Extended Advice for a New Owner of a fully loaded 2015 S550 4Matic
 

Hi ,

We just purchase a 2015 S550 4Matic and it is fully loaded.

https://gerardoscars.com/2015-Merced...1/Details.aspx

Car arrives next week Tuesday! and I am so excited. Please any advice on extended warranty? unfortunately the car did not qualify for an MB extended Warranty.

Any advice on aftermarket extended warranty?


Thank you,

Lateef

I have a 2015 S550 4 Matic that I purchased last year under factory warranty. It is my second benz and I had the ELW on my 2012 that I used a bit but it was probably not needed. I am self insuring on my 2015 but mine only had around 17K miles on it when I purchased it. I have not had any issues with mine in the past year and hopefully any issues I do have will be small. I know it is risky but I did not want to spend close to 4K for a decent warranty. These are fairly reliable cars at this point and it is a crapshoot if you will need one or not. The bigger question is how long to you plant to keep it? The other question is how risk averse are you? I will probably only have mine for another few years and then get rid of it so I decided to roll the dice on this one.

AAA is the only one I would recommend. I have used them in the past with success. Your best rates will be before your factory warrantee runs out. !!! Go over the car with a fine tooth comb while it is still under Factory Warrantee. Test and retest every feature. Check ALL trim. Trim will NOT be covered under any extended warrantee including MB.

Good Luck with your new ride. Looks like you got an amazing deal!

The warranty expires in July. Ouch !!!!. Car sold by MB financial at the Auction in September.

See car fax: https://www.carfax.com/VehicleHistor...psSmv4nhuRbAqY


I am going to call AAA tomorrow. QQ https://www.aaa.com/autorepair/artic...o-cost-repairs ==> This is the AAA that yo are talking about right?

Thank you

Cool and thank you for the reassurance! I am not a risk taker on cars! lol.. I think I might keep it for at least 2 year and 3 years at most. By the 2018 S560 should be half price..lol.

Awesome car....you got one hell of a deal!! If you would've bought that CPO'd through Mercedes, you would have paid A LOT more than what it was priced at! Good luck with the warranty search, and enjoy that beautiful vehicle!

My buddy who also has a black exterior just got his S ceramic coated and that thing looks great! So shiny it almost looks wet; got me thinking about ceramic coating mine as well.....

I love the spoiler, mine has it but it's not carbon fiber. That's probably the only option you're missing and maybe the refrigerator...lol!!

Great I just place the order for the rear spoiler!

Looks great! Love how it's fully loaded with upgraded stereo and rear seat package. Wish mine had that!
I got third party warranty thru a mercedes dealer as I didn't qualify for mercedes extended warranty. I still had 1 month left on the factory warranty so that helped on lowering the purchase price.

You're probably looking at $4K Plus for 3-4yr plans.
I think if you get a third party warranty via a good Mercedes dealer, you should be pretty safe in getting a decent warranty.

That's a very foolish decision on your part. If you plan on keeping the car for more than 3 years you will regret not spending the money now as it could cost you 5 times that latter. Issues creep up with these cars at the 5-year mark regardless of how well they were maintained.

Yup! If you sell the car before the warrantee ends, they will pro-rate and refund the balance :)

I did Ceramic Pro on my car, and I use Reload (50% product to 50% Distilled water Smooth as silk, just a light spritz after you wash and dry. Keeps the hydrophobic coating.

All the hype about Ceramic, Synthetic wax, etc.... The car will look BETTER than NEW if you pay and have a good DETAIL job before. Ceramic Coatings should only go on a car that has Paint Correction, The better the job, the better the car will look. Now, those people that do paint correction often, slowly cur through the clear coat, a bad detailer can ruin your clear coat. With Ceramic Pro, it adds another layer (microns thick) that will help protect the clear coat.

Good Luck!
I picked up a 2014 Loaded s550 Sport Pkg. with 32K, every option including Executive Seating for 62K- They did not offer the HUD since it was a early production model. Sticker was $146K.... I had the OEM rims PVD coated from Detroit Wheel and Tire Black Chrome. I get complements all the time. I have white exterior with the Blue Interior. I'm keeping my eyes open for a 2017 Maybach White with White....
:)

It's been a couple of years since I bought an extended service contract. I have never heard of a company not issuing a plan for a car that was out of the factory warranty. Did your dealer offer you a plan?

My advice is to get an exclusionary policy. The forum member in this thread has offered some good advice, perhaps they can help: https://mbworld.org/forums/s-class-w...ms-thread.html

You're right, but the problem is that 99% or whatever of people don't read the detailed T&Cs, e.g. the contract. Just this MONTH, I've been battling Audi dealers for the exact T&Cs of the new Audi extended warranty program in Canada, effective November 1st.

During this last month, I've looked at the T&Cs of 5 extended warranty programs by 5 different underwriters in Canada. It is a no brainer for me to buy an exclusionary policy, but it's shocking what these policies often contain.

Here are a few examples.

1) Total payout in 1 claim will be the lesser of 1) the wholesale value of the car at time of claim or 2) the value paid for the car.
2) All wear and tear items, inclusive of all struts/shocks/air springs, are not covered.
3) The owner of the car cannot do any mechanical work to the vehicle, and all services must be done by a licensed mechanic.

--------

All 3 of these items, are not found in MB's ELW (#2, to some degree, is covered with MB's policy, because air springs/struts/airmatic/ABC etc are covered up until and including the 6 year mark).

During this time, I've also read through BBB complaints of insurance underwriters and have read many people's stories about getting burned.

Moral of the story is, read the contract, but don't assume that insurance underwriters are anything other than well dressed thugs who will make life hell once you try to claim anything.

It is one very important reason why my decision re: 2019 S vs A8 has me leaning heavily towards MB even though I don't like the new S. MB's underwriting of the ELW is very important to me, and I dare not own a $100,000+ car without warranty.

That is a pretty risky purchase without physically seeing it and factory warranty. Any small and unnoticeable issues are $$$, especially with your options...Check out Ally Major guard, you will not be disappointed.

Warranties are almost always a way for someone else to make money off of another person based on fear of whatever. Now if were talking about cars statistics show that nearly EVERY new car sold today is likely to be reliable and offer good utility.

I would love to see someone show me stats on the likely failure rate of an S Class and thereafter weight any percentage against the 1000s of dollars they are going to pay for that warranty.............

My own feelings are if you cant afford to fix it you prolly should not have brought it.

Katie

There is something to be said for peace of mind. I know I'm perfectly happy paying $8000 for 3 years of peace of mind.