NXtremeJeep

Good luck to you skeet..it's a long nasty road ahead, but you will prevail. DO NOT sell or get rid of your car...the last thing you want is a spoliation of evidence claim. Let me know if I can be of any assistance.

ChicagoX

You may not be able to void the Status 8, but you could always sue for loss of value inline with a salvage vehicle.

I would also procure an aftermarket warranty ASAP.

neveo

might be good if there was a sticky/list of non mod friendly dealers...

bigben320e

I read over this thread and can feel the pain, disgust, and anger that Skeeter is going through. MB has lost another customer, along with so many others. Amazing how they just don't seem to get that losing market share means financial crisis for them. For that matter, they have had several issues especially through the 03-05 years.

I did not do any mod's on my car (Kleeman, Renntech, etc.) due to the craziness that varies from dealer to dealer. I was interested in doing a Kleeman for a normally aspirated CLS500, but changed my mind. The dealer that he went to is clearly at fault here, sure he will get it handled. However he is screwed on the warranty, and lost so much time on this.



On another note, does this issue really make you question buying a Benz to some degree?

SLK55R

This can happen with any brand or any dealer. Can anyone bring up a brand that doesn't have have issues with mods?

mjr24

No, not at all. Every situation is unique. EVERYONE has heard stories of dealers (Mercedes, BMW, Ford, any car maker) denying warranty claims for mods. It is only common sense to 110% make sure that a mod will not void a warranty, regardless of whether it adds 18 HP or 1 HP. It is common sense, especially if a dealer installs this part like Benz does with Renntech....to get it in WRITING that it will be covered. OP is an attorney, he should know this.

I agree, I think he should sue them and he has stonewalled too long. It's not working. You are telling me you have waited weeks to escalate this after all they have said/not done yet the thing that pushed you over the edge was them simply making you drive 40 miles to have it re-inspected?

As for suing due to the Section 8....you aren't going to recover the value based against a salvage car like ChicagoX suggested. The car is not a salvage car. The car is not even being deemed unsafe by Mercedes. They simply voided the warranty because of the mod, that is status 8. He could have brought the car in for an oil change and they could have status 8'ed him without anything happening let alone what ended up happening. If they find a mod, that is all that is needed. It is not a prerequisite that something negative happen due to the mod before they status 8 you.

Contacting Daimler is not going to do anything, it is just more stonewalling to people....who don't care. They don't care if you are going to buy your next car from them, whether it be a C320 or SLR.

I know when you own a business or run a dealer, you are supposed to always say the customer is right. However, I own a business and that is not always true. Have I had unhappy customers at time? Sure, everyone has. Have I had them threaten that they won't do business with me anymore? Yep. Do I care? No. Most of these people are buying small-priced items and me losing one customer isn't going to affect me at all. It's not worth the hassle. There are plenty of other people who will buy that unbought item from an unsatisfied customer.

My point is....although they messed up, although you would hope they would care about a customer with a very expensive item....they don't and really there is nothing you can do to bother them....whether it be sue or not buy their cars or whatever. That's why you need to walk the walk now. I am sure Mercedes gets sued all the time.....a threat to sue or even a lawsuit is not going to make that change. As OP knows....once your experts bring up some damaging actual evidence in discovery.....that is when they are going to start to worry. However, how many lawsuits are able to provide that kind of good evidence? Not many.

bigben320e

True, it could happen at any brand/dealer. I suppose Skeeter ran into a bad situation due to the nutbrains involved at the dealer/MBUSA.

I have had some bad vibes from dealers before, Chrysler, Benz, etc. I leave quick and fast if the situation gets stupid and I am treated badly. I guess I and many others feel that for the amounts we pay for Benz's you would get better service.

That is correct! That's what scares me about modding my Benz. I got different answers as to how issues would be handled on the warranty if I did so from different dealers.

I did my 300M with dual exhaust, intake, pulley, and complete Alpine system. I never had any issues with service. Bad circumstances for this situation I guess.

