Not fit for purpose take it back
30 day return
Cooling off
F@@k em off if I was you pal but that's just me no messing about
Questions:-
In what way (legally) does this fall under "not fit for purpose".
What does "30 day return" mean when applied to a new car?
What's "cooling off"?
I will expand on this as I have personal experience of this issue.
I bought a new SL400 that was delivered on Christmas eve 2015. It's a little over a year old. I'd ordered the car in Designo Mystic Blue at a option cost of £5,750.
It arrived with a distinct orange peel finish, pretty much like every other car sat in the showroom at Gatwick MB, including an S65 Coupe on site.
It's not good, but it's the same with BMW and Audi.
It can't be "polished out" (although it can be slightly improved) as suggested by another reply, my SL went to a professional detailer within a month of delivery and it was explained to me that I'd need to get the car wet sanded to solve the issue permanently. That in itself brings a number of other issues. Mainly, once wet sanded the paint needs a lot of upkeep to keep it looking show quality. So long term I decided to leave it as it is for practical reasons as I want to drive and enjoy the car, it's not a show piece.
Is it acceptable? This is subjective. In an ideal world the paint finish should be better and I've seen some shockers, including a £100K car on display at Brooklands.
You need to realise that most people simply don't see "orange peel" and that MB sell thousands of cars each year to people that never complain about paint finish quality (despite it not being great), so to that end they can reasonably demonstrate that the finish is fit for purpose based solely on delivered cars and lack of complaints.
The reality these days is this is normal and acceptable, if you want mirror show finish paint you need to buy a Bentley or Aston Martin and even then you may have to reject that car to get it put right. Or you need to pay a good bodyshop to wet sand the car and machine polish it. Think circa £3k for a good finish.
Go to a Ferrari showroom and take a detailing lamp with you and take a look at the paint on a £300K new car, It won't impress you.
MB won't change, they will continue to deliver cars with this level of finish and thousands of people will continue to accept them as they simply don't see a problem.
When MB rang me last month to ask what I'd like to replace our E Class with I explained I'd ordered an Audi due to paint finish and lack of paint/colour options for sensible costs and it's unlikely I'll be ordering another MB in the near future. Do they care? Probably not.
