Friday car - suggestions anyone?

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Brett

Active Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2005
Messages
781
Location
Fife, Scotland
Car
XC90
Seems I have one of those Friday cars...long post warning...if you can be bothered, then read on...

I think I already know the answer to this, but here goes anyway. I recently bought a very highly specified 2002 Mercedes S320 CDI Limo from a dealer near London. The car had three weeks of the manufacturers warranty left when I got it. I have been supplied with an extended warranty for the next eleven months or so, but it does have Ts&Cs attached.

I picked the car up on the 24th of February and on my way back to Scotland found the first problem. Since then there have been numerous others and I am now starting to lose confidence in the car. The problems have been as follows:

* Seat, window and mirror controls stopped working once the car was warmed up. Took five days to diagnose and correct. Three new door control modules required - replaced under manufacturers warranty.

* Problems with Sat Nav system - it regularly "gets lost" or the screen completely freezes and according to the MB equivalent of DIS, is turned off. Required engine to be turned off and on to come back. Still lost though - had me crusing through forests and lochs as I was heading along the A92 dual carriageway through Fife.

* Cruise control stoppped working whilst enroute from Scotland to London. Was crusing along, cancelled it and then asked it to resume. No response. Speed limiter not working either. Required reboot of the engine again to resolve.

* Rear climate control pumps out hot air no matter what setting it is dialled to. Reboot doesn't fix this one.

* Gearbox appeared to slip out of gear whilst driving along. Is an auto and was in "D" when I pressed the loud pedal and got an impressive wail but no forward momentum. Car needed another reboot to resolve that one.

* Not entirely related, but when collecting it, rear bumper found to have a series of small scratches that were missed in the PDI. Local dealership is getting the car on Thursday to repaint the bumper and the supplying dealer will be charged for it.

The supplying dealer (near London) has taken an interest in my plight and has been sympathetic, but tells me there is nothing that they can do but they hope that I can get the problems resolved. Local dealer/servicing guys have been superb though and have gone out of their way to help.

Problem is that I am now losing confidence in the car. I don't feel that I can rely on it to get me to my destination with any level of certainty. There is a 30 day / 1,000 mile exchange program with the Used Approved Scheme, but I have done 4,500 miles and had it six weeks. So that appears to be out. I am going to write to MB Customer Services and see what they have to say.

Meanwhile, it is back into the dealer on Monday and Tuesday to have the latest issues investigated. That will have been eight days in the dealership in six weeks of ownership. Not happy. This car was almost £70k new and is only just three years old. I would not expect to be having these issues with a Used Approved vehicle, especially an S-Class. My previous S-Class was trouble free and I am seriously starting to regret selling it.

Ideas anyone? Do you think MB will entertain me rejecting the car?
 
I feel for your plight, minor things appear to have gone wrong with your car, however, IMO other than the gear box appearing to jump out of gear, the rest are niggles and not major malufunctions of the car. In a similar thread on reliability of Mercs, the more electronic components fitted to cars the more can and will go wrong. For example I do not have sat nav, climate control let alone rear only. I would not lose confidence in your car, just accept the quirkiness of its fittings :D Back in the eighties and early nineties when Mercs were very realiable and held their price, my 1998 brand new 260E was about £26k new, NO radio, NO air conditioning, NO cruise control, all extras. When the radion was fitted, the electric aerial would not go fully up, maybe I should have reported it. I hope you see the point I am trying to make, IMO Mercs are still good, when I bought the 260E a buddy of mine bought the Granada Scorpio, very simillar price but with all the "goodies" all of which went wrong at some time and was repaired at the next service, my 260E was trouble free for the three years I had the car. Now the repairs are complete on your car, I would think it unlikly those items will fault again, but of course there is always sods law. Good luck with your car and I hope your confidence returns soon.
 
Thanks Geoff, I'd dispute the "minor" nature of these faults. I spent a lot of money on a second hand car which is not fit for purpose, and is potentially dangerous.

I bought this one because it had sat nav (important for my role running around to new customers all over Scotland - I don't know where all of them are). The seat problems were fully described in a previous post whereby they either didn't work at all, or worked in the opposite direction to that which they were supposed to be going. So driving along wanting to make a minor adjustment to the seat became a lottery - were you going to end up pinned to the steering wheel when you wanted to recline a little? More importantly, the cruise control "failed safe" i.e. didn't work - what if it had stuck on instead of off? Not a gamble I really want to take.

