Good Afternoon Guys,
First time thread that hopefully you can help with. I picked up my car, 2001 E430 Avantgarde, in February of this year. Due to a few problems the car had to go back to the selling garage a couple of times for repair and each time it was there, they washed it, so no need to do it myself.
Last weekend I decided to wash the car, by myself for the first time, and found that the n/s headlight (Xenon) was loose. Looking under the bonnet I noticed that the brackets were snapped off. I had checked the oil etc prior to this but did not notice the brackets...I was not really looking for a fault like that at the time.
It just so happens that the car is back at the garage to have the air-con condensor replaced, under warranty, as it was leaking. I mentioned the headlight issue to the service guy. He said he would check and get back to me.
Eventually the garage called to say that they would not cover it under warranty as they are basically saying that I caused it or that whilst the car was in my care someone reversed into the car, touching the headlight only, as there is no damage to the external of the car at all, causing the headlight brackets to break...!!! They also stated that they had given the car a full MOT before I picked it up in Feb and if the headlight had been broken then they would have noticed it then.
My point to them was that it would still have passed the beam test as they do not physically attach any device onto the headlights to check for alignment. Their response was that they always try to move the headlight during this test just to make sure it is fixed. So really my question is....has anyone heard of this type of thing happening to other Mercedes cars whereby the only damage to a so called bump is that the headlight mounting brackets are broken..? Checking on some websites it looks like the cost of replacing the headlight ( you have to buy a complete unit ) is around the £400 mark. I think it was broken when I picked the car up and I just did not check it properly...or do you think the garage is telling the truth.
Sorry for the long post.
Regards
Robert
First time thread that hopefully you can help with. I picked up my car, 2001 E430 Avantgarde, in February of this year. Due to a few problems the car had to go back to the selling garage a couple of times for repair and each time it was there, they washed it, so no need to do it myself.
Last weekend I decided to wash the car, by myself for the first time, and found that the n/s headlight (Xenon) was loose. Looking under the bonnet I noticed that the brackets were snapped off. I had checked the oil etc prior to this but did not notice the brackets...I was not really looking for a fault like that at the time.
It just so happens that the car is back at the garage to have the air-con condensor replaced, under warranty, as it was leaking. I mentioned the headlight issue to the service guy. He said he would check and get back to me.
Eventually the garage called to say that they would not cover it under warranty as they are basically saying that I caused it or that whilst the car was in my care someone reversed into the car, touching the headlight only, as there is no damage to the external of the car at all, causing the headlight brackets to break...!!! They also stated that they had given the car a full MOT before I picked it up in Feb and if the headlight had been broken then they would have noticed it then.
My point to them was that it would still have passed the beam test as they do not physically attach any device onto the headlights to check for alignment. Their response was that they always try to move the headlight during this test just to make sure it is fixed. So really my question is....has anyone heard of this type of thing happening to other Mercedes cars whereby the only damage to a so called bump is that the headlight mounting brackets are broken..? Checking on some websites it looks like the cost of replacing the headlight ( you have to buy a complete unit ) is around the £400 mark. I think it was broken when I picked the car up and I just did not check it properly...or do you think the garage is telling the truth.
Sorry for the long post.
Regards
Robert
