AMGFREAK

OK, so I make an appt. for my CDI at my local dealer. It is the "first" service. Car is telling me B service is due in 600 miles. They cant get me in for a week, no problem I know its the holidays. So I take it in at 9:30 am (I drive 1hr 20min to my dealer) they tell me it will be done by noon, no problem. I have nothing to do so I check out the lot see what they have. Two hours goes by and my cell rings. Its the service writer, he tells me that they do not have an oil filter for my car in stock. I told him I would be right over. When I get to the service area I ask him to call one of the other 2 dealers in town and see if they have any. He tells me oh, we are not affiliated with the "other" dealers we cant call them ( later called the others and they had them in stock). He then handed me my keys and basically sent me away!!! He gives them to me and says nothing!!!! Did not even attempt to reschedule me NOTHING!!! The worst customer service I have ever had!!!! Obviously they dont care that in the last 5 years I have spent 200k with them. All they do is run around eat doughnuts and bump into eachother, like a bunch of monkeys. I have tried to call the service manager, no returned phone calls. I cant wait to get the survey in the mail that MBUSA sends out. I will never go back to this dealer ever. I have made another appt. at one of the other dealers that DOES stock a SIMPLE CDI oil filter.

MB Fanatic

What dealer is this?

AMGFREAK

Mercedes Benz of Sacramento

akbro93704

wow that sucks,terrible service. what dealer did you end up taking your car to? I'm surprised they even stock filters as you can't even buy a cdi in CA

MB Fanatic

Aren't the closest dealers the service center in Rocklin and MBZ of El Dorado Hills?

AMGFREAK

Yes, the closest is MB of EH and Mercedes Service center in Rocklin. As for CA dealers stocking CDI filters, the CDI has been out for sometimes now and MBZ of Sacramento has sold several "used" to local customers. There is no reason that such a staple part not be stocked for cars that they have even sold. There is no excuse. This is not some special part. And the way that they handled the situation was very unprofessional. I am embarrassed for them.

IllCDI

find a good independent shop.... even though my cdi is under warranty I will never take it to a dealer again.... Just from my experience I would rather pay for my car to be taken care of by a good independent shop than get it fixed haphazardly by the dealer for free....I think my CDI is a POS compared to my 123.. even my w210 is a pos..... mercedes has progressively gotten worse in terms of the way they build cars I have parked my CDI and it will stay parked until I convert it to run on SVO in the near future.... The only benefit of this car is the theoretical ability to run on vegetable oil.. .IF lexus made a RWD car that was a diesel I would have bought 3.

amge63

Inexcusable especially after you made the appointment and they had at least a week to get this filter. There are more bad stories everyday about Mercedes dealers that even if they manage to climb back up the JD Power rankings in quality, these bad dealers will hold them down in service.

ClayJ

Oh, man! Not to jump on your shiznit, amge63 -- but JD Powers survey ratings are worthless! Worthless (except for their manufacturer advertising value to the uninformed, perhaps).

"There are three kinds of lies - lies, damned lies, and statistics,"

There stuff is so unscientific and inherently biased that their 'findings' are laughable. In fact, so laughable that the manufacturers in the top portion of each of their categories are laughing...all the way to the bank. (LOL)

DWP

M-B of Sac and M-B of EDH were under the same local ownership until a few years ago, but M-B of Sac got sold to some out-of-town chain of dealerships. That might explain a deterioration of service quality. I complained in another recent thread that the replacement for a bad rear wheel-speed sensor that has had our E500 in the M-B of Sac shop since last Tuesday has to come from Germany. That isn't the dealer's fault, but my wife had to call the service department four times before they told her how long it would take for the replacement part to arrive (supposedly, 3-5 working days from last Thursday).

Going to M-B of EDH or the M-B service center in Rocklin (both under the same ownership) isn't much of an option for us because they are something like 25 miles away from our home. Like Sacramento's only Porsche dealer, they followed the money to Sacramento's affluent eastern fringe, but it's too much hassle for us to follow them to the exurbs for service.

