I disagree with this. The op assumed that buying a fairly new CPO Mercedes would be delivered as car in excellent condition because in large part he was buying a fairly new CPO Mercedes from a Mercedes dealer which again he reasonably assumed would be a cut above. In addition he did flag an issue which the salesman indicated wasn't a problem. Furthermore the car is under factory bumper to bumper warranty so and an all issues which aren't damage related should be remedied.

What he is finding out like I have is that Mercedes dealers and salesmen in particular are often not a cut above but no better than any run of the mill car business trying to hock a car.

I have experienced on more that one occasion Mercedes playing bait and switch. At first I couldn't believe it because they were a Mercedes dealer. When I contacted Mercedes about it I got the "the dealer is a separate franchise line. Additionally I have seen some real junk being offered as CPO. Wouldn't have expected it had I not seen it with my own eyes.

So you are right you need to not trust Mercedes dealers but I don't blame somebody who did.

 

+1

 

The Mercedes sales team is absolutely no different from the guys selling Kias and Buicks and everything else. Never let the fancy showroom or the beautiful cars in a MB dealership lull you into complacency. They are all dogs. I always have a laptop and my little spreadsheet so I can track the deal and verify the numbers in real time. On my 2010 CPO we came to a price for his car less my trade and shook on it. The spreadsheet caught an $800 discrepancy in the dealer's favor. It was a "protection package" for the leather and the paint. Got that pulled back out after a bit of a fight. Then, in the finance department the spreadsheet again flagged an $800 error in the loan amount vs the payment. Same package, now sneaking in the back door. But they did have a lovely lounge with complimentary coffee and danishes.

However, the service department (at least at my home store) have been first rate, even on cars I didn't buy from them. After I dropped my 220 and put spacers on it, it developed a bad vibration. They did the usual road force balance, alignment, replaced a blown motor mount and a collapsed tranny mount, nothing helped.

Then the lead tech brought in another 220 from the lot, let me go back into the garage with him and they put both cars in the air and swapped wheels. First rears, drove it around with the tech, then fronts, again drove around with the tech. He spent a half day with me and we finally isolated the problem.

A CPO car that has been properly certified and passed should be nearly indistinguishable from new. The OP had every reason in the world to expect a near pristine car. The selling dealer in this case just plain sucks.

 

You all need to learn to buy sight unseen cars like we (the wholesalers) do.

Get yourself a call recording software for your phone.

Call selling dealer. Talk about the car a bit and if you decide To go for it- show you are a serious buyer/ very intersted. You need to be ready to buy now. Ask for a quick walk around. If satisfactory put a $500-1000 deposit with the stipulation "pending detailed walk around". If car is in high demand or you are feeling good about the car this quick walkaround can be skipped. You can always call your cc company and reverse the charge of the detailed walkardound doesn't deliver.

Ask dealer to go to the vehicle and do one more detailed walk around. Advise you are going to record his findings. Record call with dealer walk around. Ask specific questions- are there any curbed wheels, broken parts, worn/ torn seats, well- visible paint imperfections, etc.

Agree on final price and arrange payment/ pay. Sign what you sign and write "pending walk around findings conformation" on the P&S or similar statement.

When you receive the car compare walk around findings to real car. If discrepancy you have a legal foot to stand on.

You can do a variation of the above process, but always have a detailed walkaround recording and stipulation on the P&S. If the dealer refuses to do it- run. All reputable dealers have zero problem with the above process as they go through it with us wholesalers often when they have a one off car we are interested in.

Rarely a dealer will mispresent the car if you do it as described above

Good luck

 

Dude you left us hanging. What was the problem?

 

Well yeah, they treat wholesalers like that because wholesalers buy a crapload of cars that dealers don't want to retail themselves and the dealers need the wholesalers. It's an entirely different transaction on the retail side. I'm guessing you tell the dealer you're recording the call, but a buyer can't surreptitiously record a conversation in most states without consent. It's actually a felony in Florida.

