MILIN1609

Hi,
After reading in this forums, I decided to shop for extended warrent for my S430. There are quite a few companies who offer that. If anybody has any knowledge about the reliability of them, please post it.
Also, they offer different kind of options ranging from $1100 to $3000. They offer only powertrain to most comprehensive plans. Which one is good for 2001 S430?
So far, till 74000 miles, there are no big problem. BTW, the plan goes upto 50000 additional miles. Any help regarding matter is greatly appreciated.

Skylaw

I have only had the Mercedes Starmark warranty, and no experience with other companies.

However, with an S-class you will not want powertrain coverage only. The engine is very reliable; the transmission problems that crop up are usually relatively inexpensive to repair (of course, transmissions and engines can be abused and require major repair, but these don't seem to be the frequent problems).

You will definitely want a warranty that covers your suspension. The most frequent complaint over the S-Class, it seems, is the Airmatic system, including the pump, relay, and struts. If you ignore an Airmatic problem and let it go too far, you could be in for over $6000 U.S. for repairs. It is a pneumatic system, so be sure the exclusions do not eliminate your coverage (e.g.; "covers suspension defects except pneumatic or air suspension systems").

Air conditioning problems are infrequent but expensive to repair. And, if you have COMAND with nav, cell phone, CD changer, etc - they can be expensive. There seem to be complaints over CD changers; recently, a few COMAND screen failures are cropping up, requiring replacement of the COMAND unit itself. So, you'd probably want a policy that covers electronics, including fiber optic devices.

Instrument cluster failures have prompted a recall for certain VINs and years of the S-Class (lots wiriien up already, so I won't repeat), but MB just this month extended the warranty on the cluster to 10 years from initial service for original and subsequent owners in the U.S.

Get as much coverage as you can comfortably afford, and read the fine print carefully. Some contributors have related good and bad experiences with different warranty companies, but I don't have them bookmarked. You have already searched here (a good move), but also try Benzworld for info on specific warranty companies.

Also, you might get your dealer to pull the service history on your car. You can determine problems that have already been addressed, and it might help you. My 2000 S500 had a frequent service history, but the service had already addressed most of its problems, which did not recur. Regular scheduled maintenance had been performed - a good sign.

A bit of anecdote - After reading the forums one day I checked and found the telltale cracks at the top of the strut towers (in the strut mount near where the tube and valve enter the strut) that foretold future problems (leaks), and had the parts replaced for $500 including labor - avoiding more serious progressive difficulties. In addition the cracks could cause a very nasty problem if the car had been placed on a lift with the parts cracked - e.g., for tire replacement - which could have caused strut depressurization and complete failure unless the shop folks knew exactly what to do - start the car to repressurize the struts before fully lowering its weight onto them. But that's one example of how the relatively inexpensive problem (at $500) quickly winds up an unexpected $6K problem. Not only good warranty coverage, but paying attention to the experiences on these forums can be very beneficial.

MILIN1609

Execelent info SKYLAW. Thanks.
Anybody else want to comment?

rustman

I purchased a 2003 S430 in December of 2005 with 41,000 miles on the car from an independant dealer not a Mercedes dealer. At the time I purchesed the car I had about 4,000 miles left on the before the regularly scheduled "A" service needed to be preformed under the factory warranty. I took the car to the dealership to have the service performed and during the service nothing out of order was found. I discussed several options regarding an extended warranty with the dealership and setteled on an extended warranty package offered by the dealer which is Mercury Insurance. The initial quoted price for the gold coverage (nearly everything except normal wear items, but does not include audio and navigation) was $3,300, but I shopped around and was able to nagotiate them too $2,800. I was now I would have went for the platimum coverage to cover the electronics, but at the time I was unawre I could face future problems on that. So far so good, but I will jsut have to take my chances. During my second "A" service this month and almost a year after owning the car, they discovered a problem with the hormonic balancer (many discussions about this topic here), but without hesitation the service group contacted the insu. carrier and fixed the problem and it cost me $100

koreanpers

as the first poster replied, do NOT get just a power train warranty, you need a bumper to bumper warranty. There was a more recent post in regards to this also.. https://mbworld.org/forums/s-class-w220/169526-after-market-extended-warranty.html