SimonsMerc
MB Enthusiast
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2004
- Messages
- 1,147
- Location
- Sudbury, West London
- Car
- Merc S212 E350 CDI BlueEfficiency Sport 256bhp, Suzuki GSX-650F, Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV Dynamic
From another thread
Well, I had this guy come around today to fit sensors to the car. What a fiasco.
First of all, he arranged to come down around 1pm, but he didn't get here till after 6pm - which I wouldn't have minded but he didn't call me until I called him twice around 3pm (he didn't answer, but called me back after about 10 minutes).
Then, when he finally did get here, he says he didn't realise it was an estate car (although I clearly told him so on the phone when booking). I ask if that's a problem, he says that he's not done an estate before but it's ok he should be fine (!). At that point I was having reservations, but he started removing the external trim and seemed to know what he was doing (and had all the right tools to do it, rather than a large screwdriver and a hammer), so I left him to it.
Once he'd finished...what a disaster. The installation is lop-sided - the two middle sensors are not at equal lengths from the two outer sensors. It's only out by about an inch and a half, but it's really obvious - especially with the tailgate closed, as one of them is "outside" the bottom of the number plate holder, and one of them is "inside" it. My wife looked at it and started laughing - and said that I should have fit them myself, at least I'd have used a tape measure!
So anyway the guy was off washing his hands while I was looking at the car, he comes out and I ask him if he owns a tape measure, he says he does but he doesn't use one on Mercs because Merc bumpers have pre-marked places for Parktronic fitting - he just drills through those holes, which is why he loves fitting Mercs. So I close the tailgate and he looks at them and see's what he's done...
Well, to his credit he instantly admitted to his mistake. He guesses that he must have somehow missed one of the bumper markers for Parktronic fitting, although he's not sure how. He says he's had a terrible day already, and that he's sorry. We talk about what can be done to put it right - basically if I want to fix it, I'll need a whole new bumper. That's an expensive thing to replace I guess. We get to talking about price, I offer him the cost of the kit itself (he says he pays £55 for them, Centurion parking sensors). He considers it, then decides that he's not going to take any money from me at all - it's his mistake, and he's kicking himself for doing it, but he won't charge me for his mistake, especially as to fix it I'd need to put on a brand new bumper and get it sprayed.
All in all, I think I'd have preferred to have paid the £150 and had them correctly aligned. But I guess you can't beat free for a price, and they aren't desperately noticable unless you're looking for it specifically. Of course I see it all the time, and think to myself, "damn I could have fitted those better myself". But for instance my sister's boyfriend didn't notice it until I pointed out that something was wrong, and my sister didn't notice it even when we showed her the difference with a tape measure... ;-)
The sensors I have are http://www.parkingsensors.co.uk/cenrev4.asp and they seem to work just fine. They're coloured to the body of the car, so at least they don't stick out too much. I'm a little disappointed as to the minimum range to be honest - 45cm is more than I thought it would be. But it seems that the absolute best aftermarket sensors can't do much better than 35cm anyway. To compare, the ones we had on the Audi S8 (which were factory fitted) could sense an object 10cm away. How does parktronic compare? Well at least they work - and should stop the wifey reversing into anything she shouldn't!
I'll put up a photo when I get a second and you can see for yourselves what it looks like. As I say, would far prefer to have paid and had the work done correctly! Anyone know how much a rear bumper for a W210 estate would cost?
-simon
A-AvantGarde said:
Well, I had this guy come around today to fit sensors to the car. What a fiasco.
First of all, he arranged to come down around 1pm, but he didn't get here till after 6pm - which I wouldn't have minded but he didn't call me until I called him twice around 3pm (he didn't answer, but called me back after about 10 minutes).
Then, when he finally did get here, he says he didn't realise it was an estate car (although I clearly told him so on the phone when booking). I ask if that's a problem, he says that he's not done an estate before but it's ok he should be fine (!). At that point I was having reservations, but he started removing the external trim and seemed to know what he was doing (and had all the right tools to do it, rather than a large screwdriver and a hammer), so I left him to it.
Once he'd finished...what a disaster. The installation is lop-sided - the two middle sensors are not at equal lengths from the two outer sensors. It's only out by about an inch and a half, but it's really obvious - especially with the tailgate closed, as one of them is "outside" the bottom of the number plate holder, and one of them is "inside" it. My wife looked at it and started laughing - and said that I should have fit them myself, at least I'd have used a tape measure!
So anyway the guy was off washing his hands while I was looking at the car, he comes out and I ask him if he owns a tape measure, he says he does but he doesn't use one on Mercs because Merc bumpers have pre-marked places for Parktronic fitting - he just drills through those holes, which is why he loves fitting Mercs. So I close the tailgate and he looks at them and see's what he's done...
Well, to his credit he instantly admitted to his mistake. He guesses that he must have somehow missed one of the bumper markers for Parktronic fitting, although he's not sure how. He says he's had a terrible day already, and that he's sorry. We talk about what can be done to put it right - basically if I want to fix it, I'll need a whole new bumper. That's an expensive thing to replace I guess. We get to talking about price, I offer him the cost of the kit itself (he says he pays £55 for them, Centurion parking sensors). He considers it, then decides that he's not going to take any money from me at all - it's his mistake, and he's kicking himself for doing it, but he won't charge me for his mistake, especially as to fix it I'd need to put on a brand new bumper and get it sprayed.
All in all, I think I'd have preferred to have paid the £150 and had them correctly aligned. But I guess you can't beat free for a price, and they aren't desperately noticable unless you're looking for it specifically. Of course I see it all the time, and think to myself, "damn I could have fitted those better myself". But for instance my sister's boyfriend didn't notice it until I pointed out that something was wrong, and my sister didn't notice it even when we showed her the difference with a tape measure... ;-)
The sensors I have are http://www.parkingsensors.co.uk/cenrev4.asp and they seem to work just fine. They're coloured to the body of the car, so at least they don't stick out too much. I'm a little disappointed as to the minimum range to be honest - 45cm is more than I thought it would be. But it seems that the absolute best aftermarket sensors can't do much better than 35cm anyway. To compare, the ones we had on the Audi S8 (which were factory fitted) could sense an object 10cm away. How does parktronic compare? Well at least they work - and should stop the wifey reversing into anything she shouldn't!
I'll put up a photo when I get a second and you can see for yourselves what it looks like. As I say, would far prefer to have paid and had the work done correctly! Anyone know how much a rear bumper for a W210 estate would cost?
-simon
