davidadner

Never owned a Mercedes before so curious what others think about the maintenance package deals I see on their website. Definitely "must have" or "total waste of money" or somewhere in between...?

Kenyon1976

Hmm, so up to four years or 40,000 miles? Doesn't seem worth it, my current car needed nothing but oil changes until 90,000 miles (brakes).

vfxcxn0309

change oil at every 5000km, you car will not have problem for long time ( i know MB said every 20K ) which i don't believe it

Deriggs007

I purchased the maintenance package since this is my first MB vehicle. I was always taught that German cars cost a lot to maintain. It increased my monthly payment by about $25-$30 but it takes out all the maintenance worry. Some hoses get cracked? Replace. Need a recharge for the AC? Done. There is no overselling which is nice.
My dealer told me the first visit is roughly $400, 2nd visit is roughly $800 and so on. Really not sure if it's worth it, but meh. They got me

vfxcxn0309

ha if you can maintain you car yourself, then usually you don't need it, ya, if you don't know about the car, it's nice to have it

LilSilverBullet

Scheduled Service A is about $400-$500 (after tax). Service B is about $500-$800 (after tax) depends on dealer location and promotion they might have.
I think as long as you can negotiate the price of the package Financing Advisor tries to sell you (his commission) to be the same as or lower than the MSRP price of the package on MBUSA website, it is ok.
Buying prepaid maintenance package locks the price of services to today's value since you'd never know how the inflation, price of crude oil -> engine oil would affect future costs of service A/B.
They are not going to give you discount on service costs but your dealers might have coupons for services all the time (in my case I got $60 - $150 off often)

Another benefit of buying PPM at the time of lease signing is that MB Financing service would raise the residual value of the car by 1% on top of whatever they come up as residual value of that particular car the end of lease term.
That would reduce the depreciation part of the contract, hence less monthly payment compared to not having the PPM on the same leased car.

vfxcxn0309

if you lease a car and you have $$$ to pay to dealer , YES, but if you sort of know how to maintain the car and own the car, NO, maintain it yourself! taking care of it before the manual tells you to do.

those Service A and B, are just checking your car, if they find a problem, then, you have to pay for it. especially you are on lease, Service A at 20000km?? if you neglect your maintenance before 20000km, sure you will more or less develop some problem, and dealer is waiting for that. An overheating engine can give you a lot of issue if you don't change your oil every 5000-6000. and remember, this 2.0T engine can gets very hot, and look, how many plastic parts under that hood.( MB still better than BMW anyway)

rich man or CEOs can ignore this.

Deriggs007

This is why I bought the package. If you buy the package there is no up charging for anything. Have a cracked hose on your first A visit? You pay for all of it. Basically your first 3 Mercedes visits for what you need are all covered free of charge provided it's for maintenance. Heck, go drive 100,000 miles and it's still covered. At least, that's how my dealership sold it to me :P

vfxcxn0309

sir, you might not get my point, it's too late to do your A services at 20000km, if you don't change your oil at 5000-6000km, you are slowly damage your engine, and other system. even through manual tell you to do A at 20000km.

if you leased you car, then, you don't have to care

Deriggs007

I'll have to disagree. I grew up around engines. My dad has been Cummins (big engine manufacturer) lead oil chemist for over 42 years. I've had the pleasure of working there a few years myself. Engines, today, can go further on oil than ever. It's all in the use and while the oil can last UP TO 20,000km, it doesn't mean it will. That's why the vehicle has an oil sensor to help with your maintenance needs.

The whole point is that the maintenance package means that your maintenances are free of charge regardless of the vehicles maintenance problems. If you want to take it in at 1000km, then have fun eating your first visit on plan. Otherwise, if you do take care of your car, it should be smooth.

vfxcxn0309

i agree with you, i also know Cummins, ^_^. my wife's dad was engineer at Cummins, but that's diesel engine. very strong engine. whereas ours, i suggest you change you oil at 5000-6000km, i'm going to do my first oil myself at 5000km as soon as i got liqui moly top tec 6300 0W-20 from Germany.

if you drive hard, them, you need to change more feq.

vfxcxn0309

i know we have talk about maintenance package here, and many of us might trust that "maintenance package"

IF this "maintenance package" use Wrong engine oil in your new A class, are you still consider this maintenance package worth it??? i'm here in Toronto, three MB dealers told me they will use 5W-40 oil when change oil for my A250, but the manual says, use 0W-20, need to meet MB-approved 229.71.

