Update on my rattles - Inspection Day

[developer]

No. The roof creaks a bit from cold, but it stops doing so once the car's interior has warmed up, and as I usually have the wireless on anyway I don't really notice it. Besides, 90% of the time the roof's tucked away in the boot.

Nor mine, so they can build "silent" cars.


What's a wireless?

 

[MOCAŠ]

Nor mine, so they can build "silent" cars.

Your car and mine were built many years ago. Perhaps they've lost the knack since. Perhaps we'd consider the OP's car to silent if we travelled in it. Or perhaps our cars aren't as silent as we think they are. The point is, we don't know. We're all guessing based on one person's account.

What's a wireless?

It's what one uses to listen to Radio 4.

 

[Dieselman]

It's what one uses to listen to Radio 4.

Surely, you mean the World Service.

 

[Ted]

Surely, you mean the World Service.

Surely you mean the Home Service?

 

[LTD]

I think Mark would be better spending a couple of hundred quid at a good specialist (maybe someone like Alfie or Richard) who could strip apart the offending areas and treat with silencing materials.

After all, the rest of the car seems to be good and it could them become silent.

 

[Paul/]

So MBUK have stated their official position as follows:

Whilst they accept that there are rattles coming from the centre console area of my car that appear to be plastic on plastic, relative to other C-Class cars, my rattle is fairly quiet so in their opinion ACCEPTABLE.

Indeed they went on to say that it is to be expected that all Mercedes Benz cars may demonstrate trim against trim noises under certain conditions as it is impossible to build a silent car!

Please take what you want to away from that statement

As has been mentioned previously, considering this from their perspective and the implications for them of acknowledging it as unacceptable, this is the only tack they could sensibly take (and is consistent with their earlier views on the matter). The statement you quote appears sensible and logical - even the bit about impossibility of a silent car is stricly correct. Whether or not it is reasonable boils down to what level of noise is acceptable to you and what level of noise (or silence) they have promised in their product description.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Is there a reason for not posting a video of these rattles?

Why a video of the service managers (or whoever it was) and not your own?

 

[Dryce]

and that is the last thing they want.

So I'm reading this - planning to replace my car at some point - I'm easily irked by rattles and my aging W211 has none. I've seen Mark's video and his rattle would drive me nuts.

So would I buy a new MB as replacement based on what I've seen.

Definitely not under any circumstance. I personally couldn't take the risk.

So is that 'what they want'?

 

[Paul/]

So would I buy a new MB as replacement based on what I've seen.

Definitely not under any circumstance. I personally couldn't take the risk.

So is that 'what they want'?

I'll tell you what they want, what they really really want, is a rattle-free, rattle-free, rattle-free car...

Anyway, the last thing they appear to want is to open the floodgates for remedial work on rattles, so they probably accept that it will cost them a few sales, a relatively small cost.

 

[MOCAŠ]

So I'm reading this - planning to replace my car at some point - I'm easily irked by rattles and my aging W211 has none. I've seen Mark's video and his rattle would drive me nuts.

So would I buy a new MB as replacement based on what I've seen.

Definitely not under any circumstance. I personally couldn't take the risk.

So is that 'what they want'?

To be honest, they're not going to be too worried about people that decide not to buy their cars solely on the basis of what they read on forums. It's a fairly arbitrary way of going about things.

As has been pointed out on the other thread about this, there are umpteen comments on the Internet about rattles and other gremlins affecting just about any brand of car you can mention. If MB took every comment seriously and sought to satisfy every single complainant they'd probably bankrupt themselves within a matter of weeks.

 

[Dryce]

If MB took every comment seriously and sought to satisfy every single complainant they'd probably bankrupt themselves within a matter of weeks.

Many many years ago we used to be lectured of the cost of solving problems as a product progessed both from design to production and then once in production fthrough the factory to the customer.

If they took it seriously the product wouldn't rattle when new. And the costs of fixing things in the process so that they don't happen is usually way cheaper than dealing with the aftermath.

Having created the problem - to then say that it's acceptable - is creating a shoddy stable and then shrugging when the doors fall off and figuring that you don't care that the horses have bolted.

 

[BoyracerAU]

Greetings from Sydney, Australia!

It seems the newer cars are not built the same way as the old ones. My W123 & W124 don't rattle.

