Courtesy cars

[SomebodyCalledJ]

As our body shop is shared by 5 brands, we also have Polo's and Up's. We do on occasion give customers MB demonstrators, but it's down to us and the individual circumstance. We gave a lady our SLC demonstrator for two weeks recently because of the amount of time her car was going to be in.


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JBD, what normally warrants giving a Mercedes over the body shops Polo's and Up's? Do you get customers frustrated with the size issues of those two cars?


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[JBD]

JBD, what normally warrants giving a Mercedes over the body shops Polo's and Up's? Do you get customers frustrated with the size issues of those two cars?


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To be honest it's really down to what the customer drives and how long the job will take. We don't have the demand in the body shop to warrant having 5 cars from each brand, so they tend to stick to VW. Clearly if a customer is in with a performance car, we can't lend them an AMG GTS, but we will try and find something better than an Up, generally an E Class or something


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[SomebodyCalledJ]

To be honest it's really down to what the customer drives and how long the job will take. We don't have the demand in the body shop to warrant having 5 cars from each brand, so they tend to stick to VW. Clearly if a customer is in with a performance car, we can't lend them an AMG GTS, but we will try and find something better than an Up, generally an E Class or something


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Hmm so in your opinion should I push for something a little bigger to fit my needs, again I'm not specifically looking for a MB, but something more in line with a c class estate...? I think my work may take 2 to 4 weeks it's a warranty approved full respray of all metal panels, plus dependant on costs, the plastic trim too.





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[rhud]

Well that's simply not true. The current A Class is built on the MFA platform and the Megane on the CMF-CD platform developed by the Renault-Nissan alliance. What apart from the 1.5 engine do you believe is shared?


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Correct. Occasionally on this forum the 'not a proper Mercedes' brigade flex their muscles.

 

[JBD]

Hmm so in your opinion should I push for something a little bigger to fit my needs, again I'm not specifically looking for a MB, but something more in line with a c class estate...? I think my work may take 2 to 4 weeks it's a warranty approved full respray of all metal panels, plus dependant on costs, the plastic trim too.





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Only if they have something available. It's generally a good idea to have a nice salesman on your side who has access to demonstrators [emoji3]


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[Teflonso]

Just go to a differnt dealer for the work.


,

 

[219]

Well that's simply not true. The current A Class is built on the MFA platform and the Megane on the CMF-CD platform developed by the Renault-Nissan alliance. What apart from the 1.5 engine do you believe is shared?


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Seeing them side by side , it's undeniable that the body shells are VERY similar then ...

 

[SomebodyCalledJ]

Only if they have something available. It's generally a good idea to have a nice salesman on your side who has access to demonstrators [emoji3]


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I was told the length of time wouldn't warrant a demonstrator as it was too long

I won't go into personal circumstances as to why I own an estate and why a polo is too small, as I shouldn't have to explain to be honest. Looks like I'll have to lump a polo for a month and hope it can do the job...


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[SomebodyCalledJ]

Just go to a differnt dealer for the work.


,

With the length of time it's taken to get to this point, I am very reluctant to go through it again with another dealership... I'm guessing here, but I can imagine I'll be hard pushed to take the approval to do the work to another dealership?


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[JBD]

Seeing them side by side , it's undeniable that the body shells are VERY similar then ...

I don't think they look similar at all myself, I'd say they both have quite distinctive styling for that class, but not similar imo


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[wemorgan]

The silhouette of a car has little or no reflection on whether the platform is shared or not. That's more a judgement on the stylist's influences than the engineers body structure design.

 

[219]

Strange then , that at launch it was widely reported that the current A Class was based on the Megane platform , and when seen side by side , in the metal , the two do indeed look very similar .

I don't know what the difference is between the two platforms JBD quotes , but perhaps not much ...

 

[HB]

Seeing them side by side , it's undeniable that the body shells are VERY similar then ...

We are a total Mercedes family apart from the S3.

My sister in law has an A200d AMG Sportline thingy. Its an utter pile of crap.

The 1 series BMW towers above it in terms of drive and quality of build. The A Class is probably worse than the Megane.

 

[JBD]

Strange then , that at launch it was widely reported that the current A Class was based on the Megane platform , and when seen side by side , in the metal , the two do indeed look very similar .

I don't know what the difference is between the two platforms JBD quotes , but perhaps not much ...

Considering the A, B, CLA and GLA are all based on the MFA platform, that shows how little relation it has to the final shape of the body. The reason these platforms are used is their modular abilities, hence MFA (modular front architecture)

Mercedes have several technology sharing agreements. Aston Martin will be using AMG engines, they also use electrical and trim components from MB. Tesla share lots of bits too. Renault Nissan have an engine sharing agreement with MB and also the MFA platform underpins Infiniti's two smallest cars


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[JBD]

We are a total Mercedes family apart from the S3.

My sister in law has an A200d AMG Sportline thingy. Its an utter pile of crap.

The 1 series BMW towers above it in terms of drive and quality of build. The A Class is probably worse than the Megane.

I have to agree, it is flawed in many ways. I'm hoping the second generation based on MFA-2 that's out at the end of the year will be a big improvement. It's undeniably a pretty car, but it does have a few problems


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