After waiting months for delivery of our new + $72,000 2018 Mercedes E 300, we finally picked it up today at the dealership. We were very excited. Unfortunately our excitement was short lived and became disappointment. The front passenger door had to be slammed to get it to shut! Quality Control? They were busy at the dealer and we were told to bring it back for repair. Ok, no big deal. Got home and in 5 minutes I did the adjustment......Let's remember though that this is a Mercedes, why do I have to do an adjustment on a brand new car? This was the easy part though. Close observation at home showed that the hood was not lining up properly. It is up on one side near the fender and grill. There are no signs of any kind of damage from any type of accident.

There are three issues I see here....1. Mercedes assembly process has a problem with assembly. 2. Mercedes quality control should have seen this, and either did not see it, or figured no one else would see it.. 3. The dealer PDI should have seen this and not released the car until it was taken care of......Monday it goes back to the dealer for whatever it takes to make it right.........even if it means giving the car back to them!. Very disappointing. This level of quality would not be acceptable on a $20,000 Hyundai......never mind a car company that advertises "the best or nothing". LOL This is a very bad indicator of things to come, and make me question our choice in choosing our first Mercedes.

 

For the hood, open it up and then SLAM it shut. I had a wonky looking hood on mine, and tried endlessly adjusting the rubber bumpers. Turns out, the hood on these cars can't be pushed shut. It's gotta be dropped hard from a foot high. It wasn't latching fully on one of the sides. Was very odd to me to need to close it so hard, but it did the trick. Try lifting up on the hood near the headlights. If it moves on any side, it's not latched completely.

 

 

Being on the warranty end of a company at times, the best thing you should do is simply take it to the dealer and have it fixed. If you get into the weeds trying to fix the production QA process it will drive you crazy. Mistakes happen and your not going to be able to change the simple fact they missed some things. No crime against humanity has been made here so best to move on get it fixed. Being a previous owner of several German autos I have seen small slips in QA and I have always tried not to get to emotional about the thing. The second you expect something more than getting it fixed you will fall into a "angry unreasonable" .bucket and then your complaints will be discounted. You see it all the time in online reviews. The people that go on and on are identified not only be the company but by readers as members of that bucket. Accept the apologies get it fixed and enjoy your car. Can you do this? That is the biggest question.

 

Your experience shows the need for a purchaser to follow a predelivery vehicle checklist. There is one posted on the forum for the 2017 E300 that includes acceptable body panel gaps as well as the more obvious items. I spent more than 2 hours doing an acceptance check on my E300 along with someone from the service department who was demonstrating specification compliance.

 

+1

It is so much easier to get it done at delivery.

 

Have a discussion with the sales manager about this. It seems to me a comp is in order – how about one or more service visits. See attachments.

 

FWIW, my passenger front door also didn't close properly upon delivery either. It wasn't terrible, but it took noticeably more force than the other 3 doors. Something like this I'm somewhat forgiving about -- a lot can happen between the assembly line and dealer's floor. Dealer should have caught it before you.

BUT, I find it inexcusable that the interior lights in my car only worked sporadically until they update the software on it last week (and it took TWO service visits to get the software update). Getting interior lights to come on at night shouldn't be that big of a deal. No reason to reinvent the wheel here -- they should have used the DMX512 lighting protocol, which has been around forever and the cheap China suppliers are intimately familiar with rather than coming up with some special sauce on the LIN bus.

Things aren't better in the Japanese stables -- my Infiniti M45 was a miserable car until ~40,000 miles. By 100,000 miles we finally worked all of the bugs out of the car. It was actually a better car at 100,000 miles than it was brand new.

 

My E400 has the same front passenger door issue, how did you fix it?

 

Have the same problem, took it to the dealership and the mechanic showed me how to "properly" close the hood by gently pushing it down. The left side clicked in seamlessly but the right side would not latch in regardless how many times he tried. Had to send it in for adjustment.

 

check if you have no strange vibrations at a speed of 120-130 km/h

 

I have this on the front drivers door, no one gets in the car with me so haven't really noticed this, the dealership said it's supposed to be this way and it's just "trapped air" I'm like wtf... this isn't my first mercedes but there was no arguing with him. Mainly cause they're being d1cks to me cause they're the only mercedes dealership in town, and I bought the car from a dealership in a city 3 hours away cause these guys were complete tools and fumbled the first order

 

All is well here!

"The hood"
Went to the dealer yesterday. On the way, to the dealer, I get a message on the 12.3 inch digital dash that states: "Your hood is open!' I pull off the road and close it again. Off I go, and again I get a message that the hood is open. Midwestamv8.....you nailed it. I closed the hood with gusto this time. The hood now fits, and lines up perfectly. I was reluctant to use "force" to close the hood as I am used to my Porsche which has an aluminum hood and closes with just a gentle push. At the dealer, I went with my sales associate and we tried other 2018 E300 car hoods; all were the same. It took more effort than I was used to exerting. I don't like "slamming" a hood, but I was assured it would do no harm. We shall see!........By the way, when we took delivery of the car, the hood was all the way down and fitting perfectly. I have pictures that show this!......I do a very extensive, detailed walk around upon delivery, so when I got the car home, and looked under the hood, it was a mystery to me as to why hood was out of alignment and "not closing properly" after I closed it!. As stated, as far as I am concerned, this issue is "resolved".

