My .02.... study the CA Lemon Law; it's pretty straight forward, IMHO. As much as I dislike dealing with a lawyer (no offense to any lawyers out there; I have plenty of lawyers in the family), I would have one who specializes in the Lemon Law ready to go incase MB doesn't play ball.
Like I've said before, you sure have a heck of alot more patience than me. Stay firm and wish you the best!

 

save your money and just send the certified letter to mbusa. sending it to the dealer or anyone else won't do any good since they can't do anything.

good luck, and i hope it works out!

 

My husband agrees. He's ready to hand everything over to the attorney. I'm going to try and go about it this way first.

I honestly believe that my car's "history" sort of "speaks for itself" in this matter.

I find it really hard to believe that anyone at MB could possibly come up with a viable and realistic reason why a $70,000 car that is 12 weeks old should have all of these problems. I can't imagine that is an image that MB wants to portray to the buying public, yet my experience is here for all to see.

Tam

 

Keep going with your letters, news reports, interviews with the national media, TV and radio appearances etc etc until you get a SATISFACTORY answer from Mercedes [ie your NEW GL appears and they sign the title over to you]. Just because they are 'nice' on the phone and respectful in letters doesn't mean they won't ignore you if they can. You WILL get the fastest resolution if you keep the pressure on.

Be nice, be respectful, be truthful but DON'T give up.

PS: as of this edit, the number of views of this thread alone is 5,645!

 

I agree with waiting to see what happens with MBUSA first. If they have any sort of brains in this age of social networking, they will put out the flame before the fire starts, and get you a new car in perfect shape, exactly what you paid for. If not then by all means go with an attorney, but if you end up going that route make sure you ask for damages, including attorney fees depending on your state laws.

 

My thoughts EXACTLY!

I know, I am always shocked when I come to the thread and see how many more views it is getting every day.

I really feel that throughout all of this, I have been nice, respectful and honest throughout. It's just how I am. My service advisor has continually expressed to both my husband and myself how thankful he is to deal with me as a customer through all of this. He said it could be SO much worse (dealing with REALLY upset/irate customers.) The way I see it, is this: I took my car to them so they could help me fix it when the problems first started and that is exactly what they tried to do for me. I can't see getting upset with them when all they are guilty of is trying to help me decipher all the problems my vehicle is having at such an early "age." I'm sure they are not at liberty to say so, but I can't imagine they are thinking any differently about this car. I see the shocked looks on my SA's face and I can hear the slight embarrassment in the tone of his voice every time he had to call me to tell me that my car still wasn't fixed. Heck, I almost felt sorry for him.

And through this all, I also don't feel that I have really "bashed" on Mercedes-Benz very much either, in this forum or elsewhere. I feel that throughout this entire thread, I've handled myself in a manner that, should they read through this entire thread, there is nothing I would be worried that they would read. As I said before I may even attach this entire thread to my letter. It gives a rather nice documentation of the problems as they occurred. It proved extremely helpful in helping me to follow a timeline for the problems with my car.

I've made sure to express that I love the GL model..and that I WANT to love MY GL. Trust me, it's rather embarrassing to have spent $70,000 on a vehicle and then try to explain to your friends and business associates why you never seem to actually HAVE the vehicle. I get more than my fair share of, "You should have bought that Chevy" comments, trust me. (mocking me for wanting the higher dollar vehicle and ending up with a problem car...even in jest, its still hard to swallow..

Belonging to a family, where we have owned multiple different MB products (E's, S's, ML's and now the GL) it's obvious there is a dedication to MB--which is what makes this ordeal with the GL even more frustrating.

Again, I thank EVERYONE for their advice, their listening ears and I hope I have good news to report soon!
Tam

 

My brother had an earlier generation ML that had numerous problems and the dealer terminated the lease and moved him into the next model year at no cost other than some upgrades. He was then trouble free for the duration of the new lease. At the time dealer was family owned now it is owned by a large 100 dealership corp. Good luck.

 

What happens to a vehicle after the car company buys it back after lemon law?

