sakai73

https://mbworld.org/forums/showthrea...d+transmission

I won't beat a dead horse - so those of you that have read the above thread...I recently traded in my 03 E500 for a brand new 04 E500 which currently has 1000 miles. Sadly, I too am a victim of a bad 7G Transmission. Just my luck there are none to be found in the states and i've been told it will take a few days (a little optimistic- i think) to get here from Germany. Needless to say I am pretty discouraged. It's interesting to hear everybody's perspective but I think when the unexpected happens to you your opinion may change. Initially when the above thread was being discussed I could sympathise for the owner but I didn't necessarily agree that it should warrant a new car. However, now that I am in the same situation, (I'll be honest) it's crossed my mind. I like to think i am a very reasonable person but come on' 1000 miles and I need a new transmission? How Mercedes handles this will determine my out come. Already we're off to a bad start. My loaner car? They gave me a Mitsubushi Galant? Gilante? not sure what it is....but knowing that the transmission repair took 3 weeks (thanks to the prior thread) I told mercedes that unless they're going to absorb $500 of my payment they need to put me in a mercedes. So they gave me a C class (what a piece) I felt like I was driving a Honda Civic - but that's another story.

Again, I am reasonable and I am not throwing my hands in the air 'yet'- so i am going to wait and see how they handle this situation. More than anything, it's embarrassing....this shouldn't happen to a $60k car. I've owned quite a few vehicles and never have I, nor any of my family members or friends run in to an issue like this with a brand new car. As Harley said, thanks to the world wide web we are more informed so I am sure we've all had our share of problems but until recently we've never been able to share them. ..keep you posted.

nyca

when the 7G was first announced - alot of people predicted there would be infant mortality on some of them. an automatic transmission is the most complicted part of these cars, and 7 speeds only adds to that.

I can't see why the repair takes so long. Its takes one day to change a transmission on a rear wheel drive car (assuming the tech knows the procedure). How long it takes to get the part is another story. My parents had a faulty transmission on their Jaguar replaced - took one full day to do the job (and thats on an AWD car).

RJC

A colleague in my office had trans. faliure on his brand new 2004 SL 500 sport, $100,000.00 car, he was not a happy camper. Since the new trans was installed its shift quality is rather harsh and there is now a TSB out for this problem too.

Silver_Lana

Don't forget about lemmon law.
Apply it as you see fit but be prepared to go the whole 9 yards with a lawyer if you do.

I really do think a tranny failure after 1000 miles deserves a replacement car but I doubt MB would be willing to do so without some coercion or other gesture.

Good luck!

sakai73

Last Thursday I received a voicemail from the Mercedes Benz Service Dept. After 9 days in service the 'piece' came in from Germany. After installation and tests they claimed the car was fine from gears 1-3 but from gears 4 and up it was still a problem. So they told I would need an entirely new transmisssion. However, because the car is still new at 1000 miles they would need approval from corporate.

I immediately called my sales rep and requested an investigation to get me a new car. He said it was over his head and transferred me to the GM. I rec'd his VM and left a message and asked that he call me first thing in the morning. Friday morning it's now 10am...no return phone call. I called the GM and left another message. Friday 1pm, I received a call from the GM's secretary requesting the concern of my call. I explained my situation and mentioned I would like to discuss the possibilities of a new car. She sympathized with me and said she would forward my concerns. Friday 5pm, I called the dealership and received the GM's VM and his Secrataries; both are off until Monday.
I left them each a VM.

I'll let you know how my conversation goes tomorrow. I have not rec'd a call from service dept. since they advised me of their new findings. To my knowledge my car is sitting in service waiting for Corporate approval to issue a new transmission.

HELL ONA HARLEY

Hang in there bro.... I could only guess how you feel, but I'm sure its not a warm and fuzzy feeling about your expierience... If I can say anything that will make you feel any better than I'd say be happy about getting a brand new tranny rather than your faulty one thats been overhauled..... I can't believe they actually tried to rebuild it!!!!! and they have the get permission from corporate to issue a new one to you???? What a joke..... Good luck and remember to try to keep your cool with them, well at least at first....

nyca

keep all your paperwork up to date - with dates of all events noted, records and notes of your (attempted) correspondences with them and their replies. Keep a very good set of notes. Research the details of the lemon law in your state.

psh1959

You might try calling MBUSA and get them involved. My first 3 months with my 2004 E320 was a nightmare. I worked all of the local angles trying to get help by talking to the service advisor, service manager, salesman, "factory rep", general manager - all to no avail. I placed a few calls to MBUSA although their attitude was somewhat condescending - they did end up putting some pressure on the dealership to get the problems resolved.

Randy B

http://www.lemonlaw-california.com/c...awstatute.html

rusnakmb

Hi,

Sorry about your 7G tranny. I had the 03 E500 which uses 5G tranny, but I wish I had the 7G tranny. The tranny is really good and smooth compare with 5G old tranny. I guess warranty service a new tranny should be ok.

