AnnHo

Is there anyone else out there besides myself that thinks the service prices are a little ridiculous???

I have been bringing my car in to get serviced at Park Place where I bought my car, and the prices have been so high, I'm speechless!!

I changed my front brake pads at 22k miles for about $300, and just today, I brought my car in for it's Service B at 24k miles and they're charging me $500!!! That's not it! Because my tires are staggered, they have to replace my tires and they want to charge me an extra $900 plus $300 for the alignment.

It's only been 24k miles and this is what I have to go through with my car!! I take such good care of it and this is what happens. It's ridiculous. I just want someone's opinion of this. Do I even have to go to Park Place to have my car serviced???????

jan ken po

1st 24k on stock tires isn't ridiculous, quite the norm. Buy a set from tirerack, and get them mounted & aligned somewhere else.

2nd, $500 for service B on an '05 230 again is normal. Actually cheaper than the $640 my dealer quoted me. Instead of doing that, I changed the oil & all filters myself. I did what visual inspections I could do myself as well. IE, basically what you get out of service B. The important thing you miss with service B is a computer diagnostic.

My plan is to do the services myself, and shortly before my warranty is up, take it in the dealer and let them screw me at least once. I owe them at least that much.

Their money is made in servcing and not sales, so thats why service prices are up.

pookie

service B price here is $289. and if I bring in a brochure they sent me, 20% off !

also, get your brake and tire service some where else, it will be cheaper. However, with alignment, 99% of the time can only be done by the benz dealer. it cost $90 at all the 5 dealers that I am around. $300 is ridiculous. other TX ppl probably can tell you a cheaper place.

C320 UK

Thought I'd share some prices from across the pond. Here in the UK (near London) Mercedes dealers are currently charging:

Service A about £240 GBP ($440 USD)
Service B about £480 GBP ($880 USD)

Their hourly labour rate approximatley £95 / hour ($175 USD / hour) !!!

Many of the dealers offer a discount of 10% for cars over 3 years old and 20% over 5 years old.

Mercedes have just introduced a new Service contract. We're now able to extend the standard warranty after year 3 (to a maximum of 6 years), this also includes routine servicing (Services A & B etc). The average cost of these types of service contracts is £70 / month for covering about 12 to 14,000 miles per year.

Trekman

I dont think its that bad... Even acura and lexus charge about the same. BMW said that it has free maintenance but you pay for it when you buy the car.

I know I paid $2100 for service on my toyota Sienna good until 5 years or 55000 miles. I know MB will sell you service when you buy the car for about $3500 or so for 4 years or 50000 miles. is it worth it. it depends if you drive a lot.

i would just look for a good independent MB mechanic to do your service if its to expensive Just make sure they know what they are doing.

Buellwinkle

High prices for service is the main reason I got the last of the 2004.5. If not I would have went with Bimmer, Audi or Jag, companies that still offer free maintenance. People didn't believe me 2 years ago when I said that 4 years of service is worth about $2,200 conservitably.

patrick_y

This is why you need to do your research before you buy the car...

The first thing I do when I start shopping for a new car is to research how much the car will cost me to maintain. This means oil changes, brakes (these are usually very expensive on European cars in general), large maintenance (Mercedes 60k mile maintenance will cost you about $1500). You bought a Mercedes, Mercedes is world renowned for a few things, one of which is high maintenance costs.

Changing your front brake pads at 22k miles for $300 is a bit odd. Normally they tell you to change the front, the rear, and not just the pads but the rotors as well for well over $1000. Consider yourself lucky. Whenever I go in for a brake job, I don't expect to leave with a much lighter wallet (actually I use the plastic for miles). Also, the brakes usually last a bit longer than that (around 30-40k miles), unless you use the brake excessively, live on a hill, or drive in the city.

Service A is usually around $200 and Service B is around $400.

I'd go to my local Costco to do the tires, you don't need the alignment as badly for the rear wheels as you do the front. I recommend the BF Goodrich g-Force Sports available in the tire size for our cars. Very cheap and very good handling. Very good longevity as well. I think it's around $130/tire for the rears, the fronts are a bit cheaper (installed).

And honestly. Mercedes maintenance is actually not that bad. I'm not comparing it to Rolls Royce or Ferrari, but for other cars in its price range, the maintenance can be pretty bad. Jaguar maintenance used to cost an arm and a leg, not counting the times the car was in the shop for repairs covered under warranty.

Trekman

bmw adds the cost when you buy the car.... its not free nothing is free. they have you bring the car to them every 15000 miles correct, maintenance it covered till 50000 miles or 4 years do the math.. so you bring your car in 3 times

so you get free oil change 3 times, they cover belts, i know for a fact it wont need to be repaced for 80000 miles

brakes will last you till 55000 mile if you drive normal.
we'll give you 1 brake job $1000 with rotors.
rotors wont need to be replaced till 55000 miles on normal driving condition
i bet you they wont change it till after 50000 miles

wiper blades $30 X 3 times
and inspection about $300

oil change about $120 each time X 3
brake job $1000 WITH ROTORS
$90 for wiper blades
$300 for inspection each time
they wont change any belts or even the brakes

you have a grand total off $2300

they add maybe about $5000 to $6000 to the car to cover them and mark up.... and there is your fee maintenace. if you dont have 45000 miles in 4 years then you just lost money.

any other parts that brake is covered under warranty like any other car .....

