C350e owners club

[raspy]

my (66reg) 2016 91000miles with service history , they want £695 for 1 year and didn't see an option for monthly payments so i have no warrenty and live day to day (or waiting for that day) nothing will go wrong its a mercedes benz after all

@smythe I took out cover before my Approved Used Warranty ran out (when car was 3.5 years old), so that's why I have monthly payments and why my total payment of £516 over 12 months is cheaper than your 12 month quotation. Blurb from MB website below. Apart from this thermostat, then the car has been reliable, and I hope yours proves to be reliable too.

"If you’re purchasing cover towards the end of either your manufacturer warranty, your Approved Used car warranty or your existing Mercedes-Benz Extended Warranty, you can opt to pay for an Extended Warranty on an ongoing monthly ‘pay as you go’ basis that can be cancelled at any time.
‍
If you choose to pay on a ‘pay as you go’ basis, your policy will renew for an additional month each time we receive a monthly payment from you. However, please be aware that the cost of your new monthly policy will not be the pro rata cost of an annual policy. This is because the ‘pay as you go’ policy is a monthly rolling contract, so the cost is not equivalent to an annual policy divided by the length of the term.
‍
You should also be aware that, if your car has no existing cover, the monthly option is not available to you and you’ll need to purchase a 12-month policy or a 24-month policy instead."

 

[seekay]

@raspy Thanks for that Sir, very useful info.

 

[DubMerc]

I've been paying around £43 a month for the MB extended warranty on my 2015 C350e, and today it proved to be really useful!

Car's check engine light came on this week. Took it to MB dealer who traced it to an electrical fault in the thermostat and a replacement required, but luckily, it's covered under my warranty.

They told me if I didn't have the warranty, it would have been about £700 parts and labour!

Had the same issue with thermostat, replaced under warranty, didn't realise it would have cost that much outside of warranty..Didn't ask at the time.

 

[seekay]

I used a public charging point yesterday, charged from 18% to 100%.
Don't know how accurate the measurement is but according to the PodPoint app, 3,9 kWh energy was added.

I know some of you guys used to measure this, compare to your figures does this value count as normal or indicates some degradation?

 

[Mikep2]

I used a public charging point yesterday, charged from 18% to 100%.
Don't know how accurate the measurement is but according to the PodPoint app, 3,9 kWh energy was added.

I know some of you guys used to measure this, compare to your figures does this value count as normal or indicates some degradation?

Hi, my two and a half year old 350e takes between 5 and 5.5 kWh for a full charge 10% to 100%.

 

[seekay]

Hi, my two and a half year old 350e takes between 5 and 5.5 kWh for a full charge 10% to 100%.

My charging stats seems really bad then...
In this weather (between 5-15 °C) driving like miss daisy I can do around 9-9,5 miles in EV mode, in summer its around 11-12 miles if I remember well.

So if the car is still under the warranty, will they replace the HV battery if the capacity drops below 70%? Is it a really mean thing to buy an MB warranty in this regard and then start a warranty claim?

 

[raspy]

My charging stats seems really bad then...
In this weather (between 5-15 °C) driving like miss daisy I can do around 9-9,5 miles in EV mode, in summer its around 11-12 miles if I remember well.

So if the car is still under the warranty, will they replace the HV battery if the capacity drops below 70%? Is it a really mean thing to buy an MB warranty in this regard and then start a warranty claim?

@seekay

Sounds about normal to me. I get between 4-12 miles depending upon time of year and how cold/warm it is outside.

Reading the 6 year warranty information about PHEV and BEV cars from MB, it doesn't mention that they will replace the battery in a plug in hybrid should the battery degrade. It only offers that option for the EV models like EQC.

With regard to taking out an extended MB warranty and then making a claim, I draw your attention to what's mentioned in the T&Cs.

"This insurance does not cover any injury, failure, loss or damage which is caused by, arises from or happens in connection with the following.

Any fault which is likely to have existed before the period of insurance."

Bear in mind that the MB extended warranty requires that the car be serviced at MB dealers. It's not clear from the wording if they mean that all services from new should have been at a MB dealer or only whilst the extended warranty is in place.

 

[seekay]

@seekay

Sounds about normal to me. I get between 4-12 miles depending upon time of year and how cold/warm it is outside.

