Sorry about your problem. i know exactly how u feel. Ewing is a discount dealer and their service is nothing to boost about. Work with the district service manager from the Austin dealership, ur best bet. definately get MB involved Asap. also do not pick up the car until u meet with the Brass.
oil leak is a big deal because a 500hp engine already under so much pressure is losing oil at high speeds, worried what kind of damage was caused internally. No way to determine that. put all these things forward when u talk to them. it is a freaking expensive car, this kind of problem is unacceptable, especially when these r hand made autos.
good luck, hopefully everything will wk out.
keep us posted.

 

You just doled out 136k for a car that leaks oil. At the very least they should have given you a 550 as a loaner. where is the customer loyalty? If i'm not mistaken this is the second s you bought in less than a year. Big deal they took you in to show you where the leak was coming from! My indie who works on 89 560sl does the same before i spend a dime. I have zero tollerance for that kind of BS. I give you a lot of credit. I would wonder every day what other imperfections this car might have.

 

I've numbered your points for ease of response.

1. clearly not. However, I don't really consider the car faulty. It had a small faulty part. Its not like the car is junk or useless, or otherwise disabled. You had an oil leak, they replaced the leaky part. Once that is done the car is good as new.

2. You have to consider how far this will go. What if the gauge cluster breaks? Is it time for a new car? How about a fuel gauge, or a trim piece, or a headlight bulb or (insert other inexpensive inconsequential part). At what point is a fault so minor as to not require vehicle replacement? Your problem, while upsetting and unacceptable, is simply not ground for a new car because its so easily repaired. If the dealer was considering replacing the engine or transmission or removing either component, then I'd say you have much greater foundation for that request.

3. Well, its a guarantee Mercedes corporate makes because the car has a warranty. If they are unable to provide you with a properly operating vehicle in a certain number of tries, you can lemon law it and start over.

4. I think anybody who buys any brand new car has the right to be picky. The higher the sticker, the higher the ****-ness that is appropriate. While I don't expect you to shrug and say, oh well (some anger is expected), its a minor oil leak, that is easily fixed by replacing this cover.


Let me ask you this:

lets say you bought the car, and then later found out that the dealer noticed the leak during PDI, replaced the part, and then sold it to you.

You would have had no clue the repair had been made, and been totally happy with your purchase.

Bottom line, any mass produced car, from a $20k nissan to a $180,000 mercedes can have problems. We are dealing with complicated machines here, and something as minor as this leak just don't strike me as "OMG, I demand a new car" worthy.

 

Sorry to hear about your oil leak, they check them really well,they let me drive off in my 07 550 with 60 lbs of air in all 4 tires felt like i was driving a rock.....

 

Well said, oliverk...

Anyone who's bought many $200K+ cars; $20K+ watches; $10MM+ houses; $10K+/hr NetJets flts on G550s; $1K+ bottles of Bordeaux, etc etc knows there is a defect rate w/anything, no matter price....to expect otherwise is absurd....

Am always amused when guys claim they got some car from some dealer in Podunk at some supposedly low price....there are usually a few reasons why a dealer needs to peddle stuff at lowest poss price to capture one-off price shoppers....and why very few dealers have deep, repeat customer bases for $150K+ AMGs....and most don't...

When lemon issues/defects/routine svc issues arise, any well-run dealer (and MBUSA) will award greatest priority to its most profitable, repeat customers, not one-off, marginally profitable customers.....CommonSense 101, no? Not much is "free" in life....gotta spend a few bucks to build relationships w/well-regarded dealers for one's favored brands of anything (cars, restaurants, hotels, etc) if expect superior service....

 

"Bottom line, any mass produced car, from a $20k nissan to a $180,000 mercedes can have problems. We are dealing with complicated machines here, and something as minor as this leak just don't strike me as "OMG, I demand a new car" worthy."




to answer ur question. this is not a mass produced car. these r handmade by one engineer all the way. definitely not ur everyday nissan.
yes and if that happened to me i would definately demand a new car.
but thats just me

 

Of course the car (S63) is mass produced. The volume may be a lot smaller than your average Toyota, but all the component parts of the S63 come from the standard production tooling and are assembled on a standard production line. Sure AMG may do some after tweaking and stick in an engine that is partially hand assembled but even that is stretching the definition of "handmade".. It is not as if each piston is carefully hand crafted.

Mass production is good - it means components manufactured to predictable and reliable standards, accurate tolerances and with economy. If the S63 were handmade by one engineer all the way it would cost vastly more.

Chris

 

Anyway MB doesn't make big profit from selling S63. So if I were MB I didn't concern much about customers buying these cars. You can stop buying MB after, but what is your choice? Twice more expensive Bentley? MB has almost zero competition in this segment.

Another thing to get in consideration, production volume is really low, so engine doesn't get enough usage feedback. And finally new C class engine passed millions miles of testing, so any C class buyer is in much better situation than S63. It is price for uniqueness.

 

Good point. As a former aerospace manufacturing engineer, I am in total agreement. Although some MB owners think that their cars are created atop Mt Olympus by gods.

 

That makes no sense. If you really believed MB has little competition against the s63(which they do), why would they have such small pricing power? I think they make decent profit on the s 63/65.

 

That was some good advice.

How do I get in the touch with the district mgr?

How do I get MB involved? Just poke arond MBUSA or is there are better way to get to the right area?

