Wow.. airmatic and SBC not covered under warranty. Shows how much faith MB has in the product they sold me!. It will be the last one though. "fool me once shame on you"

Won't be a fool me twice!

 

If you read the fine print, that's not what it says. It says the car is sold with identical specs to a factory new car and any defects are repaired to meet factory specs. This provision allows for a car in an accident to be sold as a CPO car. But the extent of the accident makes a big difference...

Bottom line is before buying ANY used car, CPO or not, have the car inspected by a reputable body shop while it is up a lift for any major damage or painting.

When I bought my car I did not have a mechanic check the car since it was CPO and I figured I will have any mechanical stuff that come up fixed under warranty.

 

Thansk SRFR...good to know! Funny how this "lore" gets spread around--I swear a salesman told me CPO means no accidents.

 

I thought the same...

 

http://www.mbusa.com/mercedes/cpo/multipoint_inspection

 

This is an amped up version of why I sold my Mercedes. While the dealer is certainly culpable it's not the reason that the car had the electrical and mechanical issues. Very disappointing for an 09 Bluetec...

 

Please back this statement up

 

Yes, I am pretty sure Airmatic is covered by my CPO warranty.

 

Any update?

 

Glad I came across this thread and your comments. I started looking for a CPO 08-09 E320 Bluetec last spring (or cars not at M-B dealers for which I could get non-MBUSA extended warranties) and never pulled the trigger. Came very close last month but had a couple cars sold from under me while I was getting Carfaxes and checking with service managers at local M-B dealers to find out repair histories.

I'd still like to find a CPO 09 but I doubt I'll find one equipped as I'd like now. At this point I imagine I might wait a year or two and look at the reliability record of CPO W212 Bluetecs... or maybe I should just not consider CPO M-Bs at all.

(edit: just realized this is my first mbworld post... have lurked for a long time. Only have a few posts at benzworld, pretty much also on the same subject of CPO E320BTCs.)

 

Hey welcome to the world of posting! Haha, trust me I love Mercedes-Benz and everyone I know personally who owns a new or used but well-maintained cars have NEVER had any issues of this scale. While you can't completely dismiss these concerns, I would recommend not being set on a CPO - you come to rely too much on this warranty it seems rather than saving money, looking for a GOOD used Mercedes with clean history, and putting that money towards paying for maintenance and issues yourself.

 

I always caution using the word never, but we have never met so you are probably right in your association.

New 2003 E500 and we don't have enought space for the parts replaced or miles driven to dealer including total down days in shop. Mine has used nothing but MB parts and dealer service and maintained by the book.

So far my average is one failure between each oil change or about every 6000 to 10,000 miles. People on the site say I bash the brand. I only provide DATA from actual experience and you draw your own conculsions.

For 50 yrs of auto ownership there are much more reliable vehicles. Granted now at 120,000 my E500 still drives like a new car but the $20,000 in repairs to keep it this way for 120,000 miles of driving plus the initial $65,000 purchase cost totals $85,000 for 120,000 miles and not to mention the inconvience of driving 200 total miles for each repair is IMO what I would call excessive.

 

i agree with u. the amount of repairs thrown into these cars and on top of that the depreciation in value downright just sucks (have any of u ever looked up how much it costs for a new pano roof!!!). the W211 was really a bad car for the brand (at least the facelifted ones are better).

regarding CPO, i have seen a few for sale now and then with an accident reported on the carfax, but very rare. i've seen many more bmw cpos for sale with accidents on them (a friend of mine even bought one and it turned out to have an accident and had a ton of problems with it. luckily he was able to lemon it). bmw also gives 2 years like lexus and audi. however, from when i remember purchasing my car in 07, the MB cpo warranty covered more stuff than the bmw or audi (idk about anymore though as they probably change every year).

when my car's transmission failed due to glycol, the service manager and gm at the MB dealer wanted to deny my warranty and claim to MBUSA that i intentionally damaged my car, since they found "metal particles" in the transmission fluid (which many others have had the same on here). Between the tech and the two service advisers i know, they convinced them to ok it.

 

I am very surprised you would go so far as to say it was a bad car for the brand, giving its widespread use in many EU states as taxis, police cars, and other commercial vehicles as well as its high popularity in the United States. While earlier versions of any car are likely to have known and repeating issues - much as the W211 did in the earlier pre-facelift period - it really lead to a mature vehicle that is built like a tank in my opinion. I know I am saying this with having only owned a W211 that is a facelift model, but still I would have to disagree with such a strong statement. Our opinions are very divergent, but I still stand along side my impression that the W211 is a very respectable and dependable vehicle.

