No, I don't like BMW's, got a Volvo here and very happy with it.

How can it be operator error when he only turned the ignition on and the map said that he was in Kent??.

The car originaly came from Arlingtons in Bedford, and that's whare it is now, he has to go and look at the new one tomorrow to make sure it has the same spec as his one.

So if anyone is looking for one, and thay are going to Arlingtons, then make sure you don't get his old one.

Gazza

 

I'm with the doubters. This just doesn't make sense. Sure a fire can be started by an electrical "gadget", but once you see flame its because something else combustible is on fire. What is the likelyhood that it would self-extinguish when the electricity was removed?

 

Well, I guess this is how internet rumors start. Some unknown tow truck driver's off hand comment that defies the experience of thousands of E Class owners. I don't question that a car can catch fire for any number of reasons, but the tow truck driver's reported experience subtracts what credibility the story had in the first instance.

 

Morning northbenz,
I totally agree and cannot stand 'rumour spreading'. I feel however that Pinman must be given the benefit of the doubt.

It was way back in November when I asked for the name of the dealer so that this allegation could be corroborated.

We have now found out by 'accident' the name of this dealer that has had SIX CDI's? catch fire. Unlike the US Mercedes-Benz dealerships are quite thin on the ground so there can be no mistake of having two dealerships within close proximity of each other.

I will e-mail the Service Manager and let him see the comments and see if they will comment.

I realise there may be problems for the recovery driver if this incident happened, but these are serious allegations that should be answered.

Regards,
John
A cool sunny morning in Torquay

EDIT:

I have located the Bedford Dealership and wrote to the Managing Director.

The name is NOT the same as that given by 'Pinman' but in all fairness to this person the new dealership has only been in existence for at most two years. It is also quite interesting to note just how close this dealership is to the United Kingdom Headquarters of Mercedes-BenzUK SEVENTEEN miles. So there can be no excuse for Mercedes-Benz UK not being made aware of this problem if it proves to be true.

 

Well the new car has arrived, and he has seen it, got all the toys that it should have. should have it sometime this week..

Said he will be pleased to get shot of the ML that he has had for 3 weeks..

Gazza

 

Well "glojo", what did you find out then???...

 

Hi Pinman,
Unfortunately absolutely nothing.

I wrote a letter expressing my concern about the number of 320CDI's that have caught fire and been taken to their garage. I explained that I owned a similar vehicle, giving them both my name, address, telephone number and vehicle details.

I apologise if I appear to doubt you, but the numbers you quote are quite alarming, and do not reflect the local dealership here in Devon.

I have however heard of one E-class that had a problem with the navigation system being inaccurate. This was caused by a faulty GPS aerial connection and was quickly rectified.

Have all your problems been resolved?

Regards,
John

 

I didn't say that they was all taken there, only said that the guy who towed him in said that it was number 6 he had gone to. And the RAC patrolman (personal friend of mine), said the one he went to was owned by Hertz Car Rental, if the other bloke was exagerating, that still leaves 2?, in this area.

Aparently they have the **** because I asked on here if anyone knew anything?, also that I said that if anyone went to them for a E Class, to look out for this one, I take it from this they WILL be informing the new owner what it's history is???..


He has his new one now, pity it took since november to sort the problem out, he bought the car to use, not so he could use whatever they had to loan out, and a car of that value i would expect far better service.


Pinman

 

Good morning Pinman,
I will attempt to answer your points as best I can, so here goes:

For members of this forum who are not UK based I will explain how I located the dealer. Pinman stated the dealership was 'Arlington's of Bedford'

By using the Mercedes-Benz home page I merely put in the town and requested the names of ALL Mercedes-Benz dealerships within a 50 mile radius!

It came back with only ONE, and that was Mercedes-Benz of Bedford. There is no Mercedes-Benz dealership called Arlington. I am not making any accusation here, I am merely stating that there is one dealership and that is the one I wrote to.

This then goes onto your next point about the RAC man (personal friend) and the Hertz car rental. There is only one dealership within 50 miles, any vehicles being returned to the dealership has only the one choice!