"The door"
Another issue I mentioned, and I see a couple of other owners here have had the same issue, is the effort it takes to close one door. The car door is difficult to close compared to other doors on the car. In my case, it was the passenger front door. Just FYI....All the doors adjust the same way. I have seen this on other cars that I have owned, usually the reverse is true though.....in other words the doors I have seen, don't close completely to match the rest of the body. I don't understand why dealers are reluctant to adjust this as it is really easy. It takes about 5 minutes of their time! (In my case, I took delivery on Saturday and there was no one available in service to handle this) In any event, I had told the sales associate that I would adjust it. She wanted me to come back, and they would take care of it, and I said no....this is simple. I shall do it, don't worry about it....a non issue as far as I was concerned.

Here is a "tutorial" for adjusting the door so that it closes the same as all the other doors.......I take no responsibility for your mechanical aptitude, or your workmanship! (It is easy, so don't be intimidated if you want to do this). Here goes --- What you will need is masking tape and a "star bit". The "star bit" will attach to your wrench. You can buy a star bit at any auto store, or Lowes, Home Depot etc. If you don't have a wrench that will "drive" a star bit, you probably should stop at this point and bring the car to the dealer. In any event here goes. The star bit will fit the two screws holding the "striker plate" in place. The striker plate is on the door frame and is where the door latch hardware engages. It is the striker plate that gets adjusted. (If you are going to buy the striker plate screw bit, I don't know what size it is, so you might have to show someone at the auto store the screw----don't take the screw out of the striker plate to show him/her.....walk them out or you buy a couple in different sizes and bring back what you don't want/need or save them for other projects)! These star screws are very popular on all cars today. To begin - mask the striker plate by putting the tape along each side of the striker plate - on the paint, not on the striker plate....and again, this is on the sides of the plate! Remember you are "marking the position of the striker plate. The tape should fit snug against the striker plate, but not overlap.....again all you are doing is marking the position of the plate. Next take a piece of the masking tape and fasten it on the body, near the striker plate in a similar fashion to the tape you put on the sides of the striker plate....but here is the difference.....have this piece of tape 1/16th of an inch away from the striker plate......remember - you will be moving the plate toward the "outside world" so the door is moved 1/16th of an inch away from the body of the car.....clear? Now loosen -- do not remove the two screws on the striker plate...only loosen them enough to move the plate to the tape (1/16 of an inch!). The reason we mark the spot on the sides of the striker plate is if you move the striker plate either up or down, the door will not close properly and sit either up or down....so don't bypass this simple step. Once you have moved the striker plate, tighten the screws. Leave the tape in place for now. Try the door. Assuming there is not another problem... your door should close exactly like all the others. If you are satisfied, remove the tape...you are done! (Check the "tightness" of the striker plate screws on the other doors to establish how tight to make the screws on the door you adjusted). I have done this procedure on many cars I have had, and it always works. The tutorial is more complicated sounding than the actual job, so don't be intimidated if you want to do this project yourself.

Hope this helps and is of interest to you.....if not, hit delete and my feelings will not be hurt!

 

 

Hello "Mobster600".......great identification, by the way! I won't ask what that is about.
You are correct in your statement that every vehicle has something. However, there is a greater level of expectation when you purchase a car at this price point and especially when you hear the marketing hype: The best or nothing!. There is no question that this is a great car, and I expect my wife will enjoy driving it, and probably forget about her Saab she had years ago....which she loved and has always compared ever other car against! (The Saab was trouble free, fun to drive, good looking and most important....my wife loved it!) I know this might not mirror other peoples experiences or opinions, but.........

Had there been information out there in advance about the hood needing to be closed with gusto, it would have been a non issue. In recent years, I became used to closing hoods gently on my vehicles. Back in the 1970's, and 1980's, when you had an American car especially, you always slammed everything in the car to get things to fit. At that time, this slamming requirement was an indicator of poor design and/or poor workmanship.

In my opinion, the door thing was a non issue, because I had been through that before, and knew it was a simple fix. But understand that when this stuff presents itself, especially after waiting some time for delivery, it is disappointing. My wife was disappointed, and I was disappointed. These things do get worked out, one way or the other. The dealer was very understanding, and actually very helpful, and despite the aforementioned "stuff", our dealer experience was quite good and I wouldn't hesitate to buy from them again..

And thank you to everyone for their input on this.

 

Glad my advice helped! I too got the "hood open!" message on Comand (on the FIRST trip I took in my E43, nonetheless!) and was cursing myself for trading in my trouble-free Audi for a Merc which was "already having problems" in my head. Pulled over, slammed the ****ing thing shut, and have gone about my business trouble-free since then

 

lol we had the same hood warning after our clear bra was installed at MCOR over in Land O' Lakes. The slam trick worked.