So I recently participated in a "tire thread" (almost like an oil thread )

I grabbed the documentation brief-bag from the glove compartment GLK to read the documentation (supposed 2014 Owner's Manual) to provide firm facts about MB's thoughts.

Long story short ... as I'm looking thru the other paper documents in the bag, I find:
* Service And Warranty Information 2010
* An offer brochure for SeriusXM for "your 2010 Mercedes"

I then checked the Owner's Manual for copywrite and found :
Press time: September 17, 2009.

Part No.: 204 584 10 81 Edition C 2010
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Holy smoke !! (not what I really blurted out). My initial knee jerk reaction was, did we get scammed somehow?
(We did purchase from a well known and long established MB dealership in Houston, TX)

I took a photo of the VIN "plate" in the windscreen. I quote "plate" because this GLK doesnt have a metal plate as expected, but looks more like a sticker ... as a matter of fact, as I'm examining the photo up close, I see four tiny air bubbles, which very slightly obscure a couple of letters, but it's obvious what they are.

So I do a search at the US Govt website to confirm ... yea, it's a 2014 GLK registered in the US.

So, then I thought ... there HAS TO BE another VIN marking. So I discover that if you roll back the front passenger seat, and just under the front end of the seat is a small rectangular cutout in the carpet. Yep, I see it, and lift it up and take another photo.

Pretty sure that can't be faked (metallic, embedded) ... and it matches the VIN under windscreen.

So, I'm perplexed ... I downloaded the 2014 GLK Owner's Manual (Edition A 2014) from the official MB website tonight ... it doesnt match the manual that is in our GLK (2010 manual) ....

A few things might have changed from 2010 to 2014, so why doesnt it have 2014 documentation?
Did original owners buy 2010 docs off Flee-Bay for whatever reason ??

Am I over-thinking?

 

That the original documentation was lost and the previous owner purchased an owner's manual from Ebay, or something like it, and that was passed down with the 2014? That's how I did it for my 96 SL.

 

The last page (inside back cover) of my maintenance booklet says "As at 03.01.2013" Back cover says "Edition B-2014".

Front cover of "Service and Warranty Information 2014" says "Service and Warranty Information 2014".

Rear cover of the operator's manual says "Edition B 2014".

I don't have a satellite radio.

You can download most of the original documentation from the MB web site. (My download of the 2014 operator's manual says "Edition A 2014"...)

 

Yea I considered the previous owner did that ... that was one of my concluding statements in my post

But the big question is "why"? How do you "lose" the complete briefbag full of documentation, which no one really ever looks at??

What - the previous owner was reading it while floating around in a swimming pool and dropped it all ?

In my 50+ years of vehicle ownership, I've never "lost" the manuals.

There's got to be some oddball (or something concerning) reason ...

 

Was it a one owner car? If not maybe the original owner didn't include it in the car (maybe they wrote their name and address in it), and the second owner could only find 2010 docs...

Why worry? It's not a salvage title, is it?

 

Yea, one-previous-owner car (I think it was a lease car originally) , I bought from a well-established Houston Mercedes dealership.
At the time, it was 3 years old and about 30,000 miles (now about 85,000 miles)

And yea, maybe I'm overthinking this.

 

Maybe it was what the dealer had on hand...

Or, dealers typically take documentation out of the car and put it in a file. Maybe they miss filed it, or when you bought the car they retrieved the wrong one.

 

I think you’re over thinking this. You’ve put 50k+ on it without extensive problems. I’ve caught a dealer faking a warranty repair, so okay, I don’t go back. But dealing in altered VIN numbers could send people to jail. Very unlikely.
A third VIN number can be found on the vehicle ID tag on the driver’s B pillar.
You probably know this: Your 2014 should have a M276 (276.957) engine where the 2010 will be a M272.
My 2015 had 155k on it with only routine maintenance. You’re good.