CWW

I dunno, I disagree with a couple of you guys. I have had a lot of BMW's, and they would never hassle you over a 20hp mod. They are generally a lot more mod-friendly than Benz, and FWIW, parts of the car's undercarriage never just randomly fell apart either.

Don't get me wrong, I DO like benz better as a brand and think the total ownership experience is normally better, but to say that this gigantic hassle would have happened with any brand over something so minor is not true.

BMW dealers are rude and crappy, but when it comes to corporate they don't play with your warranty. They even replaced a couple things (MID display, etc) years after my warranty expired because I complained.

Fast55

+1. I've had almost every brand you can think of and never had this kind of treatment. I had a Dodge truck that had 20K+ into it (if you think that's not much compared to our MB's, just consider how much had to be changed to get to that cost in a Dodge 4X4), and got no hassles. Of course they would no longer cover the axles or suspension, but none of the stock pieces remained. No problems with a modded trans and motor, no B.S. about a failed alternator because it was driving 1,000 watts of stereo and dual batteries etc. Status 8 is a big deal. It's MB's way of saying "screw you". It's not a denial of this claim, it's a permanent mark against that car that requires a fight for ANY warranty claim in the future. If the COMAND in the car fails, it's going to be a fight because it's automatically denied until a MB rep says otherwise. I've never heard of another mfg. categorizing a customer car that way no matter what the modifications are. Just the problems and depreciation I've had with my W211 compared with the W210 have already made up my mind not to buy another new MB. This kind of thing makes me re-think even buying another used one. Way to go Mercedes.

bigben320e

Fast55, on some of that my point exactly. I have not experienced this kind of treatment from other brands even with mods added, hence my Chrysler 300M. (BTW- The transmission on the M crapped out at 92K, was 3K to get a new one!) Mercedes seems to be rather "funky" about mods, and while some dealers are mod friendly IF they installed them, some dealers say no way.

I play the "what if" game a lot, what if you were out of town, and needed service at a dealer that was not mod friendly? Anyone could get into this type of situation.

That's why I asked the question, "Does this situation make you think about not buying another Benz?" My point is on the the heavy duty mods such as Kleeman, Renntech, etc. in respect to the question I asked.

Don't get me wrong, I love my Mercedes experience. I have a CLS500, E320, and soon to be R500. The cars run, and they last. The E is still going strong at 175K! I do wonder at times from the horror stories I hear at times regarding Benz's service though. So far, I have had pretty good luck.

This situation does have some learning points in it, it's just bad Skeeter was the one that got caught up in it. Hope for the best.

MB_Forever

While it is true that this can happen at any dealer and/or any brand, the way it was handeled was just pure disaster. I mean consider the following: bad treatment from the service manager, one representative telling him it is okay to do something while the other says no it was not, declining warranty over the phone without physical inspection, waiting for people to come back from vacation, permenantly marking the car for status 8 without the process completing/finishing 100%, not returning phone calls/letters, refusing to perform simple tests to prove that the damage was not due to the mod but the re-install of the bolt, etc......

I have a friend who bought and sold 4 S2000 over the last 8 years and although they were all out of warranty, he took it in for a clutch re-call repair, and in each case, each dealer replaced it in "good faith". Yes he had modifications, and yes they were minor (headers + exhaust), but his car was completely out of warranty. He did this in 3 different dealers in California. I also had a friend who twin-turboed a Lexus a 1994 (or 1995) SC430 and the dealer still replaced several items under warranty. They did deny him coverage a couple of times, but before each denial, there were 2 extensive inspections by 2 regional reps while he was present.

Mercedes customer service has been declining rapidly throughout the last 6 years or so, and they don't seem to be doing anything about it And while Lexus and Acura start offering loaner cars, free XM for 2 years, and other free goodies, Mercedes seem to be taking it away. Hopefully, someone high up the chain will change this before it is too late.

SLK55R

but to be honest I'm gonna be pointing at the dealer first. If he had a good SA/Service manager at any of the other dealerships I think this would have turned out totally different.

I do know I will never go to MBSF to buy a car! Which I do thank Skeeter for bringing to my attention.