Reading the 6 year warranty information about PHEV and BEV cars from MB, it doesn't mention that they will replace the battery in a plug in hybrid should the battery degrade. It only offers that option for the EV models like EQC.

With regard to taking out an extended MB warranty and then making a claim, I draw your attention to what's mentioned in the T&Cs.

"This insurance does not cover any injury, failure, loss or damage which is caused by, arises from or happens in connection with the following.

Any fault which is likely to have existed before the period of insurance."

Bear in mind that the MB extended warranty requires that the car be serviced at MB dealers. It's not clear from the wording if they mean that all services from new should have been at a MB dealer or only whilst the extended warranty is in place.

I understand that the HV battery comes with 6 years / 62k miles warranty so mine isn't covered anymore but if I take out an extended warranty then it will be covered again, in theory? If yes, what would they do with degradation claims if not replacing the battery? Cell refurbishment?
The car is serviced by MB anyway and also has a full MB service history so this part wouldn't be a problem. Of course existing faults are not covered but how would they know that it was existing if never been diagnosed before? I know it isn't a nice thing but choosing between selling the car or paying thousands of pounds for a new battery, I would rather go on this grey path.

 

[raspy]

I understand that the HV battery comes with 6 years / 62k miles warranty so mine isn't covered anymore but if I take out an extended warranty then it will be covered again, in theory? If yes, what would they do with degradation claims if not replacing the battery? Cell refurbishment?
The car is serviced by MB anyway and also has a full MB service history so this part wouldn't be a problem. Of course existing faults are not covered but how would they know that it was existing if never been diagnosed before? I know it isn't a nice thing but choosing between selling the car or paying thousands of pounds for a new battery, I would rather go on this grey path.

@seekay I have no idea if the extended warranty covers battery degradation. Given that's not explicitly covered in the original hybrid warranty, I assume the extended warranty only covers should the battery and/or related components stop working altogether. Is battery degradation a manufacturing fault or simply something that happens over time?

It's unclear from the warranty policy document if they would honour a claim you make where you say that after x thousand miles, the battery has now a lower capacity vs when the car was brand new. Maybe you could contact MB warranty and find out what they say?

I suspect (based upon the text from the warranty policy) that they might not cover if they state that it's normal deterioration...

"This insurance does not cover any injury, failure, loss or damage which is caused by, arises from or happens in connection with the following.

Wear and tear, normal deterioration, routine servicing, maintenance or reprogramming."

In addition, the same section of the warranty policy also says the warranty doesn't cover "Manufacturer faults, faulty design or recall campaigns."

 

[seekay]

@seekay I have no idea if the extended warranty covers battery degradation. Given that's not explicitly covered in the original hybrid warranty, I assume the extended warranty only covers should the battery and/or related components stop working altogether. Is battery degradation a manufacturing fault or simply something that happens over time?

It's unclear from the warranty policy document if they would honour a claim you make where you say that after x thousand miles, the battery has now a lower capacity vs when the car was brand new. Maybe you could contact MB warranty and find out what they say?

I suspect (based upon the text from the warranty policy) that they might not cover if they state that it's normal deterioration...

"This insurance does not cover any injury, failure, loss or damage which is caused by, arises from or happens in connection with the following.

Wear and tear, normal deterioration, routine servicing, maintenance or reprogramming."

In addition, the same section of the warranty policy also says the warranty doesn't cover "Manufacturer faults, faulty design or recall campaigns."

@raspy Yeah, I better call MB to clarify what is covered and what’s not, there are too many questions and t&cs, not to mention what they class under wear and tear and whether they include the battery degradation or not... I think someone mentioned earlier that battery health between 70 and 100% counts as normal usage and below 70% would be a warranty matter. Maybe @Chris-S ?

Like you said I’m not really worried as my EV range looks very similar to the other owners but still... the 3.9 kWh is 1-1.5 kWh less energy than @Mikep2 ’s car takes and for this small battery this is a relatively big difference...

 

[Deleted member 126969]

I’ve no knowledge of how a soggy HV battery would be handled under warranty.....but my feeling is ‘unsympathetically’.

re the energy to charge, I’ve been keeping records a while now but it’s really quite difficult to be accurate. I don’t have a direct reading of actual energy to the car alone, I just estimate on time and average it out. Also bear in mind that the slower you charge, the more wasted overhead there is too (probably!).

