dawizard

Hey everyone

So I am just about 1 day away from picking up my new ML350 and I just realized a few things I haven't given much thought and wanted to get your opinions (planning on buying this car, not leasing):

1. Pre-paid Maintenance Plans - From what I hear, it is about the same (or slightly more pricier as paying up front or I could go in for the first service and buy the plan at used pricing then. Any recommendations? Is this Negotiable?

2. Extended warranty - I believe I don't have to buy this at first, I can do this within a year. Is it worthwhile to extend it to 2 years? Again, negotiable?

3. Tire warranty - My build has 20" wheels and mostly will be urban/suburban driving. I don't go too crazy with my driving but I don't mind getting peace of mind. Anyone have advice on this, any experience using this? Does this cover usual wear, so if the tires need to be replaced eventually will this cover it?

4. Floor liners / Cargo liners - I don't have pets but with Beige interiors I want to make sure I get these in place. I live in NorCal so not too worried about things like Snow/Rain right now. I've seen the OEM ones in Mocha brown, I've also seen some folks here mention buying it off Ebay. So 2 questions - a. Should I buy it off the dealer or look for it off Ebay (which may not arrive until a few days afterwards so the floors would stay unprotected for a few days)? b. Any suggestions regarding the liner colors with Beige interiors? Mocha looks nice-ish.

Thanks in advance for your pointers!

shortspark

Pre-Paid maintenance - a good idea unless you are adept at doing things yourself. I use to do all my own maintenance on my cars, especially easy because for the first couple years all you have to is oil and filter changes. However, for the Benz I decided to no longer mess with it and just let the dealer do it. I call them up, they come to my house to get my car (40 miles away) and leave a loaner. They return it when done - easy as can be. The best plan is the first three years, after that you can probably get the service for less, especially if you join a local MB club that gets discounts on service and parts from nearby dealers. PS-everything is negotiable but you will have to shop various dealers for this just like you did the car. I got a hundred bucks off my service agreement because I showed them a competitor's letter offering it at that price and the local dealer matched it.

Extended warranty - When the regular warranty goes out due to miles or time I trade for a new car. I only put 9,000 miles a year on my cars so my warranty goes the limit of four years. After that I itch for a new car anyway. If you put on a lot of miles or want to hold on to the car for a long time it might be worth it because MB are notorious for high repair costs and they usually break down after the regular warranty expires - the beauty of that exquisite German engineering!

Tire warranty? Na, not worth it because stock tires don't last and you will want to change them out right away for a better ride. Tires that come with these vehicles, either the Continentals or the Dunlops, will not last very long and you will be looking for an excuse to replace them sooner than you think. It might be different if you off road a lot.

Floor liners - I have the beige interior and kept the original, all weather brown mats. They were recalled for some reason that was more user related than anything else, but after seeing the replacements I did not change. Many people think the dealer's mats are as good as you can get (I believe they are made by WeatherTech). I assume you can get them cheaper elsewhere (maybe ebay as you mentioned) but make sure they are WeatherTech. Mocha is the only color to use with our beige interiors. Even the mocha is a bit darker than I like and not as "brown" as the originals before recall, but they are better than the alternative colors.

audi40

My dealer said they only had about $50 of "profit" in the prepaid maintenance and I emailed 5 other local area dealers to see if they'd sell it at a discount...not one replied. I'm still in shock over the price MB charges for their prepaid maintenance and esp. the added charge for Bluetecs ($3200 for 5 years vs $1999 for gas ML's) - being an Audi guy up until this point (although the ML is my wife's), I guess I was spoiled with Audi's maintenance program only costing about $850 for 4 yrs/50k and no upcharge for their TDI models. I'm waiting for the first service @ 10k to get closer before deciding whether to pull the trigger or not.

As for the all-weather mats, I got the black all-weather mats from MB and thought they were pretty "cheesy" - the mats were more of a hard plastic than the rubber mats I have in my A6 and one of the front mats had the MB logo detached from it right out of the box, not to mention that the long mat for the second row wouldn't sit flat/flush. Neither my wife nor I liked the look of them so I pulled them out and will probably just throw them back in to get through the winter months, and leave the OEM carpeted mats the rest of the year. The trunk liner was OK though.

One other item I'll mention - the door/lock "pins". Although I may not have noticed this if not for reading other posts complaining about how cheap and out of place they look, but once I did, I couldn't replace them fast enough. The metal AMG replacement pins as shown on the MB website go for $40/EACH - my sales guy told me the door panels had to be pulled off to replace them, but after researching on this forum, the front pins screw on/off, while I believe the rear ones can be pulled/twisted off and new ones need to be glued or otherwise attached (not screw on/off). Since the front ones were most noticeable and could also impact your arm/elbow if resting on the window sill, I replaced those only ($85 for the pair and about 5-10 minutes to break loose the original pins and get the new AMG ones adjusted to sit flush with the door sill when locked).

Other than the above comments, we love the new ML...congrats and good luck with yours!

Strafzettel

I picked up my ML 2 days ago and it has beige interior as well. I bought the all-weather floor mats just to use them during winter because we have lots of snow, dirt and salt here in winter. The cargo mat I put in right away because it the carpet would be messed up quickly just by rolling suitcases in and out when I travel.
For my previous car I had tire insurance and I never used it. I didn't have it for the car before that one and I needed a new tire within 3 months after I bought it, that's bad luck I guess.
In regards to pre-paid maintenance and extended warranty.. let's say you spend 3-5K on that and your ML gets stolen or into an accident and you'll need a new one, I doubt that the insurance would reimburse you for those 3-5K.

MichelleW

Check out http://www.trunk-liners.com/index.asp. Especially if you have pets. Awesome product. I put this into my new ML550 right away!

dawizard

Thanks everyone for the excellent advice!