LilSilverBullet

I think PPM has nothing to do with the weight of oil the dealers elect to use. If 3 dealers in your area insist on using 5W-40 that complies to MB 229.5 (?) instead of MB 229.71 it might be because of some service bulletin suggests them to do that (time of year, average temp) perhaps?

vfxcxn0309

when i mention to dealer, manual says 0w-20, 229.71, they got surprised, and starting to say" oh..sorry...um...we don't know about that, we don't have 0w-20 oil" .

another thing about MB factory filled oil is, my coolant temp always above 90 C. around 93-94 C. i don't know if other owner has the same. i have removed the engine cover, bring down the temp to around 92C, if dealer add 5W-40 into it, you can image what will happen to engine, and if use wrong oil, it will damage the Particle filter.

Vampire1984PL

This engine is not from space that it needs change oil every 5k. MB got much closer "oil changes" than other brands like audi ( they got Short Life [15k/1y] and Long Life [30k/2y] terms and their engines lasts at least 250k km. If someone says it needs on 2L engine change every 5k so what about a45s? every 1k? Dont be such desperate Use normally, change oil if precatious change every 10k/1y - which come first

vfxcxn0309

in Canada, we are driving in both hot and cold world, i do oil change every 5000-6000km, i don't care what manual says. oil reduce the friction and friction produce heat, those parts near the engine are build by plastic and rubber, they don't like heat. well if you lease the car, of course, don't have to care this.

Vampire1984PL

You cannot recommend to everyone oil changes to 5k km because It depends on many issues like drive style, fuel quality, care'ing about cold engine and after longterm constant speed on highwats, "pedal to the metal foot", changes gears, quality of oil.
I dont lease my car its my personal private car.
Canada is big country, depends on amplitude of this driving hot n cold temperatures...

vfxcxn0309

according my own personal experience on oil change on my past cars, vw, audi, if i do oil change at 5000km-6000km, i will get less problem after 60K-70K on repair, also Scotty Kilmer recommend to do this as well.

you might think i'm wrong, but i will keep doing this. and Liqui Moly oil in my car.

oil is cheap, engine are expensive.

Vampire1984PL

VAG 2.0 TSI EA888, 1.4TSI EA111 got wrong design from factory/blueprints so they "eaten" 1L-2L oil every 1k-2k or more. On newer TSI, for example EA211, EA888G3 doesnt have such issue with oil.
This whole procedure is not cheap ( approx 40USD/5k, making 20k km/year= 200USD/year, didnt counted obligatory maintance changes every year ), changing by Yourself could on certain markets void warranty if either way something will go wrong with turbo engine and belive if they find that You change oil ( need to change oil, oil cap, oil seal, oil screw ) they will cancel Your warranty and will have pay from Your wallet

vfxcxn0309

the way i do it is, get the oil and bring the car to dealer, ( dealer will provide rest of parts ) and they will change the oil for me. and it will not cancel my warranty, <- this is my dealer told me, as long as i still do A and B service on time.

Liqui Moly is best of the best engine oil you can find on earth, made in Germany, yes a little expensive to buy, but good for your engine. this oil is better than the default factory oil ( Mobile 1 ), 6L Liqui Moly 5W-30 in Canada is about 70 CAD, + 80 CAD, at dealer, so 150 CAD for total oil change, not too bad.

after i use Liqui Moly, the engine become more quiet, ( i'm driving without engine cover, and i don't hear noise in the car ), better than the oil from factory

Vampire1984PL

Any proof that LM are best oil engines? Some chemical tests? Im not talking user experience...

vfxcxn0309

the expensive price over other brands, <- main, many owner report, two if my BMW friend use them get better result and love LIQUI MOLY

i use from my another car, the engine noise got reduce it, and after parking overnight, i still see the oil has covered the vertical surface of engine parts.