Let's share the cost of our service for our W213 in this thread. Suggested format:

Year, Model (e.b. 2021 E350)
Service Event (e.g. 10K A Service and PA inspection).
Total Cost (e.g. $384)
Service Provider (Name, location)
Breakdown of detail costs
A Service (e.g. $289)
Inspection (e.g. $89)

 

It would be all over the place as far as pricing goes it really depends on what area your located in. I know in Naples Fla which is considered a very affluent area they are getting a little over 400 dollars for a service A, Near Tampa I paid around 300 Dollars a few months ago. In other areas it may be $250 or so. At independent places I've heard of them doing Oil Changes for 120 to 150 dollars.

 

FYI: I am on Long Island. My local dealer is Rallye: A service with coupon is $200. My independent charges $150 for an oil change.

We have friends who winter in Naples. Cannot believe anyone charges or anyone will pay $400 for the A service

see: https://www.rallyemotors.com/service-specials/

 

Ya things are kinda outta whack here in Florida at least as far as mb dealers goes. In a lot of areas there are not enough dealers for the amount of customers. Here in venice there’s a dealer in Sarasota but not another dealer for 70 miles or so on either side with a huge population density. Needless to say the independent repair shops are all doing a real lot of business.

 

There are 5 MB dealers in the Tampa metro area. Service is very competitive. My last A service was $249 including taxes, etc. I also had a $75 dealer coupon that brought my total down to $175.

 

Yes I bought my car in Pinnellas park at Crown had pretty good luck with them but it’s an hour and a half drive for me.

 

I tried Crown service once when they first arrived in the metro area. I did not have a good experience. I've used Lokey Mercedes dealership in Clearwater since the late 60's. I always get great deals on new cars as well as service. IMO it helps to have a personal relationship with both sales and service people.

 

For my Sales and Service in North Pittsburgh PA, I alway use see below. I rate them an 11 out of 10.

Bobby Rahal Motorcar Company

10701 Perry HighwayWexford, PA 15090

• Sales: 888-305-6488
• Service: 877-840-3137
• Parts: 877-999-7420

 

Recently completed a “B” service on my R172 SLK350, using an Indy shop located in Lanham, MD (Ricky Tong Service). Cost was $250 and includes air cabin filter replacement.

As a comparison, my local MB dealership (MB of Silver Springs) quoted $800 + tax for the same service, jus’ sayn’.

 

Just sayn': I do not think the B service for $250 is possible:

The B service includes:

• Oil change and filter
• Brake fluid change
• Interior cabin filter change
• Engine air filter change

 

I am sorry but are you insinuating I am fudging here? I paid $250 for a “B” service on my 2013 SLK350. That’s what I paid for the entire service here in the great state of Maryland. Not sure where you live or what it costs, but that’s what I paid. He did a brake fluid flush, oil change and air cabin filter replacement. All for $250.

You don’t have to believe me tho’, that’s your choice.

 

Just sayn' that the cabin air filter, engine air filter, oil filter + oil will cost well over $100, probably closer to $125.. Add to that the cost of brake fluid. The oil change is min 1/2 hour, the brake fluid change another 1/2 hour, the cabin filter change 1/4 hours plus the time for changing the engine filter. Total 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

You do the math!

Either your guy owes you a favor or did not do all the work under the "B" service.

Maybe he did the "A" service which is an oil change + filter for $250?

 

My last words on this…

I dropped off car at 9:00am and returned to pick up at 5:00pm. When I arrived he was still working on my car. I watched him complete the brake fluid flush and then the cabin air filter replacement. Took about another 45-min to finish up.

He has been my mechanic/repair shop for all my cars. Just last month he charged me $400 of labor only to replace all 4 rotors and pads on my 535xi (I provided the parts). Nothing new here that his cost has been very good and I even gave his name and location. Anyone can go check him out.

‘Nuff said.

 

The shop must be using third party after market parts and fluids. There are some really cheap ones available.
I had an A/C compressor replaced on a GMC truck before I sold it. The GM part was close to $800 and the Chinese part was $130.

