I got a Lemon AMG and a Lemon Dealer
 

I love my AMG but it has been
a trying time for the last 6 months and 5000 miles.

I have had countless suspension/handling issues, and a lingering oil leaking/burning smell.

On the suspension side, I had one of those cars that had the really bad crashing sounds when going over bumps. The dealer applied the AMG fix and made it somewhat better, although it has had to be repeated twice.

My car also bottomed out on every bump. After 3 visits to the grossly incompetent dealer, I discovered that they had not removed the shipping spacers from the front springs, and I had been driving it with about 1 inch of suspension travel for 3000 miles, including a track session !! Once I pointed that out to them, and they removed the spacers, no more bottoming.

My car also had a really “loose” steering feel, with the front and rear of the car feeling totally disconnected. After much debate, I convinced the dealer to play with the alignment, which made the car a bit less unstable but certainly not world-class in terms of handling and confidence inspiring. (Note that I have the standard set up – not dynamic). By the way, given the gross disparity in how the various magazines have rated this car, my sense is that some of these cars handle spectacularly well (eg. Motor Trend review), while others are dogs –mine is a dog.

Interestingly, when I mounted my snow tires, (yes I drive it all year round), which of course have less sharp handling, the car actually settled down and improved, further confirming that the disconnected feeling front/rear is a suspension tuning issue.

Lastly I get a really strong burning oil smell coming from the front side and hood vents on the driver side, right next to the oil reservoir for the dry sump lubrication. After many dealer visits,and replacement of the tank, it has reduced somewhat but not gone away.

BUT, I still enjoy all the torque and corresponding acceleration the car provides !

So Sorry! I pick up mine in about a week - and I am a bit nervous given your experience.

You seldom here the good on any forum. On this forum you will read complaints from people who do not really own a GTS but like to pretend they do. I have had my ED 1 since May 26 and have had no issues, so don't sweat it. It is a great car.

Concur here... bad news always travels fast and even faster on forum boards while its rare for someone to just start a post about how great their car is. Of course we all talk within other subject titled threads about what we love about the car but its just not the headline like car issues.

To the OP I wish you well with what happens next and sorry to hear your problems- I for one, have been amazed by the car and what it can do.

ThunderMB, which dealer is this?

Prefer not to "out" the dealer yet - hopefully they will get their act together in due time. (It is a relatively new dealer in the North East however).
In fairness, their AMG resource people have been almost as useless as the dealer.

have you taken the service advisor on back to back test drives with a new car to show the difference?

Obviously you two did not read my first and last line.
See my previous posting on my opinions of the car.


https://mbworld.org/forums/amg-gt-gt...-dislikes.html


https://mbworld.org/forums/amg-gt-gt...ing-noise.html


Also attached is a photo "proof" since you seem unconvinced, of the shipping spacers that were left in my car even though the car had been back to the dealer multiple times to figure out why it was bottoming. It took ME to notice the screw-up, while I was measuring for snow tires, and point it out to them , not the other way around, so forgive me if I am not overly impressed with my dealer and their AMG head office technical advisors. (By the way, how or why you would doubt that anyone who took this much time to prepare a decently considered lengthy write-up, could be a poseur and non-owner, boggles the mind).


I have owned 7 Mercedes AMG cars, including the SLS, and have a very high respect for Mercedes's integrity and the solidity of their engineering, so frankly I am disappointed that they seem to have not quite finished their suspension work on this car before they put it out. (By the way, the SLS was the same - started out as a very mediocre performance suspension, which was improved to brilliance levels by the time the Black series came out).


So bottom line, as I have said repeatedly if you only read my post fully, is that I like this car a lot. I think with a little extra effort they could have made it better still, or at least given it more consistency in suspension performance, given the very diverse reception it has received form independent reviewers (ranging from first place, to last place in the shoot-outs).


My point is summarizing my experiences was to alert others that may have similar unresolved issues, and frankly, on the hope that AMG reads the forum, getting some constructive feedback to them so they continue the improvement process. (By the way, I have gone so far as to offer to split the cost with them if they were able/willing to retrofit the dynamic package onto my car - apparently not doable).

Obviously you didn't read my post. I didn't discount your issues or question them, in fact I wished you well with the outcome. I just stated the obvious- bad news travels faster (not the validity of the news) and then stated my factual personal experience with my GTS. I have no idea why you need to provide me proof (shipping spacers) when I didn't question your issues.

Good luck, I say it again.

Thank you for alerting others who may have similar unresolved issues.

Yes, On my first visit to the dealer, we took a long drive with the AMG service "specialist" and he concurred that the crashing sound sounded like the glass roof had exploded, and the car handled more like an E class than a sports car.

I think you need to trigger a manufacturer buyback or a lemon law buyback.

Both need to be approached based on lemon law eligibility criteria. Find out what the criteria are in your state - usually it is something to do with number of days in the dealership and number of attempts to fix problem without resolution.

