JP5757

This is a MB manufacture problem. I have been a car dealer and body shop owner and race car driver for over 10 years and my wife has a $56,000 cash paid 2014 GLK 350 AMG package mars red. The clear coat literally is falling off the car as of last week and blistering all over. I managed Roebling Road Raceway for the last two years. This is a big problem. MB will replace the car and have been as I have been finding. If you are ok with spending 56k on a car that has a manufacturing defect and needs a full repaint then they will be happy to repaint. I can tell you the car will never be the same. We, as dealers, do check for paint not only with a trained eye, but with paint gauges that measure the thickness and consistency of the paint. It is depreciated. Many comments mention it not being a problem with trade-ins and that is because as a dealer, I now how much we make on trade ins and could care less about the paint work. I guarantee if you attend a wholesale auction such as florida auction of orlando, every dealer has his paint meeter. Mercedes has a good business. Why hurt it with paint problems. They will take care of their customers. I managed Roebling Road Raceway for the last two years and will be in contact with Mercedes for a new car. I know of others who are getting replacement new cars even at a more expensive price. It would be smart for Mercedes to take care of their customers especially when their market is huge and they are making some really good cars. We have motorweek do all their testing at our track with their 250k Mercedes. I have huge social media network with the track and shops. I hope Mercedes contacts me shortly so I can post how great they are. Porsche had some problems but Porsche has a reputation on and off track to take care of their customers and that is so important. I have many friends spending almost 200k for a Porsche with confidence. Ive seen them blow their engines on a race track and Porsche still change their 50k engine. Im sure Mercedes will follow in the footsteps of the greats.

JP5757

And I with the 2014 GLK 350

JP5757

Mercedes has been replacing the vehicles as this is factory problem. Why buy a new car to have it stripped down and pulled completely apart to be painted by "elmar"? Mercedes will stand behind their cars i want to believe and replace with a new car.

JP5757

Expect full repaint which means pulling windows out etc

Yidney

I doubt they will pull windows. One more thing I would do, though. Bumpers are painted with slightly different paint, and I've not heard that peeling bumpers have been an issue. If they are really repainting the whole car, they need to pull the bumpers, and may very well not repaint them. Or they may repaint them, but with separately mixed paint. I would take numerous "before" pics of my car in various lighting conditions to document that the bumpers match the car. Then if they don't match afterwards you have a complaint. The human eye can detect millions of shades of color, and non-matching bumpers are sort of a pet peeve of mine.

shotgun_banjo

To the OP. Make sure to prepare yourself for the stress you will about to go through if they won't properly strip and repaint the car. I guarantee you right now that if they won't be pulling out parts and will just be masking around the car you will get rough edges and miscolored paint between the outside and inside of the exposed metal of the car. I still think you need stir a conversation with MB corporate about compensation and possible buy back of the car as this will have tremendous impact on the resale value of the car if it is not done right.

Skazmi

MB corporate will not respond to my emails. One mail that they replied to mentioned that paint is not a warranty thing but I needed to visit dealership to still see if it would be covered. Since then, I have talked to them multiple times but they don't answer. The bottom line I learned, never buy black, or bright colors in benz. They will try to put me in another car if I am not satisfied with the paint job per the guy. I was present while they started to remove the paint from the roof.

Skazmi

But they did not mention any sort of compensation in a buy back if the dealership does consider one. They will consider it more of a trade in type buy out I believe.

Skazmi

I am driving the 2016 C300 and must I say it is a major dissapointment. Car swirls at high speeds while opening the panoramic sunroof, you notice a very bad stinch in the entire car. During morning start, you can hear the valves knocking badly. It's a 4 cylinder top of the line c300. They do not have a c300 v6 anymore. But the body has been made so light that you now feel the wind swirls at high speed.

Skazmi

I feel majorly dissapointment with the 2016 Benz c300. I do not recommend people to buy it. It is an expensive car with poor quality effort.

shotgun_banjo

Shazmi,

I just feel sad seeing that sanded down paint. I do hope they do a excellent job with the repaint. BS on the paint not part of warranty. The dealer wont even lay a finger on that car if it is not a known defect. Dont let them boss you around with this one. If you see a small bubble or dust in the paint tell them to redo it. Do not drive out the car from the dealer unless you see the car in broad day light and inspect it with your own bodyshop guy or best someone who does paint coatings (cquartz, etc....)for a living as they will have the eye for paint defects. Literally feel every inch of that car for surface defects. Feel it like your first time going in bed with your lady. I kid you not about this! The time you drive off with that car you will have a hard time going back to fix any paint problem you will see when you had time cleaning her up.