Now in your correspondance on this forum you have not once mentioned what model the vehicle is. By this I mean Avantgarde, or Elegance, estate or saloon? Therefore there is no way I or anyone else could possibly warn anyone about buying 'this vehicle.' I was very careful what I wrote and firstly I supplied the link to your thread, and then any allegation I made was by 'pasting' your exact words.


I asked in November for the name of the dealer, but it was not forthcoming. I wrote the day I found out the name of the dealer, and although we have not received an acknowledgement, within a couple of days your relative has a replacement vehicle, hopefully this whole saga has now been resolved to your relatives satisfaction.

We all must have a sense of responsibilty when making very serious allegations. I still find it hard to believe that even two E-class 211 320CDI's caught fire, let alone the numbers you have claimed.

The Worldwide recall of ALL 211's was solely due to a possible malfunction of the SBC part of a braking system The brakes would still have worked without SBC, but Mercedes-Benz thought it wise to issue a recall.

You have made allegations about fires actually taking place in the 211 at an area just seventeen miles from the UK headquarters of Mercedes-Benz. If this is indeed true and Mercedes-Benz have not issued an immediate recall the ramifications could destroy the company?

Just my two penarth on this interesting thread,

Regards,
John
A cool morning in Torquay

 

Glojo,



Living in the the Flat lands of East Anglia, Arlington’s did exist but were bought out so I am told by someone in the trade in East Anglia by the Sytner group and Mercedes of Bedford was born, it is conceivable that an existing customer would refer to them as Arlington’s still as I still refer to my dealer in the Old name not the newer Mercedes prefix.



I have asked the same question of two different sources this instantaneous combustion of E-class vehicles unknown, only fault mentioned was a Bosch pump problem.



As for you comment over Mercedes Milton Keynes HQ here is a part of a response to a mail received last week.



Although a side issue you may wish to change how you spell Chrysler not as you have in the footer of your official email document “Daimler Chyrsler Customer Assistance Center”



It's a sad day when a company of past repute does not protect its name or maybe it's just that they no longer employ the sharpest tools in the tool box.





Liftman

 

How about a picture of this burned up car???? Surely your friend took a few snap shots..... A picture is worth a thousand words.

 

No he didn't take any pictures, not technicly minded.

It was originaly taken to Mercedes Benz Hitchin, in Hitchin, Herts. which is about 15 miles south of Bedford, they changed the dash (so they said), but they did say that they couldn't find anything wrong with it? (so why did they change it??).

They didn't seem to be getting things working right, so he asked them to take the car back to Bedford, as that was the dealer who suppiled it.

Originaly i asked the question on here, had anyone heard of anymore, thought that as the first towerman had had 6 then someone on here must have heared about it.

Don't think the RAC man towed it anywhare, left it for Mercedes to deal with.

I don't know anymore than that, the reason that i didn't answer the comment about the dealer, was that I was in the US for a time, and wasn't looking at a PC.

Pinman..

 

Hi liftman aka pinman,
I apologise if I did not make myself clear on the previous page.

As can be seen in the previous message I explained how Mercedes-Benz Bedford might have been callled Arlington's. I certainly would not want to split hairs over this very minor issue, but if I were to talk about the local dealership, I would make sure I got the name correct, and not given a name that is maybe two years out of date?

I have always doubted your allegation, but that is all I am doing. I am not saying it never happened, because I amsimply not priviledged to the facts.

Hell ona Harley has summed up the issue very well, however I respect the way you have communicated with us. Especially when I read the many doubters that have contributed to the thread. Not once have you lost your patience or been rude.

Thank you for that, and I will be the first to apologise if proof is forthcoming.

Take care,
John

 

Before we all jump down pinman's throat about this I want to point out a problem with the Mercedes-Benz UK site.

I logged onto the 'Dealer Location' part of the site and asked for Mercedes-Benz dealers within a 50 mile radius of Bedford. It came back with just ONE. That is the dealer we are discussing.

