RickInHouston

My nice girl at MB USA called to say my car didn't meet the minimum requirements for buy-back. She was king enough to offer one year's extended warranty or 75,000 miles on my wonderful car! (Sarcasm).

I told her polishing a turd and selling it for top dollar is disingenuous, dishonest and deceitful. I didn't pay for a 2017 E with Sport Package... and by the way, please turn off dual screen view, disable Homelink, add some rattles and please scratch the hood and trunk...

I'll see if an attorney thinks I have a case.

And by the way, 'marred paint' is not a MB USA buy-back criteria, only service / mechanical issues.

This WILL go on for awhile. I've read Texas Lemon Law states quality of paint / aesthetics of the car are a reason to label a Lemon since it affects the value of the car so dramatically. Will this car qualify?

I guess if this was easy everyone would do it?

PaulE550

So a one year extension on the warranty of a car riddled with bugs / defects is all you are worth to MBUSA? I would have thought their low-ball offer would have been a bit better given the laundry list you have with this car. At least a full repaint of the car on MB's dime. Only way to ensure the paint matches uniformly. I mean with the shape your car is in, especially the extent of the damaged paint job on the engine hood and trunk, the resale value you could get is several thousand less than where it should be. What good is an extra year of warranty, if MB service department can't fix the electronics issues you already have? Lemon lawyer time.

expresspotato

I've learned my lesson with other car brands as well - doesn't matter what brand.

DO NOT BUY THE FIRST MODEL YEAR OF ANY CAR.

Flash Gordon

Totally agree! We bought the 2003 E500 totally new first year model. The day, we picked the car, the check engine light came on right at the delivery area! Turned out to be a faulty fuel sending unit. Dealer did not have the part. Drove back a few days later to get it done. After 3 years, I had a service file of over 1/2" thick. When the car is not in the shop, we really liked it. Traded it in 2011 after discovered that Airmatic would cost $1.2K per corner if needed. and the SBC brake system, if failed, would cost another 2K. Never consider buying another MB until recently. Bought a 2017 E400 coupe knowing damn well a brand new model would be introduced this summer. You think I would buy the 2018 new model?!

vic viper

My last four models (W212, W204, W205 and W213) have all been first year fresh models, never had any excessive issues with any of them.


Just because someone has had a lot of issues with an early car doesnt mean it is common.

mjsbenz

PM sent to you.

Mark

Streamliner

In California, there are lawyers who pretty much do nothing but Lemon Law cases, always working on a contingency basis, so you are never out of pocket. One of those types would be my first choice, as they know the workings of that particular law every which way and can pretty much tell you, almost immediately if you have a case or not. Best of luck to you.

dieseldoc

I have a first year GLC300. No issues. I had a a 2nd year x164 diesel. Lots of stuff.. luck of the draw. My worst vehicles were My Range Rovers. II did not matter what year they were built. Nightmare! I feel sorry for the OP. He got a real mess. I think the biggest problem is how his dealer and MBUSA are handling things. I think an attorney is appropriate.

hamah

Paul l see your point regarding the repainting the whole car, and l agree with you, but if it was me l would rather accept repainting just the hood and trunk in this particular case. Because the car is brand new and freshly painted, so there should be no difference in paint job. If they would go to repaint the whole car, they would have to disassemble it completely which is pretty ****ty thing to do to a brand new car. Also, the more important thing to me which you know very well is the fact that the car will never ever be the same after such disassembly, and of course you would hear 15 new rattle noises all over the car which would literally drive you crazy and end up hating that car from the deep of your heart (which he already kinda does).

Also, in my opinion, beside Rick, the dealer also has a bitter taste in his mouth dealing with all that issues after selling him a new car, and l am sure that after all this he kinda know that he probably lost him as a future customer.

