Courtesy car hell!

[steveuniq]

My boss had a Mercedes before his current BMW, and only changed because of the poor service from MB.

He was really keen on getting a CLK Convertible a few years back, and ended up getting a CLK320 Sport Convertible with a fistful of extras. He bought the car from a dealer in London (I think), but booked it into the local MB dealer in Boston for its first service. He was told that they would not collect his car and take it in for him, but they would provide him with a courtesy car.

The morning the car is booked in for service, he gets to the office late after dropping his car off, in the PROTON PERSONA courtesy car they had given him!!!!!! Not a happy man.

The next service was a little better with a D reg 190E (No offense to 190 owners), and the final time it went in it was slightly better with a A140 Auto.

Although he changed to BM, we also get the same poor service from our BMW dealer for the BM's we have (When we had our Z3 in for repair, they tried to give us a Corsa, but then said they had a better vehicle which turned out to be a Rover 200).

All of this is made worse by the excellent service we get from our Audi/VW dealer for the Audi's we have. They will always collect the cars from our office, and always leave a courtesy car that is the equivilent or better of the car they are servicing/repairing. They even lent us an A4 free of charge for a month while we were waiting for a new A4 Avant Sport to be delivered.

Why can'nt MB sort themselves out, or is it just that we have a poor local dealer?

 

[jimmy]

It is dissapointing but from reading various posts on this forum, poor service from MB stealers is the norm.

I am very, very disgruntled with the stealer where I purchased my car, particularly as it is the first secondhand car I have ever bought from a main dealer and only did so for the back up service that I thought I would get.

To be honest I wish I had bought the car privately or at auction and saved a few grand to sort out any problems that I might (did) get.

When I had a Discovery, I used to get Rover 200/400 courtesy cars, when I had a Mondeo I used to get a Mondeo or Focus, when I had the Vito I did get an E320 once but usually another Vito or Sprinter. Now with the C-class I usually end up with an A-class but only if I am prepared to wait 4-6 weeks from booking for one to be available.

And why are courtesy cars always handed over with an empty fuel tank, it should be their policy to return cars with a full fuel tank, like when returning a hire car.

 

[VikJ]

My last car was a BMW 3 Series which fair enough wasn't purchased from the dealer but did have a FBMWSH. On its most recent service, I though I'd ask for a courtesy car and was told it would cast me £25. Thinking I'd get a nice new shiny 3 Series for a day I agreed only to be amazed when I saw the words "Mini One" come up on the screen!

Needless to say, I couldn't justify paying that amount to drive a Mini to work and park it in the car park for a day so I cancelled it a week later and got a lift to work!

A friend of mine recently broke down in his VW and has breakdown cover as part of the warranty. As luck would have it, one of their engineers was in the area on the A1 where he had broken down and pulls up in a C200K! So the engineer got my mates details and said "Here, take the Mercedes as a courtesy car and I'll call you with more info about your car!". The guy couldn't believe his luck! Neither could I!

 

[Fudger]

Originally posted by jimmy
Now with the C-class I usually end up with an A-class but only if I am prepared to wait 4-6 weeks from booking for one to be available.

Same problem at Tony Purslow in Guildford. Booked at the start of Feb for March 13th as I need a car. They are prepared to collect from my work place but as they may not get the car back for a couple of day's, what option do I have?

Had a problem with an ESP sensor a while back. I took the car down on a Saturday morning and they said what needed to be ordered and replaced. So, they ordered the part and I was quite happy for them to collect the car from my workplace a few day's later. However, it then took 4 days to relalise they had the wrong part and so on........

4 days without my car was a real problem, but what could I do?

 

[fuzzer]

I get the feeling that the stealers are quite happy to sell you the car , but , are not keeping up the aftersales side of the bargain.


Treatment like this is shocking for any dealer , but , not a mercedes dealer..... We pay through the nose for everything when you take it there and are being taken for a ride when you want a little help...

 

[RichardM]

I agree, I'm very disappointed with the dealers aftersales. I have a few problems with my car, including the drivers door not always unlocking which is becoming a pain and 2 seperate dealers I've tried both said it would be 5 weeks before they could even look at it (and then they would have to order any parts). Its booked in for the 18th March, thats the earliest date they could give me and I have to drop it off myself and make my own travel arrangements. If I wanted a coutesy cars or it picked up it would have been into April.

 

[GrahamC230K]

Originally posted by RichardM
I agree, I'm very disappointed with the dealers aftersales. I have a few problems with my car, including the drivers door not always unlocking which is becoming a pain and 2 seperate dealers I've tried both said it would be 5 weeks before they could even look at it (and then they would have to order any parts)

To which my reply would be:

"That's fine. Here are the keys, I'll take the refund instead then."

 

[RichardM]

I'm leasing the car and not through that dealer so they probably wouldn't care! The supplying dealer is 150 miles away so isn't easy to take it back to them to sort out small issues.