 

I think a few thing should be clarified here. Mercedes dealers are very expensive for this stuff. I think it is even safe to say that they are outrageously expensive. Most dealers will simply add the book time up for the labor and sell that as though that is how long it takes. That is not however what any mechanic actually does when they do the work. An oil change takes 15 to 20 minutes. BUT in actual time it is more like 5 or 10 min of work time and the rest is wait for it to drain or fill or whatever. While the oil is draining they literally take a turkey baster type syringe and suck out the brake fluid from the reservoir and pour same amount back in new. They also can do the engine air filter while this is going on - a few screws, pull it out and slide in a new one. When they are done they finish up the oil change, filter is right on top pop it out put in a new one with some oil on the new o-rings and close it up. The cabin air filter takes longer but I don't know how much as I haven't done this myself. Those three things will take 45 min tops - if one guy is doing it himself. Often, they have a couple guys working on multiple cars at a time. I've done this myself a few times and it takes me just under an hour and I am not a mechanic that does this every day. $250 for a B service is what it should cost at an indi. The only reason I can think of that some charge more is because they see how much people pay at the dealer and say ok, I'll do it for half that (or whatever).
A couple other quick points.
-Mercedes dealers employ junior techs to do maintenance just like everyone else. Sure the Senior guys do the inspections but this is NOT focused on customer benefit. This is how they make money - "you lucked out, our master tech really looked at you car, also need x, y, z, if you let this go your car will explode".
-Mercedes does not make any of the items that are changed during maintenance. They send out design specs to 3rd parties for filters and they simply pick oils/fluids that fit with the design of the vehicle - sometimes they have a design constrain that requires something special - like extra low ash synthetic oil or whatever, but then they put out a specification and make sure they have at least one or two that tests out correctly. They also send out design specs for the boxes/containers that these parts go in and in many cases sell them Mercedes stickers to put on those boxes. Any good independent mechanic knows which OEM makes the stuff or 3rd parties that make good fitting/performing parts - almost none of them get them in the Mercedes boxes.
-Mercedes dealers will NOT change parts that don't need to be changed. If you only put 7,000 miles on your car over two years, they will inspect your air filter and they won't change it if it is not needed but they won't change the price of the service because they didn't change it. I know this for a fact as I just bought my 2021 E450 from Mercedes Manhattan (the only dealer in the US owned by Mercedes themselves). They list everything that they did prior to the CPO sale - they listed a B service and they did not change the air filter. I had to ask them to do it. They also list the costs of the items they changed including Oil - $9.08 per liter. Some may doubt this so I have included a screen cap from a similar car (not my car) direct from their website. It includes ALL of the work items the did for the B service and the costs.

I am not advocating buying Chinese parts or third party poor quality fluids. I am saying that Mercedes does not have magic stuff that goes in their boxes. AND Mercedes does not always pick the best parts to put in their Mercedes boxes. Brake pads are a good example. Many aftermarket pads are significantly better then Merc OE and they still cost less. I don't know what pads are OE for the E-class now, but I do know BMW OEM pads for my recently buried E90 335d are Pagid from TDM Friction. Same part different box usually 3x price difference. No one here needs to become an expert on this stuff, there are plenty of good independent shops that are.
IMO dealers are for warranty stuff and they usually get it right. They are also good for knowing that they will back up their work and there is value in that. They are outrageously overpriced for everything else. There are good lawyers that make less per hour than what my Mercedes dealer charges (although this may no longer be true now days)

 

Keep in mind that many service personnel are paid according to the industry Service Labor Time Standards whether it takes more or less actual time for a given job they are paid the standard rate. Those standards are what keep time and motion study engineers employed.

There are slow mechanics that work for 8 hours a day and get paid for 6 hours. On the other hand there are fast mechanics that work for 8 hours a day and get paid for 10 hours.

