doctamb

Have you guys heard that BMW is offering free maintenance services.
MB should step it up and do the same. Don't you guys think. It's competition. When you do the math, even on a three year lease like my car that's alot of money you save. Not to mention that ouur number one competitor's vehicles have always been a tad cheaper class for class than MB
WTFFFFFFF! mb hook us up! WE are the faithfuls here loving your cars!

Outland

Sadly, the only way to convince MB of this is not to buy the car. And MB's service fees are outrageous. Tell your dealer it sucks. With the exchange rate getting unfriendly, this was one way of recouping rapidly shrinking margins, without raising sticker prices.

vadim

To add insult to injury - you just missed it by a mere 6 months. MB used to provide free maintenance in the U.S. until 2005. That is, all folks who bought Benzes up to MY 2005 are still getting free maintenance until 4-year term runs over.

Frank Rizzo

In my BMW (330Ci) - I got 3 free oil changes, one interior filter and one set of brake pads on the front during the 3yr/50k "free" service interval. FYI: BMW Oil changes are every 15,000 mi. I paid for the first one (non-scheduled) early on so I know the dealer charges $107 for the standard 6.5 quart/synthetic oil/filter.

That's $321 in oil changes, maybe $100 in pads and $30 for a cabin air filter.
You aint missin' much....

Oh....... and 3 free carwashes - with free window streaks.
.

Outland

The MB intervals are smaller, the price is higher....its a lot of extra cash over the length of the warranty.

15,000 miles? That's too long in my book. I'd be changing it sooner on my own.

Buellwinkle

Love my free service, wouldn't have bought the car without it. Several manufacturers offer free service besides BMW like Mitsubishi, Audi and Jaguar to name a few. Vote with your dollars. I figured out that it's worth at least $2,000 if you drive the car 50K miles in 4 years.

doctamb

I couldn't agree with you more. Yup MB does do the services much more frequently and they are much more expensive than most other cars. AHHHHH the things we have to sacrifice for what we love. Still sucks that they are probably using that to regain in declining sales. Although from what I here this new 05 c230k ss that many of us have is like one of the hottest cars out there. W203 in general! I'm starting to see them everywhere. Even chics are buying them!!!! No offense, but I guess I'm going to have to go get some dubs, drop it like it's hot, and put some spinners to make it stand out. LOL Just kidding! Future doctors can't be rolling up to the hospital on twenty inch chrome spinners blasting g-unit on the radio. Bad for business if you know what I mean.

doctamb

Congrats on your free service...... ssssooooo jealous. Just out of curiosity,
I only have a month with the car. DO you think I could whine and complain my way into free services. We have a long history of buying cars from that Mb dealer. With my charm and good looks(lol), do you think I could pull it off. I could say that I though it was included and salesman mislead me??????
It's possible right?

ML55CLA45

my salesman told me that if it boils down to it........ and that if the only thing preventing me from purchasing a new car from him was the free maintance... that he would pull some strings and see what he could do...

i havent purchased a new car yet.... but i trust him...... hes sold our family 3 cars...

racee

Wow, now that I hear there is no more free maintenance I am not so sure my next car will be a MB. I lease the new cars for the simple fact that they have very little out of pocket expense. Maybe I will have to go back to BMW.

revstriker

Although I wish MB did not discontinue it's free maintenance programs, it's not even near a "deal breaker" for me. If you guys are seriously put off by this, then negotiate a service agreement with the dealer when you are purchasing your car, and have that added to the price of your car.

Battery!

I've slightly considered not taking my car and getting a 325i manual w/ the $2500 rebate and free maintenance. It would be a good deal. But the car will be outdated in a few months, and I really like the C, so I'm going to stick with it. Maybe there will be a rebate for the C230 by March 19 .

CitronC230K_03

i have free maintenance!

Iceman's C230

In Canada we don't have free service. We have to pay for service A And Service B.

But when i bought my BMW X5 last month, they gave me free service with the car. I'll take anything they can give me.

tuscanraider

Once I'm done beating on my '03 lease w/ free service I think I'm done with Benz.

CitronC230K_03

free service is nice, ill admit that. either way im gonna buy another MB next time around.

revstriker

Sure it's nice, but lets not fool ourselves. We still pay for it in the price of the car.

CitronC230K_03

yes we do, i totally agree with that. whether its stated on paper or not, we do pay for it. the rising Euro and weakening dollar, MB had to make cuts in order to keep car prices somewhat level.

doctamb

You lucky dog you! Damn it sooooo jealous that you guys don't pay service. Anyway, I don't know about giving up benzo just cause the service though.
I mean once I'm better established and can afford lets say a 50-60 car Id probably still be in a benzo when it's all sadi and done. However, if it continues like this I think MB will feel the pressure and have to give free services. But how are they making cuts? All of there new cars seem to be flawlessy finished in and out with even more features than before. However, they are using the same engines in multiple models eg new c350 and slk350. Also I realized that the c43 engine is also the 8 cylinder engine in the sl500, the 8cylinder eclass and the s500. Check it out they all make 302HP. That's where they are cutting. But hey if they want to put bigger engines in cclasses I'm all for it just keep the price down.

CitronC230K_03

an example is someone who just bought a new 2005 C230WZ for like $35k out the door fairly loaded. my coupe was comparably equiped in 2003 and out the door i paid $37k. that did include teflon paint sealer and lo-jack. what im saying is basically prices are staying level, but standard options are dropping or not what they were in order to compensate.

my 2003 has dual power/memory seats, free maintenace, IR sensor on passenger handle, just to name a few items off the top of my head.

HITMAN

YAY 4 free service, i love it,

ctC230K

i paid $31k out the door for mine, nicely equipped and got 2 years service and my first payment paid.

CitronC230K_03

lease or purchase? congrats on the new car, it looks great. either way we dont get what we used to for the same price a couple years ago. stronger Euro and weaker dollar. little things they cut, that used to be standard.

also this car had navi and BiX i believe. a C230WZ comes nicely equiped before checking any option boxes.

ctC230K

39 month lease, $3k down, $424/month

tuscanraider

I hope thats for 15K mi/yr at least.