I've had the worst car buying experience ever with mercedes benz! It all started last Friday when the color and equipment combination i wanted was located about 100 miles away. Worked out a great price and secured the car with cash. Got a call to pick it up Sunday, but when i showed up the car was not properly detailed (sticker residue on windows and paint). The porter started going to town with spray cleaner and a rag spot cleaning (black car) as i say to just stop and ill come back when the service dept is open. I leave to have lunch and park get out to look at the car and i notice swirls everywhere he was spot cleaning! Called Monday and was told to come by Tuesday. Show up and the story changes..."we dont have enough time to do a full detail" so i schedule to come back on Thursday to drop it off and take a loaner. Get the call 4 hours later its good to go. Get there pull it into the sun and guess what? SWIRLS! WTF! They take it back to the detail shop, work a bit more and it looks about 90% perfect and im happy. Friday morning (today) i check the tire pressure when I notice a 3" gouge on the amg rim and chunk of the rubber missing! Call in and the service advisor says she will give me a call back. 4 hours later i call back in to be told she wasnt avail because she was talking to the service manager about the situation. She calls me back 15 minutes later and says to bring it by so the service manager can "look at it". Go there and 20 minutes later the manager brings me in and tells me that there is red paint in the gouge and they dont have red curbs there. I call his bull**** and point out a red zone within sight. We go back and fourth on how nobody would admit to it anyway and he says he will have his rim repair guy fix it to keep me happy. Then he wants to reuse my damaged tire! I argue and then he says he will pull one off another car and put it on the repaired rim. Long story, but this is the worst ive been treated at a "high end" dealership ever! Fu@k Rocklin, CA MB!

 

sounds just like a dealer around here....

 

This deal is history, but may I suggest that dealing with a local dealer may work more in your favor next time. The 100 mile dealer has little incentive to satisfy you, realizing professionalism for its own sake appears not to motivate them. You will not likely return anyway.

A nearby dealer could have traded or bought the car from that dealer's inventory and sold/serviced you locally. Believing they had the chance of a long term relationship, they would likely treat you differently.

My car was trucked in from a dealer several states away, and the local selling dealer has been excellent. When I wanted to buy my particular vehicle (6 speed is hard to find), he identified 10 cars within 5 states on the MB locator system and handled the logistics so he could sell it to me...at a very healthy discount.

 

black car and complaining of swirls?

 

New car (I assume) shouldn't have ANY swirls... regardless of color!

 

Maybe in utopia, especially not on a baseline benz. I agree it shouldn't though.

 

this is the local dealer who obtained the car through trade from another dealer. my parents just bought one 1 month ago too! a brand new car should be flawless...for a few weeks atleast. i know the deals done, but ill be sending an email to mb headquarters and giving the work feedback on the survey i recieve!

 

Why do all car dealers blow?? If someone knows of an excellent (not just acceptable, not just good, excellent) MB dealer I'd love to hear about it.

sorry to hear about your troubles man

 

they are helpful until you give them your money and sign on the dot...then they have you by the *****.

 

Sorry....I misunderstood your first post...then this is not a very bright dealer as they are likely to lose you next time around. Not all dealers are like this...we have a couple of great MB dealers in Michigan who understand how people need to be treated to keep a long term customer!

 

Hey, when you get down to it cars are a real pain the the butt. If its not one thing, its another.

 

Coggin Mercedes in Fort Pierce.

I brought my car back from overseas, and needed the US maps loaded on it. They offered to sell me the navigation dvd for it, and told me just load it in and it would be done. So I asked them why would I want to buy it then if I didn't need it after it was done loading. So after a quick chat with the service manager, they agreed to buy the dvd themselves as a shop item, and loaded it as a courtesy to me. While I was waiting for it to load, they let me test drive the S class hybrid so I could run some errands.

Just recently the expander seal on my AC was sticking, they took it in once to load the freon system with dye so they could perhaps identify the leak, and had me in and out the door in about 40 minutes. Predictably about a week later, the AC was starting to blow hot and cold again, so they brought me in gave me a loaner, and it should be repaired by Monday. All in all, they've never made me wait to come in for service, and have been completely professional and courteous.

I was really worried when my German Mercedes dealership I bought my car from told me that I would never get service like the German dealerships in the US, but the only way they have came up short in comparison, is that they don't offer me beer, and haven't offered me demo cars (C63 and CLS550) to drive for the weekend.

 

I bought my car in August, paid cash and they were sooo happy to see me. But, I've tried numerous times to get them to contact me about some problems and... <crickets>