shortgamewizard

George, is your car modified in any way?

Shlick96

How’s this whole ordeal coming along? Did you get any good news on the matter?

benzbell

Not really. Car broke down on Dec. 2nd and was towed to the dealer. Am now over sixty days without it. Latest is the part is suppose to come in towards the middle or end of the month and should be done towards end of February. I've already started the lemon law process and am awaiting an offer from MB. Since I have the title I could elect to keep the car if I want. I go back and forth on this depending upon the day - lol. I do know If I keep it and once the ticket is closed out MB will offer me something for compensation for all of the downtime and inconvenience. I'm still up in the air as to what I want to do.

Shlick96

That’s somewhat good news to hear. At least they have an ETA of when your car will be repaired. Still doesn’t justify the nuisance it has caused you. Hopefully MB will make it right with compensation costs.

benzbell

Still nothing. I don't think it will be done this month. Fast approaching three months and going into the fourth month soon. Here it is where its been sitting at the dealer since December 2nd. At this point it's just so frustrating. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the situation all because of an emergency brake being stuck.

Shlick96

I can’t imagine how frustrating that is. If it makes you feel better I had to wait 6 and half months to get mine back after a drunk driver slammed into my rear. Some panel adhesive was backordered and it sat for 5 months for the part and the repair took 1 month after the part arrived. Mercedes parts and the suppliers are some of the worst to come by these days. Hope you get it back soon. Such a good looking car needs to be on the streets driving!

benzbell

They called today and it's fixed. Engineering got involved and it turned out to be a stuck/seized brake caliper piston. Evidently that can/will cause the fault error which they initially thought was the brake module. Engineering had them start over with a new caliper and retest everything and all is well. Can you believe that after almost three months? Problem is I bought another car and this is in the process of being bought back (lemon law) by MB. I'm still pondering to keep it or not. Once the ticket is closed out the GM said MB will compensate me for almost three months down if I decide to keep it. Not sure what that means. Probably some cash and additional warranty I'd imagine is all. This car is irreplaceable because as you know they don't make it anymore and there are only eight 2023s available right now on autotrader. It's a great spec and a beautiful looking car. What would you do?

superswiss

Speaks to the incompetence of the dealership more than anything. It took them 3 months to get Engineering involved and then it turned out the culprit was a stuck piston? I'd keep it. Compensating usually means if you have a lease or loan, MB covers the payments for the time the car was in the shop. If you bought it cash, then I don't know how they compensate in these situations.

benzbell

My thoughts exactly on the incompetence part. I literally called MB everyday for the last couple weeks and sent three letters to corporate. My speculation is because of that a so called regional field manager got involved and lit a fire under someone's *** and engineering called the dealership. Looks like these guys are too busy jerking around with batteries and other BS to pull their head out of their *** long enough to actually take care of a problem for the customer in a more expedient manner.

I do own the car free and clear so I'd imagine they would throw you a small bone in compensation. A little to cover insurance premium for down time and enough left over for maybe a pizza. Who knows? But I'm about to find out and will let everyone know.

superswiss

I've heard extended warranties being offered in cases like this, so I'd probably push for something like that. Or free prepaid maintenance. Something with real value for all the trouble.

koifysh

Keep it! And Make sure the compensate you. That spec is sick & hard to find. i’d be more than happy to take it off your hands with all the compensation

Shlick96

Damn…Not suprised the dealer mis-diagnosed it honestly. I would keep it if it were me. Like you said that spec is rare and it’s the last years of the W205. Make the dealer give you the most compensation as possible that’s BS. You could have had it back sooner than 3 months knowing it was just a damn caliper.

jj18

. A sad situation for sure. I'd like to talk to the Dealership tech(s) who could not figure it out or maybe just didn't care.
Hope you are rewarded and then some. Beautiful car.

///Bruce

Maybe later this weekend I’ll tell you why I fired MB Greenway here today in Houston for incompetence.