AnnHo

Wow, I guess I'm not the only person paying this much to have my car serviced. It's good to hear from everyone and know that it's normal to be spending so much money on services. I should have done my research before I bought my car, but knowing that all other cars would have charged the same or even more, I probably would have still went for the Benz. The thing is, this is the first car I have ever had to pay for and maintain all on my own. It's rough!!

Trekman

I know its rough, there is something that you can do to make it easy.

I have been doing my own service on my car since I got it. Oil changed, fuel filter, air filter, spark plug and wires ECT. some are easy to do some a not if you shop around you can get this parts cheaper on the net. the key is to stay ahead of the game before you have major problems. tires are expensive make sure you check your tire PSI every week you will save gas and tire wear. shop around there are deals out there. good luck

patrick_y

Another tip, use the brakes less. I don't worry about gas prices, so I'll drive as fast as I want, as long as I don't have to use the brake. Using the brake kills your fuel efficiency and costs more money to use!

Brakes are about $1000+ at my local dealership in the San Francisco area. I estimate that they should last at least 30k miles, as you see, Trekman's brakes lasted 50k miles (I do a good mix of city driving with mine so I'm going to assume mine last a tad bit less). But still, even with a majority of city driving, I think 22k miles for brakes is a bit excessive.

Use less brakes! Less gas is good too, but gas is alright. When you use the brake, you're using both gas (because you cancel out previous gas action) and brakes.

TA-9FF

Hey Patrick,

Have you had good experiences with places like Discount Tires/Sam's/Costco to do your tires/balancing? On my old car, Discount Tires damaged my rims while switching out the old tires for the new tires on the machine they use!

I'm not due yet for new tires, but I thought I'd get my research done before it's time!

Trekman

it depends if you like your rims ding up after they install the tire....

Gilgorm

Following prices in Canadian $ (now close to par) and don't include tax.
"B" service done at 26,000 km (16,000miles) on my 02 C230 coupe. Pre-work estimate was $450-$600. Actual price was $455. Usual stuff included oil filter, 7 liters 0W40 Mobil1, dust filter, 2 wiper blades, 1 V Cleaner, Glass Cleaner, air filter=$206 for parts; $249 Labour. In addition, paid for Brake fluid change which cost $97; parking brake shoe adjustment cost $57.
Advantages of taking car to dealer for its last warranty (no cost items) included 2 new "front door sill step plates" (bubbling), hood re-aligned (couldn't open), 2 new "tailgate support cylinders", replacement of all 20 wheel nuts (corroded).
Also, recorded complaint about front end noise and finicky turn signals. Because of these two recorded complaints, subsequent visits after warranty expired resulted in "goodwill" replacement of both front turn signal lamp sockets, replacement LS tie rod, wheel alignment, replacement of both front stabilizer bars, replacement rad support clips and rad support pin (rad was moving and causing noise). Even after all of the no-charge stuff the noise continued (although much quieter) and was finally solved by replacing both front brake rotors which unfortunately cost me $362. Turns out the rotors were heavily corroded on the back side due to lack of use and pieces were rubbing on suspension. Yes, this is a four year old coupe with 16,000 miles on it (95% city driving).
"A" service costs $166.

For comparison, my 03 BMW 325iT (25000 miles) also had both front brake discs (and pads) replaced for $765.

deanharrison

It get's worse....

Wait until your tilt steering stops working. You can hear the motor when you press the switch but the wheel doesnt move up or down.

A plastic coupling breaks causing this problem. The part costs $8.09 but it takes 6 hours of labor to install...... Total cost around $750.

I've done automotive work for most of my life. I will not even attempt to make this repair on my own with all of the interior pieces that must be removed to gain access to the tilt actuator. I'll break more than i can afford to replace..........

It's the little things like this that make it very hard to own a mercedes. I love my C 240 but it's probably going to be a gone'r as soon as I get this fixed........

Finally, brace yourself before looking up the trade value on your MB if you decide to trade. The price varies by a large margin depending on the area that you live. I'm in Mississippi where these things dont sell that well (folks like pickup trucks here). NADA lists my vehicle with a trade value of $13,000 (2002 with high mileage). Kelly Blue Book lists it with a trade of $6,800. That's what the dealers will realistically offer. My car has 130,000 miles which is high.... Aside from that, it's in mint condition. Everything works and it's as tight as new. It even still smells new!

