

That’s the one. Letter says it takes an hour, but we arrived at just before 10 and left almost 2 hours later.

No joy on the map update. It’s not a “functional software” issue apparently, and takes up to 6 hours I’m told so it’ll have to wait. What a truly rubbish update system that requires the car to sit switched on and unmolested for 6 hours while being fed 3 data DVDs. Apparently the new version of COMAND does the updates over the air, but even that has issues apparently as the last “chunk” requires 20 hours of power-on to complete. There is a workaround with a USB stick apparently, but what utterly crap systems they must be that require such long periods to update a few Gb of data.

“The best or nothing”, my ****.

 

[CaptainChaos]

Thanks Chris. I tried to get the nav updated at my last service. They didn't do it...

 

[Deleted member 126969]

I do trust the service manager at the dealer, and he makes no attempt to hide how much of a PITA it is to do. They have to keep the car switched on for the duration, keep checking it from time to time to make sure it is progressing OK, and keep it connected to a battery charger the whole time in case it flattens the battery. They can't do anything to the car while the update is happening for fear of upsetting it, so it effectively blocks out a bay for most of a working day.

Making some assumptions...3 x DVD is roughly(!) 15Gb, 6 hours works out to roughly 6Mbps, a single speed DVD can do a maximum of 11Mbps data rate, so that suggests the 6 hours is a bit pessimistic, which the service manager did suggest could happen....but they didn't like to rely on it. An absolute best-case could be as little as 3-ish hours I suppose, but I do understand why they err on the side of caution.

He told me he will give me a call when V12 maps come out and arrange to get me a loaner so I can leave it with them for the update.

He also tells me that the COMAND system I have on my not-so-old car is very much out of date and that the new system coming on the FL cars is much better.........nice.

 

[Dodgy]

I do trust the service manager at the dealer, and he makes no attempt to hide how much of a PITA it is to do. They have to keep the car switched on for the duration, keep checking it from time to time to make sure it is progressing OK, and keep it connected to a battery charger the whole time in case it flattens the battery. They can't do anything to the car while the update is happening for fear of upsetting it, so it effectively blocks out a bay for most of a working day.

Making some assumptions...3 x DVD is roughly(!) 15Gb, 6 hours works out to roughly 6Mbps, a single speed DVD can do a maximum of 11Mbps data rate, so that suggests the 6 hours is a bit pessimistic, which the service manager did suggest could happen....but they didn't like to rely on it. An absolute best-case could be as little as 3-ish hours I suppose, but I do understand why they err on the side of caution.

He told me he will give me a call when V12 maps come out and arrange to get me a loaner so I can leave it with them for the update.

He also tells me that the COMAND system I have on my not-so-old car is very much out of date and that the new system coming on the FL cars is much better.........nice.

Nice.

Nice to know that the bog-standard Garmin sat-nav has the advantage here. After all, I just need to log onto the MB service website and download the map package, copy it to the SD card and stick the SD in the car. Simples.

Apparently this is also a ridiculously frustrating process. I haven’t even managed to download the map package. Is there a common denominator?


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[Jeddy]

Nice to know that the bog-standard Garmin sat-nav has the advantage here. After all, I just need to log onto the MB service website and download the map package, copy it to the SD card and stick the SD in the car. Simples.

Prepare to be disappointed.
If you have the Garmin satnav then you can only upgrade it within the first 3 months after it was first used. After that you have to hand over £££ to a MB main dealer for a new SD card - which will no doubt be out of date, but which you can upgrade for 3 months after first using it.
I hope I'm wrong, but I believe that's the case.

 

[Dodgy]

Prepare to be disappointed.
If you have the Garmin satnav then you can only upgrade it within the first 3 months after it was first used. After that you have to hand over £££ to a MB main dealer for a new SD card - which will no doubt be out of date, but which you can upgrade for 3 months after first using it.
I hope I'm wrong, but I believe that's the case.

I think you’re right. Somehow I’d got it into my head that it was three years, like the fee-free access to the Mercedes Me. Strange that anyone would think that 3 months of updates counts as anything other than insulting.

Has anyone had theirs for more than 3 years and had (or not had) a invoice for continued access to Mercedes Me?


