CLS 350 - Problems Soon After Purchase - Reassurance Needed!

[jyuk]

Evening all. I'm in York and recently (10 days ago) bought a 2010 CLS 350 Grand with 50,000 on the clock. Bought from a Mercedes dealership (not in York) with the usual one year breakdown and warranty (just as well). Unfortunately I've hardly driven it as it was towed following a power steering failure after a few days. It's now with my local Mercedes garage awaiting a new (well, "remanufactured") power steering pump. They seem hard to come by for some reason.

I'm no car expert and so I'm never that confident about buying a used car. This experience has worried me even more and I'm wondering how to get my confidence back. I had a couple of ideas:

1) Car had MOT by the dealership before I bought it. Wondering about getting another myself just to verify that it was done properly and there are no major issues.
2) Have thought about buying a diagnostic scanner (OBD?) to check whether there's anything they didn't tell me about leading up to the sale. Strangely the steering pump didn't show any warning on the dash.

What do people think of these? Anything else I could do? It seems like there's quite a lot of protection now under the new Consumer Rights Act so I want to get some information together, just in case. Fingers crossed though that I've just been unlucky and it's a one-off. Thanks in advance.

 

[brucemillar]

Bad luck. A power steering pump would not be picked up on an MOT or a scanner. It is a mechanical pump. Failure is not that uncommon or dangerous. It can be unnerving. Remember old cars never had power steering. OBD scanners will scare you as most cars will throw up transient errors. So you need to know how to interpret the errors, most of which you can ignore. You could invest in an AA check or find a recommended independent garage and have them check it over. Post your location and somebody will pass on a good garage. Good luck. Sent from my iPhone using MBClub UK

 

[jyuk]

Thanks Bruce. I was thinking of an MOT just as a basic and cheap check (and a validation of the MOT they carried out), rather than it finding issues like the pump. If it did throw up any advisories, that's some evidence to help me in case anything else goes wrong and I want a refund within the 30 day limit.

I'm in York - looks like Richard Hollings (RH Auto Services) is the one recommended around here.

 

[tec]

Wondering about getting another myself just to verify that it was done properly and there are no major issues.

An MOT is only for picking up major issues, mostly structural and visual. Get the car serviced or checked by an independent garage if you want to know what else may need attention as an MOT is not for that purpose.