C350e owners club

[Jeddy]

If the HVB warranty is an internal document, then why is it on the MB UK Website in the 'Owners Area' http://tools.mercedes-benz.co.uk/current/passenger-cars/pdfs/owners-area/HV-Battery-Warranty.pdf.
However before challenging MB with that, best take some screen shots proving it was there as they could easily remove it and deny that.

 

[Jeddy]

I did a quick calculation and making a few assumptions (see below) I reckon that if you never used the ICE driving everywhere on battery that would equate to around 72mpg of fuel.
(Electric at about 12.2p / KWh, equivalent cost of petrol 120p/l, full recharge giving 10miles of electric range.

Makes a bit of a mockery of official figures etc. which assume you don't have to pay for electricity (although I have a feeling that may be relevant for electric cars elsewhere, e.g. Germany).

 

[Deleted member 126969]

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If the HVB warranty is an internal document, then why is it on the MB UK Website in the 'Owners Area' http://tools.mercedes-benz.co.uk/current/passenger-cars/pdfs/owners-area/HV-Battery-Warranty.pdf.
However before challenging MB with that, best take some screen shots proving it was there as they could easily remove it and deny that.

It isn’t the HVB warranty they are arguing about, that clearly only covers the HV battery, it’s the small section in another document that clearly and explicitly includes the motor and power electronics that’s giving them indigestion.

 

[Deleted member 126969]

I did a quick calculation and making a few assumptions (see below) I reckon that if you never used the ICE driving everywhere on battery that would equate to around 72mpg of fuel.
(Electric at about 12.2p / KWh, equivalent cost of petrol 120p/l, full recharge giving 10miles of electric range.

Makes a bit of a mockery of official figures etc. which assume you don't have to pay for electricity (although I have a feeling that may be relevant for electric cars elsewhere, e.g. Germany).

I think most of the manufacturers employ various amounts of film-flamery on this. I’ve seen the trip screens from the BMW330e and it shows absurd mpg figures for the electric side. Seems to credit miles done on petrol as miles done on electricity somehow.

 

[Nick Harper]

I think most of the manufacturers employ various amounts of film-flamery on this. I’ve seen the trip screens from the BMW330e and it shows absurd mpg figures for the electric side. Seems to credit miles done on petrol as miles done on electricity somehow.

I think it counts any time your foot isn’t pressing the throttle as “Electric miles”. This is why, if you work out the mpg for miles not done on electric, it’s so atrocious. Mine works out at 28 to 31mpg. In a normal car, coasting helps the mpg but it is counted at petrol mpg in our cars.

 

[Dodgy]

I did a quick calculation and making a few assumptions (see below) I reckon that if you never used the ICE driving everywhere on battery that would equate to around 72mpg of fuel.
(Electric at about 12.2p / KWh, equivalent cost of petrol 120p/l, full recharge giving 10miles of electric range.

Makes a bit of a mockery of official figures etc. which assume you don't have to pay for electricity (although I have a feeling that may be relevant for electric cars elsewhere, e.g. Germany).

I’m not sure what your point is here. Is it that running on electric cost only a little less than running on petrol? I must have misunderstood, because:
1. Let’s be generous and say the Merc will do 45mpg, or 10 miles per litre
2. That equates to 10 miles for £1.20
3. Your £0.122 electricity cost per kWh allows you to buy almost 100 miles of electricity

I’m lucky with my economy 7 @ 5.5p per kWh (which sadly expires in August) gets me about 200 miles of range for the price of 10 miles of petrol.


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[Deleted member 126969]

10kWh is going to give about 20 to 25 miles of pure electric motoring isn’t it?

 

[Dodgy]

10kWh is going to give about 20 to 25 miles of pure electric motoring isn’t it?

I think so...


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[Jeddy]

So long as we were talking about using charging points I was considering at what point it becomes uneconomic to use them (or at least not worth the effort). I'm assuming (correct me if I'm wrong) that you pay to use them and the cost varies dependent on point?
My maths:
Suppose you get 36mpg on petrol alone at 120p / l = 545p / gallon. That's a cost of about 15p / mile. (The 36mpg is just for the purpose of this calculation).
My power meter suggests a charge from maybe 15% costs me (at 12.2 p/KWh) about 75p.
Most people seem to think that a pure electric range of around 10 miles is realistic).
That's 7.5p / mile on electric, i.e. half the cost of petrol at 36mpg giving an electric mpg equivalent of (2*36) 72mpg.

So, charging from 15% to full on electric at 12.2 p/KWh saves you maybe 75p if fuel costs 12p/l

Just something worth considering before going to the effort of using a public charging point. That's all.

If you're on economy 7 that's neat, similarly if you have solar panels with a FIT, onto a winner there.

Unless of course my maths is incorrect!

 

[Jeddy]

No, I don't quite know why I did that either!
More simply if you got 72mpg on petrol that would cost 545p/72 miles = 7.5 p / mile etc..

 

[Nick Harper]

Unless the electricity is free as it is at Bath University.

 

[RTR1879]

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.
QUOTE]

Don't forget to factor in there are a lot of free to use points and offset the petrol cost of those miles covered from the free charge. I was shopping anyway, and the free parking saved me £3 too. Shame it ended up costing £350!

 

[stuartj]

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.

