benzlvr

I am ready to buy a 230k or 240 and the salesman showed me the book suggested not to go with the plus service and then said he had no idea which was better. I then spoke to a service advisor who said that the maintenance costs for the 2005's have not been set yet and that he did not know what would be required at teh 13k intervals.
If anyone finds out the cost on this option it would be awesome to know so that I could go and negotiate better on my car. Thanks.

jan ken po

I would say negotiate the knwon MSRP prices PRHelo showed us in this thread. Cost on Autos in general hardly ever go down. At worst case they wil stay the same...but if service depts. haven't even set up price for them yet, don't be surprise if the increase....in short, I'd finance the plan into your deal if I were you.

Anaheim_Drew

This is an example of what often happens when buying a warranty. The MSRP is $1312 and she said $1490..... a profit of $178 on top of the commission for the sale. This happens all the time....... Best deal would still be having the $1312 factored into the sale price.

jan ken po

Interesting...made a call to another dealer since the finance guy at my dealer refuses to return or answer my calls. direct quote

"we have some limited information on that, but we are unsure if we are going to work off of that plan or not, can you call back in a few weeks."

Not sure what the hell he meant, lol. Why is MB being so secretive about this plan...need to call Germany get it straight from the horse's mouth, lol.

iSpY

Hi,

Did anyone get any luck to get more information about the maintance plan for 05?

Thanks

iSpY

benzlvr

I am in the process of purchasing a c230 and I am going to try and get them to throw it in. If not I will see if they sell it at cost. Cant hurt and if they do I will post the price.

DiamondNoir2K5

Cool, thanks for doing that, it will be interesting to see what you find out.

Right now I've put my effort on hold to give local dealer's a chance to get up to speed on this. When I first called around a couple of weeks ago they didn't have any idea what these plans were yet.

jan ken po

I've just about given up on this thing. I've called my several dealers, and just about all say the same thing. "We know about it, but MB hasn't sent us nay information from which we can quote you a pricing plan."

jan ken po

Well me dealer finally called me back.

Quoted me the exact same thing that Helo posted. In fact he said he was reading the brochure to me. I stated are those the MSRP prices or is that you true sales price. He replied true sales. Anyone else having better luck?

benzlvr

The dealer I have been dealing with in VA said that they would throw in the maintenance. They acknowledged that the package costs less than the MSRP but would not say exaclty how much less. The are going to go ahead and throw it in and they are selling the car below invoice. Sorry if this is no more help than is already known. If I can figure it out I will let you know.

Nickle

Those prices all seem high to me.

You do realize that an "A" service is just an oil change? The other stuff is just "check to make sure the brake lights are working" type stuff that most dealers probably don't even really do anyways.

The "B" isn't much more.

Fact of the matter is that modern cars don't need much in the way of service or "tune up" like cars of the past. "Tune ups" generally were mostly ignition components (plugs, points, caps and rotors, setting timing), none of which is required on a modern car (plugs, yes, but only after many miles and years).

The rest of the stuff is cheap and easy. Coolant? In my 4 years of owning my car, I've gotten the dealer to change the coolant once. Brake fluid? Cheap and easy. Trans fluid? That's long life, and not expensive to change. Air filters? Cheap and easy.

My service is ending soon. I'll just do all that stuff myself, for next to nothing in costs.

And I'll do a better job. The dealers are sloppy. They replaced the steering rack on my car - luckily I checked their work because they forgot to put the cap back on the steering fluid reservoir! It was sitting loose in the engine compartment. They always leave greasy hand prints all over the engine. I changed the oil last night (I do changes in between the 10K services), and found that the dealership idiot who changed the oil the last time torqued the drain plug to like 200 ft/lbs. I had to use a 3 foot breaker bar to break it loose!

(If I weren't doing it myself, I'd take it to an independent, or even good local gas station shop, to do basics like changing oil, filters, and fluids. It's not rocket science, these cars are no different than any other car with regard to routine maintenance, and there must be better deals out there than these outrageous basic service prices that dealers charge).

benzlvr

Although the delaer may not be doing all that much anyone who had owned a benz prior to 2000 (pre included maintenance) or owns one currently that has gone out of warranty knows these services are not cheap no matter how little it seems go into them.

Incendiary

Cool, congrats. What dealer are you working with and what car are you getting?

benzlvr

I am trying to decide between a couple dealers. All three said they will do the deal euromotorcars, American Service Center, and HBL. I am looking at these different dealers becasue none seems to have the exact car I want. I am deciding now between different colors and options to get a car I want. I am getting a c230wz and I also want to try and get them to swap the tires to all seasons. One dealer told me they were all seasons, even though I know they arent, but if the one I wanted didnt have them they would put em on.
Which dealer do you think is the best in the area I noticed you were from around here.

Incendiary

We've bought from Herb Gordon and HBL. HBL is good because they're close, but the sales manager (Bert something) is a ****. Just go with whatever gives you the best bottom line price, ie out the door price. Negotiating among three dealers is key. That helps drive the cost down a lot. And remember, always get them to quote you OTD price, as that's all you really care about. Where you go for service I have no remarks about, as I haven't really dealt with that end... Best of luck, and keep me/us updated.