My first Mercedes was an old shape S-class (1995) - is that a W140? - which I kept for 5 years. It was starting to look a little tired and I had put 100,000 onto the clock since buying it and did not really fit the right image for my job so I decided to update. Lovely car. Did not really want to sell.
I decided to stick with Mercedes and indeed with S-class. Found a S320 petrol 65K 2001 example from a local posh cars dealer for a good price. Found it a little smaller than the old model but pleased with the gadgets. Aware of the mpg/performance issues with the 320 petrol and its replacement with a 350 (and undercutting by a 320 diesel) but that all helped to bring the price down. (Might add LPG, what do you think?)
Only one thing was not comfortable about was steering seemed a little stiff. Got dealer to have a full consumer level RAC inspection on it (I paid the difference between the basic consumer and the full consumer survey). No problems.
The dealer provided a GOLD level RAC Warranty. (Not connected to the RAC inspection - they just need a garage to tell them that the car is okay.)
Within a few weeks that slightly stiff steering turned into near impossibility at low speeds and I nearly got stuck in a multi-story car park. Local specialist, Castec, (used by the dealer - perhaps not the smartest move on my part) in Wolverhampton diagnosed faulty power steering and carried out a replacement. RAC paid for parts and most of labour (I paid the difference between the labour rates the RAC pay for and the garage's labour rates - £10 per hour gap.).
Drove off happily and was really happy as steering felt better than ever.
Following day on a drive up to Wilmslow (about 60 miles north of home) suddenly get a warning ding and a red display telling me: AIRMATIC. STOP. CAR TOO LOW. Eeeek!
Manual says can drive on below 50mph and no tight turns. Get to Wilmslow, call RAC. They tell me to get it to a garage for diagnosis. Ask for suggestions and they come up with some generic national auto company but add that they probably do not have the equipment/knowledge to diagnose the problem.
Find local service/dealer on MB website. McLean and Appleton in Macclesfield. They have been extremely helpful. I am working in Wilmslow for the week. They booked the car in for the following day for diagnosis and arranged to lend me a car.
Dropped it off 8am the following day (Wednesday) and they gave me a nice Mercedes C-class coupe to play with. They called Direct Line for me who arranged cover on the loan car without charge.
The service manager called me during the day. Found the problem. Need to check a couple of things out. Have spoke to RAC. Will be able to fix and have me back on the road by the end of next day (Thursday). However, the loan car is booked to someone else for Thursday. Very sorry. Mistake on their part. Would I mind if they swapped me over to something else? No problem. The service manager lives in Wilmslow so he arranged to come to my hotel last night and give me the keys to a nice Jeep and take the Merc away. I called Direct Line from the car park. Once the Scottish call handler had stopped laughing, she changed my insurance over to cover the Jeep, again without charge.
Jeep was fun to drive. Fingers crossed that I get my car back tonight (Thursday). Hope driving it did not cause substantial damage! Given these guys labour costs are £95 per hour, I am not looking forward to the bill although I think (hope) they have a special arrangement for RAC warranty related work.
Frankly, I do not care that much, just want the car fixed and reliable. The proof for the dealer will be in actually turning my car around and charging me fairly with the RAC taking the may hit. I shall let you know. I am impressed by the dealer's responsiveness and helpfulness though.
The dealer suggested a £95+vat check over the car in addition to the other work. I know this is money for old rope but under the circumstances (and given their responsiveness and the free loan car(s) ) I decided to go for this for peace of mind. I they get things sorted out I will not begrudge them this extra.
I do wonder if I bought a lemon though. The last owner only had the car for size months. (Another reason I wanted the RAC inspection.)
I find it surprising that I have experienced such major faults so soon after a full inspection. I am also surprised that a Mercedes S-Class with only 65K on the clock (well, 68 now) is having such problems. My previous car had three times this mileage and did not have problems. One of the reasons for sticking with Mercedes!