Skazmi

Do not know about other countries, but their corporate in the US do not handle client relationship that well. I have heard Audi (compared to BMW and Benz) is a brand here that will go out of the way to satisfy their client to keep a strong bond. Plus if you try to contact Benz through the official Mercedes Me account, they will not respond to you at all. If you open a ticket, it is not addressed at all sometime. I have opened multiple tickets for discussing this issue, but none has been responded to.

Honestly, Dealerships I have dealt with apart from the one I brought my car from, have been more comforting and good about discussing the car issues than has corporate. However, not all dealerships are worth it.

In NJ, i remember, the one in Morristown is not good but Bridgewater NJ did an excellent job at customer satisfaction. Same is the case in Plano, TX, the dealership does not give a rats a** if you did not buy a car through them and will not respond back to your calls but places like Park Place in Dallas have been great.

I do not know why a standard for customer satisfaction is not being rolled out at Benz that corporate and every dealership should adapt to like if you were to walk into Porsche, Jaguar or were looking at a Land rover, from the corporate to dealerships, they do care about the client.

Surprisingly, Hyundai for its luxury cars, is also surpassing quality of service standards compared to Lexus and other Japanese luxury brand. I just want Benz to be a leader from every perspective and I hope they plan on achieving this some day.

Skazmi

Just an update, my car has been rolled out and is ready with a red color primer as of this morning. Expecting the paint to happen in the next week.

Skazmi

Skazmi

Skazmi

They told me the engine bay has been painted, I did see and it looked fresh. There was nothing inside the car too and the outside was empty too, I did tell them that the panels should be painted. He told me that the door panels had been repainted too.

shotgun_banjo

That looks like a good sign. Make sure that when they applied the final clear coat all the plastic parts like bumper, side skirts needs to be painted as well to perfectly blend the finish. Cross your fingers you won't find any bubbles or dust on your new paint. Tell the paint guy to take his time, do it once and do it right.

Skazmi

Per my dealer, there was a batch of paint that were a defect so they should paint the entire car since the whole paint on the car is defective. Tell them they have to cover the whole respray.

Skazmi

They have a bake paint booth and the dealer is certified painter for Maserati and porsche. Hoping to see great results.

JP5757

Whatever you do, do not buy Mercedes!!! we bought a brand new Mercedes GLK 350 AMG Package last year and the paint is literally falling off. The clear coat over entire car has blistered and sheets of clear falling off. Those of you that know about paintwork know that simply repainting it not only significantly depreciates the car but since the paint is defective it is everywhere and has trapped moisture (corrosion) everywhere. We came to an agreement for a replacement car with less options. This morning we were told that MB agreed to only give us 25k for our car towards the replacement plus 8k. We spent over 56k for the MB last year. It sickens me when I have seen Porsche give my friend a new engine for his 180k GT3 RS after blowing it on track by smashing his oil pan on an apex. That's customer loyalty!

JP5757

They might put you in a new car if you are not happy with the job but at what cost? Those numbers are kept very disclosed and were very misleading to us.

Alfadude

JP, when you say you came to an agreement with the dealer where they gave you $33K towards the replacement was that for a new car or for a 2014 like you had? Either way that seems low for a trade in that you mentioned was highly optioned. Did you have very high mileage on it or was there something else unusual about it If not, that really does not sound fair.

If you wanted a new car because your paint had an issue I wouldn't think they would replace that even up. But if that had happened to me in a year after buying a car new I would have been pretty adamant about wanting an equivalent used car with the same mileage and appointments. I wouldn't think that would be too hard for them to find being a dealer.

As for the Porsche story, did your friend tell them the engine got ruined while racing it on a track and under what circumstances? Or did he just say the engine went out of the blue? If it was the former, I would be shocked.

JP5757

Thanks for your reply. I managed Roebling Road Raceway for the last two years and have witnessed Porsche replacing more than one 50k engine that "went" on track. These were new gt3rs. They were happy that their customers were using them on track. The word spread quickly about the excellent customer service. We have had this car a year and a half and taken really good care of it. We bought it brand new and the paint falls off a year later. I don't want someone else's exact miles and I can't even locate a similar Packaged car used or new. Thanks for your help. The credit was towards a new GLC which replaces the glk but was 50k. They wanted another 18k. So we spent 56 and love the car and now either a repaint or this. We will see how MB works with us as these options won't work.

Skazmi

What color was your car?

JP5757

It is Mars Red