What the OP really needed to do was to hire an independent appraiser to do a condition report on the car. They're everywhere. Most lease turn-ins get an inspection and report by an IA as a matter of routine. The headlamps, scuffed sill plates, dents, broken grille, rough idle...all that stuff is exactly what trained IA's look for when trying to protect the leasing company and get money back from the leasor for excessive wear and tear.

 

This is embarrassing. I had all of the spacers removed because I suspected they were the problem. When the problem persisted I reversed the drop. That helped a bit, probably because I was just getting less road feel in general again. Then they did the road force balance x4 but the problem persisted.

When we went to swap off my rears, I was shocked to see the spacers back on. It turned out the tech who had done the road force balance had seen the spacers in the trunk and just presumed I wanted them back on(?). Anyway, once those were off and the drop was reversed the issue went away and the car was smooth north of 100 mph again.

 

Actually no. When we are calling for a one off (as I mentioned above) it doesn't matter if I am a retail or wholesale buyer. Very often I will be callling a dealer I have never dealt with .The only difference is in the price negotiations because both parties know what the car is worth too well. But when it comes to condition- the mechanism is the same- get a recording of the walkaround regardless if you are a private party, a wholesaler or the potus.

And nobody is suggesting to record the call secretly. You ask if you can record it and if they say "no"- the dealing ends there. No trickery. Buying sight unseen can be fairly surprise- free if you position yourself correctly and set the proper expectations backed by documentation.

 

I agree on at least a pre inspection by a reputable company for 200 bux im pretty sure most items will be seen and make sure they have a paint meter and can give u a reading of each panel too.. In NY only 1 party has to know the call is recorded. call you cell company for a question and its 100% recorded.
Now the op didn't do this stuff and it sucks lets find a way for him to get his $$ back or compensated for the BS.

 

I bought an E Class sight unseen (I live in Arizona, car was in Dallas). I hired an independent appraiser to look the car over. He gave a very detailed report that included pictures. Well worth the $250 or so we paid. Ended up buying the car for my mother-in-law.

 

What are some of the best Pre Purchase Inspection companies out here today?

 

I've always used a service called "drive to the dealership and look at the car myself". I've had pretty good results.

 

I literally do the same thing. Nothing like the assurance of me putting my butt into the seat of the car I'm interested in and flooring it to see how she responds. Then I push all buttons to make sure that things are working as they should. I'm like a little kid in a toy store. Look at that, let's see what happens when I push this button. Couldn't resist!!!

 

You know, there are many times I look at cars online that look perfect and I say to myself, "man, that car looks flawless. I could buy it I think..." Never though, I've never done it. I guess this goes to show you don't always know what you are really getting.

A friend of mine recently spent $219,000 on a used Lamborghini Murcielago, and never looked at in in person and it was shipped from west coast to east coast. The dealer has a fabulous reputation for exotics on and off the forums and is known for flawless vehicles. I still don't know if I'd ever do that without getting to drive the car. I'm very **** with my own vehicles and if something is being hidden, I will find it. I got lucky with this S only having 11,700 on the clock and was a flawless brand new car.

 

Man, I drove hundreds and hundreds of miles around Florida looking for the perfect CPO S Class and I finally just gave up and bought the one I have. It was your basic 40k mile CPO car. A little scratch here, a little ding there. Overall decent shape and I knew with a black on black I could get the "look" I wanted. The nice thing about one that isn't a jewel is I'm not real **** about where I park it. I run it through machine washes once in awhile. The inside gets dirty and I'll let it stay that way until I feel like cleaning it. My prior S was an 04 that had 30k on it when I bought it in 2011 and was flawless. Now that car I felt a duty to keep pristine at all times and I doted on it, but that's a lot of time, money and effort.

I guess it's fair to say that I like my 221. I enjoy driving it and it's been a very good car in terms of reliability, and of course it looks great. But I don't love it yet.

 

That's cause it's got scratches and dings sounds like u settled yourself and now your upset

 

Not upset in the least. Nice car and I'm not sweating every little cosmetic issue. Black interior vs the very light Stone and Java in my prior cars shows no wear and requires so much less attention. Every little scuff and discoloration on the light interiors drove me nuts.

