I recently leased a W212 E350, love the car. I recently found condensation in my headlamps and brought the car back to the dealer.. They first tried to tell me that this is normal, but I went nuts after I heard that. Now they have agreed that its not normal and have submitted the pictures that I took to MBUSA for further investigation... Im waiting for an answer soon. They ran a water hose over the car for 1 hour and no water or condensation ?? How can that be?? Anyway,im waiting for more infor on this...

Second, After further inspecting the entire car, I noticed that the hood of the car doesnt appear to be aligned evenly. Maybe Im losing my mind but my gf agrees with me. The left side of the hood is clearly a few mm wider than the right side. Right under the hood where it meets the head lights, I can stick my pinky finger inbetween the gap where as on the same exact spot on the right side, I cannot, there is no room at all. They call me today and told me that they had corrected the issue with the hood. Great!
When I showed up to pick up the car, the sales area gave me the keys and a gentleman walked me to my car on the lot. I looked at the hood and It was the same exact identical way it was prior to bringing the car in. I was so PISSED!!!!!! I didnt take the car, I left it and gave the keys back. I will call service in the morning and give them the fu_kin business.. Did I do the right thing by not taking the car ? I wasnt happy at all. Still misaligned.. Im very nuerotic when it comes to these things, I wont be able to drive knowing about it. When I read the return service paper, they claimed that the hood was adjusted and the latch was greased ??? " Hood is now properly aligned and corrected " What BULL****...

Thoughts!??

 

All W212 owners, please check your hood and see if both sides are evenly aligned. Stick your pinky finger where the hood meets the two headlights and see if both sides are equal. I noticed that the E class in the showroom also appeared to have a misaligned hood.

 

Condensation is preatty normal. I've had it in an Audi Q7. I sold the car a year later. The condensation was still there but no other consequence to the operation of the headlights. Good luck.

 

Have you bought your car or leased it ?

 

Bought it. I live in brazil. Leasing rates here exceed 15% per year interest. So we have to pay cash... Too bad.

Anyway, e classes are grear cars. I had a w211 for 3 years and loved it. I'm sure you'll get rid of these issues soon and enjoy your new car.


By the way I'm importing a 550 now. The car is arriving in brazil on december. Anxiously waiting...

 

It's a lease.. This hood issue is worrying me, could it be that difficult to get it centered???

 

Why worry....it's not your car...just forget about it for 36 months and move on )
You can call to MBUSA, try to complain, but I don't think they will help with hood...

 

+1

After the 36 months, turn it in for another one. By then they will have any and all the bugs worked out in the car and on the assembly line.

 

The new C-class also has the hood alignment problem...sometimes one side latches, and the other doesn't. With my car I just have to slam the hood a few times before it latches correctly!

 

------------- I don't agree with that logic at all.. I'm still paying real money to drive this car for the next 3 years, I want it to look the way it should. So if it's a lease and the car is banged up, big deal huh? I disagree respecfully. If you leased an S class and had these issues, you wouldn't care?

 

How old are you ? You sound like young and restless
I'm not so young and don't pay attention to those details in leased car.
Good advise - slam this freakin hood couple times..it may fix by itself ))

 

I understand how obsessive compulsive you seem to be about your car, I'm the same way. Although I will say if I was Leasing, it would take a lot of weight off my shoulders, however either way, I like my car to be up to my own standards or it drives me crazy.

I think some of these are probably just 1st/2nd year bugs, hopefully M-B will work them out.

The hood misalignment thing might have to partially do with the fact that the E/C Classes now use a clamshell hood. I personally can't stand it because it always looks misaligned or the gap too wide from a side angle. After hearing you saying you've noticed it numerous times first hand, perhaps it's not just an optical illusion when I've noticed it?

 

If I was renting somebody else's car, I just couldn't be compulsive about it. It's not my car. I'm only paying to drive it.

If I leased a car, I'd almost feel like an impostor knowing it's not really mine. As long as it ran well and everything worked as it should, I'd be okay. Owning it, I would definitely be obsessive compulsive.

 

Agreed. I'd be kind of confused if I Leased, lol. I'm using to being compulsive, and if I have a Leased car, I'd probably tend to go with my natural tendency to want to baby it.... Then have to check myself.

To O/P, I say if you have the time, hound them, as M-B shouldn't be releasing products with misaligned panels (at least not overly noticeable), the only way they'll learn their mistake is if enough people complain.

 

I am crazy about build quality etc too. When I got the new e350, I checked all around for gap tolerances and on opening & then closing the hood, I did notice a slight difference on the right side (facing the car) where it did not seem to close flush. Now, I normally close the hood by gently pressing on it, not slamming it shut. I believe the latch is just a little sensitive. I reopened the hood and slammed it shut, hood now fits perfectly.

