Acapulco Bill

Gee whiz, Mercedes. One would think MB would PROUD of their logo.
Not so, MB couldn't really care. After all, they got your $ and this is an item NOT covered by warranty, apparently.
The W204 Sport hood ornament is made (chinese?) to the absolute cheapest standard, or NO standard or quality control, apparently.
After just six weeks, having put just 300 miles on the C300, the first image shows how the hood emblem looked.
Took it to the selling MB dealer, where they commented that ALL the hood emblems do that, just DON'T WASH THE CAR and everything will be OK.
So I had to buy another one, didn't wash the car, (or drive it either) and after a few months later it was already flaking off again (second photo).
Went to the MB dealer AGAIN, and while waiting in the showroom, a BRAND NEW C350 Sport, with 0 miles on it, had its hood emblem flaking away terribly. You could even blow on the blue paint and watch the flakes fly.
Ford is PROUD of their "Blue Oval", the 3rd photo of my 8-year-old Mondeo which looks just like new, and STILL HASN'T HAD IT'S FIRST TUNE UP!!!!
Come'on MB, get yer PRIDE back!!!! Stop putting this crap on your cars. At least not where we all can see it.

Sportstick

Don't bother with the dealer again. Send your info/photos to Ernst Leib at MBUSA in Montvale, New Jersey. There must be some issue with a new or different part source/process. My over two year old badge is fine.


Whoops...just re-read and noticed you are in Mexico...find out who runs MB de Mexico and send it there instead.

Acapulco Bill

Thanks Sportstick. Actually the local MB, Stuttgart Automotriz, is a first-rate dealer. There are other issues, like Daimler Financial Services AG suing me for $487.00 dollars for being $0.01 pesos short (that´s 1/12th of a cent), on my first payment, due to THEIR rounding error in my 24 monthly payments. Two cents in two years. That's 587,000% interest.
I therefore wash my C300 as little as possible. I am sure that MBUSA would just send me to h... Mexico?

Sportstick

You already rate high in bravery in my book!

The thought in sending the photos to the distributor are:

- dealer is constrained by warranty policy, for better or worse. They actually make some money by doing the job, unless they won't get reimbursed, so you need to get past them, no matter how good they are, if they are constrained by policy.
- unlike some mechanical parts, a brand logo brings up some visceral concerns from the Marketing types who wind up running the international distributors/subsidiaries. They will shiver in horror at the thought of their brand identity looking that way on an otherwise new car.
- send it to the top guy, (and I've seen this happen, as well as been the recipient, working at one of the Detroit Big 3) and it gets forwarded around/down the office, usually with the directive, "Handle this!". The path of least resistance may be for the lower totem-pole rung guy to call the dealer and goodwill it, or walk over to his parts manager and get him to send you a new one.

So, for the sake of a reprint and a stamped envelope, go for it! It most likely is a bad batch of badges (say that 5 times quickly), as I've not seen this happening on C Class cars elsewhere, but I have in my career seen similar problems.

alexlev

I have the same issue. Figured the car was telling me that it was time I purchased a $25 hood emblem, from a sponsor here on MBWorld.

blue00r6

Mine looks brand new sill

Savage c-300

same issue with mine but not as bad. I was thinking it was a rock or something..

Woohoo

Just had the same thing happen to mine. Had them replace it under warranty. (They did, no questions asked)

Ron Jr

Mine looks fine after 37 months and 42,000 miles. Washed every weekend weather permitting.

MiamiAMG

Interesting. I've never had an issue with any of my hood badges. Hope you get it taken care of.

Woohoo

I'm incredibly **** about my car - never drive it in the rain, hand wash only and it's never dirty except for dust. I've had mine a little over a year and 10k miles, and it happened after washing it last week. I wonder if it might be from synthetic oil or hydraulic fluid. Had the 10k service recently as well as the recall, and it was fine before that. Maybe the tech had fluid on his fingers when he closed the hood...

FrankW

it's paint on chrome treated plastic. if you have the car parked outside in the sun all the time. the paint will start to crack and peel. they're not defective...they're just ****ty badges. BMW also has this issue with their hood emblems. and some stuff you wash the car with will cause it to break down way faster.

sknight

I wouldn't want to be the one whom you sell your car to.

ImmaBeSmug2

I wouldn't mind being the hood badge in your avatar.

speedy2000

Purchased my wife's car on October 2009 (MY 2010). Always hand washed. The emblem on the hood looked like yours in the center picture in less than 3 months. Went to a dealer and replaced free of charge (as warranty?) No problem so far with new one.

Peabody

I thought mine as metal and enamel when I first bought it, and rubbed it with a metal cleaner/polish my first time washing it, and the blue did come off pretty easy. Mine was swapped out for a metal Carlsson emblem, but I would look at the metal emblems for sale here on the forums. There's no reason to even bother with that plastic clip-on thing or make a dozen phone calls. You're not going to end up with anything nicer than what you can get here!

Ben'sBenz

I don't have a problem with a faded hood badge, but all four of my center caps were shot after 16K miles. Dealer replaced them all under warranty two weeks ago.