MB dealer treid to sell me a car that they have in stock....its a classic with quartz interior, so u'd expect the steering wheel to be black, anyway i said i don't want black steering wheel they said ok they will change it and wrote in the contract "change colour of steering wheel to match interior colour at no extra cost"

some kinda selling strategy which sound pretty good, so i don't have to pay extra for leather steering wheel. so i signed the contract and paid the deposit

but! there is a catch which they didn't tell me, trying to be sneaky and all that!

no body would ever thought about how they gonna change the steering wheel since its a mercedes if u get what i mean.
e.g. change the steering wheel or paint over it.
i'd thougth i'd get the steering wheel changed

well on the day when i went to pick up my car i saw painted steering wheel, so i said to the sales manager "what da hell is this", and the sales manager showed me the contract "change colour of steering wheel to match interior colour at no extra cost" and tried to shut me up, i was pretty angry at the time and he even turend his faced away from me while i was trying to make my point about how angry i was, because of the things that they have tried to do. Anyway bad day for me they woudln't let me order another car which will take months to arrive cause a few paper as being signed with insurance and on road etc b 4 i saw the car, below is a pic of it...the paint comes off after a few scratches, which is also shown in the pic

 

wow that sucks, maybe you can go to a small claim court and make them pay for poor quality or something like that... major bummer...

 

Yes classic does come with black steering wheel and i don't think it's a leather. Where about you live??

 

wow thats painfull...i would not rest... i would talk to the manager over where you bought it, and i would not stop complaining untill you get your way... trust me it works... there were a few times MB wanted to rip me off too...but i would not stop complaining and would talk to a higher person everytime untill i was happy...im also young, and sometimes they dont take you seriously but you cant quit.

 

Yours is a right handed car. Where do you live? I think you should fight 'till the very end, this is ridiculous!! But I must say this is a lesson for you, as soon as I read your post saying "change the color of the steering wheel......" I know something bad is gonna happen. You have to be extremely careful next time. But this is still unacceptable!

 

I live in Australia bought the car a bit too quick...should of made at least 3 - 4 visites to MB make sure of things and get better deals, the fact that it is a Mercedes i thoguth i could trust those people. I've tried complaining they said they will replace the steering wheel to leather steering wheel at $400 AUS which is about $230 US...and its every thing from plastic steering colum, the color of the buttons on the steering wheel and the cover over the air bag which has the MB badge on it.

After a feew days they called me and said they could only order just the steering wheel without the steering colum, colored buttons and the cover over the air bag, n every thing else would stay the same, because the steering wheel is the only thing that MB sell as spare, would cost them too much if they were to get everything right.

So i asked them again if they still expect me to pay $400 ? cause the deal has changed again and happened not the frist but 2nd time....and they said yes i will still have to play $400 then they showed me how much it is gonna cost them which is around $1200AU in total about half in USD , i.e installation, cost of steering wheel etc....and the price will go up even more if they were to get every thing else. so i said to the manager that this is not my problem its costing u this much and i am not paying $400 and he replied "no this is our problem.......and said he is already willing to contribute to $800 of the total cost....etc....Bull**** and Bull****"

It was just total bull **** i coudln't believe it, and can't be stuffed trying harder wasting my time, i just wanna get over with this and not think about it anymore as u said its pretty painfull, try to imagin that this is your first car! what a big disappointment

 

kingkong

dun worry you are not alone.

I was cleaning my car this Sunday and was rubbing over two tiny black spots on the airbag of the steering wheel. In lesser than a few seconds, I nearly dropped dead as the black spots got bigger (or rather the paint has begin to come off). I drove the car back to the dealer on Monday and demanded that they replace that damn thing with something real. They agreed as otherwise this matter will be brought to the press. However, they do not have the replacement stock and its only coming in 2-3 weeks time.

Let's see if these guys keep their promise or else......



--Terry

 

well that dealer is simply making you look stupid. maybe prada will change d color of your shoes at no extra cost. lol.