Overall, I'm pretty dissatisfied with my ownership experience..........

tyro

When my service B comes up, I'm going to total the car and collect the insurance money rather than have it serviced.

patrick_y

I always go to the Costco and before they start work on any of the cars, I always ask to speak to the "Tire Shop Manager". I tell them that I think they scratched the rim on one of my previous cars and I ask them to be super careful. The Costco people are liable, and they tell me to bring it in and see if it's possible that they did it. They also assure me that their mouting equipment is a "touchless mounter" and that the machine never actually touches the rim when it is mounting the tire.

I don't go to Discount Tire, don't like the people working nor shopping there. At least not at my local one. I don't go to Sam's.

About the balancing, yes, Costco does do the balancing. And... I think they screwed up on one wheel once (I've probably bought and installed about a dozen tires from them). Once, at higher speeds, the car would have a slight thumping sound. When we brought it back to the dealership, they said my tires weren't balanced. They rebalanced it and it went away. This might've been Costco's fault, but the tricky part is that we first had the tire installed, we didn't notice anything, then we brought the car into the shop for some warranty work on the steering (which might've affected the tires). Only after this, we noticed that the tires were thumping. So it could either be the dealership or Costco.

The main thing is to remind them to be extra cautious. Go over the car with the shop manager personally, and point out that there are no scratches on the car and on the rims. If possible stand and watch how they do the tires. When I saw it for the first time, I was impressed. At the end, go over the car personally. If there's a problem, point it out to the shop manager.

You should follow the same procedure for valet parking as well. I once got my car back from Valet Parking at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose, and they had put in a huge scratch on the front bumper's impact strip (and a little bit on the fender too). The ironic thing was when I had left the car on their driveway, I had seen the valet drive the car and there was a car in front of it. The Valet turned and I thought he wasn't going to make it and I was about to run out and stop him, but he looked like he made it (I was watching some distance away).

Remember, your home is your castle, you don't want anybody coming in to mess it up. Secondly, your car is your second home (just take it for what it's worth even if you do have multiple homes and multiple cars), you don't want anybody messing that one up either.

eckc21

May i ask which Costco you went to do your tire service?

I am in Bay Area too and might need a tire service soon enough...
Thanks!

jsloan01

only advice would be to get a quote at another benz dealer.

i'd prob. go w/ doing the tires balancing and alignment at benz. i got winter tires put on at discount tire competitor, and they def. scratched my wheels w/ the machine they used.

i went to benz afterward for any changes in tires (spring to winter, vice versa), and never had any problems.

good luck.

patrick_y

Hi, I go to the Fremont Costco. They have two tire service managers.

I also have this $60 off coupon for a set of four tires. I only wish to replace two tires so if you need to replace two tires, I'd appreciate it if you want to replace two of them with me. It's alright if they're different sized tires. Unfortunately, this offer expires at the end of the weekend (June 25th).

The Fremont Costco tire center is fairly good, knowledgeable staff, a manager who cares and takes responsibility.

By the way, I think we have exactly the same cars.

05 C230K SS, blk/blk, lighting, sunroof, and HK sound packages and AT.

Buellwinkle

You maybe right but consider this, there's a bunch of services that's not part of A or B that are time dependent, like changing brake fluid, trans and dif fluid, air filter, fuel filter and such. You probably need to add $1,000 for misc. items not mentioned. So while you bring it in for a 2yr B service for $299 and then tell you the trans fluid or something else has to be done and walla, you're quickly at $400-500.

Also, MB raised their prices when they dropped free maintenance so it cost people more to buy a 2005 without maintenance than a 2004.5 with free maintenance. So I don't buy your math since BMW raised their price in porportion to MB yet they kept free maintenance. Bottom of the line MB, Audi, Jag, BMW's that are equipped the same way cost about the same price, maybe a little less for Audi, so why is maintenance free on those except MB? The ONLY reason I bought my last to MBs was free maintenance/free car washes. It was a really tough decision between the Subie WRX and the C-Coupe at the time and the free maintenance won me over. Next time the decision may not go in MB's favor.

r3v1ls

Anything that involves changing break pads or tires should be done elsewhere. You can do it at a shop for much cheaper.

Sailorlite

Why are they recommending alignment? Did they note some abnormal wear pattern on your present tires? If the tires wore out more or less evenly and lasted 24K miles, I'd say there's no reason to mess with wheel alignment.

And as others here are recommending, take the tire issues to a good tire place - not to the dealer.

mleskovar

I can't believe how many people today are helpless when it comes to anything mechanical. No wonder the dealers charge so much for service.... because they can! Eventually dealer mechanics will be able to charge the same rates as 'white collar professionals' and get away with it. The only way to fight the high cost of dealer service is to rely more on independent garages or do it yourself.

r3v1ls

I totally agree. Everyone goes to the dealer, gets quoted a large charge, agree to pay it, and then goes off and complains about how expensive it is. When the dealer told me how much money it would cose to change the break pads I instantly told them I would do it myself and went and found a shop by my house which did it for HALF the price and took only ONE day.