Fingers crossed. My wife changed her car recently and chose BMW over Mercedes. Maybe I need to look at a BMW Series 7 instead.
I decided to stick with Mercedes and indeed with S-class. Found a S320 petrol 65K 2001 example from a local posh cars dealer for a good price. Found it a little smaller than the old model but pleased with the gadgets. Aware of the mpg/performance issues with the 320 petrol and its replacement with a 350 (and undercutting by a 320 diesel) but that all helped to bring the price down. (Might add LPG, what do you think?)
Only one thing was not comfortable about was steering seemed a little stiff. Got dealer to have a full consumer level RAC inspection on it (I paid the difference between the basic consumer and the full consumer survey). No problems.
The dealer provided a GOLD level RAC Warranty. (Not connected to the RAC inspection - they just need a garage to tell them that the car is okay.)
Within a few weeks that slightly stiff steering turned into near impossibility at low speeds and I nearly got stuck in a multi-story car park. Local specialist, Castec, (used by the dealer - perhaps not the smartest move on my part) in Wolverhampton diagnosed faulty power steering and carried out a replacement. RAC paid for parts and most of labour (I paid the difference between the labour rates the RAC pay for and the garage's labour rates - £10 per hour gap.).
Drove off happily and was really happy as steering felt better than ever.
Following day on a drive up to Wilmslow (about 60 miles north of home) suddenly get a warning ding and a red display telling me: AIRMATIC. STOP. CAR TOO LOW. Eeeek!
Manual says can drive on below 50mph and no tight turns. Get to Wilmslow, call RAC. They tell me to get it to a garage for diagnosis. Ask for suggestions and they come up with some generic national auto company but add that they probably do not have the equipment/knowledge to diagnose the problem.
Find local service/dealer on MB website. McLean and Appleton in Macclesfield. They have been extremely helpful. I am working in Wilmslow for the week. They booked the car in for the following day for diagnosis and arranged to lend me a car.
Dropped it off 8am the following day (Wednesday) and they gave me a nice Mercedes C-class coupe to play with. They called Direct Line for me who arranged cover on the loan car without charge.
The service manager called me during the day. Found the problem. Need to check a couple of things out. Have spoke to RAC. Will be able to fix and have me back on the road by the end of next day (Thursday). However, the loan car is booked to someone else for Thursday. Very sorry. Mistake on their part. Would I mind if they swapped me over to something else? No problem. The service manager lives in Wilmslow so he arranged to come to my hotel last night and give me the keys to a nice Jeep and take the Merc away. I called Direct Line from the car park. Once the Scottish call handler had stopped laughing, she changed my insurance over to cover the Jeep, again without charge.
Jeep was fun to drive. Fingers crossed that I get my car back tonight (Thursday). Hope driving it did not cause substantial damage! Given these guys labour costs are £95 per hour, I am not looking forward to the bill although I think (hope) they have a special arrangement for RAC warranty related work.
Frankly, I do not care that much, just want the car fixed and reliable. The proof for the dealer will be in actually turning my car around and charging me fairly with the RAC taking the may hit. I shall let you know. I am impressed by the dealer's responsiveness and helpfulness though.
The dealer suggested a £95+vat check over the car in addition to the other work. I know this is money for old rope but under the circumstances (and given their responsiveness and the free loan car(s) ) I decided to go for this for peace of mind. I they get things sorted out I will not begrudge them this extra.
I do wonder if I bought a lemon though. The last owner only had the car for size months. (Another reason I wanted the RAC inspection.)
I find it surprising that I have experienced such major faults so soon after a full inspection. I am also surprised that a Mercedes S-Class with only 65K on the clock (well, 68 now) is having such problems. My previous car had three times this mileage and did not have problems. One of the reasons for sticking with Mercedes!
Fingers crossed. My wife changed her car recently and chose BMW over Mercedes. Maybe I need to look at a BMW Series 7 instead.