Clearly the majority of these are electrical issues BUT they haven't happened all at once but have done so one by one over a number of weeks. What's next? I am going to put the car back in on Monday/Tuesday but am not confident that I've seen the last of these issues.

This is my third Merc in five years, so I do have loyalty to the brand, however this particular car is seriously testing that. Thanks for the useful comments though.
 
used

basically you purchased the car from a dealer,the beauty of that is you can take it to any dealer to get it repaired under warranty,telephone the dealer in London get them to liaise with the dealer your using and get the dealer in London to foot the bill...this car should be in tip top condition and no excuses....you require a car of similar spec to drive around in .... quote the approved used statement at them..and get them to honour it, don't pussy foot about with the niceties get your car in, get a car off them to use, and tell them you do not want to see it till is fit for purpose...also I believe that if problems occurs with a used vehicle with in the first year it can be deemed to have been present at purchase..or did I dream that .also ask to see the inspection note that should have come with the car or the pdi checklist to see whats been check by fully trained technicians
 
mark.t said:
basically you purchased the car from a dealer,the beauty of that is you can take it to any dealer to get it repaired under warranty,telephone the dealer in London get them to liaise with the dealer your using and get the dealer in London to foot the bill...this car should be in tip top condition and no excuses....you require a car of similar spec to drive around in .... quote the approved used statement at them..and get them to honour it, don't pussy foot about with the niceties get your car in, get a car off them to use, and tell them you do not want to see it till is fit for purpose...also I believe that if problems occurs with a used vehicle with in the first year it can be deemed to have been present at purchase..or did I dream that .also ask to see the inspection note that should have come with the car or the pdi checklist to see whats been check by fully trained technicians

Thanks - will ask for these from the supplying dealer. Interestingly enough, I spoke to another MB dealer this afternoon (who will remain anonymous) and he has told me that if I kick up enough of a stink, DaimlerChrysler will refund my money in full.

In his words, "don't let them get away with this, if you kick up enough of a stink they will be obliged to refund you your money. There have been a batch of E-Class Mercs that they have had to do this with already. Don't take any prisoners and don't accept no for an answer."

Not sure that that is what I want, but it is nice to know that enough shouting will get some kind of result.
 
Don't worry about it. The car is two years old and has been dumped by the previous owner... I would guess that as the car got near to the end of it's time, the owner lost any interest in keeping it running properly. It comes back, you buy it and now its down to you to sort out the bits that are not to _YOUR_ level of satisfaction. I agree that the dealer should pick up most of it but then again you wouldn't want an MB tech cruising round in your car just in case a window or something goes wrong...

As you have said its under waranty for the work so just keep pushing the car back till you are happy...

If you really can't sleep You have the name of the previous owner, go and find them and asked why they got rid of the car...

Best regards,

Peter
 
absolutely, agree with all posts except for "learn to live with it"
 
sasha said:
absolutely, agree with all posts except for "learn to live with it"

I don't think anybody suggested this, as such :confused: I said "Dont worry about it" But that is different. Older cars can, and do go wrong... Thats why there are people out there that are willing to buy these cars new :) (and see the cost £70K reduced to nearer £30K when it is sold) The warranty is in place. The car is getting sorted and in a few more weeks/ months will be up to spec and will then run like a dream for a while, till the next batch of faults rear their ugly heads. This cycle will not change regardless of the brand, involved... As a comparison

My 99 SL has had

A waterleak
Blown Cat
Leak on the gearbox sump (ongoing :( )
Windows that didn't line up with the Hardtop frame
Sub-standard paint work
scarey noises in the cabin (air con I think and fixed for now)
electrical issues caused by a cowboy fitted car kit...
The plastic panels in the softtop have cracked. This is the first season that the top was used as well :(

and this is all since last september :D and I thought an unused SL was a good idea :D All of the above has been fixed out of my own pocket (no warranty) But I'm not bothered because I have already saved about 40K on the original price :D and the car is nearly back to original showroom condition...
 
Thanks guys - looks like Japanese ownership may be calling again if the general consensus is "things go wrong with 3+ year old Mercs, it's part of the territory.

When I bought my last used Toyota they sold me a six year, 120k mile warranty for £1k. There was a sweetner attached to the deal. If I didn't use the warranty, they gave me my money back. I never did and got my £1k back at the end of the term.