In Europe (depending on the country and the dealership contract with MB) some of the warranty issues dealers have to solve it on their own without being refunded from MB (that is their risk) which sometimes ends up in sloppy job (money save) if we are talking about a small dealer with questionable existence in the future. In my city, my ex dealer decided to close the MB dealership because he had to extend the warranty on certain parts for additional 2 years (from 3 to 5).

l wrote the upper paragraph regarding the disassembly for repaint subject. By MB rules, dealership service is obligated to replace all clips, screws, and such things with new ones when disassembling such parts (in this case the whole car) in order to try to maintain the same ''firmness'' of these parts, which sometimes they don't do it. All l'm trying to say is that if they will have to do it on their cost don't be surprised on the sloppy job.

Ask any premium car dealer if he would let his brand new car to undergo such procedure, the answer is probably no.

Rick hope you will get what you paid for, a new car with no flaws.

RickInHouston

I will never agree to the car being repainted. That's not what I paid for.
i paid for a car that displays information on the screen like similar 300E's and they will have to fix this.
My suspension is even different (in a bad way) than this car and mine has the Sport Package.?.
The fight will continue.

PaulE550

RickInHouston,

All I meant to convey in my last response was that I expected MBUSA would try and give you some kind of low-ball offer to see if they could buy you off cheap or gauge how far you were really willing to push for a proper resolution. I only suggested a full repaint of the car as what I would expect them to offer as their opening bid to you given the paint damage is so visually apparent. Not that you should accept that offer. I wouldn't either.

I just found their initial low-ball offer to you of a one year warranty extension totally laughable. I mean if they can't resolve the issues you have with your vehicle and it appears they can't, what does an additional one year extension on the vehicle warranty get you? Nothing. An additional year of them telling you they can't resolve your problems or "that's normal for your particular car". You'll still have a problematic vehicle, that doesn't run right, both electronically and mechanically, and has significant cosmetic damage to the paint job. So your potential resale value on the vehicle is already taking a big hit.

At this point, if MBUSA won't improve their response to you, then as I said before it is lemon lawyer time. Some may disagree with that approach, but from my perspective the longer you continue to drive the vehicle, the more MB can say "Things can't be that bad your honor as the owner is still driving the vehicle on a regular basis and thus getting value from his purchase for the last X number of months." Thus helping MB's argument that the car isn't as bad as you claim. The longer they can drag this out, the better their counter argument will look in court.

This isn't about getting a vehicle swap or a buy-back from MBUSA at this point, since their low-ball offer to you makes it pretty clear that's off the table from their perspective. This is about you collecting sufficient monetary damages under the lemon law in your state, so you can afford to sell this car in the shape it is in and move on to something else.

RickInHouston

Thank you for the well thought out response. I completely agree with you and your view of this.

I do have a plan and it is one that will go months and months long. What drags it out is waiting for MB USAs response each time. Can't say more about that.

You start to hear stories about other people - some quite interesting... A friend of a friend bought a BMW x6? ($117K car). One week later a tire blew out. He took it to the dealer. He asked to drive with the service tech to make sure alignment was correct (something like that,). On the test drive - big noise and the car just shut down completely. Long story short, massive engine failure. He made a BIG STINK at dealership. BMW USA called him two weeks later and said, "pick out any car on the lot and it is yours.". He picked out a coupe with gull wing doors $159k. Wow! Sorry don't remember model numbers.

c4004matic

Sure! A buddy of mine has a fuel injected lexus that has a water injection system and makes 107 mpg!
Isnt it cool that everyone knows about some one else but never from personal experience!

hamah

Rick l would fight till the end and stand my ground. l would sue them lf l had to.