 

I'm not sure, PTeam--I think I heard somewhere that they take them back..paint them whatever color the next person who has one on order ordered and then sends it to them


no worries, it only leaks oil ' a little bit'.

 

They are deemed a "lemon" (there is even a sticker of a lemon that goes inside the door frame) and they are sent to auction.

TamZ-Your funny! I almost believe that!

 

hehe...I'm just giving him a hard time--he's got one on order due to come in soon

In all seriousness, it's a good question. I thought that a "buy-back" might be different than being deemed a "lemon." I wasn't sure of all the legalities of that. I guess I AM a bit surprised they even put a lemon sticker.

 

LOL...... Yeah, I was surprised by the sticker too!

 

Your comments on 'What happens to a "lemon" car?' caused this thought to occur: Certified Pre Owned (CPO) may mean just that. Tamz's dealer can certainly honestly certify that - it WAS pre owned and they can certify to that! Perhaps it is an answer to the question 'Where do the CPO cars come from?' Answer: from the lemon pool! [this is a joke - I am NOT trolling!]

 

Good point! LOL! Maybe if it doesn't go completely through the process (MBUSA had a company called Impartial Services handle the "lemon" part) If the dealer just buys it back, then you might be right about the CPO thing, hahaha!

 

Yea they're probably locating my incoming benz for one with "that" sticker on it!

On another note my benz is done produced and being shipped!

 

Yay! Congrats! I bet you are anxious to get it!!

 

I'm glad they took care of him. It probably helped they were a small family owned operation. What scares me most is I'm dealing with huge MBUSA. I'm a little fish... (well, not really--I'm 5'10--lol)

T.

 

Congrats, Pteam--- I honestly believe you will have no problems with your GL. And now you know what to look for. I'm very curiuos about your take on your wind noise, mostly.

All of my other problems, I can't help but think aren't inherent to GL's or you'd be seeing many more people posting about them. I seem to have just gotten the "unlucky" one.

On a side note, its STILL LEAKING OIL ON THE GARAGE FLOOR. My husband says he thinks it may be coming through the case. (I think that is what he said.) Something about a possible casting flaw, yadda yadda yadda..he's just trying to figure out what in the heck is going on too...who knows. But my BRAND NEW MERCEDES is leaking oil. I still can't get past that???

Can't wait to see pictures of your new ride.

 

With all the front half mechanical problems does anyone think it could have fallen off the transporter and landed on the front axle? Not attempting humor!

 

Well that could explain a lot. I have no idea..Someone on here mentioned that the windshields are "heated" when done at the factory. I have wondered on more than one occasion if somehow my windshield wasn't replaced at some point and thus the increased wind noise because it's no longer a straight from the factory windshield. All just speculation on my part, when trying to figure out why when going 65 on the freeway it sounds like I have a small "vent" open on my windshield area. (it's that loud sometimes!)

But with all the other problems, the wind noise that originally started this thread has seemed to lose top spot. Trust me, I think about it EVERY TIME I drive the car--but I'm more worried about the oil leak and this compressor/motor noise all the time (which now it spits out huge bursts of air nearly every time that noise starts..odd. They told me that an occasional burst of air when first starting or stopping and getting out of the car (the compressor runs to adjust) is normal. I don't ever hear bursts of air during those times, its always happening when I'm driving around. I'm beginning to feel like I sound a bit like a semi-truck. Oddly enough, when I'm sometimes sitting at at stop light, I can tell the car is "raising" etc...so I know the compressor is working to do it's thing, but I DO NOT HEAR THE COMPRESSOR AT ALL when it's doing the normal raising/lowering of the car. The other whining/grinding noise happens when I'm driving the vehicle. If it's the compressor, shouldn't I hear it when it's doing the lowering/raising thing too, when I come to stops? It's pretty much silent during those times. I only know it's "working" because when I'm staring at the car in front of me, etc.I get this sort of weird "vertigo" feeling and I realize the car is moving up/down. (silently, those times.) I did notice a few days ago, I was on a steep hill, dropping my daughter off at the gym for basketball practice and I was at the stop sign and my car suddenly dropped in the front- fast- whoomp, down. Didn't hit anything and then must have raised normally after I got on flatter ground. I had never noticed that before. But again, it did it silently and I just assumed that was normal operation because of the odd angle I was at on that particular hill. Wasn't worried about it, and didn't hear a compressor at all when it lowered like that. My poor car.

