Nuieve

My wife brought her car to a dealer for CEL. It's under CPO warranty. They flat out told her to pay $150 upfront before they do anything at all. They didn't even run a scanner. She had to go to the nearest auto parts store to get a free scan. Is this common for Mercedes? To me seems like a very low class practice I'd expect from some shady used car lot or some Dodge but not from a premium brand like Mercedes. How much labor is to scan a code? 1 minute of service technician's time?

I reported this to the MB CS, they wrote it down, but I doubt that will lead to anything. I'm so pissed off. Btw, after my wife went to some Autozone she got the code which is a faulty O2 sensor and is bringing the car back to the dealer. Is this how the glorified Mercedes Dealership experience? Hi, welcome to Mercedes, if you car is under warranty please first have your own backyard mechanic or auto store technician diagnose the problem to make sure it's really a problem from our "List of Serious Problems That We'll Do You a Favor of Repairing" before you bring your car over to us because our time is so precious we don't want to risk wasting one minute of our time on you, because we always have somebody else more important than you to spend our time on. See ya!

Effing 3rd world dump brand.

Racin_fool

They are going to ask for authorization to diagnose the check engine light along with the $150 fee (that's cheap around here). If your vehicle is out of the original warranty (4yrs/ 50k miles) and if there is something that the CPO warranty does not cover, they will still charge you the diagnosis fee even if you decline the repair. CPO warranty will not cover everything and if there is something such as a worn set of spark plugs causing a misfire which leads to a check engine light, they still have to charge you for diagnosis because CPO warranty will not cover maintenance items such as that.

It's not that they are trying to steal from you, it's more of a Cover Your Butt situation for the dealership so that everyone still gets paid if CPO warranty does not cover the issue causing the check engine light.

Nuieve

All they had to do is run obd codes. That's 30 seconds of their time and literally no expense, no need to take the car apart... Code tells 99% of the story. If the code said something questionable than that would be a little different story. They didn't even try. They basically presented 2 options: give us your money or gtfo.

I had recently a CEL on my other car bought from Carmax with their warranty. They diagnosed it and fixed the spark plug no questions asked. Now in my eyes Carmax as acompany just wiped their bottom with Mercedes. I still love MB cars but I doubt I will ever buy one from a dealer again. This is actually 2nd time they pulled this nonsense on us. Used to be Mercedes Dealer Experience was one of the reasons you'd buy a MB. Now, for us, it's one if the reasons we won't.

Racin_fool

and I agree with you.. that's one of the biggest reasons why I finally left the dealership industry after 14 years of that nonsense. It's one thing if I have to start performing electrical tests and and finding control modules. Its another thing if it takes 5 minutes to hook up my SDS and scan the car. People are being led to the slaughter (of their pocketbooks), and after decades of it, they are just used to it.

There are other options out there, and some of them are better than a dealership for prices, more thorough work and more personable relationships. I haven't been this happy to help people with their cars since I first started 14 years ago, and the people I have helped so far all seem to love it.

If Carmax or some other extended warranty covers the repairs, that's Awesome!, just don't expect the same amount of care from the stealership unless you are searching for a brand new car to purchase.

The Thomas J

$150 is the going rate in the NYC/NJ area. I have had to fight with my SA recently over diagnostic charges. Sometimes they like to try and double dip. My third party service contract only covers $90 of a diagnostic fee so I have to eat the other $60. What annoyed me was when they tried to charge me a $150 diagnostic fee to change a light. My insurance company said NO and both tried to pass the full cost down to me. Needless to say, I wasn't happy. I got them to reduce it but still, it wasn't something that required a full hour to diagnosis and to add the insurance company paid for the part and labor without issue. To me, I felt nickel and dimed a bit. But what really ticked me off was when I dropped the car off I told the SA the light was out and I had a feeling he didn't hear me that he just yes'ed me. The next day he called me and said oh BTW you have a light out. I replied I told you I did. That's when he told me they had to do another diagnostic charge.Had he heard me when I dropped the car off it would have been all under one diagnostic charge. I had a major service done 75,000-mile service (which I paid for) and warranty work. It all worked out so whatever. But, yea just watch them with the charges.

ItalianJoe1

Diagnostic time is to cover the tech. We don't get paid by the hour, only if work is actually done. So if we scan the car for free, then you say no to the needed work or CPO doesn't cover it and you leave (CPO also doesn't cover diag time usually), we get no money. Literally zero dollars. The diag time is to pay the tech for his actual work of getting the car, getting an SDS on it, checking codes and running test, preparing an estimate for the needed repairs accurately.

The single biggest problem in this industry is the lack of value of time, both employees and customers. The manufacturers cut labor rates so we as techs have to work very quick or make very little money, so dishonest practices happen more than they should, which cheats the customer in the end. The service departments can't accurately handle customer waiting times/loaners/appointments, and this wastes everyones time. But the constant drive for more sales, more sales, more money for the company, just compounds the problems.

An honest, hard-working tech has a harder time making money now than ever before.