Sc4Hundred

Try to get the admin fee back as compensation and keep the car

benzbell

Update: It's back in my garage. Apparently, I have another 3 months for the buy back process to play out. Since it's still my car, I don't want it sitting at the dealer in case something happens to it. GM said I can drive it or do whatever because what's done is done and by me picking it up changes nothing. It was two days shy of being there for three months. Miraculously, after I washed it and went over it with a fine tooth comb there's not a mark on it. I'm sure they're happy it's gone because it was taking up valuable indoor space inside the dealership.

japamg

Love it. Keep it 😎

superswiss

Drive it and enjoy it. At this point a buyback would be mad, IMHO. FWIW, mine went back and forth during the second year because the aero package side blades wouldn't stay on. Took like 4 dealer visits and their body shop trying to attach them and make them stay until AMG finally came out with revised parts that screwed on to the rocker panels. Combined it was in the shop for over 30 days, but it's all forgotten now. No way I would have done a buyback over it and I didn't even pursue any kind of compensation. Gave mine a spring cleaning a couple of weeks ago and I'm ready to hit up the canyons. Wanna experience the new BMW Star marked PS4S I put on in January, but it's raining again now, so it's staying inside. Spring should be here soon.

benzbell

From speaking with MB yesterday they will be presenting me a couple offers. One of course is the buyback through a third party arbitrator they use and the other will be some form of compensation if I keep it. Still undecided. I guess I'll wait until it happens and see what I'm presented with and how I feel at that time. Mine was gone two days shy of three months over a faulty brake caliper piston. Ridiculous.

Jimmy_c63s

She's a beauty though
Waiting on hearing what they will be able to offer you etc

Baltistyle

I’m no expert here, but since the ADM concept is a relatively new concept for off the shelf cars (yeah not to debate the manufacturers under supplying) and as far as a buyer knows this is the only price they can get the car for, and it was through a Mercedes dealer that Mercedes allows to change pricing, I would absolutely fight for adm. perhaps you set a precedent that means if a manufacturers rep over charges, or adds additional fees, and then is additionally the responsible party for the lemon law (meaning the dealership might actually be able to fix it, but he’s unwilling to) I think Mercedes is completely responsible here for everything except the miles drivenor other outside of the dealer upgrades. Any dollar amount charged by the dealer for the car including warranties, extra wheels sets or prep packages forced on customers and allowed under mb corporate dealership rules should be returned. If not, what prevents the next dealer from charging $10,000 extra knowing Mercedes won’t cover it or claw it back and then the dealers just refuse to work on the cars (in a real meaningful way to prevent a lemon at all costs) there by rendering them lemons…

good luck, as I would put that dealer on blast, and I’d also buy a module and remove the car from that dealers care. If the module doesn’t work, you can always put the car back out of service for 30 days at a different dealer and lemon it then…or maybe they fix it.

Knowing that dealer scammed you with the ADM, have they offered to pay your car payment out of their excessive profit? Have they offered any type of service that would make them stand out as excellent or really should you just let us all know who it is so we can avoid them and take the money back out of their pockets?

benzbell

I agree with most of what you say. I don't feel like I got scammed on the ADM because that was the going rate if you wanted the car and there weren't a lot of them. It was a take it or leave it and I took it. Car was bought in Florida and I live in Utah. My issue is I want to be made whole on the ADM at the buyback because that was part of the purchase price. A refund is a refund. I'm sure they would have offered to make a car and/or lease payment but I own the car free and clear. I'll have to wait a few more weeks to see what they offer. Who knows it may be pretty decent. I really hammered the fact that this was my tenth (10th) AMG product. So you think that should hold some weight. We'll see and I will definitely be updating this thread on developments as they happen. Thank you for your suggestions.

RavenM6

At this point I would just keep the car. It’s still very low mileage, in flawless condition, is a rare spec, final production year, etc… It’s now in perfect mechanical and cosmetic condition. There aren’t too many comparable cars out there at this price point that you can replace it with.

As far as compensation, I’d try to recoup the ADM, and maybe they can thrown in a year or two of their ELW since you’ve been a loyal lifetime MB customer.

benzbell

I'm starting to lean towards something like that but alas I waffle back and forth. I'll have to see at that time and how I feel.

Baltistyle

I had not scroll through the whole thread before replying unfortunately but I’m glad you got the car back and hopefully you can get it working without that dealership.. the reason I used scam for the ADM comment is because it turned from possible necessity to a strategy on behalf of car dealers and manufactures. Part of the price as you say, so they should make you whole even though they try to class the markup as an extra. I’m guessing there’s going to be some studies in the future showing and proving that the manufactures actually could’ve manufactured more cars and not created the supply and pricing problems that they did across the world..