Niket's indepth guide of various MB dealerships and Indies

[niketpatel71]

First of all i'd like to say a massive thank you to all the guys on here for their vast knowledge and for answering any questions I have had with regards to my W203 or W219. Now I'm the type of guy that if there is something wrong with any of my cars I can not sleep at night till it is fixed. Due to this unhealthy obsession I have gone to various dealerships/indies to get something fixed with my car if it meant they could do it quicker then my nearest dealership. Because of this unhealthy obsession I have visited many dealerships all over the UK.

So as a thank you to my fellow MBCLUB members I will outline my experiences with each in an effort to guide my fellow users in regards to what MB dealerships and service managers they should avoid. Lets get started

Mercedes Benz Park Royal used retail - Where I bought my W203 coupe my first mercedes. Avoid this place in particular avoid a salesman known as Darren Greville at all costs he works for audi now I believe good riddance.

When I went to view the W203 not only did he put pressure on my father and I to buy the car claiming there was someone else on the phone who was going to buy it there and then but when we did eventually buy the car from him 2 days later he forgot to show us the advisories which had come from the MOT. As i was fairly young at the time 22 I was not aware of the techniques so called salesman use to shift cars as I was practically in love with the W203 coupe I called the next day and asked if it was still available what a surprise it was and I bought it.

Without checking the service history etc my fault I agree but to be young and naive ehh. For the W203 I part exchanged a ford focus I had and even though I drove up to the dealership numerous times in this car on the day off the handover they insisted it was not in good enough condition and I would have to pay £400 on top. My father argued saying that was not fair and the guy who was in charge of sales literally said to my father "We are going to fight" and once again I paid the £400 to avoid escalation of tempers etc once again blame it on young foolishness.

Shortly after buying the car the brakes were making a horrible screeching noise I called up MB Park Royal and they said bring them in the pads probably had dust and their service department would sort it out. So i took it there left the car there and they called me several hours later saying it was ready. Be joyed my car was ready for collection I picked it up when I noticed the loud screeching noise was still there and when I pointed this out they said they would book me into their park royal official workshop for the following week.

When I got home I checked that MB Park Royal workshop had a 96% approval rating I could not wait thinking after my visit everything would be hunky dory. I got there on the day I was scheduled to show up and handed my keys over I explicitly stated to them before the hand over of keys I needed my car back today as I had taken the day off work and if they couldn't guarantee this I would return another day or to let me know what was going on as the day progressed. The day finishes thinking why have I not heard from these guys I call them up and what do I get sorry sir we havent even looked at the car yet. Bare in mind I dropped it off at 9am and it was not 6pm. I took the car from them angry and returned home.

 

[stevieb15]

As a rule of thumb, if you have any concerns pre purchase walk away and find something you are happy with, plenty of good value second hand cars around, equally very few entirely believeable salespeople

 

[niketpatel71]

Now upon returning home that's where I found MB CLUB and the other site and I realized that although Mercedes are fine cars the dealerships are another story.

Still stuck with my brake problem I decided to book the car into MB Temple Fortune deciding I did not have the patience to deal with MB Park royal anymore.

MB Temple Fortune - Now for me MB Temple Fortune has been decent. By no means the best but they are willing to compromise. IE after learning from this forum that the gearbox oil should be changed around 37000 miles I put this across to my service advisor NITIN when it was time for the W203 to be serviced on the service care plan. Initially he refused but after showing him various sources he agreed and changed the gearbox oil. He was also helpful in looking after the car when the coil pack on cylinder 1 had gone and it was at temple fortune for warranty work.

However I know member MARKJAY has had problems with temple fortune when they carried out a service on his W203 so be vary. Now there is another guy at MB Temple Fortune Mehmet he is also a service manager I would recommend avoiding. Back to the original story when I booked my car into MB Temple fortune for the brakes I dealt with Mehmet who not only charged me £120 for looking over the car although at the time I had only had the car for a few weeks from an Approved MB dealership but he fed me a story that the noise was due to non OEM mercedes brake pads and rotors and I should allow MB Temple fortune to change the lot for a ridiculous price to stop the noise.

 

[niketpatel71]

Thanks Stevie I know much better now but Im hoping my encounters with MB over the past 2 years will help other new members out. Plus I was young when I got my first MB 22 im nearly 25 now and I have learnt a lot

 

[niketpatel71]

Now knowing Mehmet was having me on I decided to try a local shop in my area and they basically sanded the brake pads down and no new parts were needed. Funny how that works

After that I had a few trouble free months of motoring. I was loving the W203 coupe. Then the panoramic roof began to rattle Once again I was off to the stealership. Prior to booking it in I read similar posts on here about other users having the same problem some users had the entire roof replaced under warranty whereas others had the motors replaced. I was thinking maybe I would be offered a similar solution but low and behold. The response I got was sorry sir that is not covered under tier 1 used warranty most we can do is lubricate the parts. So I obliged but nothing was improved. I decided from that incident that from now on all my dealings with Mercedes would have to be firm and specific in what I wanted and I could not accept the first thing they said to me as they would continue to take the piss.

 

[niketpatel71]

After that my dealings with MB dealerships was limited to be honest I was tired off them. They would try to stick hidden charges or claim something was not covered warranty etc.

Whenever I believed there was something wrong with my car I would contact olly blackc55 on here or Willow32 on here. Now I have to say a big thank you to these guys not only do they go out of their way to help you they are downright honest. Especially Andy Willow32 if anyone is looking for a mobile mechanic I can whole heartedly recommend him. He has a star machine and charges decent prices and is generally a nice bloke.

Now as for other indies such as Cars with Stars in N.London and Merc Care I shall return in a few hours to complete the write up.

 

[GordonTarling]

My experience with MB Park Royal is totally opposite to yours. I bought my last S211 from them and shortly afterwards, noticed brakes vibration when braking hard. One phone call and they booked it in, saying they would order new front disks and pads. On the appointed day, I waited around 2 hours while they did the job. It was perfect after that. I'd half expected a big argument about changing those parts, but I was pleasantly surprised. I'll admit that things could have changed since then, but it seems that there's good and bad in many dealerships. I'd be interested to read your comments on MB Watford though!

 

[niketpatel71]

hey gordon my experience was from 2010. I still have the MB Warrington, MB Basingstoke, MB heathrow to do