AMGFREAK

I do know that MBZ of SAC did go through a ownership change a few years ago. After some further investigation I found some big automotive group from back east now owns them.

To be honest I would rather drive the extra miles to get some sort of customer service. I was given none. I am still in shock. I will never go back for service or to purchase a new MBZ. That Bentley Flying Spur looks very tempting!!!!

Ramphaus

So I'm going to the only other dealership in my area of North Carolina. Problem is that it's owned by the same people. But the service is much better, and the lot has many more cars to drool over while I wait.

LAH

What dealer are you using in NC? I am in NC, and have been happy with MB of Cary. The one in Raleigh which is owned by the same group was not as accomodating.

Ramphaus

Exactly...I had originally gone to the Raleigh Leith MB, where I purchased the car, but their customer service is terrible. I have a post somewhere on here detailing the events. The Cary Leith MB is much better. I wish it was a different group altogether though...

Pepsi because of Kanye West's comments...
Target because of the whole care-package thing...
and now Leith MB of Raleigh. haha

saffrontiger

Wow! If the W211 CDI is a "POS" why did you buy it? Simple question. Get the emotions under control and drive happy. Two choices, sell your piece if **** cars or bite it and buy the lexus you wanted and stop *****ing. BTW, Happy New Year!
Jay

IllCDI

Do you think if I had known it was a POS car I would have purchased it? I already bought a lexus, My plans are to turn the CDI into a vegetable oil beater car, that I will plaster in hippie stickers.... the mercedes warranty means nothing to me as the service is so poor that I will not let them touch any of my cars ever again. The car wouldnt be so much of a POS if the service and technicians knew what they were doing, and were able to correctly diagnose and fix problems. I am merely stating that the execution, quality, and reliablity of Lexus is far superior to that of Mercedes. ( I own 5 mercedes' and see a huge difference from the older products to the newer products) Have you read any of my posts on my experiences with the CDI? obvoiusly not.

glojo

Sadly, owning 'x' amount of anything does NOT make us experts. I have hundreds of records but cannot sing a note!!!

By all means fill your tank with vegetable oil, but please do not cry when all the seals start failing on the various pumps.

I usually take with the proverbial pinch of salt claims that 'Specialist' garages are better than main dealers when dealing with modern very complex vehicles. BUT..... I accept that there MIGHT be an exception to the rule. PLEASE, please note these remarks only apply to the LATEST Mercedes-Benz with the very latest technology.

'Specialist' garages usually employ very good, highly experienced ex Mercedes-Benz technicians. BUT..... no independant can afford to send their staff away on numerous courses solely to keep up todate with all the latest technology. If your independant does this, then I dread to think of the costs involved. Ask your independant how they can tell if active headlights are working and how can they demonstrate this?

I feel very sorry for the author of this thread and I would NOT be very happy. He might even consider writing to MBUSA and enclosing the link to this thread, pointing out just how bad this dealer is, shame on them.

John

guru

I have to disagree.....Owning a 'x' amount does make you an expert in the experience of owning something. Owning MB over the years does give you a good perspective on the trouble-free nature of earlier models.

He is not claiming to be an expert mechanic or expert car designer (analogy to your singing ability)...He is just claiming to know how quality has deteriorated over the years. Which, as a consumer, he can be an expert about.

glojo

Hi guru,
Hopefully you noticed my remark was very much tongue in cheek, however we tend to look at things with very rose tinted glasses.

Electronic reliability???
My vehicle has its fair share of electronic options and I think it fair to say it has had its fair share of teething problems, but there are more electronic gizzmo's in the steering wheel of a modern car than the whole of an older Mercedes. My point I suppose is that the newer car has so many electronic options we run the risk of having issues.

My own believe is that I have been used as a test bed for developing the E-class, and that should NOT be acceptable. I do accept the fact that ALL the issues I had have immediately been sorted and I have a car with options that older Mercedes never had. The older 124 certainly looks the part and I wish that I could have the 124 shape, but with all the workings of my excellent 211.