However pinman aka liftman talks about a dealer in Hitchin, Hertfordshire.

Hitchin is just eighteen (18) miles from Bedford and Hitchin does indeed have a Mercedes-Benz dealership????

I made my statement in good faith and reported it here. I am now clarifying that point and corroborating this part of pinmans aka liftmans statement.

John

 

He's not very "legality" minded either..... I can't believe he didn't document this fire with some pic's, let alone buying another MB....but what ever.


Well Gee..... Wasn't this dash on fire????? I mean, if it was on fire, was there not any fire damage and wouldn't this be reason enough to change the dash.... or is MB dashes so well built that they can withstand flames....

 

I personally know one of the service advisors at Mercedes of Hitchin, same group as my local dealer in Hertford, so when I get into work tommorrow I'll give him a call. I would think he would remember something like that quite easily so we shall see.

 

hi, jz wondering what's the latest update on this issue. did the service personnel remember? this has been a very intriguing thread, and after seeing the WSJ article (however over-blown it might be) regarding Mercedes paying customers to shut up, my curiosity's piqued again =)

i know that Mercedes, like any other cars, can catch fire given the right circumstances -- however as far as i know they were all due to improper maintenance. heck, my granddad's old W140 S500 caught fire in the engine once -- he had been driving it, with NO MAINTENANCE, for 10 years!! unbelievable. even more unbelievably, it is still working right now, today, and still ferrying him around -- the firemen put out the fire and the engine, with a hefty bill (around £8000), was fixed

 

not to add more wood to the fire but if you have used a Nav system you'd know that an error that deep would set grounds for a huge legal battle towards MB.

I don't buy this story. Sure Es can have electrical problems and burn down to ashes, but not 6 in the same area.

 

Hi Renault (wash my mouth with soapy water)
In all fairness to pinman aka liftman.

It has been known for navigation systems to be this in-accurate. On newish vehicles it is usually a problem with the aerial.

I do however agree with your other comments.

Take care,
John

 

I do apologize in advance for sounding like the proverbial/biblical Doubting Thomas, but if liftman is indeed pinman (and I'm not saying he is), then, should we be believing all that is allegedly happening to liftman's vehicle at all?

Just some caffeine-induced imagination on a run here ... no offence meant in anyway whatsoever!

 

Ok today I spoke to my freind who works at Hitchin Mercedes about these fires.

The first one was in an W211 E320 wagon and was a small amount of smoke entering the passenger compartment, not a lot of it but as he said " bad enough " and was caused by a sticking heater fan motor. There were no flames and no damage but the customer was a little scared, understandable really.

The second was in a W210 E320 CDI, very high mileage, and was caused by the oil seals on the turbo leaking causing oil to be spread over the manifold which ignited. No real damage but the customer was quite concerned.

Both problems were sorted out easily and the customers are happy and have there cars back apparently. I have no reason whatsoever to disbelieve my freind as he is very honest and told me about these problems on the quiet.

I hope this settles this once and for all.

Cheers

Marcos

 

Hi Marcos,
Thank you very much indeed for the update, reading your post you have mentioned a W210 320CDI and an S211 320. Is the S211 actually the 320 or as pinman claimed a CDI?

Neither of these incidents are anything other than minor problems that 'can' happen. They are certainly not anything to worry about.

Hopefully your friend will remain annonymous and a big thank you for the research.

John

 

The S211 was in fact a petrol version. I know this for sure because when he began to tell me about the heater I presumed it was the electric pre heating system in the diesel that was at fault but he told me it was just the fan and it was petrol.
As you said John they are problems that could happen to any car not just a 211 E-class.

 

Thanks again Marcos and I just wanted to clear up the allegation made against the 211 320CDI.

Forums are a wonderful place for sharing information and it could be that pinman aka liftman just misunderstood what the recovery driver told him?

Kind regards,
John

 

Now here is a real case where there was a fire in multiple cars in the same area. They were just too close together!

https://mbworld.org/forums/off-topic/86190-fire-mb-dealership-damage-1-million.html

Jim