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[Deleted member 126969]

It probably isn't....but it certainly feels a lot like something that happened to me a few years back. Went into a local pub for some swift refreshment. They were running a promo. Buy a round, get a scratch card. Prizes varied, but guess what, I won a free pint of beer. Whoo Hoo. So, second round, I return to the bar with my card and ask for my free pint. "Sorry mate, we're out of the free beer......" I politely informed the bartender of my views on that and walked out.

I can't imagine that MB deliberately designed the sat nav update to be so bloody useless that nobody can be bothered to make use of it, but it sure feels that way...

Mind you, the dealer did give it a nice thorough wash & brush up after doing the clock spring, including dressing the tyre walls, and I'm convinced they have given it a wax as well, as it is proper shiny now

Have to say, I feel for the service manager - he certainly has something of a poisoned chalice to deal with, working for MB.

Again, very much not C350e specific....but I seem to find my visits to the dealer always leave me feeling let down in some vague, unquantifiable, way. Having never purchased a new car before, I wonder how universal, or not, this feeling is. A mate of mine is Customer From Hell No.1, yet still gets great service for his 11 year old Lexus.

 

[Jeddy]

I think the 3 months of garmin satnav updates is because they know they're going to give you an out of date card and giving you 3 months to do their job for them.
Don't confuse access to Mercedes Me with garmin updates - totally seperate. You can see how long you have access to Mercedes Me for on the Mercedes Me website.

I don't think MB made the updates deliberately difficult, they've just made it fairly impossible to hack / do for free which has made it difficult in the process. It's ultimately a matter of profit, they want to keep taking money from you for years and years. I'm sure it would be trivial if they were happy to make it free and part of the MB experience. But no, MB aren't rich enough, they need more money from you. I bet someone hasn't done their sums - tying up a load of service bays vs. giving away free map updates which people can do themselves.

Re Lexus customer from hell, if Lexus are that good, why is he a customer from hell? Probably off topic.

 

[greekCL]

For some reason Lexus customer services and dealerships staff are excellent in handling problems.

Where Mercedes's are kinda running away from them. And avoid any customer interaction.

This is my experience solely lol

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[Deleted member 126969]

@Jeddy, the chap is, er, particular. Some years back he bought a new Mondeo. The rear screen was optically distorted and he took it back repeatedly until they put a new one in. Twice. Assorted other issues over the years and he never gave up on one of them, always got his way in the end. Then he moved to Lexus and bought a new IS. Very few issues over the years, but again, even the smallest thing would have him on the phone badgering them until he got his way. He got them to respray the car because of a tiny bubble on the bonnet. Don’t know how he owes it TBH, wish I had his powers of persuasion.

Really, my point was that despite it being a far from new car, they still give him superb service, 11 years on. They seem to go above and beyond to keep the customers happy, not deny their obligations or make life difficult.

 

[Rich Dobie]

Thanks for your replies @PepJr and @RTR1879 I am struggling to understand how two cars, delivered within days can be different (trackpad etc). I certainly like the idea where you can connect two bluetooth phones. I hate connecting my work phone to my current car!! It sounds like you are getting a good range with your driving style. Pardon my ignorance, but to 'coast' the car, do you literally just lift your foot off the accelerator, or do you need to activate something?

Can adding the "mobile phone pack" be added at a later date, or is it factory fitted? I wonder how this would work with my Arval lease?

I received my 350e est back in March through Arval with Apple car play as an extra. As it’s only a small change I was able to do this in the final few weeks before delivery (about 6 I think). The cost (per month) was relatively small so pleased I did it.
Once delivered I then contacted arval (and my own company) and after a couple of emails was able to arrange an Mercedes Me app too. So shouldn’t be an issue for you either.

 

[wivenhoe]

Absolutely, I’ll see what they come back with and save that one for the next riposte.

Came across the Carbuyer review of the E350e and it says ...There’s a three-year/unlimited-mileage warranty that can be extended at extra charge, while the plug-in hybrid components have a separate six-year/62,500-mile warranty..

 

[Nick Harper]

I'm not sure I'd ever bother using an public charging point.

I, every Sunday, drive for from Swindon to Bath University to take my son swimming. I recharge in the car park and regularly achieve over 65mpg for the journey. I do the same when I get to Devizes. Slowly learning where the charger points are. There’s no one app to rule them all when it comes to listing charge points!