iryou6

Hi,

I’d like to share my frightening experience when driving my GLC few hours ago, and look for some suggestions.

Background:

I reside in Vancouver, Canada. And I got my new GLC300 4Matic with 39-month lease three months ago. Currently, it has 1100-KM mileage. I found the engine rattles abnormally last week, like something stuck. I don’t have too much mechanical knowledge, so I took a video and sent to the sales. She said she showed the video to the service people, and the service people said it is normal sound. I planned to visit the service department this coming Monday.

The awful experience I just encountered:

A few hours ago, I was driving my GLC from North Vancouver back to my home. I was passing Lion Gate bridge, and suddenly, the engine light was on and flashing. I have no idea what’s going on, and then I felt the power is losing, even if I tried to hit the pedal. There was no emergency line, so I decided to control the car and stop at a reasonable place. After that, I found the steering wheel feels heavier than normal, so does the brake. I was very frightened at that time, but I had to keep clam since my friend was also on the car, and she has no idea about the situation at all. I kept driving the car for around another 1KM, and tried to brake the car again. The car finally stopped, and stopped working with all lights on. I can start up the car or move it to another place. I was at the middle of West Georgia St, one of the main roads entering Vancouver from North Vancouver. I turned on my hazard lights, and called the SOS, since I blocked the traffic. After waiting several minutes, I got transferred to the road assistance. And I waited around 45 minutes to have the towing service. During that period, the police came by, and asked whether I called the towing yet. Eventually, the towing truck came and took my car to the dealer’s service department. I called the sales, and she said she would keep me updated.

So, in this situation, what should I do? I thought it is Mercedes manufacturing defects, and I don’t want to keep the car even if they “fix” it.

Please give me some suggestions. Thanks a lot!

decorily

Wait and see what the dealer says.
It may be something simple.

dalazernet

"Engine rattle" sound, check engine light, loss of steering power, etc... This sounds like your serpentine belt either came off or got caught up and shredded.

Let us know!
- Eric

chassis

Sorry to hear. Please update when the dealer tells you what happened.

iryou6

I just talked to the dealer today. They told me the vehicle is still under inspection. However, they said Mercedes never buy back the vehicle, even in such a situation. They usually fix the problem, and give back to the customer.

I can’t accept keeping the car, and I think it is a reasonable requirement in my situation.

I may have to find a lawyer, but unfortunately there is no lemon in Canada as US. The procedure to defend my right as a customer can be harder.

chassis

Mercedes buys back vehicles every day of every year. You need to work their system, unfortunately. Start a complaint with Mercedes corporate. This is posted on this site in nearly every section. Try the search feature on which contacts to use. Tell your dealer you want to open an official compliant with Mercedes corporate.

E55 KEV

Did you miss the post about Canada not having a lemon law?

iryou6

Yes, things become difficult in Canada.

decorily

How about taking a breath and stay calm!
Give MB a chance to resolve the issue which may be something simple.

iryou6

Thanks for the suggestions.
The reason why I am so worried is that, for me, I don’t want to keep such a car after the accident, but the dealer told me the usual way is to have the car fixed and give it back to me. I can’t accept it at all. Let’s see how Mercedes handle with the case.

From my perspective, MB doesn’t care the Canadian market much as US market.

E55 KEV

Grass is also greener! I'm envious of MB Canada. Your market gets models we don't that I'd like to buy. Canada gets more wagon models, S-Model of the GLC63 and A-Class hatchs.

iryou6

Those models are shown available on MB CA website, but it will take some effort to order one from the local dealers. As far as I know, there is not too many AMG models in any local dealer’s inventory of my area.
Also, it means more to me to have good support and policy on existing models than to have more model options. Maybe I am not an AMG target customer. lol

E55 KEV

US is the same. Not all models especially an AMG is at every dealer. Often you have to order or search the country for AMG models. I have 3 AMG and none were available at the 5 local dealerships. I had to buy one from New York, one from Delaware and one from Massachusetts.

cbebmb1

Do you honestly think MB is going to buy back the car after one single incident? I'd guess you could find a similar complaint against all vehicle manufacturers out there on a particular new car.
It's a German car and they don't rank real high in initial quality. I have two new 2021's and I'm expecting some early issues. I was once was told by a Mercedes mechanic that you don't by a MB for its reliability. You buy it for its luxury and performance.

mikapen

You need to understand how "initial quality" is queried, and what the results mean.
The questions from JD Powers and Consumer Reports are similar. They ask, essentially, "was the car what you expected?"
The higher priced cars have higher expectations, and the owners are more picky. A transmission failure is more expected on a cheap car, and a loose floor may is totally unacceptable on the high priced units.

So a bad floor mat complaint ranks above a failed transmission in "initial quality," because owners expect better floor mats on "German Cars." Yugo's always scored highly on JD Power ratings.
Toyota used to have poor ratings, primarily for port-installed parcel shelves. They learned their lesson and just left out the parcel shelves, and JD Power liked them more. Toyota perfected the concept of "Consumer Focus Groups," to identify potential consumer complaints and eliminate them before they were released. Nothing engineering-related, mind you, only "first impression" stuff.

cbebmb1

Where do you get all this garbage! I've been in depth surveyed by JD Power several times and their question have never been about higher price cars having higher expections. They've never asked me essentially "was the car what you expected"? They only want to know what component issues you experienced with the vehicle since taking possession
Also...a trany failure failure is NOT expected on a cheap car. There are loads of old "cheap" Toyota and Honda transmissions that keep shifting year after year without a problem.
To be honest, I did expect better quality floor mats on my two new German cars. They are not near the quality of what my Kia K900 had.

mikapen

Great example! Thanks.
You'd be surprised at how much people driving lower priced cars accept. And just how demanding owners of higher priced cars are - their responses to survey questions reflect that.
Yes, I am speaking about actual complaints, on actual cars, by actual humans. If you consider actuality to be "garbage," that's fine.
For you, Floor Mats make the car. For others, fit and finish, and performance make the car.
The JD Power and Consumers Guide don't do a good job of assessing problem trends on cars, IMO. If you like them, go ahead and base your ownership choices on them.

cbebmb1

No Sir. Floormats do not make the car for me. I was just making a point that MB floor mats should be of better quality than what you pay for.
I don't think you understand. JD Power Initial Quality Study by year is all compiled complaints on ACTUAL cars by ACTUAL humans. I've taken several JD Power IQS surveys and they don't survey for things like bad floor mats or whatever. Because the German cars don't score high for initial quality (or for long term for that matter) doesn't make them a poor choice for a vehicle. I knew that going in before I bought my first two German cars this year. They're beautiful high tech, high performing machines and worth their issues and problems. I expect the issues and problems. They'll be resolved and covered under warranty. I just don't appreciate being gouged for routine maintenance. It is not the $$. It is the principal. At least BMW has my maintenance covered for the first three years.

chassis

@iryou6 Any progress or information from the dealer?