GLYCOL CONTAMINATION & THE DEALER WHO DID THE PPI MUST HAVE KNOWN ABOUT THIS ISSUE!

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Jul 1, 2008 | 04:49 AM
  #1  
About a Month ago I flew to LA to pick up my new car. An 03' CLK500 which was a private party deal. I had the owner of the car take it down to Penske West Convina Mercedes for a Pre-Purchase Inspection.

When I arrived, they told me the car was in EXCELLENT condition and everything checked out. Now one month later, my local dealership, Ken Garff Mercedes in Salt Lake is telling me that they found the dreaded "gylcol contamination" in my transmission and that the whole trans was rusted and corroded. This is a KNOWN problem to MBUSA and it's dealers for this year, and I have the internal mercedes documentation stating so, but MBUSA, knor Penske/Ken Garff are not even willing to help me out because I'm not the original owner. Who gives a **** what owner I am your company still produced the problem and installed the defective part in hundreds if not thousands of cars!

I really believe that this should have been a recall but because Mercedes no longer cares about their consumers who are paying top dollar for what the Mercedes name has came to be, and the dealer who inspected the car, knowing this was an issue, still told me go ahead and purchase the car. How in the hell was an issue like this missed? And they are trying to say that it could have been caused within the time period i've had the car? I don't think so. A whole transmission does NOT rust in that time period.

The car is out of warranty, but why did I pay money to Penske if this car was a P.O.S.? And what recourse if any do I have against them or MBUSA for these issues?
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Jul 1, 2008 | 08:57 AM
  #2  
Quote: About a Month ago I flew to LA to pick up my new car. An 03' CLK500 which was a private party deal. I had the owner of the car take it down to Penske West Convina Mercedes for a Pre-Purchase Inspection.

When I arrived, they told me the car was in EXCELLENT condition and everything checked out. Now one month later, my local dealership, Ken Garff Mercedes in Salt Lake is telling me that they found the dreaded "gylcol contamination" in my transmission and that the whole trans was rusted and corroded. This is a KNOWN problem to MBUSA and it's dealers for this year, and I have the internal mercedes documentation stating so, but MBUSA, knor Penske/Ken Garff are not even willing to help me out because I'm not the original owner. Who gives a **** what owner I am your company still produced the problem and installed the defective part in hundreds if not thousands of cars!

I really believe that this should have been a recall but because Mercedes no longer cares about their consumers who are paying top dollar for what the Mercedes name has came to be, and the dealer who inspected the car, knowing this was an issue, still told me go ahead and purchase the car. How in the hell was an issue like this missed? And they are trying to say that it could have been caused within the time period i've had the car? I don't think so. A whole transmission does NOT rust in that time period.

The car is out of warranty, but why did I pay money to Penske if this car was a P.O.S.? And what recourse if any do I have against them or MBUSA for these issues?
I do not think the PPI includes tearing into the transmission and/or doing an oil sample to look for contaminates. Was your car Starmarked?? If so it should be covered but don't be so quick to blame the dealer for missing this. After all it is a used vehicle and they do not have X Ray eyes. I also think that there was a TSB or recall on bad radiators made by one mfger that caused this issue.
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Jul 3, 2008 | 09:52 PM
  #3  
"TSB or recall on bad radiators made by one mfger that caused this issue."

Yeah, it was Valeo rads. Apparently they have a sticker on them. Guess the dealer could have checked for this, unless someone removed it.
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Jul 12, 2008 | 07:42 AM
  #4  
so whats happening now? driving the car any further will damage the tranny right? you gonna take any legal actions?
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Jul 14, 2008 | 09:12 PM
  #5  
Quote: so whats happening now? driving the car any further will damage the tranny right? you gonna take any legal actions?
You are really litigous!! Who now do you suggest he sue, the seller or the dealer who inspected the car?? The suit will cost him more than the repair!! Did he ask the dealer to do oil samples?? My take is the fault is with the purchaser for not being present when the car was inspected and not specifically requesting an oil sample of the trans. Acyually in some cases a simple trans fluid change can take care of the problem after the radiator is replaced.
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