Rust on tailgate.

[golda200driver]

Good evening. I own a 2006'06' A200CDI my first mercedes.Its brilliant and i wish that id bought one years ago. Its quick frugal and quite roomy for a small car.
Now the bad bit when cleaning it a few weeks ago i noticed that there was rust starting to crack through the paint on the tailgate just in two places but very annoying, i took it up with the dealer and he used a piece of curved glass to look at the rust spots. He is saying that its stone chips and refused to take it any futher.
what am i supposed to do now?

great site by the way.


Thanks.

 

[petef]

How frustrating for you. ..My advice would be to buy older mercs, they were better made, and the paint was very good. The money you save by buying older cars can then be spent on repairs as and when needed without having to deal and haggle with the lowest form of life.
Unfortunately it took me 20 years to realise this and I now drive a immaculate 1994 merc 200c FSH 77,000 miles which cost me £1500. I have owned it for 11 months and have spent 45 pounds on a repair to the windscreen wiper motor. Good luck with the dealer but dont let the matter take too much of your time / stress levels etc ..you only have to read the posts and frustrations of some of the members on this forum to see how debilitating fighting these issues can be.

 

[chiefski26]

without having to deal and haggle with the lowest form of life

 

[N7OGP]

how do you get stone chips on a tailgate,

 

[Smiley]

Maybe the stone chips came from a high speed reversing session?

TBH it is very very poor for a 4 year old supposedly premium brand of car to have rust problems; quite how they can claim stone chips on a tailgate is laughable. And if you ever ended up in court over it then I expect the court would find it amusing too.

My advice is (if the car was purchased from a MB dealer) then drop a short letter to the dealer principal explaining the situation and tell him you are not satisfied. Ask him to re-consider whether they want to repair it at no cost to you.
If purchased elsewhere or if the answer is no then give trading standards a call and get their advice.

 

[mykulmerc]

Maybe the stone chips came from a high speed reversing session?

TBH it is very very poor for a 4 year old supposedly premium brand of car to have rust problems; quite how they can claim stone chips on a tailgate is laughable. And if you ever ended up in court over it then I expect the court would find it amusing too.

My advice is (if the car was purchased from a MB dealer) then drop a short letter to the dealer principal explaining the situation and tell him you are not satisfied. Ask him to re-consider whether they want to repair it at no cost to you.
If purchased elsewhere or if the answer is no then give trading standards a call and get their advice.

Sounds like good advice.... it amazes me that there are so many on going sagas involving MB rust. There is a good article on this forum listing dates from when each model was galvanised - all well before 2006, so I had hoped that anything after 2005 (much earlier in many cases) would be OK.

Sometimes I wish I didn't like Mercs - I've seen old Korean cars with less rust.

I have plentyof rust on 1999 W202 Estate - I've given up with it...just waiting till time to change the car.

At least stone chips on the tailgate gives us a bit of a laugh at the expense of the dealer!! What next? A broken rear screen due to a bird strike?