Seems to be a consistent point on here regarding Mercedes Dealers - I am yet to have a good experience with them.

My bad experiences are still not getting a quote from my local dealer - now taken 3 years and when I phoned them about getting a quote for a new car and explained this I was told that it was terrible and they would do all they could to make sure it did not happen again - that was three months ago and still no contact back!

This is the same dealer that told me my tyres were legal and had at least 3-4 months left before they were changed. I therefore booked in with another dealer - they managed to sell one of the tyres they had reserved for and then told me that they could not let me have the car back as the tyres were illegal - one week after the other dealer said they were fine. They then argued about letting me have a loan car despite the car being leased through Mercedes Benz.

The same dealer also tried to charge me for a service despite it being full maintenance. When I explained this they said that the records were not very good and asked which dealer I had got the car through - they went quiet when i said it was themselves.

I have now had to book in for some new tyres for tomorrow so am dreading what is going to happen. It has taken two weeks as they are so busy (good job I did not have a puncture) and when I asked for them to collect or a loan car they said it would be a further 2 weeks. I then asked if it was worthwhile them doing the service whilst I was there as this is only 2.5k miles away and I do 2k + a month. The response was that I should ask the leasing company to which I replied I am however this was obviously too subtle as they did not understand.

I am also going to ask if they can update the sat nav whilst it is there all day as my version is 2015-2016 - it is supposed to be a full repairing lease after all.

I never had these issues with BMW so maybe I will have to go back to them - they actually want to serve you and even got the indicators working!!

 

[TheCorm]

Update on my vehicle.....has new batteries now and it's back to the electric range I had 2 years ago....and with the warmer weather i'm getting decent miles out of it again.

They had to order a new boot carpet.....I noticed when I picked it up that the flap the estates have doesn't sit properly, it's now raised up, the service manager thinks maybe they had trouble getting it back on neatly due to the batteries changing design as they had to fit a new holding bracket....so will be going in for that.

My colleagues same age c350e has been recalled for the airbag thing his local dealer says so I have asked for that be sorted too.

The only issue I now have as that while it is charging it shows "Charging Error" on the main page and "Charging Process Fault" in the charging page but does charge fully. The only time I saw "Charging Process Fault" before was when my 10A rated extension which was supposed to be 13A rated melted!

 

[Dodgy]

Update on my vehicle.....has new batteries now and it's back to the electric range I had 2 years ago....and with the warmer weather i'm getting decent miles out of it again.

They had to order a new boot carpet.....I noticed when I picked it up that the flap the estates have doesn't sit properly, it's now raised up, the service manager thinks maybe they had trouble getting it back on neatly due to the batteries changing design as they had to fit a new holding bracket....so will be going in for that.

My colleagues same age c350e has been recalled for the airbag thing his local dealer says so I have asked for that be sorted too.

The only issue I now have as that while it is charging it shows "Charging Error" on the main page and "Charging Process Fault" in the charging page but does charge fully. The only time I saw "Charging Process Fault" before was when my 10A rated extension which was supposed to be 13A rated melted!

Some progress. Good luck with the error. A new battery that doesn’t charge fully isn’t ideal...


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[Runlmc]

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.

I feel the pain, mine snapped of also, it is clearly not designed for daily use, whereas most people only fuel monthly it needs to be more than plastic and not part of the whole bumper. From my experience you have three options; 1) go to MB World and be charged £800+ to replace the entire bumper, 2) buy extra strong glue £20 it will only last about a month or go to MB in Tonbridge who reglued mine free of charge as part of a service but that will only last 6 months.

 

[Jeddy]

I feel the pain, mine snapped of also, it is clearly not designed for daily use, whereas most people only fuel monthly it needs to be more than plastic and not part of the whole bumper. From my experience you have three options; 1) go to MB World and be charged £800+ to replace the entire bumper, 2) buy extra strong glue £20 it will only last about a month or go to MB in Tonbridge who reglued mine free of charge as part of a service but that will only last 6 months.

Is prevention possible? Is there some way we can beef it up before it breaks so that it's less likely to break?

 

[Deleted member 126969]

HVB/Hybrid system warranty cover - update the last (probably).

Well, MB aren't going to change their tune it seems. They stick to the "it's an internal document therefore irrelevant" argument (despite allowing that the electric motor is covered for the 6 years which ISN'T in the basic HVB warranty that they do publicly acknowledge.....).

They suggested I can contact the Ombudsman, which I may as well do just for the sake of completeness, but I can't imagine they will be interested in something so generic?? I don't have a specific claim as such, just the principle at question.

Feeling as if I'm flogging a dad horse here, and a horse I don't even need to get up and trot for me either, which feels doubly pointless.

This is probably par for the course with all manufacturers (bar the experiment my mate has had with Lexus perhaps), but I do feel that they really don't care one jot for me as a customer.

Again, I really hope I never need to make a claim on the warranty. The few miles I do, it should last forever......

 

[Stevejcray]

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.

Thanks for the details. I'll certainly look into this. Is it just an update to the software, or does any hardware come with it?

 

[RTR1879]

We've not had a mpg post for a while.

How are folks getting on?

I've had my c350e for 3 weeks now and I've averaged 47.1mpg over 1,741 miles (including 2 runs from Yorkshire to London and Bedford and back). I'm pretty happy with that.