 

[MD5]

It makes you wonder why the dealership took the car in to try and rectify the rattles in the first place, doesn't it? In theory, they were knowingly trying to undertake what the factory couldn't do, if this is MB's acknowledged level of quality these days.

I assume their demonstrator vehilces represent these rattles on test drives, so potential customers can fairly make decisions based on these rattles, and any answers they are given in relation to these?

As long as MB are honest and upfront about the quality of their cars, then fair enough, but in view of their appalling response to the principle behind this case, their brand should be categorised in a different bracket, within the also ran sector. Perhaps the C class is seen as a poor relation to other models further up the range, and you should pay more to get rattle free?

If people come on here looking for advice, as they do all the time, surely we have an obligation to tell them?

 

[MOCAŠ]

Many many years ago we used to be lectured of the cost of solving problems as a product progessed both from design to production and then once in production fthrough the factory to the customer.

If they took it seriously the product wouldn't rattle when new. And the costs of fixing things in the process so that they don't happen is usually way cheaper than dealing with the aftermath.

Having created the problem - to then say that it's acceptable - is creating a shoddy stable and then shrugging when the doors fall off and figuring that you don't care that the horses have bolted.

Wake up and smell the coffee, as our American cousins would say. MB aren't competing at the top end of the market these days. They're a "premium" mainstream manufacturer, competing with the likes of BMW and Audi - so they're selling cars at prices barely 1.5 times that of the Ford/Vauxhall horde. The days of hewn-from-solid over-engineering are long gone, and the marque's god-like status has been demoted to that of a mere mortal.

However, the general public still places the three-pointed star on a pedestal, and having recovered from the shock that they can actually afford one these days, they then expect it to still be some kind of paragon of integrity. In reality, it's just a mass-produced car, built to production tolerances perhaps a little higher than the norm. MB can't afford to go around pandering to every crank's obsession with a barely audible squeak. I'm amazed they've indulged this case as far as they have.

 

[MD5]

MB can't afford to go around pandering to every crank's obsession with a barely audible squeak. I'm amazed they've indulged this case as far as they have.

Oops, I hadn't realised.

 

[MOCAŠ]

Oops, I hadn't realised.

Can't say for sure, but I'm coming to that conclusion. The OP has steadfastly refused to respond to any practical advice offered to him on this forum, and instead seems hell-bent on getting what he wants from MB - despite not actually having rejected his car.

There seems to be lots of sympathy for his predicament, but few people seem prepared to consider that MB might just be right: perhaps his car is acceptable, and he's just making a mountain out a molehill? Just maybe...

 

[trapperjohn]

That does not make @Mark a crank in my opinion.

I would not go to a showroom to buy any new car and expect or accept it to rattle - because it is mainstream. New cars I've had - Polo X 2, Seat X 1, Rover 75 X 1, SWMBO's Honda Jazz. No rattles. There are differences of course in the return for the pound you spend - Slower, faster, less comfortable, smaller but all reliable and rattle free.

Nowhere in Mercedes adverts does it say - expect a rattle or two or a wee spot of rust or two- sorry about that.

Perhaps its Mercedes that should be smelling the coffee.

 

[Deleted member 2227]

If it were me i'd take it to Alfie at Comand UK. They are very profficient at stripping Mercedes interiors and I'd ask them to find and cure it.

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Wake up and smell the coffee, as our American cousins would say. MB aren't competing at the top end of the market these days. They're a "premium" mainstream manufacturer, competing with the likes of BMW and Audi - so they're selling cars at prices barely 1.5 times that of the Ford/Vauxhall horde. The days of hewn-from-solid over-engineering are long gone, and the marque's god-like status has been demoted to that of a mere mortal.

However, the general public still places the three-pointed star on a pedestal, and having recovered from the shock that they can actually afford one these days, they then expect it to still be some kind of paragon of integrity. In reality, it's just a mass-produced car, built to production tolerances perhaps a little higher than the norm. MB can't afford to go around pandering to every crank's obsession with a barely audible squeak. I'm amazed they've indulged this case as far as they have.

I couldn't agree more.

In two paragraphs, you've summed up exactly what Mercedes are all about right now.

 

[trapperjohn]

^And then bill Mercedes for it. Seriously I would. Would I expect payment for that bill from Mercedes ? If you think about it @Mark is certainly rattling their cage.

Edit.

Bugger too old and too slow. Should have quoted R2.