I'm coming up on the end of my factory warranty, and between the troubles I've already had with my truck (infrequent but very expensive things have broken) and the stuff I've been reading here about Airmatic bags blowing out and timing chains stretching I decided to pull the trigger on a factory extended warranty.

I've never purchased an extended warranty before - I always think of them as a rip off - but between the above and the exorbitant labor rates here in the Bay Area Mercedes dealers it seemed like a good idea.

My local dealer quoted - GASP - $6000 plus a $600 inspection fee for the 7 year / 100,000 miles warranty for my truck.

I purchased the very same warranty from Jason Mayes at Mercedes Benz of Elmbrook Wisconsin - he's the guy who currently seems to be most favored for good deals on extended factory warranties in other parts of this forum. His email is jmayes@mbofelmbrook.com

For my 2011 GL350 with 43,000 miles, Jason quoted the following
6 year, 75,000 miles - $2627
6 year, 100k miles - $3363
7 year, 75k miles - $3521
7 year, 100k miles - $4309

The transaction took two emails and about 5 minutes of my time. Happy customer.

I wonder if local labor rates are involved in how Mercedes sets internal costs/prices, or if they have a single national cost and price structure for these - You can bet the labor rates in Elmbrook Wisconsin are about half of those here in Silicon Valley.

what does the warranty cover? i am very interested.

As I understand it, it's the exact same as the original factory warranty, just longer...

If seems you are in California and they are in Wisconsin, how would they do the warranty work when you need something to be fixed?

Thanks.

It's the same as for your new truck - all dealers and authorized repair shops in the country will perform work regardless of where you purchase the warranty. Mercedes USA reimburses the local shop for the cost of the repair.

My CPO car purchased 12 months ago with 74k (2008) has required about $6,000 in work since purchase. Think air suspension, wheel bearings, wheel sensors.......

If you're really going to keep it, go for the 100k coverage. I paid about $2800 for my 3/135 CPO warranty. Surely you can get the price down

Great info. I'm thinking strongly of buying my '11gl350 diesel off lease in March. I special ordered it and so far the truck has been flawless. Add on a warranty and I'll be in for about $40k. What else can you get for $40k!?

Thank you very much for your reply. I have bookmarked this thread, it is very useful information.

The later X164's seem to have been improved significantly over the earlier ones. My '12 has been rock solid save for a NOx sensor and the normal maintenance.


I look at extended warranties a bit differently since I do all my own work. I see them essentially as pre-paid maintenance cost, so I avoid them. I've never owned a vehicle where they would work out for me and hope that I never find myself in the position where I wish I would have had one.

Remember this. MB is very consistent. It's all about time and mileage. You too will have the same issues as the earlier models. Come back in 5 years and 100,000+ miles and report your problems if you still own the GL.

That's certainly a possibility, but one of my racing buddies is a service writer at a Mercedes dealership in NC (but he races a BMW...like I do) and I spoke with him at length, along with a friend who tunes Benz's extensively in CO. They both told me to buy a 2011 or 2012 as opposed to an earlier X164 because of the updates that had been made.


Mercedes makes running changes throughout any given model's lifetime, like all manufacturers do. The 2012 is the last year of the X164 and all those running changes have been made to fix the things that have been problematic. I'm not so sanguine that I believe the vehicle will be flawless, but I have no doubt that it will be more reliable than the earlier models that were built when the plant was still going through it's teething pains and new parts and subsystems were being integrated.

It may be slightly more reliable but that's about it. The problem areas will still be the same regardless of model year: air suspension bags leaking, turbine speed sensor in the transmission, peeling window trim, and a host of other small nagging issues. The newer ones are already failing so just imagine with more time and mileage.

I've had this same discussion over and over concerning different models and it's like clockwork. The later adopters claim..."my car is newer so MB must have fixed all the problems"..... NOT! I've heard it over and over so often that it's humorous.

My 2011 GL350 is anything but reliable. The best thing I ever did was buy the extended warranty as mine has been in the shop for 3 weeks now. At 61K miles, the engine started sounding like crap, so they replaced the stretched timing chain, worn out main bearing, defective torque converter, and now are replacing the intake manifold. This probably would have cost me $10K from the dealer if the car was out of warranty. Plus I got a Mercedes loaner and a free car wash!

True, the diesel seems to be less reliable in the later models.

I also do all of my own maintenance work on the truck - most recently the transmission service - but to me the extended warranty is a no-brainer at least here in the San Francisco area for when the truck breaks.

I am currently having a "loss of power" / limp mode problem with the truck. No check engine light, just periodically the engine goes into low power mode. I don't see any way to diagnose and fix this kind of problem myself, short of going out and buying and replacing every possible sensor that I see reported here. Under the warranty, it just gets fixed.

I've consistently had at least one or two issues like this a year - where something sensor related or electronic has stopped working. Given this pattern of things breaking, plus how high the local labor rates are here - it seemed to me like a no brainer to sign up for the extended warranty - which I have not done on any other vehicle I've ever owned. Fix cost for fixes I can't do myself are just so high on this truck.

I also use my GL to tow a 6,000 pound airstream - which also factored into my calculus.