Took car for rust assessment today...

[Andy W]

Took car for rust assessment today, the dealer had a look around it, the items I brought to his attention were:

1) right hand side of rear numberplate
2) spare wheel well
3) all four arches
4) Pillar inbetween rear drivers side door and rear window
5) bonnet area around grille
6) suspension turrets behind both front whels

Their verdict is:

3), 4) & 5) all originate from stone chips, they used an eyeglass with BMW stamped on it and if you can see an hole in the centre then it is a stone chip, invisible to the naked eye.

The suspension turrets, "double thickness steel, dont worry about it"
Spare wheel well, "never had one of them rust before"

The outcome is that the bodyshop manager is to come to my house tomorrow to check the wheel well and suspension turrets, I am certanly not going to hold my breath, not got a lot of faith at the moment but who knows they may amaze me. Incidentally I mentioned that a lot of W202's are showing signs of rust in common places and mentioned this website as a reference he said the c class have never had problems but did mentione rust problems with E classe's. Will keep you informed. The more I look the more rust that I find, I am getting a little disheartened now. Do BMW's rust like Mercs, quite fancy a new 3 series coupe.

 

[Mambo]

which dealer did you go to?

 

[Andy W]

I went to Mercedes Benz of Stoke, part of the Drayton group based in Stoke on Trent.

 

[Aletank]

I'd go to another dealer, I'd tell this dealer not to even bother submittin a claim. Best try and find a sympathetic dealer that will submit a claim for the whole lot.
If you are going to stay with this dealer, Tell them to submit a claim for the whole lot, say whats the worse that can happen - MB can only say we'll warrant area 1,2 & 6 but not 3,4,5.
At least then you've had the knock back from MBUK and not just the dealer.At least you've tried and the dealers tried.

 

[Ted]

The suspension turrets, "double thickness steel, dont worry about it"

A fib.
My W210 failed its MOT last year on suspension turret corrosion.........

 

[fgaffney]

they used an eyeglass with BMW stamped on it and if you can see an hole in the centre then it is a stone chip, invisible to the naked eye.

They never used that when they assessed my car??? They just had a look at the rust areas, took some photographs and measured the paint depth.

I would try another dealer... this 'invisible to the naked eye' sounds a bit iffy to me!!!

 

[uumode]

Do BMW's rust like Mercs, quite fancy a new 3 series coupe.

Not as bad I think, but could rust a tiny amount underneath the vehicle.
My mum's 9 year old 3 series compact has a tiny amount of corrosion.
Though I'd go for a galvanised Audi over a BMW with a 12 year anti-corrosion warranty. (Depends on how long you want to keep the car for.. most people don't keep cars that long)

After my W210 rust saga, I'm paranoid about rust on my cars, where before I've only wash the car and the issue of rust never crosses my mind associating it with 12 year+ old bangers. How the W210 has proven me wrong!

Now whenever I see an E Class parked (W210) in a carpark I always glance at the wheel arches, boot lid...
SIGH... an unhealthy psychological state of mind.

cure = galvanised body

 

[tim.100]

The 'Honest John' web site (this guy produces the Daily Telegraph motoring section) states at the beginning of his W202 report: "Galvanised body has 30-year warranty."

Is he right?- if so the galvanising plant must be Ukrainian! If not, I'll submit a correction.

I'm considering a 97 C250 turbodiesel, so this is an issue for me.

 

[Satch]

Trying to turn around a heavily loss making and debt laden company, the head of Mercedes Benz, Helmut Werner, announced to analysts in 1993 that his cars were "over-engineered" and described the steps he'd taken to avoid this in future, reduce production costs and extend the model range down market. At the time this was thought of as a good idea because there was seen to be little alternative.

But an expectation of over-engineering is exactly why people buy Mercedes-Benzes. So it is unfortunate that Herr Werner's crusade started to be especially successful from 1994/5 onwards: serious rust on certain models dating from then (W210 for example) and other quality issues have given MB a real legacy problem and it is going to cost for some time to come.

It was not as if he did not know about quality issues having previously run the MB heavy truck division from 1987, but it shows what long term problems you can end up with if forced into taking a short term approach.

Werner got kicked out in 1997 and the policy started being reversed but the damage was done. He died in February 2004 so rusty W210 owners are denied even the limited pleasure of sending him a rude letter.