Would our 'expert' want to be in an accident in an older more 'solidly' built Mercedes, or a newer 211? I know what one I would prefer and just read the threads on this particular forum to corroborate my choice. I can remember the old days of owning a Mercedes and getting it serviced every 3,000 miles and paying a fortune. Now my car can go 20,000 miles between service and still cost the same amount for the service (In relative terms ) Visiting the dealer every 3000 miles did help in making the vehicle less troublesome, but they still broke down.

An 'expert' in owning something I like it. I have owned a house for a considerable period of time and lived in one all my life Please don't ask me to build one, or play with the central heating.

I simply believe that as we get older, we get more nostalgic? In reality though things were terribly unreliable, we were simply more tolerant. I'm a diesel CDI fan and this engine is unbelievably reliable, of course there will be the odd case of unreliability and most cases I have read about have been self inflicted. Chipping the engine or using an alternative fuel being the main offenders. Folks that wants to put vegetable oil into the engine will no doubt be screaming about the costs of replacing fuel pumps etc and then no doubt denying they had ever used anything other than the best fuel available.

You will never convince me that owning something over a period of time makes you an expert on that particular item, but it has made me chuckle.

Very kind regards
John

IllCDI

John,

Why is it that Japanese Manufacturers have the same amount of technology in their cars but its more reliable?

I have not used SVO in my diesel as yet and I have constant problems with fuel leaks. Have you ever been afraid to park your car on a hill for a couple hours for fear that it might not start up?


The only car that has given me so many problems like this has to be my Triumph Tr8. And those problems were from build quality not ****ty research and development. This CDI motor is very similiar to the 606's the 603's and 602's in prior mercedes models which date back to 1986, Why is it that Mercedes still cannot fix a 20 year old design flaw? The 617's never had this problem but once mercedes switched over to these plastic straw lines they have a greater propencity to leak and draw in air etc.

The other thing that ticks me off is that Mercedes Techs do the bare minimum to fix a problem. Training? It took them a week to find my problem and supposedly fix it and now it leaks again? With factory training like this I would rather have them not touch my car again and give to a mechanic who actually wants to fix the problem and get paid so he can get repeat business and referalls. A fuel leak has been diagnosed the same way for 100 years (Especially one that is so common as it is on these engines) and I do not need the dealer to tell me I have a fuel leak replace one o ring, and then have the problem re occur 6 months down the line. Due to another o ring that has failed. I actually requested that all the o-rings be replaced so I wouldnt have to keep coming into the dealership or have my car inoperable, and they tried to charge me.

See what Mercedes doesnt realize is that long time customers like me who honestly believed that Mercedes manufactured the best car in the world at any price will now never buy another Mercedes again. I have 700k worth of Mercedes' in my garage (well actually only one is in the garage the rest get to stay outside) and my next mercedes will be a pre 95.

cdiken

Send the dealership manager a bill for your time. Just use the hourly rate you get on the open market.

If you are a dentist, bill them $1750 for wasting 4 hours of your time.

If a lawyer, bill them your rate, etc.

When they call and ask "what's up" explain the pathetic situation. They should have gladly driven, IMMEDIATELY, to the competing dealer and bought your oil filter.

Meanwhile, just change the oil yourself. Its a piece of cake. And dump your used oil at the front door to the offending dealer's showroom. They stole your time, and now they deserve to be the victim of a criminal act.

glojo

Hi,
Please do not think I'm an ostrich with my head in the sand, I recognise that Mercedes have a problem, but I refuse to be influenced by the likes of JDPower surveys that try to make things out to be even worse than they actually are.

