John CC

The question didn't specify state tax, only if it was taxable. A form 1099 is a federal form. But, like I said, it shouldn't be taxable since it's really return of part of your purchase price. If you for whatever reason deducted the purchase, say, as a business expense, then there may be a liability, otherwise, it should not be taxable.

And, no, we don't have state income or general sales tax. Why? because we wouldn't stand for it. Many have tried, all have failed.

kajtek1

Government doesn't have to answer to anybody, even it is giving citizens illusion of voting.
In hard times 15 years ago, I applied for "Obama home affordable" and even the program was denied to lot of my friends, I succeeded to qualify.
So for next few years I enjoyed lower monthly payment, although mortgage statements had note that listed balance "is not pay-off amount"
So when I was selling the house 6 years ago, the payoff quote added $120,000 "back interest"
Just becouse

DESAL

I could be mistaken. I will email Shelby on Tuesday and see what she says. Florida doesn’t have a State income tax but I will ask about other states that have a tax.

Diabolis

Guys - this is NOT income. It is a refund of your own money on which you've already been taxed.

DESAL

MY QUESTION TO SHELBY-
Do have one question that you might be able to answer. Is the settlement check taxable for Federal and or State income taxes? Does the administrator issue 1099-misc or some other tax form?

HER ANSWER-
Generally, a consumer class action settlement payment is non-taxable and does not need to be reported as income. That said, the IRS rules on this issue are not black and white, and may depend on your individual circumstances. It would be best if you consult a tax professional. Since I am not a tax attorney, I am not allowed to advise you on the tax implications of accepting a settlement payment. You will not receive a tax form (i.e. 1099 form).

S-Vibes

I thought it would take about 10 months based on what others were reporting, but I guess all the practice they’ve gotten has them hitting top pace now: filed online on 4/29/22 and received my check dated 6/29/22, today. Just 2 months!

audi40

Thanks for the suggestion. I emailed Shelby and within a couple days she got back to me advising my claim was missing the required proof of ownership - I emailed it to her and just heard back from her that my claim is now approved and I should receive payment by end of July.

Steven Gu

actually, ask yourself questions is good enough to determine whether it is taxable:
Have you given social security number during the AEM repair and claim process?

The answer is NO. Correct?

Next question to yourself:
Does IRS know that you have this AEM payment?

The answer is NO. Correct?

Next question to yourself:
Do you want to pay IRS because you have this AEM payment?

If the answer is yes. Then it is simple: just donate whatever you want on the tax form to the government. It is legal to donate.

Etienne Lau

LOL, you all are worried about income taxes? May in you're state with state income taxes. I have not yet received my AEM check yet. I am now 1 year past the original AEM install.... Must be nice to worry about income tax! No sympathy from me here if you do have to pay State Income Tax.

kajtek1

THANKS A LOT.
Even I moved to Nevada 6 years ago, I sold my CA rental last year. The CA state collected $60,000 capital gain tax, what was close to what Federal tax was.

Etienne Lau

I know the feeling. When I sold my $152,000 Condo/Rental in Canada, I got nailed. a similar tax from Revenue Canada as well. You can bet I ain't moving back to Canada!

gooregi

Does anyone know the current status of EGR backorder? Is there a channel/thread that provide the most up-to-date information?

wae

I can tell you that my local dealer cold-called me a couple weeks ago and told me that they had all the parts to do my 2012 GL350 which includes a new EGR. I hadn't called them before that to get on a list or anything, they just called out of the blue. Dropped it off with them today and they said all the parts are on-hand and it should be done in about a week. So there are at least some dealers with supply. Maybe call around? I didn't buy the vehicle from them and the only interaction I've had with the dealer service department was having der Scheißwagen towed there about 3 and a half years ago for them to charge me $150 to tell me they wanted to put a new engine in it for $21,000. Which I declined. So it's not like I'm any sort of preferred customer or anything.

cadetdrivr

A week seems pretty long, IMHO. It’s not a multi-day repair if they have the parts.

wae

Well, it's the DPF, the cat, swirl motor, intake manifolds, EGR, ECU, a handful of sensors, module coding, and making sure everything's working right after that. ASRA calls for almost 7 hours for the intake mannys, Couple hours for the DPF. Around an hour for the SCR. Half hour for the NOx sensor. An "emissions inspection" is a little over a half hour. Not sure what the ECU replacement and the re-coding work would get us to. You're right that a week seems a little bit long, but it's definitely a multi-day job. I've been on-and-off working on this thing for 3 years now, though, so a few more days are okay by me! Plus, they gave me a loaner, so I don't have to put miles on my Excursion.

gooregi

May I know your dealer locates. I live in San Jose, CA. My dealer still told me that they still don't have the EGR.

wae

Oooh. That might be a bit of a drive for you... My dealer is Mercedes-Benz of Ft. Mitchell (Kentucky), just south of the river from Cincinnati, OH.

Is there a difference in EGR between CARB and federal emissions, maybe?

klxman95

WAE -

Did you ask for the oil cooler and seals to be replaced during the service at your expense? I ask because I am scheduled to go in a few weeks and arguing over the cost a bit with my dealer. Curious what they are telling other people as it is proactive in my case and they are asking almost $1K, which makes me think it is a waste. But then maybe next year they might start leaking....

wae

I did not, but I just finished rebuilding the OM642 in mine about 300 miles ago and I installed new seals in the process.