I’m at about the same as @Mikep2 I’d say and am estimating battery capacity at around the 6kWh ish level. Car is 4 1/2 years old now but stupid low mileage at under 9k. Actual range hasn’t dropped since new.

 

[Deleted member 126969]

...actually, on reflection, there has been maybe a 10% drop in range since new. It’s hard to be certain though as it’s so sensitive to each given journey.

I do find I’m acutely aware of range in winter simply because it’s so small!

 

[seekay]

@Chris-S I thought my battery's condition was normal as since I got the car, always had similar EV range like you guys posted here. So I wasn't worried at all but my recent experience with the PodPoint just ruined everything...18% to 100% = 3,9 kWh so let's assume 10%-100% would be around 4 kWh... I don't know if the delivered energy is accurate in the PodPoint app...but if yes, then it means is only 72% capacity of your battery... 4 kWh vs. 5,5 kWh.
I'm so disappointed if its true...I love this car and haven't even had it for a whole year but maybe its time to say goodbye already? I don't want to wait the time when the HV battery becomes an additional weight which just increases the consumption without adding any benefit...if its already 72% then the time might come sooner than I thought...

I don't have any other way to measure the delivered energy, only these public chargers. When charging at home with 10A, it takes around 2 hours and 10-15 minutes from 10-11% to 100% but of course over 80% the charging current starts dropping so its hard to figure out the actual numbers...how long does it take for you?

 

[Deleted member 126969]

@seekay Bear in mind that 100% indicated isn’t actually 100% full, there’s a buffer at top and bottom to prevent battery damage but we can only guess at those. The real indicator is range I think. I monitor my charging just to keep an eye on the trend rather than an absolute value, as there are so many guesses in my calculations.

My last 18-100 charge was about 5kWh but there are a lot of errors and assumptions in that figure. As you say, the rate drops off towards the end for one thing. My errors and assumptions are consistent though, so it has some value for the trend thing.

If you are still getting 10-12 miles in warmer weather (no heating or AC) then it’s fine. When it gets down to 8 or so I’d start to worry.

 

[raspy]

We Buy Any Car keep emailing me every month or so saying my C350e has increased in value. Compared to their valuation in December 2020, their latest valuation today is £1,000 (7.5%) higher. Ha ha, it's 5 months older and has more miles too.

I had read that due to a number of reasons since the pandemic began, prices of used cars are actually going up!

 

[seekay]

Just done 10,4 miles purely on battery, 18% left when I got home. It was 10°C in the morning and 10,5 °C in the afternoon, lot of coasting, driving like miss daisy, holding up traffic (technically it was an empty dual carriageway so those who stuck behind me actually deserved it) but it was well worth, I made it in the end.
Of course, no heating, no AC, only seat heating in the morning.

@raspy May I ask how much you've been quoted?

 

[raspy]

Just done 10,4 miles purely on battery, 18% left when I got home. It was 10°C in the morning and 10,5 °C in the afternoon, lot of coasting, driving like miss daisy, holding up traffic (technically it was an empty dual carriageway so those who stuck behind me actually deserved it) but it was well worth, I made it in the end.
Of course, no heating, no AC, only seat heating in the morning.

@raspy May I ask how much you've been quoted?

@seekay £14,305

 

[grober]

Thought this might be of interest if it hasn't been posted before?
shows the main hybrid battery and circulating pump positions and auxilliary BATTERY replacement
taken from this German site with some useful video how to's

https://www.youtube.com/c/MBOwnersClub/featured

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

We Buy Any Car keep emailing me every month or so saying my C350e has increased in value. Compared to their valuation in December 2020, their latest valuation today is £1,000 (7.5%) higher. Ha ha, it's 5 months older and has more miles too.

I had read that due to a number of reasons since the pandemic began, prices of used cars are actually going up!

Last month my son has bought a ULEZ BMW X3 (Shudder) for his Labrador and he reports the same thing: that "constipation" in the new car sales pipeline caused by supply disruption and closure of car showrooms has caused used car values to rise. (Apparently car dealers are also making more money on used car sales too)

That said, WBAC are such a lying bunch of devious bustards that they would use any excuse to pull in an innocent private owner, and then invent some devious excuse to renege on their initial price quote. ("Unfortunately, there appears to be dust on the dashboard.")

 

[zipdip]

I have to take my hat of to you magnificent men in your electric machines,every trip is a adventure,I read your posts and I have to be honest and say those cars are not for me.