thphon

hi all,

let me explain the problem I'm facing and let me know if there's any action I could take to fix it somehow:

- I bought almost a year ago my 2007 SL550 from CarMax with Extended Warranty.
- In november I took the car to Mercedes Benz of Orlando to fix the seat massage of both seats among other things. After keeping it for almost 2 weeks they didn't get the parts for the seat massage and had to backorder it to Germany and they gave me an ETA of mid February. Of course the fix was approved by CarMax and everything.
- In February nobody gave me a straight answer about that issue.
- In March I had to take the care again for a different reason, but I talked to one of the representatives to complain about the problem and he said the new ETA was mid May (you see where this is going...).
- I complaint a lot more because nobody was updating me about this part, so somebody else from the same dealership got in contact with me after a few days and said the part was still not available and the new ETA was late July. This person told me they even tried to get it aftermarket but it wasn't available.
- I made a complaint to Mercedes Benz USA last week, they got in contact with me this morning and it turns out they don't even have an ETA, that they escalated the issue as high as possible but still no solution of any kind.

This is really wrong for several reasons:
- In theory SL is one of the flagships of the company, so this speaks really bad of them.
- I spent a lot of money on the Extended Warranty, the repair was approved and 8 month into this issue and I still have no answers.
- I bought a car with seat massages, that although not needed at all, I paid for so I want to use it.
- If I want to sell the car, now not everything is working so I lose money at both ends.

Ideally, I would like this to get resolved and enjoy the car. But I'm open to any solution in which I don't lose money, hehe.

Thanks in advance,
Leo

Speedriven1

It's super-annoying, to be sure- but keep in mind that most companies only make parts for about 7 years after they build a given car. The 2017s are out, so it's a 10 year old car, already. As for the warranty, it's already an open, approved claim, so you shouldn't worry about their payment.

thphon

if Mercedes Benz only makes parts for about 7 years, is really disappointing. I would expect that from a company that makes cheap cars, not from them. That applies to all German brands?

Speedriven1

It's a general rule for almost all brands. Mercedes does tend to be better than most, but that doesn't always apply to every part- as you're finding out.

thphon

maybe I'm missing something, but R230 was produced until 2011 and the seats were the same all along, right? So if they support 2011 SL550 they have to create these parts as well.
Assuming these parts are actually no longer produced, shouldn't the people from Mercedes Benz have told me that instead of "trying to find an ETA to resolve this issue"?

thphon

to close the loop on this one, around July I heard back from Mercedes Benz USA that the they found the parts and in a couple of weeks would get to the dealership. Shortly after that the dealership contacted me and before end of month the issue was fixed.
My only disappointment with Mercedes Benz USA is that at no point they reassured me that they will find the parts. That was particularly frustrating because is not that we are talking about a 30 year old car.
As for the dealership, I don't think I'll bring my car to them ever again because of how they handled the whole situation.

Cheers,
Leo

Rudeney

There are just some parts that they don't stock. They will make them and get them to you, but it can take a while. An example is internal transmissions parts. I have a broken bearing in my CLK's 722.9. Had I wanted to buy a new one, it was going ot takes months of waiting for backorders. I eventually bought a used part on eBay. A lot of this depends on how often the part fails and how often it is used by dealers. Since these transmissions are rarely rebuilt by dealers, there's not much call for internal parts like that. I suspect the same is the case for this seat part you needed.

carguyshu

just wait until you need hoses that have to be made to order in Germany and you are completely and totally unable to drive the car until the part arrives