The Thomas J

So what's the average hourly wage for a tech? If it's $150 an hour I am switching careers.

Nuieve

What tech? What work? What are you talking about! Of course you get zero $$$ because scanning a car is NOT a work. You didn't do anything to get paid. It's bending over, plugging a thing in, pushing a button and looking at the code. 5-10 seconds? That's NOT work. It's essentially and equivalent of "looking at", it's not diagnosing. The scanner does diagnosing, the tech just bends over and pushes the button. It's no more than a manager shuffling papers on their desk, are they going to charge me shuffling papers because it takes 10 seconds to find my document on the table? Should they maybe charge for it too? It's like bringing a customer coffee, or explaining things to him. Yes it takes some time, but just a tiny little negligible amount, it's part of customer service, are you charging per minute for answering questions at the desk? It's ridiculous! I'm not asking to crawl under the car or take the engine out. Just plug the darn thing in and read the code! If you want to get paid, I'll pay you... $2.50 for your time. That's how much labor would go into scanning.

I can understand if I'm just an average Joe without warranty that brings his old car to the shop, but I have the damn warranty! I have the MB assurance of car being kept in tip top condition AT THEIR EXPENSE, this is why I paid top dollar for it, not to be sent to Autozone like some homeless beggar. What I expect not only from MB but from any maker's warranty is that if anything goes wrong I bring the car to the shop and diagnostics part is on them, 100%, always unless something is clearly customer's fault (replace some part with aftermarket, visible damage etc). CEL is not one of such problems. I really can't think of ANY CEL related issue that can be "wear and tear" or customer's fault at 20k miles. Even spark plugs, they're not supposed o go out in a car with like 20,000 miles. Nothing should go wrong with the engine in 20,000 miles that would require even suggesting that it might not be a coverable issue. The chances of that is like 1 in 1000, and just based on this dealer should assume it's an issue that will be covered under warranty and if in 1 out of 1000 chances it isn't, just suck it up and move on. I just can't see this happening with low mileage cars on a daily basis to be a disruptive issue for a dealership that would warrant these brand destroying practices.

That's the difference between scumbag low class business and business with integrity. Any business with a trace of dignity won't be nick and diming their customer like this. I'm even surprised someone might be even remotely ok with this.

ItalianJoe1

Varies by area. Here in south FL, my shop has guys from $16-$32/hr. The rest goes to dealer overhead obviously.

ItalianJoe1

Sounds like you should be able to fix your own car then.

What if you ran over something and damaged something? What if a rat climbed up under the car and ate through something? There are plenty of situations where the damage is accidental but not warrantable.

I don't know about you, but I don't like to work for free. Maybe you value your time at nothing, but I surely don't. You sound like an awesome customer.

Nuieve

Or aliens abducted my car and used it as a shield against Megatron army? You're bringing anecdotal theories. Never heard of such cases related to CEL. But I've heard of thousands of cases of CEL coming on when something breaks within engine because of manufacturing defect.

Don't worry, I'd never hire you to work for me. Can't stand being nick and dimed. And actually the dealer wasted OUR time. It took 2 hours to get back to them (scan and then their lunch break).

Btw I just bought an OBD scanner which I will keep in the car from now on.

The Thomas J

If we are covering you for the hour at top pay plus benefits and your employer's payroll tax contributions it's about $55 an hour, roughly. the dealer get's $95 to keep the lights on. An indy mechanic in NYC is between $75 to$85 an hour for a regular car. Diesel mechanic starts at $90 to $105. None of them charge diagnostic fees. It's absolutely a rip-off. But, we pay it because it's Mercedes-Benz or BMW and people expect that we have it. Well, yea that's true for the most part. However, just because I have it doesn't mean I want to spend it. . I have to check with my local Lincoln and Cadillac dealer to see what they get for a diagnostic fee. I'm very curious now.

ItalianJoe1

Most shops will charge an hour for diag if a car is outside of factory warranty. The hour could be $105 if it's a non-premium brand or in a lower rent area of the country, here in south FL everything is overly expensive for no reason.

Firestone where I used to work charged diag time to check a car, was $99 fixed, even though the actual labor rate varied slightly by store and was around that level.

I know some of the previous posters don't think it's right, and I have done plenty of free scans as I like to make money fixing cars, not getting an hour for diag and that's it. I'd rather do an A service for that hour. But a customer that doesn't want to actually spend money at the dealer and wants a free diag only, the diag charge helps keep them from wasting time.

Look at it this way, if you aren't worried about actually having your car fixed, you would easily authorize a checkout charge. Either it's gonna be covered and you don't pay it, or it's not and you are gonna pay for the repair which the diag becomes part of. Not worth the argument IMO.

The Thomas J

Fair enough. I am fortunate enough that I have a pretty good knowledge about cars and amy somewhat mechanically inclined. When I bring a car in for service I am 99% sure what's going on with it. I just expect everyone else to come to the same conclusion that I did without the $150 side. That being said aside from the incident I described I pretty much just let the service advisor do what he wants to do.