It is MB's first year on 7G tranny, so give a little credit. Maybe the new tranny will make you happy.

If he new tranny doesn't solve the problem, then lets talk about the necessary steps later on.

I have the SBC noise for long, but after I did the mod 3 days ago, I was happy. The nosie still remain, but you can hardly heard anything. Everything is under warranty, so don't worry about it. I have send my E500 in the shop 3 time (beside service), but I am still thinking I made the right choice. The E500 not just very solid build, the comfort and controlling were great!! My buddy bought the LS430 one months before I purchase my E500, now he is in the same E500 as I am. He trade in the LS430. Not because the LS430 were bad, just he like the E500 handling much better than LS430.

Good luck with your car

codex57

I dunno, you'd think on a $60K car, at least the major components work perfectly. Hey, this isn't a Microsoft or other software product. You can't just release a half assed product out there and let the public discover the bugs and go oops, "wait for a patch." For something major like the transmission, if it fails on the road, that could lead to an injury or death.

rusnakmb

Yes, I agree too. But I guess every manufacture have fail tranny happen before. That is more like the QC of MB has declined.

Well... first year product aways end up immature.....

lyrixmajor

i have been driving my 2004 e500 w/ AMG Sports package for a month now.


most of the time the transmission works fine, but every now and then when i slow down to almost a stop and speed up, i get a weird jerky sensation.

stick in their. they put teh wrong grill, rear lights and shift knob on my car. it took a month but i finally got them to change everyhting for free

sakai73

Rusnob,

the car has 1000 miles. what would you do if you were in my position? i am making big payments for a car that i don't have. my tolerance level is shrinking. to date, the situation has been handled very poorly in my opinion. at first everyone at the dealership told me to talk to the GM. i've rec'd his VM 5 times and no call back. his secretary sympethizes every time and says she'll get involved. however, her involvement is forwarding my VM to the service mngr who in return will only call me then. to this day i still have no idea of what's going on. i'll leave my morning message for th GM, Secretary and service mngr. if they don't have an answer then my next step is to head down to the dealership.

rusnob- i understand you love the company you work for but relax. don't feel the need to justify our concerns. we use this forum to inform each other of our situations good or bad. sometimes we like to vent...don't take it personally.

rusnakmb

suckai,

I am not MB, so don't throw the flame at me. I bet you know the first year product always have greater chance of having problem, agree?

Your car is under warranty, so let the MB service do the job. If you are concern about the payment, let them know and ask MB to pay for it. I am sure they are ways to compensate.

Tell you the truth. MB has it guildline for buy back. If your car is sitting at service more than 72 hours with 3 identical problem, which mean MB can't fix the problem. The "head" of service department is the one you should talk to, not GM. The GM will not do anything. The dealership still have to follow MB guildline. The service department have to justifly your car and report to "MB district Rep". At that time, you discuss your buy back. Which MB helps you into another new car or end of lease etc.

It is not I love the company MB, because MB is not paying my auto payment and E500 isn't cheap!! I just trying to point out the correct way of doing it. Spreading anger doesn't solve the problem.

I used to have a "XXX" brand name car. The car die on the road on the 3rd day. The car sitted in service for 2 weeks still hasn't been fix. What I did? I told the dealership to KEEP the car, because I am not picking up and I will have my attoney friend write a letter to dealership. You know what? Two days after the letter, the Service Manager call me. Another two days later the GM call me. None of the dealership likes lawsuit I guess....

I hope the GM will call you soon or at least response to ya. Good luck.

04E500

First of all, I am sorry about the trans problems. I have been in similar situations and its not exactly fun. But.

Its a car. Its a very complex car and though its a pretty kickass when its in service, Mercedes QC isn't exactly top of the heap anymore. If you visited this board at all you purchased this car with your eyes wide open.

You say your reasonable but you refer to a c-class as a "piece". I don't believe that and I question just how reasonable anyone who refers to such as a piece really is. By the way, its just a car to.

My point is that a lot of us, myself included in the past let these situations get us stressed out or made us unhappy and even cost us money, but we allow ourselves to be pissed or remorseful about our purchases, when its simply out of our control.

I would rather you had your car bak without problems, I know you paid a lot of money or are paying a lot of money, but relax and let it run its course, if you are unhappy in the end, sell the car, its not worth your peace of mind to be stressed or discontent over a piece of metal. Good luck!

lig

I am sick of hearing the excuse of "first year car".

If M-B knows it is putting a car out there that is going to have a lot of teething problems - then they should offer a discount for the aggravation that a first year buyer may suffer.

I've had several "first year cars" that were completely trouble free.

Barry45RPM

Yeah, Its not fun...but what are you going to get instead? At this level of great "enthusiast cars", there's not much a mortal man has to choose from...

BMW? Thes cars are uniformly being panned for their idiotic i Drive system, poor styling, spartan interiors, etc.

Porsche? No 4 door sedans. (If they had an them they'd be kicking many butts!)

Lexus? A technological triumph! A benchmark for everybody else, in excecution and technology. Perfection. But -- B O R I N G. No soul. No seat of the pants excitement. Not a Benz.

