abou_samra

Ok I've been reading all the horror stories with rust claims through MB and warranty... and I thought my situation would be different.... I thought wrong!

I have a 2002 S430 that I recently purchased. After getting the car fully detailed, rust areas became apparent and the detailer told me that it's all inside the panels (under the doors, inside the wheel wells, etc)

I contacted my dealer and they said that MB would only cover 50% of the bill (total cost almost $14K).

I called the 1-800 number and I never spoke to someone so rude and not helpful in my life. She pretty much told me that it's either I accept 50%, or nothing, and that she'd revoke the offer given. I asked to speak to the regional manager and she wouldn't even give me his name or anything.

My question is.... what do I do here? It's unfair and not right what they're doing here. I mentioned that there was a campaign specifically for the rust on this car, and she played dumb and never knew of any.

Any feedback here would be great guys.

Thanks

LetsJet

To start off......... Did you get her name and info?

abou_samra

yea I got her name, but that's it... no help whatsoever, I can't believe customer service would be like that

LetsJet

Well I would think that the dealer can tell you who the regional rep is. He should probably look at your car. Was your car possibly a flood car?

ProV1

sorry to hear.. reminds me of the old saying, "the most expensive used car money can buy is a cheap Mercedes".

did you buy the car from a dealer? if there is $14k worth of rust damage, how could you possibly not notice it b4 buying..??



btw, it is clear MB builds inferior quality cars. MB offers 4 yr/50k rust warranty, which is a joke. All the other Euro manufacturers offer minimum 10 yrs/unlimited miles.

Gondon

Show me what rust looks like?

ProV1

u never seen rust b4?

abou_samra

there was some bubbling underneath the trunk key hole, but everything else looked mint. It's only once i got the car detailed was everything exposed. The local body shop took apart all the panels and said the rust was starting from the inside out, and that's why the estimate was so high.

The dealer didn't give me the regional rep's name... i'm sort of stuck now and don't know what to do.

ProV1

how much did u pay for teh car? can u return it?

abou_samra

lol, i wish i could return it...

I paid $28K for the car, it's mint other than these areas that were exposed.

How come MB covers some cars and not others? I don't understand this.

Gondon

No I havent

What do you mean?
Are you saying it only started rusting after you got the car detailed...? huh?
Isnt Rust like scratch on the paint? Cant U just paint over the rust?

show some pics of ur car rust lol.

HOw do I know If I have rust m coat is perfect.

Also doesnt mercedes offer 10 yr 80k coverage on RUST.

Skylaw

abou samra hasn't given us any information about where he is located (how about filling out your profile?) - so we cannot assume he is in the U.S. and benefits from U.S. or European warranties.

MB started plating both sides of its body metal for the '03 model year; only the exterior side before.

And as for the jerk he spoke to, I would take that up with higher levels - starting with the owner of the dealership, then regional rep, them the MB parent company if no relief is provided. There is no excuse for the rudeness.

abou_samra

sorry, I'm new to this site, I'll fill in the profile.

I'm from Canada. The warranty for rust on my car shows 5 years only from date of purchase. Even if the car is out of warranty for a few months, is it that crazy to expect it to be fully covered?

NZ_Benz

From what I understand your law is somewhat the same as ours here being based on the British legal system. The best thing to do sadly is to consult a lawyer. Here we have a statute that's called the consumer guarantees act. Basicly the way it works is say MB gives a 5 year warranty on a car and teh car is like yours pretty much rusted out in 6 years or so. The act here states that the product in this case the car should be good for it's expected life now this is to stop people building TV's and the like that last only a few months after the warranty is up.

In my opinion there is a case here for a number of reasons:

1. A car of this cost should last longer than 5 years, find out what the average car age is in your country I think for the US it's about 8-9 years and I think there it's about 11-12, now it's pretty obvious that S Classes should not have to be replaced every 5 years.

2. Although the warranty for rust is no longer covering you its pretty obvious that it's been going on for longer than that the car just doesn't rust in a week or something like that.

