fabbrisd1

Yes - Diamond White is a involved and precise process - but this is not a major accident repair a well experienced body shop can do - if I understand the post the Dent Doctor made the referral - and I would hope the referral is the same body shop that dealer uses to contract it's work.

In my world - I have a Mercedes Certified body shop on tap - depending on area those can be quite rare (like myy area only MB Certified shop within 300 mile radius) and MB Certified Shop it's a piece of cake.

On minor body work such as this - without insurance claim - it would be up to the dealer working with the body shop to insure repaint does not show up on Car Fax - as dealer ordered work it will show on the Mercedes VMI record but no one really checks or publishes VMI records since they are Mercedes only.

The other useful note here - which most owner's do not understand - is in the event of major accident - where either the MB is non-driveable - AND/OR represents a safety hazard such as broken headlights or broken rear tailights - Roadside Assistance will provide FREE transportation to the closest Mercedes Certified Body Shop - even if the closest is 100's of miles away.

That Roadside Assistance fact is not understood by most owner's - yes, once the car is finished it is your responsibility for pickup.

Keep the beat !

Streamliner

Obviously, accidents happen and we are all glad that MB Certified Body Shops are available. However, this thread is about dealer caused damage to a $100K+ vehicle! with just over 200 miles on it. No body shop anywhere is going to make this vehicle exactly as it came from the factory paint tunnel and with the vehicle being only days from new, if it were me, I would not settle for anything less than a new vehicle or a full refund of my purchase price. Once a vehicle has had any aftermarket paint work done, it is damaged goods, especially in the rarefied atmosphere in which special interest vehicles, like this AMG model exist. The owner should not have to live with a less than perfect vehicle, nor should he suffer the inevitable problems when he goes to sell it and is constantly asked "has it ever had any paint work done?" DEMAND A NEW VEHICLE! What have you got to lose?

27T

Have you ever seen resale values for AMGs?

markfl

I have decided not to order from this dealer, so it did, End of.

ChrisMclass

Ok we picked up Sasha late yesterday while the sun was still shining so I could really get a good look at what they had done. The body shop (which is not a certified MB shop) was afraid to shoot the whole hood and have us have an issue later on if we went to trade it by someone putting a milligauge on it.

They did spray a small section of the underside and a blend across the front maybe 2 inches up. I cannot tell the hood has any work at all, mind you I have been a service manager at many dealerships as well as have owned custom shops and I am good at picking apart a re-paint or touch up, they body shop did a great job.
Being that is a pearl paint I put on my polarized sunglasses in direct sunlight to see if I could notice any blend lines, overlap, color changes and the like and was not able to spot anything. I took pics this morning and while they are not the best (too early and it's a little overcast today) they do show the body shop was able to match it and blend it.

I don't think asking for a new ML would have been an option, not for a hood ding. Maybe if a service guy got overzealous on a test drive and wrecked it or blew the motor now THAT would definitely warrant a new replacement.

As far as the service records are concerned it was not booked into service for this, the new car department is taking the hit for it and footing the bill although they have record of it internally but it will not show up on carfax as a repaint because technically it is not a repaint, just a small touch up. Oh and btw guys just because it does not show on a carfax does not mean any of your cars have not had work done, being a service manager means you get direct training from companies like ADP on how to book things into service and not have it show on records I know that sounds shady but that's how ALL the dealerships avoid those kind of issues, even on a CPO car, honest injun I've seen it happen! No offense meant to any Native Americans with that comment!

Now that this has been taken care of I will tell you no wait I will promise you this might be the LAST experience I have with this dealership. Yes they made things right in the end but they tried to hide it in the beginning and to me that is a serious issue in my book. Maybe I should reconsider as it was not the service department who tried to sham me it was the salesman and sales department, I don't know but right this moment I am not to fond of this dealership.

But at least Sasha is home and looks like she should.

Streamliner

Well, as long as YOU are happy, I guess that's all that matters. Enjoy your new rocket. Sounds like I'm talking about an Oldsmobile, but you know what I mean.

