MCONDE01

I was driving last night, just washed the car so I was feeling real nice then all of a sudden I see a car about to turn out and about to hit me...so no big deal I just moved into the next lane but when I do that I hit this big a** pothole...it felt like the entire wheel went in the hole. I got soooo pissed.
I went home and took a look at my front left wheel and it looked fine. Then this morning I took another look and the car looked and drove fine. This morning I called my dealer to make an appointment for the 1,000 - 3,000 mile checkup and told them about my small little rattle and about my front left wheel making some weird noise every now and then when I brake and turn. I made that up so that they can take a nice hard look at that wheel to make sure that everything is ok with it. If for any reason there is damage or repairs that MB will not cover can I contact the city and have them pay for it? I had nightmares last night of a big pothole chasing me....thanks in advance for any help...

Jim Banville

I would go back to location of the pothole and call police to that location. Tell the dispatcher your car was damaged by the road at that location and you need a police report. Have the officer note the location and size of the hole as HE/SHE sees it.

inFiniTE LooP

keep us updated on this as i too have recently just hit a HUGE pothole and it nearly had me in tears

MCONDE01

I will, I have a service appointment this Friday...I really hope that they find nothing wrong. I will keep everybody posted...

mbny

they usually will not reimburse for damages from road debris or potholes, but you could certainly give it a try and see if your one of the lucky few. if you have any aftermarket suspension or wheels however, they'll decline immediately. however you did mention your car was fairly new so i'm assuming you haven't done any of these mods yet or if you intend to in the future. good luck and definitely let us know. i'm curious to hear the outcome.

BTW, i'm surprised seeing you've had this type of issue in florida. i have a house in royal palm beach and one thing i love about florida is that i have yet to come accross any bad roads. they're all so smooth and perfect. but my primary home is here on Long Island NY and road imperfections and potholes are an everyday part of life.

MCONDE01

Primarily the roads here in South Florida are pretty good compared to up north, I have not done any mods yet so the car is all from factory. The car seems to run fine, so if MB tells me that everything is ok then I will leave it as one big scare....but if there is something wrong or damaged and MB won't cover it then the city of Boynton Beach will have me on their a**...thanks and I'll keep everybody updated

Dubs42

be careful about those potholes..i live here in ny and after only 8,000 miles ALL MY RIMS AND TIRES had to replaced cause hte belts were off on the tires and the rims were bent.......

moshisuh

Two days after buying my 05 C230 SS, I hit a big pot hole at a fairly high speed in Los Angeles. I immediately felt my steering wheel shake and the car was pulling to the right.

Pulled to the side of the road, got out and saw that I had a flat front tire. Looked at my rear and noticed a bulge in the sidwall that was about to burst. I changed the front with the spare and drove home (very pissed off).

The next morning I went to the dealer and told the service manager what happened. I was expecting to pay more than $500 for two new tires. Believe it or not, they gave me two new tires completely free. On my invoice it said, "One time goodwill, no charge".

I couldn't believe it.

nichole76

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Now that's what I call service!

inFiniTE LooP

lucky bastid...my dealer would never do such a thing for me, not when they could profit so easily off of it

FIXEDupW209

this is a good idea. I suggest you call in the morning. Go grab some lunch, watch a movie, do a little shopping, and then come back to the location because they wont come quickly unless you parked in the red and they are ready to give u a ticket.

for reals though, take a picture of the crater and file a claim and the city should pay for it but i hear its a lenghty process. good luck man

MCONDE01

They gave you 2 brand new tires!!! wow...I am impressed, I hope I get good service like that when I go... was there anything else wrong with your car after the pothole or were the tires the only problem?
My car does pull a bit to the right but I think that is somewhat standard with these cars...is that right? I will be going back to the sight of the huge pothole and taking a couple pics...then if there is an issue that MB won't cover this friday I will file a police claim...thanks for all the input guys

mctwin2kman

You got two new tires because they were bad and had less than 10K miles on them. This is normal for a tire warranty, if there are defects. Believe me the dealer got two new tires for free from the namufacturer of the tire. Sometimes they will charge you though if you do not know your warranty, then they return and get the re-imbursement and make more money.

mick1

i feared getting tire/wheel damage from running over potholes so I bought a 5-year tire/wheel protection plan for the car. they charged me $399.

Outland

A pothole in Florida? Anything more than an inch deep is probably a sinkhole

MCONDE01

Well I went to dealer this morning and I told them my front left wheel was making squeeking noises, so they took a hard look at it and they found nothing. I got the 1,000-3,000 mile initial checkup so they checked my suspension and my brakes and everything checked out ok. So I guess the big a** pothole / sinkhole didn't mess up my car in any way. Thank God!!! I was there for 2.5 hours while they checked my car out and they could not re-create my little rattle issue coming from the gauge cluster window. The rattle only happens 50% of the time and the rattle is pretty low so if it gets worse I will go back and ask a technician to take a test drive with me. So overall I am just happy that nothing in my car was messed up.
On a side note the car wash they gave my car was pretty good, not great....and I saw the CLS 500 up close and wow!! what a car...the car was amazing and the saleman said that have gotten 7 of them in and they have already sold 5 this past week.
And the last thing I wanted to mention, I was on the way home from the dealer on I-95 in South Florida..I was feeling all good because my car checked out fine and all of a sudden it looked like half of a tire hit the top of my windshield!!! It was from a tire blowout from an 18 wheeler..my sunroof was tilted open so I thought for sure something was damaged. It was a real loud bang too...well I got home and checked out the car, and all is fine. Tough week... sorry for the long post...

schambo

Last year I posted a story about a monster pothole I hit. It completely blew the sidewall out of the tire. I called the police and reported the incident. My brother is also the officer in charge of traffic incidents in that town. So, I figured I had a good chance of some reimbursement. Boy was I wrong!!! He told me unless it was a reported problem previous to my incident I was s**t out of luck. I did still contact the towns insurance carrier and they told me the same thing.

To make a long story short, I ordered 4 new tires from Tire Rack and got the Road Hazard Program. (The tires only had 9000 miles on them and were down to the wear markers. I blame that on MB for coming up with the idea to put a sport package on a 4matic model. At least make all season tires part of the package.) Blowouts are reimbursed 100% for the first year and then prorated from then on. I already used the program and got a brand new tire at no charge. I only had to pay for the mount and balance. Living in New Jersey puts a lot of stress on low profile tires. Our roads are terribly plagued with potholes and rutts.

Good Luck in the future.

Natalie

Yes you can sue the city.
1-take photos of the pothole.
2-if possible get a police report.
3-get an estimate from your MB dealer and specify they include something like "damage from hitting a pothole"
4-if you try to get the city to re-emburse you they will try to negociate you down, in my case half, so go straight to small claims court.
paper trail, paper trail, paper trail....