BenzE350

Mercedes Benz of Westwood claims they recently won the Best of the Best Dealer Recognition Award. Makes me wonder how bad the other dealers are that did not win this award.

Mercedes-Benz of Westwood has received the prestigious Mercedes-Benz Best of the Best Dealer Recognition Award for its outstanding performance in 2010.

The Mercedes-Benz Best of the Best Dealer Recognition Award, presented annually by the Mercedes-Benz USA, goes to the top performing Mercedes Benz dealership for demonstrating superior performance in various areas of their business, including customer satisfaction, new vehicle sales, certified pre-owned sales, leadership and management, parts operations and market penetration.

petee1997

What are you complaining about? The dealer gave you a free loaner car while they wait for parts. This is not unique to MB, all manufacturers have back orders on parts at one time or another. Sometime it's a supplier problem and out of their control.
I'm always amazed at some people's expectations. It's a car and it's normal that some will have failures.

Tjdehya

I strongly disagree... It’s not normal. A failure like a stuck cup holder is ok but shutting down on the highway is not.
Also waiting over a week for a part in unacceptable regardless of where its coming from. Like someone said before with the premium we pay for this vehicle that part should have been Fedex-ed overnight and not put on a slow boat from China.

El Cid

This is why they make jet freight aircraft! BTW, my car is garaged 85% of the time. If it was at the dealer's for two or three weeks would it be? NO.
M-B needs to focus on improving the reliability of its core vehicles if it expects to maintain, much less get ahead in the US. Getting replacement parts for major components within 24 hours is a part of this. Asians do it all the time.
Is M-B spending too much R&D and time on Smartfortwo in order to compenstate for poor CAFE due to AMG's? Maybe time to shelve AMG's, and their R&D and time spent on them, for awhile and improve the core M-B vehicles reliability?

petee1997

And what if the part is back order from the supplier? Should MB take a car off the assembly line to make the part available. Get real! By the way, all parts are air freight when not in stock USA. A boat would not get the part to the US in a week.
Name me a car maker who has no back order parts in any price range.

As far as the premium you pay for an E class, it's slightly more than a comparably equipped Buick. It's nothing really special, and is just a taxi in Europe.

threeMBs

Agree with you. Well said.

What many people do not realize, is that many parts (including ECU discussed here) are individual car specific (you can say VIN specific for W212 mostly due to vehicle parts theft regulations) and can not be just "located" on a shelf.

Tjdehya

lol, Im sorry "slow boat from China" is a figure of speech i.e. "slow boat to China"... it is not meant to be taken literally. Its something my parents would always say, and its something I say to my kids. I guess its old people talk seeing as you dont know it.Yea "slightly more" I hope that was a figure of speech too because I dont take $20k "slightly."

UK-C200

Well, that's not really true. A ECU - along with a number of other parts - is VIN controlled. This means a "virgin" ECU can be married to any car, but after married, can't be reused. So yes, you can keep ECU's on the shelf. Agree that the ECU is probably unique to the series.

I've had parts ordered from Germany loads of times, and it's never taken more than a day to get to London, and usually not more than two to get to the states. I've also always had a loaner when my car was in the shop, and excellent service as well.

Fortunately I've never had a "critical" failure like this where I was put in danger, so maybe that tempers my opinion.

K-A

Slightly more than a Buick? Lol. A similarly sized Buick starts at $26K, while a bare bones E-Class is just shy of $50K (with the brought-down price, which will get back to low $50's in an MY or two). When the Options start stacking up, fuhggedaboudit. The Buick probably has comparable specs to the E in technicalities too (HP, braking, etc.). So indeed, paying $50-$60K for an E-Class is paying a premium for a Luxury Car. You can get cars that do similar, or almost similar things for half the price, without the "Luxury Cache".

K-A

Agreed about the first part. I hate when I gotta leave my car over nights at the Dealer. I have mine garaged and pampered most of the time, while who knows where they put it (actually, it would be fairly easy to find out if they store it in a covered lot, and maybe you can request that as well).

BenzE350

1. No communication from the dealer on the status after a week had passed. 2 days to return phone calls.

2. A failure on the highway at 70mph that puts me and my family at risk is not normal.

K-A

Yeah, I don't think it's acceptable. At least if the part was backordered, the Dealer can be more communicative, and give you at least the piece of mind that your car is in good and trusted hands. A GOOD Service Rep, who can give you a calm and "Luxurious" feeling (that buying into the M-B brand is apparently supposed to call for) that everything will be okay, goes a long way, even if you are getting screwed.

JoeVal

Agreed that it is a very unusual failure which perhaps should fall into a less scary redundant backup: life safety features should be designed to 90% reliability with 95% certainty. However, the 100% guaranteed performance does not exist, therefore the need for redundant backups... but then there are the actuaries counting the beans...

As for the time of response, the hour and 3/4 wait could be a dash too long, but considering the 50 miles distance, the dealer's behavior seems acceptable: 1. car picks up user's wife and daughter and drive them home; 2. user accompanies car in flat bed to dealer's shop, there an MB loaner C300 car awaits for use while the repair is sorted out; 3. the problem is found, requiring a new ECU; part nowhere in stock is ordered from Germany, and here is where we are a week later. For those of us who don't know or don't care how things work in cases like this, it fills like Burocracy with a bold capital B, but: dealer goes to MB USA, they go to MB Germany, they sort where is what is needed, and who programs them and ships them, now they send the programming and shipping info and the order is ready to be expedited. Let's see how they ship, I'm betting on DHL or similar.