1.MB's moto is ''the best or nothing'' well this definitely isn't as near as good.
2.The car is very expensive (some people could buy property with that money), and they take your joy away every day more and more.
3. ADVICE: if l was you, l would have letter prepared to be sent to MB GERMANY (and would let MB US know that lm thinking to complain directly to manufacturer), believe me they will care about such things, they are very rigorous regarding the unfair actions of their dealers and representatives in other countries, they want to maintain the best reputation(and hold to existing customers), and this certainly isn't one.(l know germans and work with them, they don't support or do such things. If they mess up, they make up for it ASAP at no cost)

If you were in Europe, you would get a new car for these things (and maybe with one or two extra features if the trouble was big). And trust me, they will care what their US MB is doing. The competition is tough these days, market demand high, and sales needs to be done. Cars do not differ so much these days as before, technology and design are every year more similar so moving to other brand wouldn't be such a big difference at all.(once you let go a customer, its hard to get him back)

Take for instance SUV like Range Rover or Porsche, before they started to work on their visual appearance(or even existed:Porsche) they were hard to sell while MB was the king of SUV's (in europe) but now its the opposite. Poor and kinda unfinished design of MB suv's resulted in big drop in sales in europe, and to be honest and objective, RR and Porsche look far more better than MB or BMW (interior and exterior), for almost the same price range. And in my opinion, interiors of almost all MB are almost the same, and this is disappointing. Same audio look, steering, AC unit. It's like you driving the same car, you can't make a c class 30K euro look similar to E or S class that go from 70K-100+K euro. 10-20 years ago NOTHING looked or felt like S class, now you have the same car in different size.

G class is exception every case (the only MB SUV l would buy)

Write them man, they will care (tell them that MB is not what they used to be, let them know the way you think and feel about all this, and that you want to share your story with the community so that they be aware of that in case someone wants to buy E2107 etc.). MB US will first try to shut you up, and maybe offer some ****ty deal, and then at last (if you make it till there) you will get what you paid for.

Sorry for bothering, and slightly going out of the subject, but lm writing it from my professional experience. I work with consultancy teams, marketing, international management, consumer psychology, communication and behaviour.

Keep in mind
1.There is nothing worse and more damaging than spreading a bad word from unsatisfied customer
2.They are most afraid of disappointed and unsatisfied customer that is willing to go out and share his story in public.

Sorry for making this long.

BTW: after reading so many posts and story's on the internet about problems with W213, l decided to wait a year or two, or maybe the facelift edition (they are always pimped out - and gives you options that will appear in next generation - like w212 facelift edition comes normally with full LED, direct select gear, and other stuff).

hamah

Agree with you Paul.

RickInHouston

Thank you for the responses. Will do. Tomorrow is first draft letter writing day.

I am mildly interested in how the second service department is dealing with my car. I think I am at 15 business days (23 days total) in the shop with three months ownership.

RickInHouston

My car is currently in the shop. Monday will be:

30 TOTAL DAYS IN THE SHOP since I bought it January 27, 2017.

hamah

On one hand that is great, try to accumulate as many days as you can. If these guys fail you will have a good position: 30+ days AND two dealers who were not able to solve the issues.

hyperion667

Fawking hell I'd be out of my mind!


I was asked to leave and never come back to the dealer where I bought my 4 brand new, configured cars from......so yeah, loyalty means squat and MB has some terrible customer service; I agree.


I read through this entire thread and am simply astonished! Hope you can get this resolved!


And for all the 'first year model' comments: I would add my CLS has been rock solid! (2012 was first year for W218)

RickInHouston

Could my car have been a pre-production car?

Since I'm being told my car can't do things 'because of the VIN #'... Does anyone have anything they can tell me about a pre-production car?

vic viper

What is your VIN?, I can check it out.

RickInHouston

WDD2F4JB5HAO15988

konigstiger

Initial delivery 4/7/16

RickInHouston

How is a DELIVERY date of April possible when the car debuts June 2016? They get cars one month, in advance?

tresean1

I guess it could have been one of the "dealer demo" cars, where it sits at the dealership for a month or two to get people's mouth watering; or one of the "salesperson training" vehicles, where SAs go to MB facilities and study the car and abuse it around figure 8 courses, etc. (so that they are informed when selling to customers).

How many miles did it have on it when YOU took delivery from the dealership, or was it special ordered?