V12toHybrid

didn't see your comments before about free BMW services. so you are just bragging or admitting that MB is better so you "had" 4 BMWs and now on your 2nd MB? like every thing else in this world, nothing is free. sales gimmick that's all.

Moto One

Yea the included service may be a gimmick, but you don't have to worry about coming up with unpredictable cost for service over the first 4 years. It's also helpful to the manufacture if it has leased the vehicle, knowing that all services have been performed making it easier to sell as a CPO.

Mark

aggst1

MB maintenance costs ate not unpredictable. You can ask for a price list. Regarding BMW, I have read that the cost of maintenance is picked up both by the manufacturer and the dealer (don't know if it is 50-50 or what). Because of it, there have been a lot of reports of dealers not performing all the maintenance as promised and stating that they do on the paperwork. Again, nothing in life is free. When you pay your bill at a restaurant they give you a free mint. Is that really free? Or is it inside your $100 food bill?

V12toHybrid

i agree. mercedes should do the same. just add a reasonable cost to the sales price for included services. i also liked the extended warranty as well. it doesn't cost a lot to get it when you buy it new. i paid $3500 for 4 yrs 75k miles making the warranty 8yrs total. nice peace of mind. after the 2001 cl600, i will never own a expensive (relatively) car without warranty. i wonder why all expensive car manufactures don't do that. i will be more willing to buy a Bentley or Ferrari if they come with 8yr warranty and inc services even if that cost 20k more.

Shifter

Services on cars are cheap. Compare them to motorcycles, Harleys, Ducatis, etc. That is expensive compared to price of vehicle.

aggst1

If they add the cost of the extended warranty upfront the msrp will be that much higher. Why should I be forced to buy a 8 year long warranty when I typically keep my cars for 3-4 years? It's fine the way it is IMO.

V12toHybrid

yeah, that's true too. we usually keep our cars longer. but a reasonable priced extended warranty would be good "option" for higher priced cars. forgot to say, i got the extended warranty for the s400, not the ML. our last ML had over 100k miles and zero repair. i did all of the maintenance on it. BMW kept the price about the same and added 4yr maintenance. i guess they had to lower the cost somewhere else.

Sharkster

Talking about Service "A":
The "A" does not stand for the first service, but indicates that the service will take around one hour.

The system goes up from A to H, where "H" stands for the biggest (longest) service.


...and no. That's not a joke.

V12toHybrid

how the hell could they justify a $400 bill for 1hr of work especially when it doesn't take that long to change the oil.

Sharkster

I don't know what's included in the "Service A" in detail.

GateKeeper

not bragging, just saying what I had and what came with each vehicle, nothing more...I almost always lease my cars, 24-36 months, so I have gone through my share of vehicles...in the years I have been driving

BMW included service

Mercedes does not

I did not like Mercedes styling in the past, so I went with BMW, my last BMW was an X5, then the 2009 C350 came out and I liked it, since my lease was up on the X5 I went with the C350, lease was almost up on the C350, was going to go back to BMW for another X5, but found my current ML350 for a good price, and instead of leasing anymore, I decided to purchase this one.

sales gimmicks or not, the BMW's were leased and having the service included was nice, all I ever paid for was my gas......

the C350 was a lease as well, but no service included, and that was a bummer, but I still took it in and had it done...........

V12toHybrid

i did sound like an ***, didn't i. my apologies. i know what you mean. leasing a bmw is much more convenient than other cars because you don't have to worry about the services. i think people would be more compliant about the service schedules as well. maybe that's one of the reasons why bmw seems to hold the resale value better than mbs. again, didn't mean to be an ***, maybe i had a bad day. hope i didn't mess up yours

GateKeeper

No worries.......it's all good,,,,it would take more than that to get me upset...or mess up my day....

it's just too bad Mercedes does not have scheduled service included at least with their leased vehicles, when I leased my first Mercedes it shocked the crap out of me, when they told me how much the first service was going to cost....

But that I blame on the lease manager for not telling me, not Mercedes