Spot the Difference

[daveenty]

Thought I'd share this which was pointed out by John (Developer) to me on Wednesday. It's practically impossible to spot unless you're underneath the car which we were as it was on the ramp at MSL with Mike's (doughboy) on the ramp next to it.

Mike's car: -

My Car: -

Underneath the grill (below the swoopy bit of trim) Mike has a colour coded trim panel which finishes the car off. Mine is black, which I though OK, but a poor finish. I now know why.

Looking at it from underneath, which is the only place you can see it from, it looks like the car's been taken over a kerb and then reversed, ripping the trim off as it happened. There are deep scratches under both sides to reinforce this theory.

I didn't notice when I bought the car as it's so low down, and there appears to be nothing missing, but parking it next to Mike's showed it off.
Having racked my brains as to where I could possibly have done this, especially without noticing, I managed to find a couple of original pictures from the dealer's website.

Ha! No trim there either. I've phoned them this morning and am presently waiting for someone to call me back though, going off other threads on dealers, don't hold out much hope of getting it repaired but, ever the optimist, will wait and see.

I won't mention who the dealer was as, to be fair, they probably didn't notice it either, though it may be interesting to find out the outcome from them on a customer service level.

ETA: No idea why the pics aren't showing sorry.

 

[JDMUK]

Spot the difference... Top one is a wagon, bottom a saloon, what do I win?

 

[daveenty]

Spot the difference... Top one is a wagon, bottom a saloon, what do I win?

Should have expected that really.

I think that better pics would have helped, more front on, though at the time they were being taken, no-one had noticed my missing trim and were just focussing on the cars generally.

Still waiting for my phone call from MB telling me they have one ordered for me, but I can't see it happening at this time on a Friday.

 

[daveenty]

Well, just been phoned by the sales manager asking for a detailed description and photos. Don't know if he was pleased or gutted when I mentioned that I had the original photos from their advert, but at least it proves it's not happened in my ownership.

All emailed off and awaiting his response now.

He did say that it had undergone a comprehensive check before handover, though we both agreed that it's not exactly an obvious part to be checking. I've owned it for two months and not clocked it, though did notice that the panel which is in place was of a poor finish.

 

[daveenty]

Well, after 6 months of ownership I've managed to get hold of this elusive front splitter.

The original dealership asked me to pop in with it a while ago which I did, but it turned out they'd ordered the wrong bits. After a few head scratching moments they got in contact with my local dealer who agreed to get it sorted for me as it would save us all hassle and me 100+ mile round trips.

The original dealer eventually emailed my local one with the details including the required part number which was the wrong one, and the VIN which was also wrong. This was back in May and was now starting to get a bit frustrating.

A lot of backward and forward emailing later (6 weeks, as it apparently had to be ordered from Affalterbach) and my local dealership let me know that they now have the part in stock and ready to fit. As the car was due a service last week, I thought I'd get it fitted then. Wrong part again.

Even the lady I was dealing with was getting fed up at this stage, though she mentioned that now she knew what the part was she'd get it ordered for me. Not her fault and she's been very professional in dealing with this, but why not ask me to just pop in with the car first to confirm? I even suggested this...

Anyway, car went in on Wednesday for service, on Friday I got a call saying that they now have the correct part and if I pop in they'll fit it for me. 10:00 this morning I drove in, and at 10:30 car was finished and looking how it should have all those months ago. At least the car was driveable, though I can now emphasise with the people who have engine/gearbox issues and basically no use of their car due to communication issues like this.

It's finished in gloss black, whereas Mike's S212 in the picture above is colour coded, but I think I'm going to stick with the black as it seems to compliment the rest of the black trim on the front. Couple of before and after pictures below, though it's a bit difficult to spot what's been done due to my non existent photography skills. Basically the black bar under the mesh below the number plate now shines and makes the car look complete.

Before: -

After: -