Oslo posted an excellent extract from a German magazine which all the 'knockers' tend to ignore:

Mercedes-Benz is one of the winners in this year’s compilation of breakdown statistics by the German motorists’ association ADAC. The brand’s passenger cars received top marks in three automotive categories.
The Mercedes-Benz A-Class was the winner in the “Lower Mid-Range” category, making it the most reliable compact car on Germany’s roads, according to the breakdown statistics compiled by ADAC. The average breakdown rate for the 2004 models of the A-Class was only 2.3 per thousand.
Equally impressive was the performance of the M-Class, which won top honours in the “Off-Roader” category. The average breakdown rate for the 2004 models of the M-Class was only 2.5 per thousand.
The experts at ADAC were especially pleased by the models of the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and the S-Class, whose extremely low breakdown rates won them top spots in the “Upper Mid-Range/Luxury Class” category

The manufacturer that excels in recalls is Toyota!! Okay they make more cars than Mercedes-Benz, but everyone always screams about how reliable they are.

Regarding the CDI engine then I respectfully disagree with your points. The CDI is a completely different generation of technology and it is unfair to compare it with its previous generation.

The straight six CDI fuel system operates at approximately 1350 bar and the newer generation goes up to 1600 bar. I respect your decision to plonk vegetable oil into the fuel tank, but it is something I would not do, partly because I have spoken to someone that has been foolish enough to do it and has had to pay out thousands of pounds in repair bills and also I have read a report from a senior test engineer from Bosche that carried out numerous tests on different fuels (bio diesel and vegetable oil)

Incidentally I have remained with Mercedes-Benz solely because of the excellent after sales service I get from my dealership and the excellent attitude of Mercedes-Benz UK when dealing with issues I had when purchasing my very first MB. If these circumstances were to change, then I would be an 'ex' satisfied customer.

A dealership can upset me once, but it will NOT get the oppurtunity to get a second attempt.

I would NEVER comment on the standard of your technicians competance and I simply respect what you are saying. Clearly a CDI engine works on the same principals as your older suggestions, but the pressure a CDI engine works at is far in excess of them.

Good luck with the oil,

John

ClayJ

That is worth stating again:

IllCDI

John,

You have been lucky... as I said before not one drop of Vegetable Oil has been run in my CDI as yet but I am considering doing so after my tech replaces all my fuel lines and gets it to proper operating spec. That article you posted means nothing since it is rated in the US as the car that has the highest rate of breakdowns in its class. Just from my own personal experience, and from which cars are dependable vs which care are undependable I would hesitate to take my CDI on a road trip and have it sit ofr a few hours for the fear that it might not start up and I would have to have it towed again to a dealer and have a shoddy job done on fixing my car. Mercedes quality is subpar, and just because some hometown magazine article states an opinoin (which mind you has no emperical data to support it) regarding Mercedes quality all is not good. Recalls are done every day regarding small things that go wrong.. it is rare for a company to recall a car for fear that its braking system might fail. My Toyota errr LExus has been rock solid, and yes I have had minor problems i.e. the clunking rear axle etc but I have never once feared that it would leave me stranded on the side of the road.. I have feared this scenario with my CDI I Cross my fingers when I used to drive it often that it would start and I would be able to get home... this is unnaccpetable for a 63k car.I am back in my trusty w123, and not once have I ever worried in my 24 years of ownership that it would leave me stranded.. I even drove the damn car 500 miles without an alternator or battery (how is that for reliablity) that is the kind of quality, reliablity, and panache I expected to see in my 63k cdi but this cdi does not deserve the three pointed star of a mercedes benz. It is merely a pile of crap with a three pointed star, that is trying to be passed off as a mercedes.

cdiken

Your public profile says you were born in 1982.

Anyway, from your namesake I thought you lived in Illinois. But I see you're in California so I suppose IllCDI means sick CDI.

If you think your CDI is sick now, run some B85 through it. Yes, it can be done. Willie Nelson runs his CDI on B100 in Hawaii. But you will have problems with the high pressure pump. Even newer Jettas are not known to be biodiesel friendly. You may do well to cash out of the CDI now, as they fetch a strong resale. That kind of money "parked" could be earning enough interest to buy an older diesel car in one year and not touch the principal.