I also posted this in the ML forum, but this seemed like an appropriate place as well.

I just purchsed a CPO 2006 ML500 with 23,500 miles on it. I love the car, but an issue has arisen and I wanted to hear what you other ML owners thought.

A few days after purchasing the car, I took it to a local Meineke shop to get the state inspection done. They discovered that whoever had done the last oil change has made a mess of things, and oil was spilled all over the engine. More importantly, they found an oil (or some other fluid) leak coming from the rear of the engine. I took the car to my local MB dealer (a different one than where I purchased the vehicle) and they ended up having to remove the transmission to find what was leaking. It turns out that it is either the main rear cover and/ or the main rear seal on the enging that is the culprit, and it will all be fixed under warranty.

What troubles me is that these two issues were not disovered in the supposedly exhaustive MB CPO certification process. I feel like I paid extra for a CPO vehicle, and did not get what I paid for. I have contacted the salesman who sold me the vehicle, and he seemed genuinely disturbed, etc, and I'm waiting for him to get back to me as he's supposedly talking to his service team, etc. I wanted to hear from other owners as to how they'd deal with this. I'm pretty pissed off, but since the repairs are all covered under warranty I'm not out any money, just a few days without the car. I'm trying to give them a chance to make good on this, but I fear I'm going to get a "gee whiz we're sorry" and then I'll have to fight them for some kind of compensation. I'm not the type of guy to take advantage of a situation like this and try to milk it for freebies, but I think I deserve something. Any thoughts? This is my first Benz so I don't really know what the typical dealer experience is.

Thanks!

 

Well being a Shop Foreman for a dealer,I understand your pain,lately(last few years) Mercedes has been a pain in the **** on warranty and on dealers,even though your car was certified,the dealer probably didnt want to add many repairs to the CPO unless it is safety related,becuase Mercedes as a KPI index,and if dealers are over,they can get audited and charged back,so they might have figured the leak was that bad,and the customer can come bak and have it repaired when he himself complains about it..
Is total BS,Im sick of the current policy of Mercedes,they are screwing the dealer which in turn they are screwing the customer..I remember when we were doing Starmarks a few years ago,we used to go over the car with a fine tooth comb,and do everything that was needed weather it was mechanical or cosmetic..
Mercedes is just interested in the bottom line now,and not the customer...

 

Another scenario is what ever failed to create the oil leak occurred after the CPO inspection. Or, the tech who did the CPO just missed the problem. I wouldn't think that a dealership of any quality would intentionally not repair anything so obvious. However why in the world would you be taking a late model MB to a Meineke anyway??

 

Thanks for the replies guys. The Meineke trip was simply to get the state inspection done; it's close to my house and I know the people who run it. All actual service on the vehicle will be done at my local MB dealer. Unfortunately that dealer is 40 min. away, so for things like a state inspection the drive just doesn't make sense.

I have considered that the leak may have occurred after the CPO certification, but what makes me very skeptical is that there was also engine oil spilled everywhere, presumably from a sloppy oil change, and that wasn't dealt with either. It seems that even if they were reluctant to take care of the leak, or it hadn't occurred yet, they would have at least cleaned up the engine during the CPO process. These two things together lead me to believe something is up.

I'm considering asking for an extended warranty on the vehicle at the dealer's expense since it's likely that I own a vehicle that was not certified properly and therefore may have defects that normally would have been taken care of upon certification. Does this sound out of line?

 

Asking for an extended warranty on top of the CPO warranty is asking a bit much and may be impossible for them to do as MB actually provides the warranty. However I would ask them to do the complete certification again with your supervision as to what they actually do. The problem that you have as I see it is a dealer issue not an MB issue and as I said could have been caused by a rushing tech whose work is sloppy so let the dealer bear the cost of the reinspection and ask that another tech or perhaps a forman preform the reinspection. Possible the reason they were reluctant to perform the repair was that in order to get paid by MB they would have to disclose to them the reason for missing this on the CPO inspection.

 

Good point on the warranty. I'm just trying not to be ridiculous and ask for a goody bag of accesories. I believe I deserve something, but it should be appropriate based on what's happened. The problem I have with simply asking for the vehicle to be re-certified is that I live 2 hours away from the dealer that I purchased the car from, so I don't really want to have to take the car back there. I suppose I could ask that they agree to have my local MB dealer do the CPO and any expenses from repairs would be their responsibility, but I'm doubtful they would agree since they could be setting themselves up for thousands of dollars in repair costs since my local dealer would not have any reason not to report every single miniscule problem with the vehicle.

Either way this is all helpful info; I appreciate the input!