I have no idea what sway arms are but those are the other parts it needs that aren't due in until mid-January 2011. Nice.....not.

Tam

 

Something else I was pondering today-- I got a survey thing in the mail from the J.D.Power place that does some type of survey and they want to know about my experience with my new 2011 Mercedes GL350.

Hmm...do I have a lot to say. I usually never send these in but I am definitely going to do this one. How do places like this know I purchased a new car? I wondered about that.

T.

 

JD Power 'knows' because MBUSA told them! JD Power gets paid (by the manufacturer) to do the surveys. Therein is the conflict of interest - do you think ANY manufacturer is likely to ask JD Powers or ANY other survey service to continue if the results get published that show the manufacturer in a bad light?
Somehow, if you fill out the survey, I think all the negatives will mysteriously disappear! Or, more likely the survey will be very carefully worded to something like 'Initial Quality' impressions. Unless I missed something, you didn't notice anything amiss until you actually drove the car - and then you weren't sure the wind noise was unusual or not.
I don't trust ANY J D Powers quoted result. The data is tainted.

 

Well gee--then what good will it do to answer honestly in the survey--Ugh!

On a weird note, MBUSA called my cell phone today and said that they noticed I "missed a service appointment" to which I was a bit confused, as I've never missed a single appointment I've ever made. I didn't go into the fact that my cars been in the shop so long already, how could I possibly MISS an appointment?!? He said he would update their records. It was an 800 # that called me, so I don't think it was the MBUSA in Jersey. They have a different area code when the case manager called me. Weird.

 

I have a 2008 GL450 that goes out of warranty 09/18/2011. It has had about $50,000 worth of warranty work done to it.

Oil leaks, cracking wood trim, delaminating glass, delaminating window trim, collapsed front struts, chews through brake pads and rotors religiously every 20,000 miles.

I have a 2011 GL350 BTC on order.

Why another GL? Its the best packaged/executed SUV that I've ever owned, other than the Volvo XC90 (and I've had 3 of them). The two reasons I went up to a GL from a XC90 were the towing capacity and the Chinese ownership of Volvo.

Tam, keep the pressure on MB, and give yourself a pat on the back for handling this gracefully. I've gone through the lemon law process before and you're quite fortunate to live in a very pro-consumer state. Don't give up on the GL though.

 

Well..I'm not even sure what to say about this...and it could be nothing...I waited to post about this until my husband got home to listen to my car, so he could tell me if it was normal or not (although I'd never heard it before this.)

Now, when I put the car in Drive/Park/Reverse..it has started making a squealing noise. @@!#$%#@!#$ I heard it first this morning when I pulled in the garage after bringing my kiddos to school. I wanted to make sure that I wasn't losing my mind. My husband just looked at me, looked at the car, and said, "Good, that just confirms it's a piece of @#$%."

I want to say it sounds sort of like a small frog chirp, but he said that isn't a great description exactly. He says more of a squeal. So if anyone thinks of it, will you listen the next time you put it into drive and when you put it back into park, if you hear a little squealing noise for me? It's not super loud, but loud enough that I hear it when the windows are up and it's much louder when the windows are down. My husband crawled under the truck and he said it sounds louder than it should be, to him. I'm used to a car making a sound (or even a slight clunk) when you put it in gear, but the chirping is sort of odd..lol.. All I can say is, how in the WORLD can a car have so many noises LOL. And I wonder if this has to do with the leaking oil (they had to take the transmission off/down when they were looking into the oil leak.) I mean, whatever it is, it sorta sounds like it needs to be oiled (squeaky!)

Pretty soon, this entire saga will become so unbelievable that I won't even believe it myself

WHY ME!