E350 2014 faded wood trim
 

Hi, have a CPO 2014 E350 4Matic, purchased with 22K miles in 2016, with (I think) walnut wood trim. The wood has faded noticeably - on the dash, center console and the doors. It's been garaged since I picked it up, and presumably since new. Has anyone else had this problem and had any luck getting it covered under the CPO warranty? I called my local shop and they initially said it would be covered but when I brought it in they said just the opposite (with an attitude).

Thanks, Ed

Have to run the coverage on your car/policy and see, nobody online can tell you if it's covered or not.

There is a bulletin with the labor ops and damage codes, so it's easy to check, but has to be done at the dealer who is about to do the repair.

^^This^^
As mentioned, your particular situation may vary.

What's the current mileage now? If it still has some of the original factory warranty which was 4 years/50k, it should be covered. Lots of times under CPO it wasn't covered. Sometimes complaining worked, sometimes not. I think if you just got it and noticed it, they'd do something but as it's been 2 years, probably not.

It's out of factory warranty now, unfortunately. The dealer was worthless. I'll try contacting MB US directly. Worth a try.

Try another dealer. They can always run the coverage, if it's not covered, then you can always escalate to MBUSA and see about getting it goodwilled, they may depending on your customer history and the specific vehicle conditions in question. If it is covered, you get a whole new wood trim kit, which is cool but sucks to put on, gotta remove all 4 door panels to change the trim strips there. The dash, console trims are easy.

If not warranty covered the kit is pretty pricey. One option for consideration is using vinyl wrap on all the trim pieces. Vivid and 3M make excellent vinyl wrap in a huge number of finishes and colors. I think some members here have used it with great results.
I've had the interior trim replaced under warranty and have done all exterior trim in vinyl wrap. If faced with faded trim and no warranty replacement my choice would be the vinyl wrap. Just something to think about.

First of all to OP. Thank you for sharing the fact that 2014's still have fading wood. This issue was well known to Mercedes by then and 2014 was supposed to be a revamped model that one would have thought that Mercedes would have corrected this. Given that I would fight like hell to get Mercedes to fix it for free.

LOL, the faded wood trim was replaced in my car in May, and it's a 2016 model. I think there is a 50/50 chance that I got a good replacement set of parts.

IMO, this problem will not end until Mercedes Benz runs out of it's entire backstock of these panels. There's probably a small warehouse somewhere in Germany stocked to the rafters with them -- 10,000 sets or more -- and because it's not a safety issue, MB has no incentive to burn this warehouse to the ground.

Instead, they appear willing to play a waiting game... waiting til your car is out of warranty, or until you get disgusted and dump your car on another unsuspecting buyer who will then experience the fun trying to get MB to do the right thing.

One tolerates a lot of things on a car simply because you can't see them. But sitting behind the steering wheel, dash appearance is impossible to ignore.

DFWdude - I agree completely. It's impossible to ignore and impacts the driving experience. Then MB tries to hide behind a warranty exclusion when the car's only five years old! I will fight this with MB US. Over the years, my wife and I have had 1 Lexus, 2 Audis, 2 BMWs, 4 MB's, we maintain them by the book and they look and run excellent when we move on to our next car. None of these cars has had any type of interior problem, except for this one. What I learned from posting is that this has been a known problem, for years. MB knew about it and didn't disclose it when it sold the car to me. To say that I am extremely annoyed would be an understatement.

Well MB finally got back to me. They're offering to pay half of the parts cost, and that's it. Not happy and not going to do it.

Just wondering I'd love to see some pics of the faded wood trim, especially in comparison to what it should look like.

My car has Walnut trim, all the wood looks identical thoughout the car so I guess I'm not having this problem, but I'd like to see it so I know what to look out for in the future.

I wonder if this only applies to certain wood types? There are several wood options so I'm curious if they all fade or just one type is worse than the others.

My Wife's GLE has the Black Ash wood trim and it looks black as the day we got it, however BOTH front door trim pieces cracked in half and were replaced under warranty. That said her car is only 2 years old.

Most complaints I see are related to the Walnut trim. I was able to find some comparison photos and some are REALLY bad, especially the center console wood. I think my Dash wood seems to be ok but I am going to take a closer look when I have time.

Ebony and Burled Walnut seem to be exempt from the problem other trims are having. I have had both and no fade on my 2014 Burled Walnut.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...b261cfe214.jpg

OP says he has Walnut trim, and the pics I can find online of faded wood all seem to say walnut as well :confused:

I have Code H14- Burled Walnut trim High Gloss.
Perhaps different manufacturers. No clue, but I don't live in Arizona or Florida

The "Laurel" wood trim in my 18-year-old C320 looks BRAND NEW...

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...7b54d7b46b.jpg

Do some research and you will find that finished Walnut is among the least durable woods in sunlight, whether or not treated to prevent UV exposure.

The Code H14 Burled Walnut Trim High Gloss in my 2016 was horribly faded in just 2 years... It has since been replaced. This is the "before" view...

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...ac4c759756.jpg

Oh my, that is really bad. wow!

Holy crap thats the worst I've seen. mine does not look like that. I am in NY though too....

The laquer used with the Walnut. Hence the fade from sun exposure, time. Buyers or those who dont do research, get dooped into the shine it gives off when new. The natural ash wood will not fade at all that's why I chose it when build to my specs on my beast.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...d788270812.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...d70146e1b8.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...dab34e66f8.jpg

Here are pictures. Not pretty. Two issues - (1) general fading and (2) the darker areas in the wood are literally being bleached grey. Looks horrible. We've owned Audi's, BMW's, Lexus and 3 other Mercedes, all with wood trim and never experienced this. Truly disappointing and the fact that Mercedes is unwilling to step up adds insult to injury.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...a29e11b168.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...1d5a9679a4.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...395e578dc2.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...2c8931554b.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...3f55824b70.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...5c3ee1667c.jpg