So, give your liver a rest, that the strain to face daily stresses of normal life is bad enough and, who needs an ulcer.

Something caught this early will save you later bigger headaches. Think of how Michael Shumacher must feel when his machine fails at the beginning of a Grand Prix. Once this is straightened out you will enjoy the car you thought you purchased.

Now for those that it is the same to ride most any car... well that's not in this league.

Cheers, JV

petee1997

I will give you that one. The dealer is at fault for not being more communicative. If this drags on any longer I'm sure any good dealer will give you a loaner equal to the car you have in service until this is resolved.
Then get some use out of their car.Take a trip,let your teen age kids use it, lend it to your in laws for hauling building materials and then finally get a few buddies together and take it out for a track day. After all this, you will feel much better.

K-A

One thing I do wish were the case, and it seems like it should be more than appropriate, is if you're Leasing/Buying a vehicle, in which a certain amount of money was spent, you should get something of equal value. For example, if your payment on your E-Class is $6xx+ a month, and you're driving an, albeit it nice, C-Class that will go for $3xx+ a month, for a whole month, you're paying for something that you don't have, and you're actually overpaying to drive a cheaper model for a period of time.

hyperion667

I love it when the words "you need to...." are in a sentence......

LOL

Pntblnk

Absolutely, I have been running manufacturing / operations groups in fortune 500 companies for the past 20 years and you absolutely sacrifice current production for warranty replacements. Customer Service rule #1 if you want to protect / enhance your brand!

As someone said earlier, manufactured products will always have problems, how you deal with those problems in the eyes of yours customers separates the Iconic brands from the rest of the pack.

El Cid

Mentioned this before maybe, but it can be done.
Had an '07 Hyundai Azera-2nd year for a low volume car. In early 07 I asked dealer to re-program limp home code and auto door locks and he did at no charge. Unfortunately, the car's "computer" died during the process and nobody at dealership or Hyundai America knew how to restart it.
That afternoon dealer gave me a loaner and Hyundai overnighted a $2,500 computer. It was there early next AM ready to be installed.
Ironically, the car's computer re-booted itself overnight and problem resolved.
If Hyundai can do this, M-B should be able to as well.

scfishnman

My last two Chevrolets were $50,000 vehicles (Suburban and Tahoe). They were also very reliable vehicles, despite what others may say, but were lacking some of the features in my E550 such as dynamic seat, ventilated seats, keyless go, and active headlights. So, not a big price difference.

Tjdehya

Are you comparing a Suburban and Tahoe to an E550?

If you look at what KA posted you will notice he said "similarly sized"

220S

2010 E350s with P2, etc., are now selling used for average of $45k with 10k on the odo. Hertz Rental is selling them off at $37k.

And there are TONS of W212 E350s for sale on Autotrader.

Could be the Buick might be worth more in another year or two.

K-A

Obviously when Used markets come into play, all bets are off.

That $45K actually doesn't seem so bad, considering Dealers have been selling brand new (base, P1, though) models for under $50K themselves. M-B's gotta get their MSRP's in line, and cut the deep discounting out, because it throws prices and market value all over the place. Either give the car a realistic price, or treat it like a bonafide "Premium Car", i.e, hold it staunchly close to the asking price.

BTW, with GM's great resale, expect those $28K lightly Optioned Buick's will be comfortably in the teens in just a couple of years.

petee1997

K-A I hope you are not saying you would you want to pay more for your car. However I think MB should incorporate all incentives into a lower retail price and lower the markup to force all dealers to sell at a more unified price. There is nothing worse than buying a car and then finding out your neighbor bought the same car for $5,000.00 less.
When dealers are selling below invoice due to incentives and holdback it's time to lower the retail price closer to the reality of the car's actual selling price. In the end we would all be winners, the manufacturer, the dealer and the customer.

K-A

Exactly, that's all I'm saying.

I'm just saying, keep some respect to the car and the cars MSRP (and the buyers).

I knocked $5K off my cars price WITHOUT any fancy incentives, and found out that even that wasn't all that marvelous. I figured since I was buying a Mercedes, and not a Ford during some "Suuuummer blow-out Sale!", knocking $5K off was quite a feat. It p!sses me off, and also, devalues my perception of the car and brand.

Either M-B should lower the cars price to reality, or confidently stick to the price they have.

Not to mention, this wide range (and I'm talking WIDE) of prices that people are buying this car for, is disasterous to resale value. When people are buying brand new P1 E's for under $50K, how is this car supposed to "hold it's value"?

On a side note, I originally went to the dealer to cross shop 3 Used cars: A CPO '07 S550, a CPO '07 CLS550, and a '10 E350 with 12K Miles, P1 Package, and Parktronic/Leather Options. The E was the most expensive, but that's the one I wanted. They wouldn't budge from $48,xxxK, and showed me the "buy sheet", which stated that they bought the car for $47K. I then was able to negotiate a P2/Pano brand new E350 to $52,xxxK. With some "Coupons", or even waiting another two months (Winter Clearance), I could have done even better. Prices are just all over the place. Shouldn't be like that with this kind of car IMO.

Apparently M-B is on to it, and I've heard they're trying to get things in line in this regard. We'll see.

BenzE350

Easier said than done.

Obviously dealers are steeply discounting because that is what is required to sell in today's market versus the competition. The amount of discounting & incentives can remain market specific (in regards to a cars lifecycle, time of year, local market conditions, etc.).

On the other hand if they lower MSRP, this is a broader marketing decision with longer term implications. You only lower MSRP if you don't expect the market to recover.