'05 Certified E500 issue with wheels/tires
05-02-2011, 10:00 AM
#1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
'05 Certified E500 issue with wheels/tires
Interested to hear what others would do in this situation.
In 2009, I purchased a 2005 Certified E500. Mint condition. Didn't realize at purchase though that it had VERY cheap tires on it: Nankang.
The car had some vibrations. Dealer was 40 miles from me so I had a local shop re-balance. It got better but still vibrations. I took it back to the dealer and complained about the awful tires. Best they would do is a road-force balance, which helped quite a bit but still wasn't right.
Early 2010, the car started wobbling badly. Took it back to the dealer and they said the tires were no good and I should replace them. I argued that I shouldn't have been given a certified car with junk Nankang tires but the best they would do is give me 10% off tires. So I purchased new Continental tires, mounting and balancing for around $1k.
Picked up the car and ALL 4 wheels were scratched from the mounting process. Either a novice or a careless tech must have done it. I complained and the manager said their wheel guy would fix my wheels. They were supposed to send the wheel guy to a dealer close to me but after months passing by, they never did. So I finally took the car back to the orig dealer last week. Their wheel guy ended up refinishing all 4 wheels.
Good news: No more scratches on the wheels
Bad news: The wheels are now dull looking.
The finish on the wheels now looks like they were painted from a $2 can of Krylon spray paint from Walmart. There's no overspray or anything but it's just not shiny. I buffed/polished one of them and it looks better but still not good. The wheels looked much better BEFORE the refinishing.
What would you do at this point?
In 2009, I purchased a 2005 Certified E500. Mint condition. Didn't realize at purchase though that it had VERY cheap tires on it: Nankang.
The car had some vibrations. Dealer was 40 miles from me so I had a local shop re-balance. It got better but still vibrations. I took it back to the dealer and complained about the awful tires. Best they would do is a road-force balance, which helped quite a bit but still wasn't right.
Early 2010, the car started wobbling badly. Took it back to the dealer and they said the tires were no good and I should replace them. I argued that I shouldn't have been given a certified car with junk Nankang tires but the best they would do is give me 10% off tires. So I purchased new Continental tires, mounting and balancing for around $1k.
Picked up the car and ALL 4 wheels were scratched from the mounting process. Either a novice or a careless tech must have done it. I complained and the manager said their wheel guy would fix my wheels. They were supposed to send the wheel guy to a dealer close to me but after months passing by, they never did. So I finally took the car back to the orig dealer last week. Their wheel guy ended up refinishing all 4 wheels.
Good news: No more scratches on the wheels
Bad news: The wheels are now dull looking.
The finish on the wheels now looks like they were painted from a $2 can of Krylon spray paint from Walmart. There's no overspray or anything but it's just not shiny. I buffed/polished one of them and it looks better but still not good. The wheels looked much better BEFORE the refinishing.
What would you do at this point?
05-02-2011, 10:55 AM
#2
MBWorld Fanatic!
Hmmm nothing? Should've told detailer that these aren't the original color. They probably won't do anything with it now. You can try to call MBUSA directly.
05-11-2011, 07:46 PM
#3
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Location: Bethesda, MD
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'11 Cooper S
Nankang is not on the approved list of tires to certify an MB. If you bought it from the MB dealer with those Nankangs they would be in deep feces, but you really can't do anything now as how would you prove it? I know it wasn't my dealer who did that!
About the scratches, that's pretty much the nature of the beast when mounting and balancing tires.
About the scratches, that's pretty much the nature of the beast when mounting and balancing tires.