Snipe656

I sure have, basically depreciate 20% driving off the lot and keeps tanking from there. Still should not mean someone needs to eat added depreciation from someone else's mistake. If I spent $110k on a vehicle and immediately had to have a body panel repainted due to the selling dealer then I'd spend the hour or so it would take to get a letter of depreciation from a different dealer. Then I'd approach the selling dealer to pay me that amount on top of them paying what it costs to repaint the panel. Letter of depreciation would show how much the vehicle is worth had it not had any paint work v. how much it is worth because it had the work. Heck I'd do it on any new vehicle I bought regardless of what the thing cost me.

I know this all too well. I have a vehicle with 250-260k miles that when I pulled it from business use to personal use I figured it was completely worthless due it's history. I hydolocked the engine in it at one point and had a big insurance claim around that. Does not show up at all in the history, actually not much of anything shows up in the history even though almost all server/repairs were done at one of two dealerships. Annoying for me since keeping it around and wanted it to be worthless due to its value being seen as income for that year it usage purpose was switched.

27T

Good luck

27T

lol. enjoy life. again, you're welcome.

cookstar

I would have requested them to give me a new hood from factory, No iam not joking.

In other news I have the paint protection on my GL which we paid about $600 for. we have had the car for 10 months and in October the "paint protection " was reapplied due to rail dust getting into the diamond white paint. So now in 10 months the paint protection has been applied twice and last week I washed the car and see to no surprise that the rail dust is in the paint again. So in conclusion you have to take the car for a detail a minimum of twice a year to have the paint protection reapplied. Otherwise its $600 down the drain. Funny thing is the second time it was applied they left the white polish haze on the vehicle so it would have "extra protection"

27T

It would be my first inclination but...Like others have mentioned, it may not be an option and the paint may not match.

ChrisMclass

That just sounds ridiculous, that was someone being lazy lol.
We would apply a similar coating to our new vehicles in my service department, in the training we received we were told the high friction areas such as hood, front end/air dam, side mirrors and roof were to get at least 3 applications and only 1 to the rest of the vehicle. When I questioned the detail guy at this dealership he said they are told to only use one application on the whole car, he agreed multiple applications to those areas would be the proper way to do it. obviously my hood was not done again because it was just painted but when we return it will be done right this time around.

Since the hood itself had not been damaged, only the paint, I didn't feel I needed to ask for a new hood.

cookstar

There is no rub on paint protection no matter number of coats which will last for over a year. The only thing that does that is either a clear bra type of product or clear coat itself. ( I dont park the car in a garage and we get long salty winters here)

P.S The GL is a big girl so laziness was most likely a factor as well.

Critter

Really for 600 bucks you are getting added onto the price of the car and in most cases nobody forks over 110K, so it stands to reason there is some financing involved. My opinion is that a professional detailer will for 250-300 bucks detail a black car, (black is more revealing) that will make your eyes water. Letting a dealership "detail" your baby will surely be the cars first set of swirl marks that will be there for a long time. First and last time I got a "diamond coat" from the dealer on our new Tiburon, Black< well when we went to pick up this brand new car you could have used it for a gold separator, the idiot had used the same buffing pad for like 50 cars, what a mess, of course this was a freebie there was no way That mess was worthy of money.

ChrisMclass

Fortunately we are in the position that no financing was needed here. The main reason we had the treatment done was for the Designo Porcelain leather, we wanted to have something to fall back on if the seats begin to show too much denim transfer, spilled coffee stain or any other issue that could happen with a white leather. To me $600 upfront is cheaper than replacing one of those seat skins down the road.

Critter

Well Chris that makes good sense to me, congratulations on your new ride. Did not mean any disrespect towards you or the family and your statements are sound. White interior could be a handful of trouble

Streamliner

Well, after all this, how about posting some photos of what might be a one of a kind ML63? Would love to see the interior and a shot showing how the interior color looks with the exterior.
Merry Christmas,
Streamliner