If I Never Deal With A Main Dealer Again, It'll Be Too Soon, The Shysters!

[Bellow]

It seems MB have created a 'club', membership of which is assured only by having all servicing work done by them.
Or is it is the parts that are more of a concern to them?
When I had the Aberdeen dealer replace my springs FOC, prior to them agreeing to it they asked me if I'd had the car serviced with them. To which the answer was 'No, I've serviced it myself but with parts bought from you'. That was sufficient for them to undertake the work (and at my request replace without labour charge the dampers (I paid the parts cost of the dampers) which is as helpful as can be).

I mention the parts aspect as there are some truly horrible pattern parts out there - some potentially dangerous.

 

[Dryce]

If it's going to be £230 or more to fit it, then you'd probably be better off getting the dealer to do it for £800.

Does kind of put the 50% 'goodwill contribution' into context....

It's unlikely that MB are actually losing anything on the 50% deal and that somebody in the foodchain (dealer and/or MB) is making a substantial margin on so called full price replacements.

 

[Dryce]

Hmmmm...After going a bit of digging, it seems that Mercedes offer a TEN YEAR warranty on the SBC system in the good ole US of A...hmmm...

This has been discussed from time to time over the last few years on the forums here.

And it's one of the reasons that there was reasonable confidence that MB would keep the 10 year FOC deal going on this side of the pond.

 

[MB-BTurbo]

Does kind of put the 50% 'goodwill contribution' into context....

It's unlikely that MB are actually losing anything on the 50% deal and that somebody in the foodchain (dealer and/or MB) is making a substantial margin on so called full price replacements.

Im sure they are still making profits on 50%. My rust was 70% contribution which was cost price so they didnt actually charge me anything, just didnt lose anything.
The shocks I have bought are £146. Exactly the same can be had from mercedesparts.com for £56 and they still have to make a profit on that.

 

[wemorgan]

The parts I know of have a x10 markup. You can make a steel body-in-white for £500-£1000, but try going in to a dealer and buying all the parts for that money. Economies of scale.

 

[Dryce]

Economies of scale.

There's reasonable and unreasonable margins.

I think the impression given - not just with the car industry - is that manufacturers and distributors don't really try on some spares.

Try buying an OEM TV remote control or a laptop battery for example. The markups are outrageous on some items.

Same goes with things like car ECUs and modules and items such as keys. There is a long and dishonoutable tradition of making things more difficult for the customer than they really need to be.

SBC pumps are a particularly interesting example. First off they are designed to be reliable and second off at least one of the failure modes the customer experiences is reasonably predictable because it's down to expiration rather than simple wear and tear.

That means for a manufacturer like MB the economy of scale argument specifically doesn't apply as an excuse as regards SBC pumps because they should be able to competently plan for it. They can reasonably predict the progession of failures and moreover can get some statistical feedback through their dealer network as to how a sample of customers' vehicles are progressing as the population of vehicles ages as well as seeing how demand for replacements develops.

 

[brucemillar]

A good clue to margin can often be seen in the premises. How many Indies have out of town palaces.

Sent from my iPhone using MBClub UK

 

[mafya]

I had my SBC pump replaced FOC at Europa in Sheffield a bit back, a couple of months later it went again and Europa got it done for me FOC again.
My car is a 53 plate E270cdi w211 and had 7 dealer stamps and 3 independant ones and the mileage was 146k ish and I was told because it was a safety issue they wouldn't charge me for the diagnosis on star.
Steve at Europa is a top bloke and always been alright with me, try Europa to see if they can sort it for you.

 

[John]

I was told because it was a safety issue

What unbalances my ying and yang on this are two things:

1) This is exactly what MB Bromley said to me, as well as the 'lifetime' warranty situation on that part (of course, I took lifetime to meant a lifetime of the car or something like that - not the lifetime of a flying ant).

2) All dealers are inconsistent in their approach and what they say and do. I would expect MB UK to send out a directive to all dealers to replace the pump FOC on all pre-facelift W211 cars, or worse-case up to 10 years, regardless of history. This would highlight a genuine concern for customer safety rather than some bull**** marketing designed to make you think they give a sh in the hope you will buy another Merc.

 

[voy2age]

i went to the dealer in norwich last year (for a wheel locking nut), i found them a little bit arrogant, and a bit toffee nosed, they had an kind of upper class snobbery about them, i guess they take on the fact that they think they are like the cars they sell. sad really. such is life in the shallow lane.

 

[John]

they think they are like the cars they sell

You say that, but they've not set the benchmark particularly high...

 

[voy2age]

You say that, but they've not set the benchmark particularly high...

Guess they think if they sell £50,000 plus cars, they have to act like the people who buy them

 

[robertjrt]

A few months ago before they closed for refurbishment, I stopped off while passing MB Chelsea as I noticed they had an R172 SLK55 AMG in the showroom - the first I'd seen. While taking a look around it I was approached by a salesman, and ended up discussing purchase options with him - I think I mentioned it on here at the time.

In the course of conversation he asked me a couple of questions clearly aimed at sniffing out whether I was a genuine customer - what was I driving at the moment, and had I bought it from them. Funnily enough, I had in a way, as the now-closed MB Mayfair had been associated with MB Chelsea (Bradshaw & Webb as was), and Mayfair's business transferred to Chelsea when the branch closed. (My business, however, went back to Hughes of Beaconsfield as soon as I'd bought the car.)

Anyway, he said he was expecting the AMG-specific brochures in later that week, so I left him my address and phone number and asked him to send me one when they came in. Several months later I've heard nothing, not a squeak, and I don't expect to.

Poor customer service? Well, it's not good, is it? But if I do decide to buy a new SLK, I wouldn't allow the fact that he hadn't contacted me to sideline MB Chelsea. Being hopelessly absent-minded myself, I tend to be quite forgiving of minor transgressions such as this in others. Some people, however, seem to be a lot more hardline about it. Horses for courses, I suppose.

Mercedes-Benz Chelsea; be very, very careful or your admiration for MB dealers may be changed forever after dealing with MB Chelsea.

 

[MOCAŠ]

Mercedes-Benz Chelsea; be very, very careful or your admiration for MB dealers may be changed forever after dealing with MB Chelsea.

I take it you've had a bad experience with them?

My last dealings with them (via the Mayfair branch) was when I bought my SLK seven years ago; other than that, all my business over the past 14 years has been with Hughes of Beaconsfield, and I intend to keep it that way.

 

[MB-BTurbo]

I have just picked a few parts from Mercedes Bradford with a 20% discount after giving them my list of woes with the B class. Their attitude was quite empathetic and cooperative, they didnt try and make out that it was my fault for buying a marque that was in their opinion, above my pay grade. Compared to other dealers who have just said "well its a Mercedes, its going to be expensive", I found it refreshing and they will be the ones getting all future business even thought they are a little further than the other dealership.

 

[Dieselman]

I take it you've had a bad experience with them?

...LOL...

Nice understatement there.