Once you have that documented (with work orders), then prepare a letter to Mercedes customer service asking for a buyback because the car is a lemon. Detail the actions taken to resolve, the lack of resolution, and the eligibility for lemon law criteria. If they still refuse to buy back, then call a lemon law attorney who typically will take the case for free and collect payment from Mercedes at the end.

Sounds like a lot of us had the same problem with the suspension on the edition 1. I was lucky to survive a mechanic problem which no one else here has. My transmission developed a problem on my way home about a month back and the power to the car froze. I was going uphill at the time and it was a good thing there was minimal traffic and the car behind me was able to dodge me in time. Almost died that night if there was more traffic or was on the highway. The power to the car just froze! I was able to pull over safely but car would not move afterwards. My GTS has been back with the dealer for about a month now and they claimed to have found the problem. I have had my GTS for about 6 months and has been to servicing 4 times for a total of 2 months. it has less than 3000km on it.

There is a recall to fix the transmission issue.
http://autoweek.com/article/recalls/...aft-separation
Even though no one wants to have issues, that is a risk you take when buying a brand new model and engine.
I would not be happy either but buyers need to rely on the dealer and MB USA to take care of them. Don't settle for anything less than "the best or nothing" and if that means giving it back, then be it.
Let's hope MB has applied solutions to the problems encountered to the 2017 batch.

How much oil is yours burning? Mine is burning a quart per 1000 miles.

Mine is a complete piece of **** quality-wise.

Best or nothing my ass.



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We got your point that you are not happy with your current AMG GTS.
Go above your dealer if you are not getting the answers needed. MB will back back your car or you can use an attorney to get rid of it.
Best of luck and let us know what car will replace your lemon.

The problem is that lots of them(GT-S's) are complete pieces of *****. I think I have been on this forum long enough that people know I am not a complainer. I had 3 AMG Black Series that were all amazing problem free vehicles that I modded the hell out of and beat the snot out of and they never gave me a major problem even when heavily modded and regularly tracked. My GT-S on the other had is in the running for the biggest piece of crap I have ever owned, it's right up their with my CTS-V for biggest piece of crap title....and I own and have owned a LOT of vehicles. The problems with my GT-S started literally the day I took delivery and it was downhill from there. I am happy some of you guys have had no major issues but there are a group of us that own/owned GT-S's that are/were plagued with countless problems. Anyone that has not owned one should not be commenting, I agree on that but please don't try to discount the negative experiences those of us who have had major problems. I have owned more high performance cars than most people who post on this sight, I think it's safe to say that I am qualified to call a car a piece of ***** or not....and my GT-S was a major POS! The GT-S is a beautiful car that I really wanted to love but it left a bad taste in my mouth. It's one of the best looking cars on the road, and when it runs it runs great, it performed better on the track than my SLS Black Series but the problems were too much to handle.

Let me say this:

I think what emeric was referring to was the fact that AMG 16's last 10 posts in 4 different threads have all said that his car is a POS lemon, with a little more then general complaints besides the oil burn. The purpose of this forum is to communicate issues so maybe we can solve a problem and not continually and repetitively say the same thing over and over and over again.

Nobody is contesting any of the complaints, but I think it's the constant repetition and not being able to move forward is the problem . I've got a GT coming in 60 days or so and yeah I want to see any problems resolved.

Let's see a work order or error codes. Maybe correspondence between the owner and the dealer and or manufacturer. How about communications between the owner and the service manager? These are all functional ways to solve a problem not to just piss all over every thread. My two cents

Jrcart: I feel your pain when a brand new car with high expectations for greatness does not come close but you have unfortunately not shared openly what the exact issues i.e. did they occur multiple times and the dealer failed to properly fix.
My point is that you may have had a lemon but there is no evidence to date that MB has built a car that is sub-par compared to other models.

I have posted my laundry list of problems in about a dozen thread here and on the PL. Here is the Cliff Notes version.

I was hit with a couple of major software issues, the first software problem arose on the day I took delivery of the car which required the car to be towed back to dealer where it sat for about a week while the engineers in Germany developed a software "patch", there were a bout a half dozen people that had the very same issues, pretty much all of us who received the first cars in the US and first cars off the production line had the software glitch. I had another software issue about 2 weeks later.

I had a rear main seal leak that took about 3 days to fix.

Sport exhaust bypass butterfly valve failed took about a week to fix.

I lots of strange noises, pops, thuds, ticks and vibrations all over the car, some of which were addresses and others remained. I also had some weird stuff happen with the Pre-Safe towards the end of my ownership, I would get a warning the "Pre-Safe not functional" or something along those lines and would have to pull over and cycle the ignition.

