So my dealor calls me today to tell me my c230 is in, and will be ready tomorow for purchase. However, he brings to my attention that my car already has 200 miles on it. He says these miles are applied by MB to every 50th car that rolls out of the factory as a quality control measure.

While he assures me my warranty will be extended 200 miles, I am not sure whether this story is true. Are there any people out there that can shed some light on this issue?

And what kind of $value compensation should i fight for given this?

And lastly, WTF do they do to my car during those 200miles !?!?!

 

Chile,

wow, that bits! I have no idea if that is true, but this is what I do know: 200 miles is not a new car. It's a used car. Assume a 10% decrease in value. Turn it down and demand a new one or a 10% break on the price. Just MHO.

I would talked to the sales manager and then the general manager.

Also, call the 800-mb number, they should be able to confirm the 200 mile thing. It does not sound right.

Beth

 

I gave a quick call to MB to find out more about this 200 mile quality control procedure.... Turns out, it is true, but i am waiting for the technical support department to call me back with the details of this procedure...

I pray to god they just turned the car on and ran it on some sort of conveyer belt for 200 miles...... If it was street driven, i will ask the dealor to find another or go f*ck himself.

 

Well, if it is true that they test drive the car for quality control, I would think it is still a new car by the Manufacturer's definition, so 10% discount - you can forget about it.

Do what they said above, and call MB re the truth or fiction of the story. If true, mabe they run it on a test track (who knows? - get the story or call MB Regional)

I would get the warranty extension to 1k miles to 51K and get it in writing.

200 miles is not a lot of miles, so don't get too huffy about it. Have them throw in some accessories for your pain. And check out the car thoroughly.

 

This is in fact what Mercedes does. They run the car around their test track from what I have been told. There also should be a piece of paper notifying you of this in the glove compartment of the vehicle with the VIN number and misc. info on it.

 

If it is true (and can be documented to be true) I'd say its probably a good thing! The factory has tested the car and found it to be OK. You probably have a better chance of it not being a lemon.

For most other cars, I'd still rather have the normal 10 miles on it at delivery. But given the very shaky quality and reliability of this car in particular, I think I'd be ok with taking the 200 mile tested car.

 

Well, keep us informed.

Maybe some track use and belt use but again, 200 mi is not much, and hey, it must have passed their quality control, so that's some reassurance. Just get it all in writing as to warranty extension.

 

The 200 miles thing is infact part of the Mercedes-Benz production process with the factory, therefore since it was the factory driving the car, it is brand new.

 

Add to that the the EPA regularly tests vehicles for 50 Miles in port. Theoretically you could have 250 miles on it before it gets to you.

 

Don't they test engines the equivalent of xxx miles even before they get installed? I thought that was the rationale behind the discontinuation of car manufacturers delivering cars with "break-in oil" good for only the first 1000 miles. In effect every car is delivered with a "pre-broken-in" engine.

They could have disconnected the odometer or cleared it for that matter and you would never have known. I am sure that the car that you get is every bit as new as any other car they deliver. before testing I am sure they would wrap the body in all that plastic they have to protect it. Then after, a white glove inspection. If anything is wrong, they would right it before it goes out the door. If I could pick and choose to have 200 miles or a car that pulls to the right and dealer won't fix it - I would take the 200 miles anyday.

 

Yes but testing the engine is not the same as testing the car.
Running the completed car lets them check the suspension, steering, brakes, etc. to see if any quality problems have got into their assembly phases.

 

that this had happened to my 2000 CLK 430 cabriolet....my dealer told me it had been chosen for testing, and it had about 150 or so miles on it....however, it did come with a documented letter from mercedes in Germany saying that they had tested it, thus the milage was such on delivery.

 

I HIGHLY doubt that Mercedes or any other manufacturer (of mass-production cars) bench tests an engine before it's installed. None of the auto plants I've been to do that.

The time, space, and cost involved in doing this would be prohibitive. Not to mention there should be no need if they have a decent manufacturing process to begin with, which should be a given for any manufacturer at this point.

The reason break in periods have changed has to do with material, machinging, and manufacturing advances over the years, not dyno testing by the manufacturers before assembly.

 

I don't know about non AMG engines, however, AMG does bench test all the AMG engines before they are transplanted into the AMG vehicles. AMG runs each engine for quite a bit of time.

 

In general I'd rather have a car with 200 street miles on it than 200 dyno miles on it... not to say a dyno WILL "abuse" a car more than the street, but the potential is certainly there.

 

Does AMG still specify a break-in period then?

Anyway, that's why I added the (of mass produced cars) comment. Find out how long it takes them to dyno test an engine, including hooking it up and removing it, then figure out how many dynos it would take to support normal production rates... Basically, for a manufacturer to break in each and every engine would add tons of time, money, and space to the equation but add little value. Where's the upside for them to do this?

FWIW: The break in instructions we get from manufacturers on the engines we receive range from an 18 hour procedure to "just run it".

Makes a guy wonder how important it really is...

 

He said the vehicle was already at the dealership.

To look on the bright side Chile, your car will probably be flawless in terms of reliability.

 

I know this used to be true but I wonder if it still is. Mercedes makes AMG models in much greater numbers than they did a few years ago, the subsidary manufactured 18,500 vehicles in 2001.

This production number seems a little high to allow bench testing of every engine. That would require individual dyno tests at the rate of about 50 a day, 365 days a year. This seems excessively labor intensive, especially when considering AMG only has about 500 employees. However, I could see them running each completed car on a rear-wheel dynometer. This is a little more feasible because they could just drive the car up to it and run it for a while. With just two of these dynometers they could test a 50 cars a day in a reasonable period of time with much less manpower involved (say 30 minutes per car - filling about two shifts).

Cheers, BT

 

I think it was Maff that just was at the factory. He verified that AMG does still indeed bench all their engines....

Maff, if you read this, can you please verify this.

 

It also wouldn't come as a complete surprise to me if they only bench tested the motors for the top-of-the-line CL and SL AMGs. The numbers of these made are low enough that this is more reasonable.

Cheers, BT

 

I wish they had tested my car before they shipped it. Maybe they would have put a new shifter in it! I would think that this is a good thing-to have a car that was tested by a MB tech at the factory versus just getting the next one off the line with who knows what wrong with it.

 

When I got mine it had 50 miles, I asked the dealer (Penske) why the mileage was high, he said they tested it. Don't know how true it is but my Coupe hasn't given me any problems so far.

 

I wouldn't mind the 110 mine had on at delivery (550 now) IF and only IF the supposed letter had been included with my vehicle. I got jack, which is why I was less than pleased with learning my new, special order vehicle rolled off the truck with 100 extra miles. Extra testing, cool, just prove it to me MB!

 

Porsche still bench tests their engines(both Boxster and 911), but they have many more employees than AMG.