 

Don't think that will work as the selling dealer does the inspection at his expense and pays MB a fee for the CPO certification and included warranty. There is nothing in it for the local dealer to do this for you and no reason why he should. Did you attempt to purchase a car from him?? My advice, negotiate with the dealer you bought it from, have him pick up the car, leave you a loaner, do the reinspection, return the car and pick up his loaner. My dealer does the pick up,loaner thing every time my car is serviced AT NO CHARGE. I know they do it for distant customers also. If they refuse that, inconvience yourself for a day, you have a lot at stake here.

 

i don't know ANY MB dealers in CA that give that type of personalized service. even under warranty, the CA BMW and MB dealers often do not give you a loaner. if they do, they often give you a $30/day voucher w/ enterprise. do you want they call a full-service dealer that treats you right? Lexus, LOL.

actually, even the Lexus dealer i went to gave enterprise. imho, i think the Southern CA car market is much more competitive and provide better service than NorCal.

 

Dealers (MB) around here give MB loaners, usually no more than a year old from a loaner flet they maintain. Lexus dealers around here give either beat up trade ins or Enterprise and do not pick up and deliver. All my dealer asks of me is that I return the loaner with the same amount of fuel that was in it when they delivered it. My dealer has a large fleet and another local dealer has a quite small fleet and backs up with Enterprise. My dealer also uses Enterprise in emergencies but picks up the entire tab and the emergency vehicles are also on their premisis. Don't really know about CA and really do not care.

 

Again, that's good information about how the CPO process works. I have to admit I'm troubled by the scenario of the dealer who sold me the vehicle re-certifying it since they are the ones who screwed it up to begin with. It would be easy for them to take the car, do nothing, and send it back to me in a couple days and tell me everything is all set. I understand what you're saying about my local dealer having no reason to certify the car, but perhaps they could come up with a fee for doing all the checks required for certification, and then the original dealer would compensate them for this service fee as well as any necessary repairs? Maybe that's not realistic, but I like the idea of my local dealer being sort of an honest broker here.

For what it's worth, I did try to purchase a car from my local dealer, they just didn't have and couldn't find a CPO ML 500. They seem to be a first rate dsealership and my experience with the sales people there as well as the service department has been superb. They do offer the pickup/ loaner scenario describe, but I thought this was just for cars purchased at that dealer; I could be wrong. I'm not sure if the dealer I bought the car from offers this service but I'm sure I'll find out tomorrow.

Thanks again everyone for your input. We'll see how this goes...

 

Good luck with your plan. However I really do not think that the selling dealer will compensate your local dealer for the inspection and, quite frankly you have no proof that the seller did not do the inspection and the problem did not occur after the inspection. Let us know how this works out for you. In the long run you will love the 06 ML500. I have had mine since Sept 05 and its been flawless as has my 05 E 4 matic which I have had since Feb 05. I use a dealer thats about 30 min from my home and there is another 5 min away that I won't go near.

 

Thanks. I'll definitely let you know how it all works out.

One thing I forgot to mention about the dealer who sold me that car is that they failed to tell me that the car had been smoked in before I drove 2 hours to see it. I don't have a very good sense of smell, so I didn't really notice at first, but after we had agreed on a price, they told me about the smoking. My wife is very sensitive to smoke, so I was pretty annoyed that they didn't tell me up front. I got some extra taken off the agreed upon price due to the smoke, so I feel that is taken are of, but it's one more thing that they screwed up in this process.

The annoying part of this whole situation is that I think the car is fantastic; this all just serves to spoil the purchasing experience. I can't wait to get the car back so I can actually enjoy it. I found the ML (with the air suspension) to be far superior to the BMW X5 and VW Touareg that were originally the main candidates for my next car.

 

Smoked in?? Now you are getting much too picky. Why on earth do you think they were obligated to tell you that if they even knew it?? I smoke and smoking in any of my cars has never been an issue or changed the value. I think perhaps you should have purchased new.

 

Hey, didn't mean to ruffle any feathers there. Perhaps I should have been more clear. I had asked the dealer if the car had been smoked in earlier in the buying process, and was told that no, they didn't think the car had been smoked in. They informed me of the smoking after we had agreed upon a price. As I said, we ended up agreeing on a further reduction in price due to the smoke, so I feel that was taken care of.