 

Just saying you're too used to crazy MB dealer prices. I take my car to an indy also and I usually supply the parts. For an oil change, 5 quarts is about $30 at Walmart so for 7.5-8.5 quarts about $45-$50 and the filter is about $10 for a Mann filter. Could you could do the FCPEuro route, buy one higher priced oil change kit and get oil changes for the cost of return shipping. You can get a gallon of Pentosin super dot 4 for about $72 so the quart for the brake fluid change is about $18 but there's also cheaper regular dot 4 that Walmart carries for $8 a quart. A cabin filter is in the $20-$35 range from Rockauto. So right there, that's about $100 in parts. There are still indys out there that are only in the $80-$120/hour range so yes, it's still possible. I normally just have an indy do an oil change where they use it as a loss leaer, $20 for labor to change the oil and rotate the tires, I bring the oil/filter so really just under $70 for me for an oil change because I bought the oil last year when it was on sale for a tad over $4 a quart.

 

I have not found a reputable shop on Long Island that will allow you to bring parts and only charge you labor.

On Long Island shops are so busy you need an appointment and dealers so busy an appointment can take several weeks.

Do not know where in MA you are, but things are different here.

 

For what it's worth still, last week I paid $691 for a B Service in Baltimore, MD. That also included using an$50 off coupon. I might be heading to Lanham for my next maintenance now. Thanks for that.

 

Same same? Exactly? That is outrageous!

 

Embarrassed to say:
2/2022 - B service $790 ($578 service + $212 parts) + Alignment $200
10/2022 - A service $510 ($359 service + $150 parts)

Both at Mercedes Benz of Burlington in Massachusetts. I need to find an independent shop.

 

Those were about the prices I was quoted here in Northern NJ. When I finally brought the car in for the A service, they were running a special of some sort, and while I don't remember what exactly they did other than the oil change, topping off fluids, and maybe some filter change -- I remember the special was much cheaper. I will have to go back and check how much I paid. This service was done at MB of Nanuet (Rockland County). It's a bit further than the closest dealer to me -- but the closest dealer is absolutely pricing their service thinking they are the only MB dealer in the tri-state area! LOL.

I am going to have the B service done next week. I've called two indy shops, but they were both hesitant to give price quotes over the phone. I was having trouble getting answers on what exactly the B service included. One dealer rattled off a series of included items. I asked how much, and he said X dollars for the service, and Y dollars to have that done, and Z dollars for this other thing. What? I asked about the B service, not two other items you think (without looking at my car) I should have done. That kind of BS leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I asked a pointed question -- I should get a pointed answer, and then feel free to supplement that answer with additional items. No, let's cloud the simple facts with vagueness and ambiguity, LOL.

 

That is considerable higher than my dealer charges:

For the "A" service with coupon it was $199

For the "B" service $700 less $100 coupon

Presently their service specials are not as generous - but they change. I used an Indy shop for my "A" service at 30,000 miles. That is checking of all fluids and oil and filter change. I was charged $150.

Also they wash the car and there are free donuts, bagels, coffee, hot chocolate and tee!

see: https://www.rallyemotors.com/service-specials/

 

As a recent transplant from MA to MD, I have my go-to indy shop (Euro Car Center, in Wilmington, MA - link below) that serviced all of my cars (Audi, BMW & MB). It is also a family-owned operation with much cheaper pricing than any MB dealership. Feel free to mention my name - Omo - as referral. I strongly recommend this shop.

https://www.eurocarcenter.us/

Interestingly, MB of Burlington was my preferred MB dealer when I lived in MA and my MB was under factory/CPO warranty. They are good folks with awesome service and top-notch customer care accoutrement. I haven't found any MB dealership with better overall customer experience than what they provide. They even host Cars_and_Coffee auto show at their facility. Really good MB shop... one of the best, IMHO.

 

In Sacramento area, we have three MB dealers, however all 3 are owned by the same company, so not much of a competition, and the last two times I went for Service A and B, two different service advisors tried to get me approve additional work, even though both times I had less than12,000 on the car! Currently, they are advertising $284+tax for Service A and $696 for service B, these prices are for cars, SUVs are a bit higher.