Infinity? A great car. Underappreciated. Not quite ready for prime time... in about 7 years maybe, if they keep on course.

Cadillac? An Up and Commer. but still "Bling Bling".

Jaguar? Finally owned by a car maker. They run. They're comfortable. Some of them are fast. Some of them are no more than Lincoln LS's in disguise. No panasche. Anyone can and does drive them to Home Depot or Thrifty Mart. Lost their mystique since they became cars that run every day by the masses.

MB? Beautifull (lately), Powerfull, Not driven by the masses. Women LOVE 'em, and the guy who is in them. Greater than the sum of all their parts. (For some reason.) A 100 year old classic. Playing catch up to the marvels of the 21st century. (No we don't need buggy whip holders under the front seats... we DO need well developed, perfect cars OR THE BEST service departments staffed with understanding consumer oriented liasons between the independent retailler & the importer/distributor, M-B USA, RIGHT NOW if you want us to respect you in the morning.) They are having a few problems...

But again? What are your choices in this class of car?

lig

Good question, Barry. We've been casually car shopping for the last couple of months.

When the wife's ES300 is gets replaced we'll have to face that question - right now we are leaning towards the G36 6 speed coupe. The interior isn't as nice as the M-B or the Lexus for that matter - but it's big-time fun to drive and pretty good looking (to us at least)

We are probably going to wait and see what the new IS line is like before we decide. Our experience with Lexus (and that of friends and family) has been superlative. Granted - they are not cars that really exude "emotion" but Lexus realizes that and is moving to make cars with more personality.

It's a shame that BMW has taken the styling and idrive stuff to the extreme that they have... otherwise the 5 series would be a logical competitor to the W211.

Since my weekends driving are often spent autocrossing (S2000) I don't need a car that sort of hints at sporting ability - I'm even considering a Prius for an inner-city commuter once the E320 lease is up.

Speaking of Cadillac - never in a million years did I think I would even consider one. But if Cadillac ever gets rid of that angular locomotive look - I'd take a hard look at the CTS-V.

Kick-*** performance!

Barry45RPM

The new STS, and the next Deville (renamed) DTS both will look similar to the CTS. The major difference being Cadillac has "softened" some of the angularity on both of these new models. The will probably be huge successes, However Caddy has a habit of rushing product to market as complete as possible to meed the deadline, leaving desirable features off intentionally. Each successive year brings forth the car as it should have been produced the year before. Features, incidentally that were NOT developed during that year, but rather, features left off intentionally so that they can build the best car they want to, at its price, instead of trying to build the best car they can, as MB has done all along. 1st you pick your target buyer, figure out what he will spend & equip it right the 1st year of production, not the last. Stupid GM! That's why Lexus MB, and in no time at all Infiniti will be there too.

konigstiger

Check your pm before doing so.

ultraseven

I believe you are referring to the G35 6 speed coupe correct? Before you toss out the hard earned dollars wait for the 2005 model. The hp is supposedly raised to 295 instead of the current 280. There are also interior materials upgrade for the sedan version but I am not sure whether they apply to the coupe. Furthermore the 6 spd shift linkage has been improved to provide a lighter shift.

lig

Good tips, ultra7. Thanks!

We heard about some of the improvements to the Coupe (not from the dealer of course ) - we probably won't make a final decision until the new IS comes out - but if we do pull the trigger before that time - 295 hp here we come

DavidNJ

S2000? Which front bar to you use? Kumhos or Hoosiers? Which year? I have my second, an '04 now. However I haven't autocrossed it yet.

That Caddy CTS-V is the same price as an E320 as fast as...well not an E55...but a CLK55 or C55...actually faster. Stick only, but an ok stick.

We got the E320 CDI instead of a Prius...just too many compromises there.

In 6 months there will be a lot of E-class competitiors. However, every car in this class has issues. None is perfect. You just need to pick what you want:

BMW 745i
MB E500
Jaguar XJ8
BMW 545
LS430
Cadillac STS V8
GS430
M45
A6 V8
Jag S-type V8
E320
530
Acura RL
A6 V6
M35
GS300
Cadillac STS V6
BMW 525
Jag S-type V6
S4
Cadillac CTS
C320
BMW 330

I think that is the range from $70k to $40k. Did I miss something? The G35 and C300 are less than $40k.

lig

Hey David -

My auto-x setup is - ASA 17x8 17x9 wheels - 225/255 Victoracers

I'm running a 2002.

Buddy Club coilovers lowered 1.3 rear 1.2 front

Carbon Fiber snorkle intake - Magnaflow exhaust - DiGrappa x-brace - Whiteline STB

The coilovers are set 4 clicks from full stiff rear 3 from full stiff front

The car is actually pretty neutral right now - I have the Saner bar but haven't installed it yet.

Friday and Sunday were my best two autocrosses ever

FTOD on Friday and 1st in Improved A on Sunday - neither of which I have managed until this weekend. Very satisfying.

I love my S2000