Carnaught

Well fellow Benz owners, had my car in for the one year servicing and we once again addressed the "poih" noise upon depressing the brake pedal. It recurred about 2 weeks after the second attempt at correcting. Service manager said they would take care of it if they could duplicate it.

Long story short, they kept the car three days and so far it's taken care of. As we know, time will tell. If anyone wants info. on what they did, please indicate.

Oh, a question: with the "free maintenance" we get with these cars, anyone else have to pay $50+ for tire rotation and balancing at the one year mark?

jim256

I've paid for the balance and rotation every 5k ($63 if it's not on sale). The dealer made sure I knew that was not included, and I believe it's pretty prominent in the book, too. When they introduced the free scheduled maintenance ('01 model I think) they even sent out reminder letters to let you know that tire care was not included. It's not a problem to me, but they did not require it, they simply recommended it.

BMcD-E500

If you have a tire shop that you trust $50-60 will get you lifetime rotate and balance. They damn near give that away figuring you'll likely bring them your tire business. No way I'd pay the dealer to do that. The dealers I have used so far don't seem to have as modern equipment as a regular tire/whell shop. Good luck!

Bruce

Kar don

Yes, I will no longer go to the dealer for tire/wheel installation or rotation, big waste!

jabo

Let's make sure sure to collect on the one thing that costs almost nothing to do.

Rotating tires could be done by a moron.

Paying a dealer $90+ per hour to do that is idiotic.

If they are going to offer free maintenance for the first (4) years, then a tire rotation ought to be unnecessary or automatically included in that.

How ridiculous is it that a dealer wants to recover the cost of unlugging and relugging wheels which they spend about thirty seconds on.

With an air wrench it is trivial to do a tire rotation once the car is off the ground.

Give us some real value for our money and don't try to rip us off with bull****e excuses for what is necessary to retain the value of our vehicles.

patrick

We cannot do it in "thirty seconds",...maybe because we do not tighten the wheels with an air wrench? Or because, while having the wheels off, we inspect tires thoroughly?...Or because we also check tire pressure every workshop visit? Or because...

Can you imagine an MB-owner visits his dealer for tire rotation, but he has to check tire pressure himself? or two weeks later he sees he has a flat tire because there is a nail in it and this could have been seen while the tires were rotated? Or he has a flat tire but cannot get the wheel off to change with the spare because the bolts are overtightened? Or, after tire rotation, he has shimmy on the front wheels because there was a slight unbalance that could not be noticed because those wheels were at the rear before?...(balance just does not stay forever....)

I cannot talk for US-dealers, but I would say: come and see what we do and why. Everyone is allowed in our workshop and customers often stay with their vehicle, we have nothing to hide.

mrandery

Wish all this were true of US dealers. I've never seen anyone not use an air impact wrench. Do they actually adjust the torque settings based on each cars requirement ? Also, good luck wanting to stay with your car and watch the work. No, you have to wait in the waiting room while they do god knows what. "Insurance regulations"!

The local chevy dealer here in Westborough, MA "Cloverleaf Chevrolet" works on my Suburban, and let me tell you, the dealership service people are far more helpful and informative than the MB dealer.

GDawgC220

yep, due to insurance regulations and such but I have been in the workshop area once and saw what went on in the background

-G-

HELL ONA HARLEY

Rotate, balance and inspect tires @ 5000 miles.... Volvo= $20.00.... Obviously, they use cheaper morons.

bmms8

if there is a costco wholesale near you with the tire center, i would say to go there. i think they give free rotations if you are a member, or havepreviously bought tires fom them.

konigstiger

Patrick:
Does DCAG offer techs an exchange program? We all know techs must be certfied through practical and class training no matter what continent. But can a tech opt to travel to another country to witness and exchange practices with other techs? You know, like a student exchange program.

USA members:
MBUSA filters a lot of money into their mentoring programs where current executives coach wannabe employees. Maybe we should suggest that they filter a portion of these funds to improve their operations by giving both blue and white collar employees an exchange program in a joint effort with DCAG. Especially techs.