 

I'll tell you the difference between leasing and owning.
My previous car was E350 4matic. It was a nice car for about 8 months. On 9th months I see " check engine" light on my dashboard. No prob...I go to the dealer for service, tell them - please look at this and fix it. They gave me a loaner - brand new C280 4Matic and call me back that night and say - car serviced, check engine light - we need another day to find out. Next day they call me -
Mr. aeggroup - we are very sorry, but the engine on your car must be changed. I said - wow...is this "check engine " light that pointed you to that decision? ...So...the car was there for 1 month..I came to pick up my beautiful white with pano roof car with new engine. Everything seemed nice for a week. One day I’m starting my car and my dashboard is like Christmas tree. All lights, that possibly can be on are on. Power steering and power brakes don’t work, but the engine is working…car is running.
I went to them again..they gave me the same loaner and said – two sensors failed and it’s gonna take about 3-4 weeks to get it from Germany. F*k…is it taking so long ? What…those sensors swimming over the ocean by itself ?
I was pissed off and started to call to MBUSA. They said call to service manager and I did. I said, why am I paying for E and driving C for two months…I asked them to take the car back using Lemon law….
To make long story short – I got the car back in about 4-5 weeks and after 1 week I received the check for $1,600 with apologies for inconvenience.
So I called to the manager and said how satisfied I am and said – as long as I will take cars for lease – it will be MB and it will be using he’s dealership. My lease at that time was $560 a month, so they paid for 3 months of my lease.
Why am I telling this ….
If I would own this car – it would be a big problem for me with changed engine and all this headache, but when you lease it – as long as dealership is friendly and they willing to help you – you covered.
That is why I avoid buying new luxury car. If it’s new – must be lease, if I wanna buy – I will buy used up to 2 years old, still on warranty and with history.
This is my experience. Everybody’s opinion is different..

 

I recently went on a Sindelfingen plant tour and happened to be standing at the final QC check station (gap tolerances are 100% checked by lasers) when a trunk gap "out of tolerance" display flashed up in red on the exceptions computer screen. Fully expecting to see the car taken off the line for a trunk lid hinge adjustment (or maybe even removal), I was astonished to see the technician grab the trunk lid with both hands and bend it slightly to narrow the gap on the too-wide side! Then he opened/closed it a few times and re-checked the gap manually with a spacer block.

It was apparently good enough and the car proceeded to the next station for fluids installation.

This isn't exactly rocket science on the production line where one rolls off every 30 seconds.

 

I agree with W212350 on this one. It's the principal of things. I'm paying for a product that I expect to be a certain way. If it's not what's keeping me from taking my money somewhere else. MB financial expect you to pay X amount of money for your lease every month so you in turn expect the car to be a certain way. If the car is not a certain way you shouldn't just put up with it for the rest of the lease. If you decided that you are going to pay less then the agreed amount on your lease contract do you think MB financial is going to put up with it ? They are going to make a fuss because that is not what you've agreed on. The same goes for us; if the car is not how it is when we took the keys from the dealer it needs to be fixed. Slamming the hood a couple of times to get it to close correctly ? Please; this is a Mercedes. Clearly something is broken or not right. Any decent dealer would acknowledge this as an issue and fix it ASAP. If they don't you need to find a different dealer. Just my $0.2...

 

I'm not saying you're wrong, but do you have a proof that hood was straight when you got the car ? I don't think so.....
And..please...you can live with that hood for 36 months...even if they not going to be able to fix it...

 

Whenever I start a lease or end a lease the dealer goes over the car with me and does an inspection. Opening the hood and the truck is part of it. But a hood latch not closing properly is a big deal. Imagine if the hood pops open while you are driving.

 

You're way off the topic. The guy said it doesnt appear to be aligned evenly. It's not going to open because of that...

 

I would absolutely care. You are leasing a luxury product. Everything should be perfect for the money you pay.

 

fwiw, I don't consider these cars as luxury sedans. They are regular mid sized sedans and there are millions of them out there on the streets. I see literally hundreds every day here. They sure crank out these things off the assembly line (of course not that many E63 AMG versions; only 1,063 produced for the US in 2008 )

Maybe my perspective is just different, but a "luxury car" to me is not an E Class, AMG or not. But I do think MB is marketed differently in the USA versus the rest of the world (BMW, too.) This status/luxury thing is well played here.

I'll bet if the hood on your brand new Honda Accord was crooked, you'd be barking at the dealer, too.

 

You're not the sharpest tool in the shed are you ? What kind of response is that ? For arguments sake, lets say you picked up your brand new E class in the evening and took it home.
The very next day when you put an address in your navigation, you got an error and it wasn’t working. What does that mean ? I can come to you and say, hey do you have proof that it wasn’t working when you got the car ? You're a total tool dude. NO ,you can probably live with the hood for 36 mos, I wont, as a matter of fact I got a call from the service tech today and he apologized 10 times and claimed with absolute certainty that the hood is now perfectly aligned and centered. I will pick it up later. Thanks for your feedback though.

 

akbro93704 is exactly right. This is an issue, well, not really on several of the 212 cars I have seen. The driver side hood latch catches and the passenger side does not. Try opening and closing the hood again and pay a bit more attention to the level of force applied to the passenger side just above the headlamp. I'm willing to bet a good sum this is the problem. Not saying it should be like that, just telling you how to fix it. Good luck and perhaps take a deep breath a relax - your gonna give yourself a heart attack. Also, perhaps find another dealer who can better serve your needs.