 

Chris - I think RajwanyS550 is correct here. My engine has a sticker that says "hand built by Ludwig VanHoffer". The AMG engines are HAND BUILT for the most part. Sure some components are "mass produced", but.... I think you know what I mean

 

Really? And you know that for a fact?
You're clearly reaching here. Comparing a trim piece to a INTEGRAL part of the car that dictates how the car will run for the rest of it's life is laughable at best. Come on man! Are you trying to tell me that the potential engine damage that could result from an oil leak is omparable to a bulb burning out? As I said - you're reaching.
Really? Minor? Hmmmmm.....
Pigs could learn to fly too. What's your point man? That's NOT the case here, right?
This paragraph right here proves why dealers love buyers like you.....
And to a certain extent, why company's like MB can get away with crappy quality control

 

So anyway, I've lost track here, when is the earliest that you're expecting to get your car back?

 

talk to Service Mgr at Mb austin and tell them u want to talk to the DM before u pick up the car. they will get u in touch with the DM, who in turn should get MBUsa involved.

 

Look, I understand you're emotional about this car because you paid a lot for it and its brand new.

However, the dealer identified the source of the leak. the 6.2l engine hold almost 9 quarts of oil (from what I recall). Even if you leaked out 3/4 of a quart (which is a TON of oil), you would still have more than enough oil to prevent engine damage. MB specs a synthetic oil from the factory, and there is no chance of bearing, head, or other wear surface damage by being 3/4 of a quart low on oil. If you had lost 5 quarts (which would have damn near covered your garage), then you may have a point. In addition, your car has an oil level sensor for this very reason. Had it lost enough oil to be dangerous, the IP would have been flashing warnings into your face.

Again, I'll number your points:

1. Well, if the only problem with your new car was an oil leak, and the oil leak is fixed, then yes, I know this for a fact.

2. Im not reaching. Your engine is warrantied for another 49,000 miles and 3.999 years. If you had engine damage from this oil leak, then there is absolutely ZERO chance that it would not become apparent WAY before the warranty is up. This little cover (by your description) is merely a small part of the engine. Important? sure. Easy to fix? Sure.

To make it more real for you, what if you had to have an exhaust manifold replaced due to a leak. Would you request a new car in that instance?

3. Well, since you never specified the amount of oil missing, and addressed it as a small puddle, then yes, I consider it minor.

4. No its not the case. But you missed my point.

5. Look, Im not saying I would hand the keys to the dealer with a big grin and go home happy that they gave me a free cup of coffee. But the point is, MB would never make any money if they had to give current owners new cars every time their's had some minor issue.

Cars break. They are repaired. Life goes on. In 2 months, you will forget this ever happened.

 

Sure... my old E55 also had a hand assembled engine and it is a nice touch that they put someone's name plate on the top... but I would not give too much prominence to what is good marketing... all engines are touched by flesh and blood hands at some point... Remember there are well over 20,000 AMG engines produced per year... that is a lot of engines! No way can AMG maintain that volume without having a well honed assembly line process from 100% standard machined components with just the final assembly stage having some human intervention... (And humans are fallible)

Anyway I was more responding to the suggestion that the entire S63 is hand built.. not just the engine. (Not meaning to digress from this thread)

Chris

 

For right now, I think we are


I just want to see the car successfully repaired and get Austin on the road again enjoying that fine looking machine. I was disappointed when my idler pulley went out but after 2 weeks, I forgot the whole thing happened.

 

I agree

There have been some excellent points made in this thread including ....shall I say

(Gulp)

Oliverk

 

To you it's a simple oil leak that's fixable.

To me, it's a flaw that should never have been. Sure, I'm emotional about it! Why not - when you plunk down that kind of change for a performance sedan you'd expect perfection (or close to it). Certainly not an oil leak. I've bought Toyota's, VW's, Lexus's, BMW's, and Ford's over the years but NEVER have I had an issue like this with a NEW car. See - that's the problem here. It's NEW and this sort of thing makes me now wonder what else could go wrong. To make matters worse, the tech tells me that they'll know for sure if there are no other leaks and if the new part has fixed the issue only after they've fixed it and driven the car for 10+ miles....

I should know by Wed/Thurs of next week

 

Of course the oil leak should never have happened but in my opinion your car price reference does not work well. Of course MB tries to avoid these on high end models but it would become a lot more expensive for MB if they had to fix a certain percentage of C-class or E-class cars than the same percentage of S65AMGs. To me that means that it is equally important for MB to look after this kind of quality issues for low end cars as this one (the direct costs are higher for the low end range while the image issues are "more costly" for the high end range).

I would probably be equally upset if something similar happened to me but for an outsider the statistics are more important. Hopefully the MB workshop knows how to fix it and the car will be fine.

 

Sorry to hear what happened to you, but I am sure your dealer will fix it back to like new conditions. Since you've got a brand new car and you detailed the car yourself I would call up your service advisior and tell him not to wash/detail your car. Actually I would go and make a sign that says so in BOLD letters and head down to your dealer and hang it in the rear view mirror.

Mostly likely they will do a "complementry" wash with full detail because of what happened to your car. The last thing you want is for them to put swirls on the paint and greasy detailing stuff in the interior. I know because my dealer gave me the screw...I mean complementry treatment after I took my car in for a warranty work. I actually had to pay another detailer to clean up the greasy crap they put in all over the interior.

 

Good point. I'll make sure I'll let them know

 

No car is perfect. I am on my 3rd 63 series car, and all have their fair share of quirks, but nothing that wasn't fixed by the dealer the first time. Just because your previous cars never had such a problem, doesn't mean that others who had the same car never had issues. Perhaps you were just lucky to have one of the cars that didn't fail, and those with failures were just unlucky.

I am surprised that your dealer never did a full check on the vehicle before handing over the keys to you. I am sure they will make it right; as it's in their best interest to do so.

 

Thats a good one AustinGuy I hhaven't been back to Ewing, I've been out in San Diego on business and just returned to the metroplex.
I hope your car is alright, I'm sure it's something as simple as a loose drain plug