I might end up getting the OEM mats from the dealer itself since the price difference is not significant between ebay and the dealer for me to wait on it till it shows up at home (Ebay is about 159, Dealer is 175 + tax) http://www.ebay.com/itm/190869217345?item=190869217345
Sounds like the Extended warranty is a good option to have on German cars past the 4 year range so I will look into that, atleast find out what kind of rates I get for that.

Pre-paid maintenance is still up in the air. I am not a hands-on auto-guy so I am pretty sure I'll be following the recommended services to the T and make some informed decisions along the way. It seems I can wait until after the first service to get on a plan too.

Also sounds like the Tire plan is pretty much useless since it doesn't cover regular wear and tear/tread.

Thanks for calling out the door pins Audi40. I am a little hesitant to put AMG pins but then again I don't think I have driven the car enough yet to see if the original pains are really quite a pain. I'd hate to monkey around with replacing those though, what if I break it in an attempt to replace it

fabbrisd1

On pre-paid maintenance for gassers - if you plan to keep your ML for 40K miles - best to buy 3-pack AFTER your 1st 10K A service - same cost that 3-pack becomes a B-A-B service, rather than A-B-A bought at time of purcahse. REMEMBER pre-paid maintenance is NOT refundable or transferable.

Extended new car warranty is 100% refundable if not used - if refunded at time of trade-in/sale, or if you have paid outright for the vehicle, then your refund comes as a check back to you - if refunded while the car has lien holder outstanding, the refund goes to the lien holder - 6 week processing time applies for refund.

SmokinReefer

I personally think the stock door pins are cheapest looking part inside the car. They should be nicer for coin we spend on these cars.

I like my AMG door pins. Had the dealer replace them before I took delivery. Do have them mounted flush when doors are locked and they will look great. Nice touch of styling only us MB geeks would notice. Then get the AMG pedals and the wrapped dash. I think the wrapped dash was by far the best idea the posters here suggested.

Strafzettel

I had the AMG pedals in my C350 and they almost hurt if you like to take your shoes off and drive barefoot once in a while.

27T

Rear are just as easy and identical to front. They all screw on/off. Same install procedure for all four for the ML.

audi40

Thanks for clarifying this. Since the rear locks are out of sight and out of mind, I'll save the $80+ bucks to replace those, but I'm much happier now with the front ones replaced

dawizard

I have reached out to the dealer to see if they'll get the door pins installed for me before I pick up the car. Let's see how much $$ they want for that

Thanks for bringing that up guys!

Update - $156 for all 4 + taxes + some mysterious fee. Waiting to find out this mysterious 'fee' hopefully not an installation fee...I have to throw more money at them for the floor mats and cargo mat!

greasykid

I recently bought a SL type grill for my C350 Coupe from cks performance.com. At the same time bought a pr of chrome door pins for $20. Easy install.

MichelleW

I went to my local dealer today and they had the pins in stock. They said that they did not fit once they screwed off the old pins. Anyone else have this problem?

Kartergreg

Those door lock pins have been bugging the heck out of me since I bought the ML. Why, why, why do they have them? I have a key fob with a lock/unlock button. I can touch any door handle and lock or unlock the door. There is a button on the door panel to do the same. So why did they have to stick that ridiculouse pin there? It's really quite usless. Just keeps getting in the way of my arm. I haven't had a car in years that had those.

Just one of those things that makes me wonder about Mercedes design and engineering.

another_geek

the parts catalog is wrong. the catalog lists different pins for front and back doors. The ML uses the front door pins on all 4 doors.

How do I know? I have a set of brand new rear door pins if anyone is interested

MichelleW

Do you know the parts number that will work with my ML550? Thank you!!

another_geek

A0007660228 is the correct part # for all 4 doors. All W166 MLs are the same.

A0007660328 is the incorrect part # the parts catalog lists for the rear doors.

greasykid

First installed chrome door pins on my 2013 C250 COUPE. Just unscrewed the oem pins carefully. To not damage pins wrapped them in an old wash cloth and then applied pressure carefully with a large adjustable pliers and turned counter clockwise. The MB pins are threaded quite a ways. Then reversed process. Was able to thread by hand. No damage to either type of pins.

Traded my C250 Coupe recently for a 2014 C350 Coupe. Had no problem removing my chrome pins and reinstalling oem pins and then making the change in my new C350. Sounds like BS from your dealer.Can't say for sure but it looks like most MB's use the same plastic pin.

Bought my chrome pins @ CKSPerformance.com in the UK for $20.10 pr.

dawizard

I finally picked up the car yesterday and the dealer and service folks told me that the AMG pins won't sit flush in the 2014 ML350. The current ones are black in color. I decided not to get it installed (specially for $160) if it wasn't going to sit flush anyway

audi40

Not sure why they say the AMG pins won't sit flush, but here are mine in 2014 ML. Got pair of front ones for $78.40, delivered from ECS Tuning.

dawizard

Wow those look nice.

Could you elaborate a little on the whole unscrew/install process for these? Someone mentioned using a washcloth and pliers for unscrewing which scared me away from meddling with my brand spankin' new car. But if it is really as simple as twist on/off then I may try to venture into that myself.

I looked at ebay and looks like these are standard AMG door pins correct? There aren't any other variants that I could order by mistake?

another_geek

the original plastic ones are on tight enough to need pliers to break them loose initially. after that, just unscrew then screw the new ones on by hand. It just takes some trial and error to figure out much to screw the new ones on but it should take you no more than 5 mins to replace all 4.

another_geek

There are multiple versions. See my earlier post for the part #.

audi40

Exactly...I used small vice-grip pliers to remove the plastic ones and then screwed the new ones on by hand.