List on the cooler for mine is $284, 10 bolts at $2.30 each, and each of the seals is $5.50, so, what, just over $300 in parts. If you're getting a new intake manifold (oh, excuse me. I mean "charge air distribution lines" *eyeroll*) then almost all of the labor to get to the oil cooler is already done. ASRA says 8.3 hours for the full job, but 6.6 hours of that would be getting the intake... sigh... charge air distribution lines R&Red. So they're calling for 1.7 hours of labor for just the cooler. That seems a little generous to me, but lets go with it. Depending on shop rates, then you're around $600-$700? I personally don't know how vital the replacement of the oil cooler itself is versus just doing the seals - I've heard lots of people just do the seals, and that's what I did - but that would take some money off the service.

Speculating wildly - and I've never worked in or for a dealer or other automotive repair shop - but I wonder if the dealers aren't getting any markup on the AEM parts with MBUSA just giving cost relief once the claim is approved and the job's hours are tight enough that they're not making a ton of money on the deal. That would incentivize them a bit to try to upsell other retail services, like oil cooler seals, and perhaps they might even want to pad that a little to make up for the money they're not making on the consent decree work. That (and basic laziness on my part, if I'm being honest) is why I'm going to let them sell me a Bosch O2 sensor that Mercedes stamped their logo on for Benz-me-over list price - I figure throwing them a bone on that might generate a little bit of warm fuzzy feelings towards me.

The purple seals are supposed to be "more gooderer" and not as likely to leak so if you already have those, it might be worth a gamble on them. If I was doing the work myself and got that far into the vee of the engine, I'd feel like a dummkopf if I didn't take the extra couple minutes to swap those seals out while I was in there anyway. But I kind of have a hard time figuring out how they justify a thousand bucks for the work once they've torn into it that far. Now, if your cohort doesn't get new inta... charge air distribution lines, then that uplift starts to sound more reasonable to me.

geniushanbiao

I did 2 AEM on my vehicles and had similar experience. One of the installation was on a 2012 ML350BT and it was just when I arrived at home from the dealership the dash was showing problem with AdBlue and I only had 10 starts left, while I had the plan to drive to NYC from Philly the next morning to pick up my parents. I managed to do it with as few starts as possible and then returned to the dealership the next day for the issue. Their initial diagnosis told me the SCR module needed to be replaced and it's not covered by the extended warranty, which I feel like I read from the document that the SCR module was covered, plus I was almost sure it was caused by their AEM installation work. I gave the MBBluetecSettlement a call while I was waiting at the dealer and asked them to clarify if this was covered by the extended warranty and they said they were going to call the dealer service manager directly. And then after about 20-30 minutes they brought my vehicle out said it was fixed and didn't charge me anything. My feeling was that they simply did not plug the module back in properly and that was all, but they refused to tell me what was the real cause.

Quint22

Generally (not sure about MB Dealers) warranty and recalls are paid by the manufacturer for the strict aloted time. Warranty (and maybe recall) work has to be performed by certified tech not just anyone. Dealers dont like this, means they have to actually be on time for the work accomplished and cant add multiple hours to something just because or have the dude making $15/hr swapping parts and the qualified tech checks in on em.

gooregi

I contacted the dealer yesterday who told me that the EGR part is now available. I scheduled a visit. Thanks for your information!

wae

Well, my AEM has taken a turn for the worse. The service advisor just called me and said that because my DPF is missing and a bunch of sensors are unplugged, they can't do the AEM. Get this... They are telling me that they have to sell me a new DPF, install it, and then do the AEM. Which, of course, includes a new DPF. I've got the MAF sensors unplugged because the O2 and temp sensors are missing and I didn't feel like adapting the new MAF sensors since they're putting a new tube and sensor setup on as part of the AEM anyway. The DPF pressure sensor is capped off, and the NOx sensor is tucked up under the plastic cladding with the control box for it. The missing temp sensor is actually sitting in the trunk area since there's no place to really put it since there's no DPF.

I totally get that they want to make me buy the missing O2 sensor - in fact I told them when I dropped it off that it was missing and to go ahead and sell me one. But the thing where they want to sell me a DPF so they can take it back off again makes my head explode.

Neither the MBUSA 800 number nor the settlement administrator are any help whatsoever. To be fair, the gentleman who answered the phone at the settlement administrator was very polite and I didn't expect that they could do anything about it, but I figured I'd try to exhaust (haha, get it?) every possible avenue.

Anybody have a junk DPF they want to sell me for cheap? Or a line on a dealer within a couple hundred miles of Cincinnati that is easier to work with? Or know of a better escalation process?

They're currently putting together a list of things that they will require me to do before they'll do the AEM. Once I have that, I suppose I'll have to figure out what I'm going to do.

I truly do not understand how these people ever sell anyone a second car....

kajtek1

I do.
Not only you butchered your car, but now you want free repairs of what you messed up and then free modification and warranty on top of that.
That said, I am not that far off. My DPF is deleted from ECU and I have hollow shell on the car.
But all the sensors are plug in and they can return DPF shell for warranty claim. Will I be surprised if they refuse? Not.

wae

Butchered? Haha, that's rich. The car butchered itself by following the 10k mile OCI and eating its #2 rod bearing. No, it's hardly butchered at this point and I'm not asking for anything for free that isn't included in the consent decree. I would completely expect to have to pay to fix anything that wasn't right - as far as I am aware, the only things wrong with the car are the parts that are replaced under the consent decree. I simply expect them to replace those components at their own cost as per the settlement. I would even be understanding if they expected me to cover a core charge because the DPF isn't there. But expecting me to fully fund a new DPF is a bit insane.