Hello everyone,
I want to share with you my story, to let everyone know what happened to me and see if there is any expert among the nice people in this forum to suggest anything. I also apologize in advance for my writing as English is not my first language.

First of all, I've been a very happy driver of 2019 E450 Coupe which I leased in April and really enjoyed. One of the main reasons I got the E450 was the drive assist and change lane assist. Something I valued very high especially in southern California highway traffic.
Last October my car was involved on a minor accident where a distracted driver rear-ended my E450. It didn't look like much, but the car was little more than 6 months old and I decided to have it repaired by a Mercedes Benz authorized body shop. At the time, I thought this would have minimized headaches with all the electronics in my car. The body shop reassured me that was an easy fix and sure, in two weeks the car looked like new again with a new bumper. Everything seemed fine.

A few days later, I noticed that the lane-change-assist didn't work anymore. As soon as I signal the blinkers to change lane, the assist indicator never turns green and the car won't automatically changed lane. It also seemed the car was lazier than usual to find parking spots for the assist-parking. I want to add everything worked until I left the car at the body shop for the repairs.
I called the body shop and they assured me a calibration would have solved the problem. That would have been something the dealership had to do. So, I dropped the car at the body shop and was provided a rental car (paid by the body shop).

After a few weeks, the body shop told me the bumper was defective and all sensors on the back were replaced, but that didn't solve the problem. The body shop also suggested I switched the rental for a dealership loaner as the problem was a warranty issue (also confirmed verbally by the dealership) and not a problem with the repair. That was sometime at the beginning of December.
As no solution was on sight. I reached out to MB USA. They assigned a person (Jonathan) who mentioned this was already escalated and they were working with the dealership to solve the problem. I was also told a process had to be followed to identify the real problem so that they would help for future similar cases.
More time passed with no car on sight and I had to travel abroad on vacation. I was asked to return the loaner on December 20, but I was also told the car would have definitely been ready upon my return on January 6th.

January 6th, 2020. I'm back from vacation and my wife dropped me off at the dealership. There I learned the car was not ready and another bumper had to be installed and the sensor checked and the bus, etc... I was also told again this was a warranty issue as all parts now were new and not involved in the accident. Been told, two more weeks should have made the deal and provided me with another loaner, the problem was getting solved. To ensure a rapid resolution, I also reached out to the same person at MB USA I spoke with earlier, but I never received a call back.

After a week, I got a call that my loaner was to be returned ASAP. I went to the dealership and was assigned another loaner. While there I asked to talk with somebody, but nobody was initially there to help me. Eventually, I was told the car work was done but needed to be "calibrated".
Apparently, calibration requires the car to be driven and that requires the car to be driven around. I was suggested for me to take back the car and drive to see "if that helped". I declined the offer and kept the loaner not trusting a not calibrated self-driving car.

At this point I requested MB USA to get into the buy back program.

Today (about two weeks later) I got another call from the dealership. The car needs that calibration and they would need to drive another "500 miles"... and they would help me driving it for me, also during the week end (!)
No need to say, it seems like I'm paying for a car for MB to troubleshoot the car for me. I work on technology for living and I don't see why the car needs to be driven so long to be calibrated. How do they do at a factory? They definitely don't drive the cars 500 miles before delivery.

Does MB have cars that cannot be repaired after a minor accident?

Sorry for the long post and hopeful somebody has some suggestion. I'll keep updating this thread when I know more.

Regards,

Giuseppe

 

I'm sorry to hear about he problems you are having. I would look up the state lemon law and perhaps contact a lemon law attorney if: MBUSA fails to make things right and if your experience warrants a buy back.

 

I agree with teksurv.

 

I think that's the best course of action. I'll be updating this thread when I know more.

 

I think they want you or them to do a "drive cycle" this is done so all the on board computers can test themselves and if pass system

tests ok.The only concern I see is a drive cycle is mainly done for to verify an emissions related repair or trans shift concern.I

don't

know how that would relate to the parking assist system.As the park assist was operating before bumper was replaced and

sensors replaced also I would question why its a warranty concern.I would contact a lemon law atty to get them to buy it back.If

you have this problem that is taking way to long to repair ,you don't want to deal with it when it's out of warranty. The atty can let

you know what your options are so you can make an informed decision .Good luck hope it all works out for you.

 

Thanks, what I did was contacting MB USA for a possible buy-back and now I already released the car to them.

 

While mine wasn't in an accident, I was in pretty much the exact same situation as you. Bought the car for the same reasons, was having the same issues, etc (though mine is fully warranty, no accident involved)...

I've found that the outcome of fixing issues relating to the driver assist technologies that are not downright obvious and irrefutable (warning lights) depends highly on the dealer, and whether they have a calibration machine in their service department for the DISTRONIC system -- I've come to learn that not all of them do. My first dealer sent me through the same crap that you're going through -- the car was brought in many times, etc. I had no warning lights, it was just acting differently. My second dealer fixed it on the first try, and they had a calibration system in the service department that did not require the car be driven more than a few miles after to calibrate it and ensure that everything was working. A lot of this has to do with the equipment in the service department and their knowledge about the technology. Certainly, not all of them are on the same level.