My wife and I recently leased (2 months ago) a brand new GLE 450, only 11 miles on it when we picked it up. It's a beautiful car and we were very excited.

We noticed right away that the car was shifting into neutral while driving multiple times and also the gas gauge jumps around all over the place and doesn't give accurate readings. The car has been in the dealership for the past 3 weeks to diagnose and try to fix.

They have finally let me know its a faulty transmission causing the car to shift into neutral and are ordering parts to repair. But they are still not sure what's causing the problems with the gas gauge.

Wife doesn't have confidence in the car and not sure what else could be wrong. Is it possible to return a lease ?

 

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Sorry to hear, suggestions will come from owners who have walked this path before you.

Suggest reading up on the laws that apply in your state.

 

As chassis said, the laws will vary by state, but I think in general lemon laws will only apply after the dealer has made a certain number of attempts to fix the same issue.

NYS has a provision that also considers total number of days out of commission due to issues in general.

 

It all depends on your state. Some have number of attempts, some have time limits, some have both and then some states don’t even have any protections in place. Then some states say it has to be certain major things that are wrong or cause a considerable safety issue. The fuel gauge bouncing around might not fall into that.
If you want to keep the car or are considering it, contact MBUSA customer service. Personally I think these people are worthless with real problems but if things get fixed and you can keep it, they can “compensate” you for some of your troubles.
Otherwise look for a lemon law attorney that can practice in the state where you purchased the car. They can help and usually will give you a free or short paid consultation.
And lastly, look in the owners manual. MB has steps in there, sometimes state specific, that have to be followed for any lemon law problems.
Good luck.

 

You can lemon a leased car. Some states require so many days in the shop or so many repeated attempts to fix the same issue.

Once you meet your state’s legal threshold, kindly ask the dealer to help facilitate a buy back. That will be your quickest way to get this remedied is if your dealer helps facilitate it. If they don’t, hire an attorney. A lot states make it so you pay no legal fees whether you win or lose, but double check. You can always call an attorney in your jurisdiction and just ask.

At the very least, call MBUSA and ask for some lease compensation for not being able to use it while it was being repaired for that extended period of time. And file a complaint with the NHTSA. It’s very easy online.

 

Mercedes buy back isn’t quite that simple.. The results will follow your states Lemon Law but the process does not directly involve the Dealer. They have little if any influence on the decision in most cases. As with anything there are exceptions. Here’s my understanding of the process.

The Dealer will give you a number of a third party intervenor hired to handle LL claims.
They will take your info and you will get a call back from another person handling claims.
They will then contact the Dealer Service Department to obtain copy’s of your specific warranty visits.
Then a determination will be made (probably with consultation with Mercedes Corporate) and you will be notified of the decision.
If your claim is approved, you should get the option to order a replacement car or take a cash settlement. The settlement in many states will reduce the original purchase by vehicle depreciation if allowed by your state. The replacement option will probably be a better deal if you still like the vehicle and you will likely still get to keep driving your car until the replacement is built.
If they deny your claim you can still hire an attorney but this is a sticky situation. Mercedes might cave and grant your claim. Or they might fight it and there is no guarantee that you will be reimbursed for attorney fees. It’s not uncommon for settlements to end with each party paying their own attorney.
That’s my recollection of a claim a friend made a few years ago. The Dealer in consultation with Mercedes Tech could not resolve an issue so there was no disagreement in his situation.

 

I lemoned a leased SUV from Mercedes-Benz financial... you have to follow your state's lemon laws...it took about 9 months but to their credit Mercedes-Benz did a "substitution of collateral" in my lease... they essentially just changed the VIN number on my lease... kept the same term, payment, residual, mileage limits, etc.

I got a better optioned, new vehicle with no miles.
9 months into my lease. After the lease was over I purchased at the original residual value... then drove it another year before selling...

The key is to know the law and your rights...I did not use a lawyer.

Good luck

 

I have turned back in 2 Mercedes via the lemon law. In both cases I exceeded my states lemon law criteria and then wrote a letter to both the dealer and Mercedes corporate requesting a different vehicle if they could not correct the defect in their final attempt, per MA lemon law.

In both cases they failed to resolve and then chose to avoid the lemon law process and agreed to provide me with replacement vehicles at no cost to myself (yes, they covered sales tax). I believe this allowed them to eventually correct the problem and resell the vehicle without a 'dark cloud' label.

Funny thing was in one of the cases it turned out to be a configuration specific software coding issue that also showed up in the replacement vehicle. That was when they realized it was configuration specific and within a week or so they had an update! But they left me in the replacement vehicle.

 

Duplicate post

 

Yeah — I think Mercedes is learning how to do Agile software the hard way. They are not alone.

Adequate regression testing is harder than it sounds, expensive, and a challenge to automate.

Have a sub do an unknown in kind replacement of an internal piece part electronic component due to a vanishing vendor or limited supply, without adequate testing (because they didn’t bother to tell anyone) and sudden something doesn’t work due to a spec being different.

COVID hasn’t helped make things better.

 

In my business, our equipment is very software dependent. In the old days, the FAT test for code updates was a long and tedious process. Now it's pushed through quickly with a "let field service sort it out" mentality. That coupled with included patches from third parties which we have no control over, has led to an alarming increase in what I like to call unintended consequences. It's not going to get any better and all industries are in the same boat.

 

Well put.

IMO it started in the 70s, when programmers started plugging in generic Subroutines instead of actually writing a full program. It was less efficient from a processor standpoint, but you could "throw together" something that would work.

With resulting super complex, redundant programs that are very hard to troubleshoot.
Hence the "let field service sort it out" mentality you mentioned.
And the accompanying Call Center outsourcing. No industry seems spared.

 

 

Why do some of these brand new accounts and posts sound fake and contrived?

 

I guess will need to ask a moderator for help.