I bought mine in October 2018, so exactly 3 years now. It was a 36 month MB lease turn-in w/25K miles on it.

 

I'm eligible for the senior citizen discount at IHOP, so I feel ya. LOL

 

Another one I just remembered hearing in the past:

"You'll pay almost as much for insurance as you do for the car payment on a Mercedes."

Also not true. My insurance rates were quite a bit higher on a Pontiac with a 6-liter V8 and my current insurance rate on my C300 is less than it was on a Chevy SUV I had.

 

3 years 2 visits to the dealer. That is not even one visit per year. Now that's an achievement.

 

Honestly, I wouldn't consider myself lucky lol. One good dealership is better than 3 terrible ones. Please let me explain. The 3 dealerships I been to was always a terrible experience. Two of which was corporately owned by MB Canada, one is privately owned by a dealership group. I wasn't happy when I got the vehicle back with a dent on the driver's side door on my 2017 C, unfortunately I didn't know I couldn't trust my vehicle with the dealership and I was supposed to take pictures and film the vehicle prior to handing the keys to my SA. Lesson definitely learned. Other than the exterior door handle LEDs were replaced under warranty (I mean, there is no way they can say cannot duplicate when an LED is clearly not functioning and showing codes in Xentry), everything else they say cannot duplicate.

For one of the problems, I recorded it, shown it to the SA, they handed me back the keys and say cannot duplicate (vehicle came back with swirl marks all over it (looks like they took it inside an automatic cloth wash) and a bent rim, I specifically told them to not wash the car as I hand wash myself. As for the rim, they didn't admit it was their fault and I have no way to prove it with the pictures or videos I took prior to handing the keys to them. After I got home, I jacked the vehicle up to check for damage and sure enough, the bent was from the inside. Lesson learned again, to crawl under the vehicle in front of the dealership with the video clearly showing the dealership (incase they say the video was recorded at my house or something) to video tape everything (bent rim is one thing, I don't want under body damage either, or yet another bent rim from the inside with no way to prove that it wasn't there before dropping my keys to them), take pictures before handing the key to my SA. I thought third times a charm when I brought it to a different dealership, this time I had high hopes because the shop foreman test drove the vehicle with me inside and I heard the sound pretty clearly. Unfortunately, the foreman told me he couldn't hear anything. What a waste of my time.

I believe you are the true lucky one because at least your SA or people at the dealership warns you about your mods and not straight up flag the VIN (also known as tagging the vehicle as status 8). As that is most definitely what my dealership (in this case, dealerships) will do, especially the MBCA owned ones and void the entire vehicle's warranty.

 

It depends on the area too (is it a rural area or an urban area) the latter will cost more because there are more cars and more likely an accident may occur, and your model and model year (for example 2019 C43 accident claims in my area is higher than 2018 C43 and 2020 C43 which drives up the cost) E-Class insurance rate will be higher than C-Class because the value of the vehicle is higher and there is more technology that if needs to be replaced, will cost more money.

I see Mercedes that are cheaper to insure than Honda Civic because Mercedes have a higher safety rating in lots of cases.

 

I hear you. One good dealer is better then 100 bad dealers. My dealer don't use automatic wash only hand wash and before I hand them the key they make me sign on a draft showing all existing dents and marks. B​​​​​tw what "they cannot duplicate" mean?

 

It basically means they couldn't find the problem or experience the problem the customer mentioned (the customer being me in this case). The exact line is "CANNOT DUPLICATE PROBLEM, CUSTOMER MONITOR" in uppercase on the work order. In which customer monitor basically tells me to monitor if it comes back (this is especially true for intermittent issues, where it only happens "depending on the mood" of the vehicle). However the aforementioned issue was clearly duplicatable during the drive with the shop foreman.

 

Mine's the same on all my cars...about $440/year. It helps when you check only the boxes for liability and uninsured motorist.

If you're financing the car, I believe you're required to get the comprehensive bit.

 

I agree, here in NC the bare minimum is liability.....I hate playing the insurance game! If I have an accident and it's my fault then I'll pay for it.....if the other driver is at fault they will pay for it (insurance). But hell if I'm giving tons of my money to insurance for 'just in case'. So far this has worked out very well for me personally.
I've never financed either.

 

I inssured it all risk. If it was my fault fixing it will cost tons of money.

 

In my country, even if you are not at fault, your premium will go up. They blame you for not avoiding the accident in the first place. Not just driving defensively, basically telling you to not be there at that time of day at that place. They expect us to be paying for car insurance but not drive at all as driving increases the chance of an accident, from 0% to greater than that.

 

I've been pretty lucky. A man backed into my front bumper a few weeks ago..minor damage..whole bumper was repaired and painted.....looks great and paid for by his insurance. Years ago on an entrance ramp I ended up side swiping a work truck....had my 2011 E550 back then......cost me over 5K to repair.....but you know what? I paid for it.....I considered it to be fine, I could afford it and it felt better than paying a stupid insurance company......I've never caused an accident since. I still: fawk insurance companies!! I've owned my own home since 2008.....and have been paying homeowners insurance every year.....guess how many claims I've made??
Everyone is different and has different finances/situations etc.

 

Only God knows the future. The thing is accidents might will or never happen. We want to avoid them but we have no control over them. So i go all risk insurance to minimize the cost impact of accidents. In addition, sadly, in my country there is such thing as your fault or mine. Sometimes its 50 50 liability. There is no 0 - 100. So you will have to pay from your pocket to fix your car. They tell you if you were not here this accident would never have happened. 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

You need to change dealership and insurance. My 10th time using warranty to change out the door trim lol. They know me by my first name, I also bribe them with lunch.

 

Lunch works? Wow they're cheap

 

I **** u not, I walk in he says 'hi stock!' I am like door trim has tiny crack. He goes take pic covered under warranty, will call you in few days when it comes in. I am like cool thx, here is your lunch!

 

I tried 3 dealerships still the same experience, 1 privately owned, 2 owned by TRG.

Wait... so which insurance are you using? I thought they are all the same in Canada which is non-fault accident premium still goes up.

 

I get quotes from varies insurance companies on renewal but CAA beat everyone by $1k because I only do few KMs per year now. They have one with by KMs which was super cheap. Their normal insurance wasn't bad either, was $2k but they wanted $1400. I went with $1000 premium, having them tracking my KMs.

 

Thanks for the heads up, I always thought they are all the same other than pricing guess I need to find a new provider now. Anyways, Aviva is trash. That is what I am using, used to be with Allstate, not a fan either. Although they both raise premiums for non-fault accidents, guess I need to look further. I will start with asking for a quote with CAA.

 

Mine likes booze.

 

$5 sandwich vs $1~$50 single beer, 6 pack, 24 case.

 

I just bought a case of my favorite $10 wine.

I have a good relationship with my service guy and techs do excellent work.

 

Just found this thread. I too work on my own cars as much as possible...I kept an e46 running for over 300k with basic tools and Youtube, along with a service manual.

No easy service manual for Benz....oh, you can do filters, etc easily, but the other stuff ? Not as much.

A deer took out a headlight. You can't aim multibeam LED lights "normally", so it's off to the dealer for headlamp aiming....