 

Where about are you in Australia??...I can't believe that MB dealer here can be sooo sneaky... which dealer?? ... sorry to hear you had bad experience...If I were you I'd be so furious, I'd call MB Australia and tell them about your bad experience from the dealer.

Anyway..... welcome to the board

 

One thing that will work but might cost some money is to threat them that you'll have the local newspaper wrote an article about how poor the MB dealer is treating you. It works for me when I bought a new honda but I don't know about mercs.

 

i dont know if it is the same...but for my SLK back in singapore....(2 tone leather), the white is actually painted over the black. The whole car came like that, and we didnt realized till it start peeling...

any one slk has tat pro?

 

wow da sux man.... report the dealer to mian MB

 

I would send a letter to the dealer..

Adress them and warn them that if they do not change the steerign wheel youll send letters to the local newspapers about this issue. Also report to MB or try to talk with someone high in the dealership.

It might work, since MB spenmds so much money on image...

 

Its In Brisbane called Centenary Classics
their web site
www.centenary.com.au
and the sales manager is bald and uptight his name is Mark, Mike or Michael he also makes very bad jokes

the rest of the people at MB r very nice, extremely friendly just what u would expect as a mercedes benz sales just that he is trouble maker.

yeah i think i should try to call up MB australia and see what happens

 

You live in Brisbane?? same here, we should meet up sometimes . You should buy at Mercedes Benz of Brisbane and look for James Lim, great guy, take care of you real good. You should ask them to get you AMG steering wheel at no cost after all the problem he caused .

 

Far out!

I live 5 minutes from there (C'Classic) but purchased mine from Bris. MB in the Valley. Am I glad of that now!

The service centre at C'Classic has just been upgraded and I've been thinking about taking my car there for its services, etc. (as it's closer and I only work at Indooroopilly) but after reading this, I will stick with Bris MB.

Good luck with it.

 

Phil B: I think you should stick with the C'Classic for the service, they will give you a nice loaner, my friend received a C200K for the whole weekend while his car was on service and he drive 1997 C class, while in Bris MB I only received an A Class and i serviced two cars in the same time . Oh well at least the people over there are nice to me, hehehe

 

looks like crap

 

somehow i'm not feeling any sympathy here. You bought the car that didn't meet your optional needs and demanded for something that doesn't come with the car and not paying for it. Can't blame the dealership for doing what you asked for.

i'm taking that Classic doesn't come with the leather wrapped steering wheel, so it's not likely that they'll give you a leather wrapped grey steering wheel without charging you. BUT if they do have none leather grey steering wheel and still chose to paint your steering wheel, then you can start complaining.

 

ohh man, that sucks, it shouldn't peel off like that even if it is not the leather wrapped steering wheel.

 

I think that some folks have missed the facts of this case.

It's not that the car was purchased, and then the owner wanted something different - it's that he wanted something different, it was written in the contract, and now the dealer is providing something that may meet the definition, but is not acceptable.

If you negotiated a deal for a car without a CD player, had the dealer agree to install a CD player if you purchased it, and then they threw a Sony Walkman in the car at delivery; would you accept it?

The contract says the dealer must put a CD player in the car, the Walkman is a CD player, and it is in the car. . .

Make the dealer change the wheel. If they don't, continue to take it back for (warranty) repair every time a small chip appears in the paint (sharp fingernails may accelerate the process). Drive their loaner home, and keep doing this until they figure the labor costs of repainting a steering wheel once per week.

No need to be a ***** about it, simply help them figure out which is the best business decision for them to make - that is, which decision will cost them less in the long run.

Good luck, and don't give up.

 

you should complain all day to them till they change it. report them to the better business bureau, papers etc if they don't do anything within a week.

 

yep i think i should continue to complain untill they replace the whole steering wheel to what i've aggreed upon originally and should come "FREE". Mercedes Benz Australia has contacted me lately and i've made my complaint to them and they said they will investage into this matter and give me some reply.

 

Your salesman was dealing in bad faith on purpose. You should tell him to either replace it with a REAL steering wheel or you will be back every other day to make them repaint the steering wheel, since it will keep on peeling day after day.