W169 - A180 failed MOT but not a bad day really.

[Scooby_Doo]

My wife's W169 A180 Cdi was booked in today , local garage , for it's MOT and a minor service. Had the car ex demo back in March 2012 and has now covered nearly 90,000 miles. Up until today it's only needed a vacuum valve (£40) and two headlamp bulbs (£18) and a front wheel bearing (£30) plus the normal pads,discs,wipers,tyres and a new battery about 6 months ago. I had a call to say it had failed the MOT this morning - wing mirror indicator unit not working and two rear tyres worn on the outside edge. Picked the car up this afternoon and the bill was £280.00 for the MOT, minor service, indicator unit and two 16" Toyo tyres . Wife was well pleased but had to have a dig at my "C" class which cost over £400 for a "B" service alone a few weeks ago.

 

[wongl]

Nicely done at £280 for a service, MOT, two tyres and the indicator! Wow!

 

[unimog]

Not bad running costs at all. I'm looking at Feb 2012 W169 A160, with 53k on it. Its had two minors on past MOT's for cracked and or bald tyres and recently the front brake pads were noted as thin, has your experience of the W169 in general been positive?

What are they like on brakes (discs/pads) over that sort mileage?

 

[Scooby_Doo]

It's on 89,500 since 2011 , I think it's had one set of new discs back and front and two sets of pads. It's built like a tank and it's as roomy as my C class. The big tailgate and folding seats mean it'll carry anything , the boot floor can be flipped so that you have a level floor or flipped down to give you a 100mm lip on the back edge even with the space saver under the boot floor. The wing mirrors have been knocked off twice , literally hanging by the wires , and I've just clipped them back on , no damage or cracked casings. The inside is like new apart from a patch of bubbling in the artico on the drivers seat bolster. The only advisory on the MOT was corrosion on fuel filler pipe which I need to check as this was also mentioned about 4 years ago when MB serviced it. If they still made them my wife would definitely buy one again. It's a 180 diesel and normally returns high 40's MPG and on the 40 mile run to our caravan , A & B roads , the best I've seen is 58 mpg. No sign of any rust anywhere but the very sloping bonnet is a stone magnet , it's peppered with little chips.

 

[tonysmb]

Let me guess. I bet that the 'local garage' used for the A-Class was not your 'local' franchised MB dealer whereas the C-Class garage was an MB dealer.

Am I right?

(I don't think you can even have the oil changed in a dealer for the A-Class bill)

 

[Scooby_Doo]

Correct, not MB dealership , it had full MB services up until 2 years ago when the MB quote for 70,000 mile service was about £570.00
"Local garage" was £225.00 inc brake fluid change.