potown andy

For those of you with out of warranty vehicles, do you service at the dealer or a trusted independent and your reasoning?

W205C43PFL

I DIY although I have a C class, I have several friends that have a W222 and DIY as well, after horrific experience with dealership (personally) with them either scratching the paint, damaging my bumper, making the interior all dirty and not being able to duplicate issues yet broke more things than fixing them, overfilling my engine oil (experience from more than one dealership) I decided to DIY, that way, at least I know it will be done right.

W205C43PFL

Forgot to mention there was once they bent my rim and caused a sidewall bubble, my friends complained about dealerships disabling the dashcam and taking the vehicle for a joy ride (according to their Mercedes Me, geofenceing)

W205C43PFL

Dealership technician nowadays are not like back in the days that take pride of their work and/or passionate, they are there for a pay cheque.

In some countries in North America, technicians get paid per job for the pre-defined amount of time it takes to complete it. That means, if a job takes 1 hour to complete and the technician gets it done in 30 minutes, they get paid for the full one hour and that adds up if they get another job done quicker than specified and so on. Vice versa (and if they get a 1 hour job done in 1.5 hours, they still get paid 1 hour). So they rush things.

SW20S

Independent. They are dramatically cheaper, and I see no evidence that a good one is not as good or better than the dealership.

I intend to have my new under warranty one serviced at my independent vs the dealer. Why pay $1,000 for a service when you can pay $350?

Lou B

An objective and lesson only lately learned - when I bought my first MB - a 1971 SEL300 - I had never heard of indy shops, and doubt there were many, if any, in our major city market of Cincinnati who would have qualified on MBs.
But I will now go in that direction, thanks to advice from an area poster.

SW20S

The shop that I use was referred to me from a client who has a 2000 S500, they keep it running great. The shop is full of huge MB fans and we spent 35 minutes under my car on the lift geeking out about it, I'm in good hands!

badq45t

I did all work at the dealership until the MB warranty ended. The shop there is super nice and Iiked the service writers but they told me to replace brakes when I found out aftewards I had 50% of the pads left and charged me 2x for Aux battery what it would have cost. My indy mechanic of 20 years has great experience with MB and last B service I did with him for $700 vs. $1400 at dealer for exact same service and he ahs computer equipment to reset the service. I would say that unless your willing to pay 2x for free coffee and a loaner car find an Indy you trust and say goodbye to the dealer or should I say Steelerrship

SW20S

My independent mechanic has loaners too. Its a Jetta and not a Mercedes, but thats fine.

Highline-Autos.com

I'm not sure how things have changed, but my '08 S550 was so cheap to service at the local dealership there really wasn't a reason not to. Never once did they try to pull anything extra on me, they just said "hey looks great", oil change and filters and I was our for under $300.

Trenton O. Gibson
tgibson@highline-autos.com
Highline Autos
Direct: 602.909.9216
Office: 480.348.0777

SW20S

Thats nowhere close to true of any of the local dealers here. Cost is 3+ times as much as an independent.

potown andy

That is my experience too and they are always trying to sell things that likely are not needed. Thanks to all for this info, we have a great independent who is a foreign car specialist and does not do more than is needed. Good bye to the dealer.

JohnLane

I do virtually all my own work. Notable exceptions being mounting tires, replacing windshields and body/paint work.

Been the mechanic all my life.

That said.... where there is a warranty to correct a fault I don’t hesitate about having MB take care of it.

Mamba003

I have a great independent that I trust with all my cars. Dealer cost is just insane. I even do some maintenance myself. All depends on your comfort level and the expertise of your independent.

MBNUT1

How bad is your S65 to work on and has it needed any notable repairs? How many miles? It would be funny and ironic if it turned out that the S65 was actually the best one of the bunch to maintain.

NbyNW

I try and do maintenance stuff myself, always have. If time is short the dealer is 5 minutes away and my independent shop is 30 minutes away. Most of the time the convenience factor wins and I go to the dealer. Much easier for my wife to follow me over and for pickup.

Lou B

Another perfect example of "to each his own,"
Our membership is so diverse, there's no simple solution.

SW20S

I certainly wouldn’t use the dealer without a loaner. At least get that value for the extra cost.

hyperion667

Always an indy

JohnLane

How bad? I’ll take this one over a series III or IV Jaguar any day of the week.... But it is no Camry to service. These cars are frightfully complicated and are all about the ‘secret handshakes’ that must be known to disassemble. Consistently the second time I may get to do something is much more pleasant. Having XENTRY and a membership with Peter aka BenzNinja is money particularly well spent with any MB produced in the last 20 years.

Notable repairs... Front lower suspension arms + F&R brake pads at 90K. Original CCB pads lasted to 90,000! Fluids... lots of fluids. Lots of tires... I may have something to do with that. Spark plugs. One ignition coil chasing a mystery misfire. 279 has a dozen coils VS 275 having the Uber expensive coil packs and voltage transformer. Water pump bearing failure at 110-115K. Growling bearing. Never leaked coolant. It got a water pump, SERP belt, tensioner and idler bearings. Easy to do with radiator fan pulled. More recently the sunroof made a loud POP! Noise when asked to close in high ambient temperature and it would not close all the way. Back of roof stuck up. Sunroof rails were a treat to do.
Gave her a Nitrogen bomb (pressure dampener) that threads into MBC pump when it took to growling.

I love the interior with leather and wood being what you touch everywhere. Non AMG cars are the plastic fantastic by comparison.
My car has 136,000 on it now. Still shows taillights to Corvettes, all Mustangs ect but performance is off in high ambient temperatures. Clearly engine management pulls boost over 80-90 degrees. First world problems!

SW20S

Non AMG cars are all leather and wood if they have the exclusive Napa option.