ManiacGT

Mike5215

You're referring to the scratch on the bumper? Or are there more pics?

ManiacGT

yep a four inch scrape along the front bumper. After all the issues with the car I now have this freebie from either the dealer car park visitors or the dealer staff.

ive taken incredible care of this car. Only to be dealt this.

Cbc200

Damn sorry to hear that!

Just out of interest which dealer do you take it to as I see you're from Manchester, I'm also from Manchester.

l3gendary

Did you have records coming in that this wasn't there to begin with? Usually service does a walk around and would've notated that big scrape. Don't settle than less than a new front bumper I think...a repaint with brilliant blue might look off

Mikey53

Gutted must mean something different over there. So, did you show it to the service manager? Did they offer to make it right?

Mike5215

The bumper is clearly repairable, but either way it'll have to be completely repainted and cleared. The paint is in excellent condition. A color match won't be a problem. Hopefully the dealer will eat it. Do you have your copy of the pre-service condition report?

DBOC205

I'd be gutted too. Sorry to hear it. Another reason why I always have a dashcam running when I hand the car to service. Could've been someone in the car park. Anyway, I hope the dealer or insurance sorts it all out for you.

ericwudi0830

ouch. just seeing that scratch pains me in my heart

removedCFGaccount

Painful-I'm sorry.

Mike5215

Ah, you're saying you feel gutted, not that the car was gutted. Is the dealer cooperating?

ManiacGT

I've not heard anything since i reported it. Perhaps Monday will bring news...

dieseldoc

Hopefully they will get it fixed for you.

mis3

I noticed that started a few years ago, the service adviser usually takes a workaround to inspect the car when the car is checked in for service.

The dealership has a 3rd party person to handle bumper scratches. They use this service for most of the pre-owned cars for sales. These guys work from a van and they usually repair a few cars at a time in the dealership. I used this service myself a few times and while they repaired a scratch locally (the actual paint repair in your case is maybe one foot length), they did a fantastic job to blend in the car. Most people will not be able to notice the repair. Good thng is the time to repair is only an hour and you can drive right after.

If you want the dealership to remove and paint the whole bumper, you will have to insist. To put things into perspective, these guys would charge me $120-150 CAN for a repair and the MB body shop would charge $700-1000 for the full repair (remove the bumper).

Mike5215

Yeah, that gouge is pretty long and deep for a spot repair. Although those guys are magicians.

mis3

I bet spot repair is what they would do unless you insist the full repair.

Mike5215

Generally I want the least invasive repair possible, under the premise that the factory is better at putting stuff together and robots are better at painting. If they offered to have the lot repair guy take a crack at it I'd let them and reserve judgment until I saw the outcome. Sometimes the most costly repair isn't the best possible repair.

mis3

I agree. Factory paint is always preferred. I don't know of a body shop which would sand off all the old paint before applying the new paint.

Also, at this location of the scratch, I would go for local repair.

Mike5215

They'd sand and fill that gouge and a fairly large margin around it, and then scuff up the remaining paint to improve the bond to the new primer. I'd let the lot guy take a crack at it. They have a custom paint match and tinting system on their truck. I saw one do a 3' long key scratch on a Mustang we had once and it was perfect.

ManiacGT

Yes the smaller the repair the better imo. Let's see what this week brings from the dealer.

ManiacGT

Over spray
An overpainted sensor
Colour mismatch
Over spray on bumper near headlight
The result.. let's say I await to hear from them.

on the plus side the scrape is gone...

removedCFGaccount

Sad, I'm sorry.

Mike5215

Those dip ****s spot painted the bumper. It needs to come off the car, free of all trim and sensors (duh), and wet sanded to get the new paint down to the level of the old paint and get that orange peel out of it.

Then primed and painted (with flex additive), and then clear coated. Technically you can spot paint a panel but you can't spot clear coat. It has to be the whole panel edge to edge and the right way to do that is to pull the bumper cover and shoot it on a stand in a downdraft paint booth.

Did it go to a Mercedes Certified shop or did their lot guy do it?

I had a dealership shop do something similar. They tried three times and just kept adding more layers of paint. Finally I paid a high end shop to fix it and asked the dealership to reimburse me, which they did.

Obviously the primary thing is the car has to be repaired right or it's going to drive you nuts. Who ultimately pays for it is secondary.

DBOC205

That fix is ridiculous. Sorry to see the dealer isn't looking after you - they obviously don't want to see you buy the next car from them.

removedCFGaccount

Good point: maybe they ARE telling him to pound sand in Hell.