These types of companies have to be dragged kicking to pay out any money, considering the amount of money that is at stake here and what you paid for the car relative to that cost it really might be worth consulting a lawyer. It's really the last thing you want to do as it carries the risk of losing and incurring more costs. You could atleast put the two points about to the local dealer and see whats what.

trumpet1

This car was exposed to excessive salt applied to snowy roads. That's all. I don't think it was a faulty built MB.

abou_samra

Trumpet, i have 2 other cars that have been exposed to the same "snowy road" conditions and there isn't one ounce of rust on them.

with all the information I've read on this and other sites, it's clear that there was a problem with the S class, or else no one would be complaining about it. The other thing is that the rust coincidentally is in the exact same spots....

I don't know, since I can't talk to the regional rep at MB headquarters, I'm going to go back to my dealer and try that. I hope I don't have to escalate this anymore. This isn't right.

Gondon

Please post some pics of rust and how big lol.

i got a lil one on my back door, but i think its just a deep scracth you cant really see it.

S500Miami

I have a '02 S500 and I've got rust on the bottom of all four doors. It does seem to be coming from the inside. I purchased the car about 8 months ago and did not see/notice it until 2 months ago.
It looks terrible. I have also noticed that EVERY little nick or scratch rusts on this car. I have never had a car with ANY rust before and they have all had nicks.
'84 Oldsmobile
'86 Chevrolet Camaro IROC-Z
Ford Explorer (whatever the first model year was)
'90's Chevrolet 1500 P/U
90's Chevrolet Blazer
90's Chevrolet S-10 P/U
'94 Ford Mustang GT
'96 Dodge Ram P/U
'95 Mitsubishi 3000GT (I still own this-NO RUST and Original Paint)
'04 Ford Expedition Eddie Bauer

So far, this is the ONLY complaint I have about MB. I hope my repair costs aren't anything like your quote.

fusion2007

that sucks man.. i got my dealership to pay for 100% of mine....( not bragging or gloating about it) go to ur dealership and start making a scene.. its kinda what i did. hold your ground. and tell them how bull**** it is. and that they have to pay for it

BryanW203

Most of the 220's have "seal bottom strip campaign." If the campaign is open you can get 100% coverage. If it is closed your dealer can pick up 50%. Most bills I have seen come in at around $1500.00 before the 50%.

02S430

had them reseal the strips but they were very sloppy with the glue took a while to get it off to much trouble to bring it all the way back

donjuan45i

any more information on this seal bottom strip campaign?

carlosz28

The campaing was over in 05. The service manager told me that they would cover the car and then said they would not. He said the regional Rep said they could not do it. Why he told me they would, I don't know. My only problem is that he was based it on the 4yr 50k warranty. He didn't know about the 8yr rule. I know that he was lying. It was the 2k for repair they didn't want to do. I have some rust bubbles on my doors and yes it was the seals that did it according to the bodyshop. I can live with it however, that makes the paint not perfect like the rest of the car. MB will cover 8yrs for paint and rust. It is up to the sevice manager to do it. MY car is a 00 but it was purchased in Oct. 99 with 58907k miles as of today. The paint is perfect all over. They will try to tell you that you need the records from the dealer for service records. Keep trying. I am not finish yet because that is crazy fri an 80k car to do that. I have a 91z28 convert with no rust. Funny!

aflame

What about YouTube? Could several people with rust problems put their cars on YouTube, to get some attention? I mean, someone with writing skills could make it funny, so that people would watch.

Compare this to Toyota? OK, so it isn't dangerous, but the principle is the same, not paying attention to the consumer, for years!

What about a Class Action suit, for not advising us of the campaign, so the rust would be caught, before it could get a start?

Any other ideas?

cameraman123

I think you're a little late. These cars are 10 years old now and its impossible to hold MB responsible for the paint condition 10 years later. Bottom line: it won't happen.

You'll be lucky if you fall into some good will campaign where MB covers part or all of your repairs.