Yet another warranty problem!!

[Aswall]

This is really starting to bug me now! Went to Rome for a few days and left my car at my brothers house while I was away and when I picked it up this morning and started it up the electric belt feeders have stopped working. Tried several times and have tried again since getting home but no joy.

So now when I take my car in next week to have the boot struts replaced I now have another thing to add to the list. I am starting to lose patience now, this car has equalled the number of warranty defects in 3 months that my previous C Class managed in 6 months and I find it hard to believe that this isn't representative of the brand. Even though I have only had this car since July and have it for 2 years, I have already made my mind up that I will never buy another Mercedes again - they've blown their chances.

I intend to write a strongly worded letter of complaint to Mercedes (not that they will take any notice) because you guys who keep buying them deserve a better standard of car than this. Nothing they could say or do would change my mind though, they've had the last of my money

Cheers
Andy

 

[mayoga]

Andy,

Sorry to hear about the problems as you would expect more from MB.

A friend of mine had a problem with an Audi S8 which is about £70k worth of kit. After writing to Audi and not having any luck he employed a Solicitor to deal with the case.

In the end Audi backed down and offered him a new car plus 25% off any new Audi for the rest of his life!!!

So I guess you need to write and if your not happy talk to a solicitor?

Gav.

 

[saorbust]

Andy,

Keep pushing them. Our CLK is 5 weeks old, yet already we've had a new offset drive coupling (after collecting it from the factory) and a cable replaced for the handbrake. They originally told us the gearbox had gone.

In my opinion they need to start being a little better to customers who spend a considerable amount of money on a car. No one expects everyone to be perfect, but when it is wrong I think they should sort it without fuss, and certainly without need to use a solicitor.

We wrote letters to everyone - including the factory. The only people who replied with an apology turned out to be the factory. Just shows you eh ?

Clarky.

 

[fuzzer]

My 2 week old C class was leaking loads of oil over the driveway back in march.

Off the road for a week and a half and the seal between the gearbox and the engine.

 

[hash]

i agree with clarky it's not so much that things go wrong, but how they respond when things go wrong that really sucks.

BUT did you know that merc have only increased the amount of technicans by 3 % from when they were selling 20000 cars, they now sell over 100000 now.

cheers

kenny

 

[Aswall]

To be honest Kenny it IS that things are going wrong, rather than how they are dealt with. The dealer is fixing them each time without much argument (although they have been quite patronising and assuming that I am doing something wrong in each case before the fault is demonstrated to them) but I am just fed up with having to take it back in and it has got to the stage where I go back to the car at the end of each day wondering what is going to go wrong this time. None of them are serious or life threatening but it just takes the gloss off the brand.

I hate to say it but I have had many more BMWs than Mercedes, both new and used, and have never had any cause to take them back and it seems to me that Mercedes are no longer making the same quality of car as BMW and Audi. I know people with Vauxhalls that have had fewer problems!

My next car will be another BMW and this experience has probably made me a customer for life - unless they start going the same way

Cheers
Andy

 

[mayoga]

Andy,

I must say I've moved from BMW because of all the problems I've had. I've just got rid of my 523SEi which broke down 5 times in 36 months and had 3 engine rebuilds before 40,000 miles. The final straw was when the cat went @ 45,000

I must say though the customer service @ BMW was excellent.

I guess it doesn't help much when I say my Lotus (Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious) Elise hasn't had one problem in 30 months

Gav.

 

[Aswall]

Just watched Sunday's Top Gear and notice that JC commented his SL had spent the summer in the dealers and that was the story of Mercedes ownership nowadays - not just me then?

If this reputation is now spreading amongst high profile owners then surely Mercedes will have to take notice. Can't wait for my JD Power form

Cheers
Andy

 

[adam1]

Aswall,

Sorry to hear of ur problems.

It seems like mercs are not what they used to be. I keep hearing these stories but this doesn't stop me from seriously looking to buy a Merc.

I'm considering a new Merc or a 5 series BMW. I've always heard consistently that Merc dealers ar not as good as BMW in terms of CS.

I just hope if I splash out on a Merc I don't end up having problems. I will have myself to blame for that for not listening to people like you the customers

 

[John Peerce]

I agree with the comments that mercedes cars are not as reliable as they were once. A famous saying that’s going around these days is that mercedes cars motto used to be "engineered like no other car". These days its "engineered like any other car"!.

As i have recently posted on this forum, my 1999 C43 AMG has had all sort of problems. The irony is that i bought a '99 car (which is relatively newish) rather that a classic merc, because i thought classic mercs are money pits. Well here is some food for thought: I spent over 4,000 pounds in the last twelve fixing various things in my car including regular stalling problems ( its only 1999 car with 60k miles) , and i have a friend who has a 1983 230 CE car with 120k miles and he says he cannot remember ever having any problem with the car, and other than regular servicing, he had nothing replaced in his car !! It seems I spent more money on my merc in the last twelve months than he spent on his in the last 20 years.

Yep, mercedes car are DEFENITELY not what they used to be. The 2003 JD Power survey shows they are below the average, but I don't need surveys to tell me this.

Mercedes are currently living off their old reputation and image of reliability and solidity, but its only a matter of time (unless they get their act together) before buyers at large wise up that mercedes cars of today bear no relation to mercedes cars of yesterday.