I'm going to have to disagree with you about smoking devaluing a car. There's a reason "never smoked in" appears so many times in ads for cars for sale. The fact that my sales guy came to me hat in hand telling me about the smoking after he had a deal on paper tells me that the dealer is aware how big a deal this is to many people as well. I have sold many cars and half the inquiries I get include questions about whether or not the car has been smoked in. My wife is allergic to cigarette smoke an can honestly tell if a car has been smoked in before she even gets in it. The smoke smell in my ML is pretty mild to me, but she started sneezing after being in the car for a few minutes. I know lots of other people who won't even bother with a car if the previous owner was a smoker.

Anyway, I don't mean to start an argument about smoking in cars, but honestly it's a really big deal to many non smokers. As far as buying new goes, I am fully aware of the risks of buying a used car, and understand that even the best used cars are still not going to be perfect.

 

You must be in CA re the smoking issue. My question to you is how did the additional discount cure your wife's allergy to smoke?? I guess you put her discomfort against the dollars you saved and let her suffer!!??

 

Listen, you've been very helpful to me on this issue and I'm truly thankful for that, but your sensitivity regarding the smoking matter is absurd.

To clarify:

a) I'm not in California (you clearly have something against that state); opposite coast in fact.

b) Negotiating a reduced price due to the smoking compensated me for having to recondition the interior of the car to get it to the point where it would not bother my wife.

I will try in the future not to upset your delicate sensibilities.

 

Perhaps I am overly sensitive to the smoking issue but I am also tired of all the discrimination against us. CA is rediculous and I was chastised for smoking outside away from any inhabited area.Having never purchased a used car I would think that re doing the interior as so far as any odors, smoking or even pets would have been done by the selling dealer before purchase. I do not mean to upset you and if your wife is truly allergic I can understand your problem

 

Hi, all:

I'm also having a CPO issue with my dealer.

Is there any way for a customer to know that the inspection has actually been done? I know my car did not receive the full inspection, even though the dealer says it did. MBUSA has no record of the car being certified, and several things that would have been easily caught in the inspection process weren't.

Plus, the first report they gave me was dated 2 days after I took delivery of the car. I brought this up with the manager, and he swears that the car was fully inspected. I told him that I wanted a full report and all of the warranty info. that MBUSA promises on their site. Today, I got the second "report," which is just a checklist (with no checks or notes -- not even for the items that are N/A for my vehicle). The date on this report has changed to the day before I took delivery, but I was at the dealership most of that day, and the car sat out front the entire time. The manager says that they can knock out the CPO inspection in a couple of hours, but I can't believe that it doesn't take longer than that.

Isn't there a decal or a report or something traceable that would detail the specifics of the inspection? Shouldn't MBUSA have some way of verifying that the dealer actually did the inspection? I've spoken with customer care twice, and they don't even know how to answer my questions other than telling me to talk to the dealer.

This is making me crazy because I'm sure that the dealer is just trying to save face rather than coming clean.

Any info about the process or verifying that it happened would be great. Thanks!

Brian

 

there's NO WAY that a used car can get starmarked/CPO'd without anything being done. they used to do a "sticker" as i've seen in some used car ads, but not sure if they do that anymore.

 

All you really want is to get back into your car and keep driving. Forget it. It's all over. I know it's a pain in the butt and you probably spent 12-15% more for the CPO car, but seriously....just enjoy the car when it's fixed.

Mercedes screwed up. Someone dropped the ball. **** happens.

 

You're absolutely right. And the car is a pleasure to drive. My biggest concern is that when I called MB, they said that the car isn't listed as CPO. I took the car to my previous service advisor at another dealership, and he said that it's not listed in his computers either. So if something happens after the initial warranty, my fear is that I'll be stuck without the real coverage of CPO.

PLUS I absolutely hate the B/S that car dealers put their customers through, and this whole game they're playing with me is exactly why sales people develop such nasty reputations. We all screw up, but I've never met a car dealer who will admit it. Serenity now!

Brian

 

Why is a 2006 with 23,500 under CPO? The original factory warranty is 4 years/50,000 miles. The ML is still under the factory warranty. If there is any other coverage it should be extended coverage. If there is no extended coverage the CPO is nothing.

 

You're right; the vehicle is still covered under the original factory warranty, but it was sold as a CPO vehicle and therefore carries the additional CPO warranty that kicks in after the factory warranty runs out.

I agree that in the end it's just best to get your car back and enjoy it (which I do very much.) The dealer that sold me the car has not responded to my initial call regarding the whole issue, so I am following up with a letter to the GM of the dealership as well as someone higher up within MB. I honestly don't expect anything from them beyond an apology, but I don't believe in just shrugging these things off. They are COUNTING on people like us to shrug things off. If we don't complain, the situation will never get better.

 

Here's to NOT being a shrugger!

Brian