I think the love vs like thing is just my personal preference for the 220, but obviously I couldn't drive those forever since they stopped making them 10 years ago.

I have a PDR guy who'll come to my business and hit all the dings at once but so far there's only two so not worth the trip yet. The 2" scratch on the hood I repaired with some clearcoat and it's not really obvious unless you're right up on it.

Sometimes I'll look at it sitting in the driveway and I'll think "Damn that's a gorgeous car...I should like it more than I do." Nice 20's, great stance with the spacers, good sounding (and looking) quad exhaust, and the audio system is really nice now that I've gone through it.

Since I've had it I haven't been able to find a comfortable seating position (which is insane since it has the nicest seats in the world). Found out a couple of weeks ago I have a herniated disc which is causing some nerve compression. I have a consult with a neuro tomorrow so I'm hoping they'll do a steroid injection vs surgery. Maybe when it doesn't hurt to drive the thing I'll fall in love with it.

 

Cautiously Optimistic Update

The car was paid for on 1/19/15. When I got it, I drove it for 1.5 days. .5 of that was having the tint shop remove the peeling tint. It has been at the dealer since. That's how life goes sometimes.

I wasn't in a hurry to buy a car, but I knew I wanted as many features as possible. The car in VA seemed like the unicorn I sought after, so I did it. The dealer did such an extraordinary job making me feel like everything was going to be perfect. Yes, it was sight unseen. One can point out that "it's what you get", but that seems rhetorical and unproductive. At the same time, there are so many lessons in this thread--when one elects to buy from afar, get a paid inspector, make the dealer communicate in writing, include contingencies, additional photos, etc., etc. Most everyone here have been so helpful, sympathetic, and supportive. I want to thank you for that. Many of your comments directly resulted in the positive progress that I am about to report.

"They", don't know who (local dealer or M-B) will replace the headlights (yeah!!)
The broken grille and engine cover will be replaced
The two wheels with peeling clear will be refinished
The seat cover/heater was replaced (heater INOP)
The timing chain tensioner was replaced (start up noise)
Transmission mount replaced (rough idle)

Remember the dead battery? It died on the dealer, so they are replacing it.

The dealer asked if I wanted PDR @ ~$100 per dent for two dents. I said yes, knowing that it is probably price inflated. Knowing that they are taking care of all the issues on a car that came out of nowhere, I figure I'd throw them a bone.

I spoke with someone from M-B this afternoon. They may cover the PDR and maybe the door sills. We'll see. I made it clear to the person that I am not pleased with the dealer in VA. Once I sent them the fat check, communication slowed down and they were no longer accommodating.

I am cautious because I'll believe it when everything is done. I'll keep everyone informed on the progress later this week. When it's back, I'll take some sexy photos....

Again, thank you for all your support. I actually quoted Mike's comment about being embarrassed to the Benz guy. I think it hit home. I couldn't have gotten the results without you. The community works!

Special thanks to konigstiger--your information and guidance was pivotal.

 

BTW, I repeated Mike's comment that a properly 'CPO'd vehicle should be nearly indistinguishable from new' to the M-B manager, he actually agreed.

 

I'm very glad to hear this. Great stuff. When do you get the car back? And when are you installing the smart starter and drone I sent you?

 

Hands down the MVP of this forum...

 

One of the headlights is coming from across the country. The headlights have ILS, Night View (IR), and other codes, so that might take a few days. I'm told that the wheels will also take a couple of days. With any luck, I'll get it back by the weekend. If I'm not going skiing, then the modules are going in! I'll be photo documenting the installation.

I have the following waiting to go in:
Mid City remote starter (Jason)
DroneMobile (Jason)
Wheel locks
Phone holder (http://www.gtacarkits.com/product/me...-phone-holder/)
Viseeo

and can't remember what else....

 

I am not expert at these things but this is what forums do or should do when some member needs helps and ask questions to rectify the situation .
It's great to see finally you have seen the light at the end of the tunnel and I appreciate your feedback given to these guys who helped you out

 

That is great to hear

 

Great news!!!