Contrast against a three year old W220 with 40k on the clock which has spent two weeks out of my six week ownership period getting problems fixed. Well, I guess I'll just have to see what they say on Tuesday - I suspect it will be "no fault found", just like the last time. It came down to me to have to prove there was a problem before it got addressed. That was when the three door control modules got replaced.
 
peterchurch said:
As you have said its under waranty for the work so just keep pushing the car back till you are happy...

My problem with this is that I am in sales. No car, no customer visits, no dinner on the table. Each time I have had to book my car in for work, it is either wait for three weeks until they have a loan car (which I have to pay to insure etc) or shanks pony. The other problem with this is that it is a sixty mile round trip every time something goes wrong - all this is costing me time and money and is not entirely satisfactory.

I should be able to believe that Mercedes Used Approved is exactly that, not Used Abused and up to me to sort out to _MY_ satisfaction.
 
peterchurch said:
I don't think anybody suggested this, as such :confused:

coment wasn't directed at your post rather directed at

Geoff2 said:
I would not lose confidence in your car, just accept the quirkiness of its fittings :D

so don't be :confused: be :bannana:
 
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Brett said:
My problem with this is that I am in sales. No car, no customer visits, no dinner on the table. Each time I have had to book my car in for work, it is either wait for three weeks until they have a loan car (which I have to pay to insure etc) or shanks pony. The other problem with this is that it is a sixty mile round trip every time something goes wrong - all this is costing me time and money and is not entirely satisfactory.

I should be able to believe that Mercedes Used Approved is exactly that, not Used Abused and up to me to sort out to _MY_ satisfaction.

I agree :( I am in the same position (no customers no food etc) , and customers start looking at you funny when you rain off a meeting stating car issues, then turn up in a Merc the next time...

I have to agree about the Qualtiy of Japanse cars as well. We have a Honda CRV and it has been faultess from day one.

I wouldn't blame you for chucking in the towel...

Fuzzer the chap that fitted the kit just wrapped the bare wires round each other to make the connections and also messed up the ground so that I got a crackling through the speaker in tune with my revs :(
 
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Piff said:
See my comments in http://mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=14717
These dealers seem incompetent when presented with a relatively simple set of requests.
My dealer threw in the towel after 3 months much to my regret.

Makes depressing reading but at least you got your money back eventually I guess. I'm just really disappointed after such good experiences with my previous two Mercs that this one has been such a disaster.

New problem to add to the rest - rear headrests are now dropping down either individually or together at any random moment they fancy.
 
peterchurch said:
Fuzzer the chap that fitted the kit just wrapped the bare wires round each other to make the connections and also messed up the ground so that I got a crackling through the speaker in tune with my revs :(

That's pretty bad. He should have spit on them first to ensure a good connection.
 
Well I've notified the dealership in writing that I am seriously considering rejecting the car and that I will be writing to Daimler Chrysler Customer Services with a copy going to the Dealer Principal.
 
Sympatise with you Brett 100% i do think that mercs are very nice cars but they are not cracked up to what people make out. My purcahase of a 1991 REG 230 ce some months back is proving to be a bottomless money pit ( yes, yes ... i know its an old car..."what did i expect" i hear you all saying !!!...BETTER !). I have owned a bmw 316 from nearly new, and it is now also 13 years old, has done 160,000 miles and it has cost as much as a mondeo to run, no problems, plus no mad bills.The merc however is far more comfortable ! Am gonna put my head on the choppin block here, and say that i do think the majority of people who post on this site love mercs that much that they cannot bear them to be criticised and defend them to the hilt......I await the back lash !!!!!!!!
 
Supplying dealer (down south) have been in touch with the servicing department here in Edinburgh that have been trying to resolve my issues. Having discussed it with them, appear to accept that it is probably a rogue car and have agreed to swap it for another vehicle.

The call today was purely to inform me of their decision and that they will be in touch to offer me another vehicle. So, looks like I may have got a result after all. Will let you know what is offered.
 
Brett said:
Supplying dealer (down south) have been in touch with the servicing department here in Edinburgh that have been trying to resolve my issues. Having discussed it with them, appear to accept that it is probably a rogue car and have agreed to swap it for another vehicle.

The call today was purely to inform me of their decision and that they will be in touch to offer me another vehicle. So, looks like I may have got a result after all. Will let you know what is offered.

Well done.....very welll done!!!
 

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