So I guess if you are OK with having your brand new $150K car towed back to the dealership two times in the first couple weeks of ownership paired with all the other issues I spelled out then you my friend have set the bar far too low. The GT-s does not meet the level of reliability of any of my previous AMGs...and I have owned more than most people whom participate on this site so I think my opinion and feedback is dependable. There are several guys on the PL that have had dealer or MBUSA buybacks. There are a few more guys that simply got fed up like me and traded their in. The problems with these cars were far more widespread than you know. Please log into the PL and read some of those posts.

Jim,
I am not picking a fight but here's my side. I frequent this forum and the PL quite a bit.
I could not find a single thread started by you about issues with your GT-S. The only ones I found were "Weistec GTS Build" and "I picked up my Ed1". It is only after seeing a post on the PL about it and I pmed you that I was made aware of problems. You responded vaguely about the issues.
It is only now today that I know your problem on day 1 was software related.
The other problems are really minor in the big scheme of things. Yes they do make you mad when you spend that kind of money and rightfully expect "the best or nothing".

Maybe you were lucky with your previous cars you owned but there is enough data out there on other forums to know that other sports car brands have their own first year issues that are lot more serious than software, exhaust, or noises.
Just to name a few:
Requires a partial or complete engine replacement: screw joint on GT3, Bolt on C63, rods on M3.
Burning engines on 458. Electrical gremlins on 7 series leaving owners stranded on side of road. life threatening handling on the first Audi TT lead to redesign and addition on a spoiler, clunky transmission on first R8s.
As previously stated, you and the other Edition 1 buyers took a risk when you bought a brand new engineered car from AMG. With the added pressure theses days of coming up with new models quicker to out sell your competition, the testing phase is being shortened and you guys unfortunately paid the price.
I do not find your experience to be acceptable but it could be worse. For example, I bought a corvette and was stranded three times in a matter of months due the steering column lock failing to recognize my key. All I was told by the dealer and GM is that we know we have a problem but do not worry, we have plenty of them in stock. It took them 2 years to fix the issue.
The point I was trying to make and obviously failing to convey is that I do not believe the GTS to be outside the norm comparing other manufacturers and first year new model.
I do hope that you get your hand on a GT-R or BS as I can't wait to see what you can do with it.

I would not call a rear main seal leak minor, especially since it was not leaking out of the car, rather the oil was leaking back into the bell housing....the only reason I discovered it was because you have to drop the transmission and torque tube to install the Weistec headers....kinda makes you wonder about all these guys who have to add oil every 500,600 or 700 miles. Also makes you wonder about the guys who keep complaining about a burnt oil smell that just doesn't go away. I have owned plenty of good and great cars and a couple of crap cars, my GT-S falls under the crap car category. I think I am more than qualified to comment and know the difference between a reliable car and an unreliable one.

We are running in a circle lol.
My final thought on this matter: Just because your car was in the crap category does not mean all GTs are crap.
You are making a great point though about the oil consumption and smell. Owners should have the bell housing checked.

I agree with you there, it appears that AMG has worked out some of the kinks but IMO having that many short term issues makes me wonder about long term issues and since the car has only been on public roads for a year now the verdict is still out on long term reliability. Due to my experience I am taking a step back from AMG for the time being.

I am not sure if you were aware of the delays with the 2016 GLA45's. I ordered one back in October or November for a winter daily driver, I figured it would be a cool DD for the snow and to take my son's to some of the local snow boarding hills around IL, WI and MI. Well long story short the car was delayed for month, AMG did not release any 2016 GLA45's until late Feb, winter was pretty much over. There are lots of threads here and on PL with people asking about the delays, AMG never chimed in or gave a reason for a 3 month delay. Keep in mind the GT-S's were all delayed by a month or longer as well. That is just bad customer service, especially for someone like me who as spent nearly a million dollars on AMG's in the past 8 years and probably a million and a half on Mercedes vehicles total in that time. It is my opinion that MB/AMG has lost focus, they spend more time marketing fake C450 "AMG Sport" and "43" models than they do fixing problems. So my GT-s problems paired with delays on my GT-S and my GLA45 have really left me with a bad taste in my mouth. 2 years ago I was the biggest AMG fanboy on the planet, I would have never considered buying anything else or jumping ship but now the writing is on the wall, the customer service has slipped, the quality has slipped and the brand as a whole has slipped. I don't think it's just me, take a look at the latest JD Powers rankings for Mercedes lol, Mercedes should be embarrassed. Mercedes is well below the average on the first chart....coincidence?


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https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...328d30cf7f.jpg

I do agree 100% with the lost focus and the dilution of the name.
AMG was a famous name with a great reputation. It takes a long time to climb the hill but going down to the bottom can be down with just a few steps...

Too bad that AMG has lost one of its US biggest fan and I understand your point of view.

I hope they learn from their mistakes but with the democratization of the AMG name and the fact that MB is selling more than ever with a greater profit margin by just slapping a badge and a few minor enhancements, I have my doubts :(.

I just hope my GT will be borne with the reliability and trouble free angels.