werewolf34

My e350 has maybe 4k miles on it, bought new in July 2009. The computer is telling me that a Service C is due in 25 days. I believe a service C is a service A in US MB dealer lingo.

When I look at what a service A is, it seems like a oil change and some inspections. But the cost of a service A is like 200-250 dollars but an oil change is maybe 100 dollars tops.

Is MB wanting to charge me a 100-150 dollars more to inspect stuff?

Put differently, why would I pay to get a service A when I can get a MB dealer to do just the oil for $100?

Thanks

chokaay

Yes, you COULD do that I guess. IMO, if you are well-versed in your car's inner workings, and have no problem doing the required inspections on your own, then I would say it's safe to get a dealer to just do an oil change and reset the Service C alert in your vehicle (although I'm sure many dealerships aren't going to do this willingly, and will try and hard sell you Service C). (But then again, if you're well-versed in your car's inner workings, then an oil change should be no problem for you.)

On the other hand, if you have no advanced knowledge about your vehicle's inner workings, and/or aren't confident enough to do your own inspections and oil change, I'd take it to a dealer and get Service A done.




I had a similar instance in which my Service A alert came on about 1 month after I purchased my vehicle. I went back to the dealership, and they said that since my car was brand new, it didn't really need a service done since it was just sitting in a lot this whole time, and that they would just reset the message.

However, I countered that even if that was true, I know the dealership frequently idles their vehicles in the morning, which does involve running the engine, hence circulating the oil, even if they don't drive every vehicle around. Therefore, according to MB guidelines, service should be performed on the vehicle every 10K miles OR 1 year... whichever comes first. Even though my vehicle had <300 miles on it, it's been a year. However, given that I only purchased this vehicle about 1 month ago, I don't feel it is "right" to sell someone a vehicle, only to have them pay for maintainence 1 month after purchase.

In the end, I convinced them to change my oil & filter, top off all fluids and inspect all wear & tear parts that need inspection for free (which I assume is most, if not all of Service A), and to reset the service message. Anything else that needed attention under Service A, I assume will be OK until Service B since the vehicle literally had only about 10 miles on it when I drove it off the lot (hence it wasn't driven much at all).



But I don't know if this will work for you though, since you have 4K miles on it and it's been a few months... but maybe you'll be able to negotiate a "prorated" rate since you haven't had your car that long yet...

werewolf34

Chokaay,

Oil changes are really pretty easy. Review the service A list and you'll find most of the other stuff is inspections. The only thing you really can't do for yourself is the reset of the service cycle.

yeahrightnc

Yeah, I love how the dealerships will sell you a car new (or in my case, CPO) that needs service 3 weeks later. I bought my '07 E320 last January 4th; drove it for three weeks and the Service C light came on. I specifically asked my sales person to ensure that all service was up to date; he went out and checked, and came back and told me that they had just done a major service on it and I would be good for the next 10,000 -13,000 miles. Right. They did the service in September; the car sat on the lot for three months, and I got stuck with a $300 service bill for a car I had just purchased. I was not happy - and the dealership wouldn't do anything about it. Not a good customer service experience, IMHO. I'm sorry, but when you pay $37K or more for a CPO car and buy the extended warranty, you should get a little bit better service than that.

The sad thing was, my salesperson moved to Texas from NC, so I didn't even have him to go back to. Not sure that I'll get another one from this dealership - Hendricks across town supposedly has good customer service again - who knows? In two years, we'll find out.

sunnySD

I bought my E350 end of July and service A light came on in October. I called local dealer who said it's time for maintenance. I then called a "service only" Mercedes dealer in town which only performs maintenance but doesn't sell cars. I was told dealers are supposed to reset the time on service counter when I purchased the car but that didn't happen. My car was manufactured October 1 year ago and the service counter has hit 1 year.

Service dealer said I don't need to bring it in. Just bring in at 10K miles or 1 year from when I bought it. Don't reset the counter at 4K miles or it'll be wrong for the life of the car. I went ahead and changed the oil but didn't have the service counter reset. I'll get that done at 10K miles.