 

it was though, for the brand itself. the 03 and 04 models were plagued with issues:
-the SBC system was a catastrophe for both MB and Bosch
-glycol contamination issue on 03 and some 04 models (including mine. and even still after a new transmission, the car still doesn't drive right, ie shutter at low speeds)
-premature airmatic failures due to bad quality rubber used
-other suspension components like ball joints, bushings, and control arms prematurely wearing
-motor mounts and transmission mounts (my motor mounts broke twice within 100k miles)
-tons of squeeks and creeks (the only noise i hear on my 02 cl500 is the brakes and it's cause the rotors and pads need to be changed soon)
-And now you have the whole fuel tank leaking issue which is gonna by far top all the others since they don't even have a solution for this (and in my belief will not bother to come up with one at this point)
-Oh and over 4 grand for a new pano roof plus labor??? Are you serious!!! We own a 02 CL500, 08 land rover lr2, and have owned an 07, C230, 94 S420, 83 420SEL, 05 chrysler 300, 06 gmc yukon xl denali and none of them ever had an issue with the sunroof, but in my case the damn thing is completely inoperative (at least i was able to get it closed and it doesn't leak or anything) and out of all those cars listed this one was the poorest in reliability

I'm sure there is more I just can't think of off the top of my head anymore. Just from all the activity on this forum you can see (just look at vettdvr's posts). I've And on top of that, the service experience was not even that up to par for handling those issues. Like i said the facelifted ones are a world different than the earlier models. If I had the choice, I would've have honestly picked another car.

 

I understand it had issues, sometimes serious issues - the early models did. But I still disagree with the blanket statement saying the W211 - ALL W211s were bad for Mercedes-Benz and associated part manufacturers.

 

While this is a W211 (E-class) discussion, I would like to add that I just bought a 2009 ML320 BlueTec and have a horror story to share. My CPO was delivered to me with bold tires, panel scratches, dents on door moldings and and rear skid plate. Mismatched, non-original floor mats, worn out BlueTEC logo on passenger side, missing cargo hook cover and 12V receptacle cover.
MB official MB dealer "never heard" about CPO state of car: bringing it to factory spec and want me to absorb all the cost!
Since nearly 4 weeks now, they play games. I finally had enough and contacted MB Canada to intervene.
I am loosing my faith in the brand... and honesty of authorized dealers.

 

Just read the CPO contract...it says struts (not just shocks) are excluded. Therefore, airmatic and ABC struts are excluded. My local dealer CPO rep confirmed it to me.

Bruce

 

I know for a fact that the Airmatic shocks of my E550 are covered by the CPO warranty. My dealer says so.

 

If you look at the out of US operated 211's you will find 4 cylinders and no airmatic or sbc brakes. Most of the systems that fail are gone and the car is a bare bones vehicle. Not the performance of the US models.

I spend a month in Germany and actually saw them, toured the MB museum.

The cars adjusted for the Euro were VERY expensive. In the show room if I did my math correctly an E V6 was about $100000 us. Remember the VAT one each vehicle included.

So I would not compare the taxi to the US sold "luxury" 211.

If my E500 had conventional vacuum booster vs, SBC, coil over shocks, and no airbags reliability would have been higher. I knew there might be issues when I purchased it but never owned a MB before and believed the "hype" from the dealer about being reliable. The dealer even attempted to have me NOT buy the extended warranty.

It is unfortunate MB rushed items to market without determining the reliability factor. It did in fact damage the brand even if people don't admit it. For one I won't buy another MB because they sold out their trust on my car. Next time I will be looking for something that doesn't spend 3 days in the repair shop at each oil change.

BTW since my last oil change the starter failed and it was replaced. I still have 4000 miles before my next oil change. Then I'll look for something else.

The previous oil change it was the AC while on the Interstate to NM in 50 mph winds 98 F so I had to open the windows.


Yes the brand IS in fact damaged until MB can earn customers trust again.

But then this is my opinion only and as we all know each of has our own. So your results may of course vary.

 

To each his own - and yes, I think we can agree that a segment of W211s have damaged the MB reputation from the customer trust perspective and even the reliability realm, but the real question is to what extent and that's hard to assess. It maybe 4-5% of owners, or 40% of owners that would not buy another Mercedes or have lost trust in the brand. It's impossible to truly quantify so you can debate this from many perspectives. Personally I would not dissuade anyone from buying a facelift W211, nor have I found anyone on the street that has extensive car knowledge that would say, "Oh the W211, what a problematic car I would NEVER buy a Mercedes." Only time will tell but my impressions from owning this car for 5 months are excellent.

That being said, I see myself owning only Mercedes-Benz vehicles in my lifetime. Yes, that may change but as a daily driver I love the security and reliability that a Mercedes offers above any other car my family has ever owned (a few other German cars but more recently Japanese). To me, this car is built like a tank and very reasonable as far as regular maintenance goes - with GREAT service here in the Colorado area from MB of Littleton.