I'm sure if we did just a little research we could find horror stories (for specifically warranty denial) for every brand out there. From honda, mitsubishi, subaru, porsche, bmw etc.

Btw my biggest issue here is that it seems the DEALERSHIP is trying to hide behind Status 8 to not pay for an internal mistake. My secondary issue is that both the dealership and MBNA think that they can just throw a status 8 on a car without repercussions. The law in California is VERY clear.

MB_Forever

I agree, if you look hard enough, you'll find some kind of horror story about any brand, but I was just speaking in general averages, Mercedes customer satisfaction has just been declining too rapidly and seems to be getting worse rather than slowing down which is too bad because most of their products are quiet good.

SLK55R

actually has been tanking for a long time now. I was already at the point where I said no more Mercedes back in 2000.

What did I do? I went BMW and after a few years decided to give Mercedes another shot. Guess what, my garage is complete mercedes again.

It has gotten significantly better than in previous years. Is it back to its hayday?? Hell no, they have quite a ways to go still.

AmenMercedesGo

Has anyone else seen this problem? I am stock, but feel compelled to check mine.

CWW

There have been a few incidents of that failure on this board.

Extrapolating from the relatively few number of people here vs. the total number of E55 owners floating around out there, I suspect that this failure is not as uncommon as you'd like to think.

If that part is common to the entire W211 lineup, rather than just the 55's, then I would guess there are a LOT more of these incidents than just what we've heard about.

Skeeter

No chance that I'm going to keep getting led around in circles by bringing the car back to MBSF. MBSF told me the decision was final and to pick up the car and appeal to MBUSA. Before I picked up the car, I called MBUSA and asked if I could move the car to FJ in Fremont and appeal it from there. I was told 'yes', this was fine. Then I called after bringing the car to FJ and was told once more that I needed to have FJ's service manager contact the regional rep to appeal the decision, and to request permission for me to be present at the inspection.

Two weeks later, FJ tells me that MBUSA told them that the appeal must be done from SFMB! I complained to MBUSA, since they told me I could move the car in the first place. All I got was an apology. I asked if there was anyone ANYWHERE in their organization that has the authority to discuss this and was told no.

So after 1.5 months or so of trying to play nice, I'm nowhere. Worse than back to square one, now the car is at a remote dealership and I have no easy way of getting down there to pick it up... No, this isn't a way for the original dealership to save face, this is one more in a series of steps where nobody knows what is what, and where someone inside MBSF or MBUSA is contentedly screwing me and wasting my time.

These facts won't look good in court, I can assure you. I'm not an overly litigious plaintiff looking to make a buck by filing a lawsuit. The record will show that I did more than should be expected and MBUSA refused all efforts to resolve this outside court.

I've already got a call in to a lawyer who has sued MBUSA before. I'll let you all know what he says and how the process evolves. I guess I'll send a letter to MBUSA recounting all this as well, just so they have a written record of this debacle as well.

I'm seriously mad today. Insane to have MBUSA tell me to move the car to another dealer if I want only to now tell me that I have to move it back to the ******* dealer that started this mess in the first place. NFW. The letter is going to be my last communication with MBUSA. From then one, it's all from my attorney.

Skeeter

Skeeter

And meanwhile, sadly, realize that any of us who have ANY mod (TB, pulley, exhaust, etc) risks having this happen to them. Status 8 to screw your resale + refusal to repair damage that has NO CONNECTION to the mod. Way to go MB! You just lost a lifetime customer over $4k in repairs and 3k miles of remaining warranty. Nice work.

Off to shop for an M6 or 911tt. Any other suggestions? Depending on how this all ends, I'll do a thorough job of posting all the names involved up and down on this, along with their work numbers so you can voice your feelings on the matter. Unreal that this is all over an EIGHTEEN HP MOD! Unreal.

Skeeter

bigben320e

Skeeter, wish you all the best on this. It's a sickening affair, keep us posted on what happens.

Some may say MB does not care if they lose you as a customer, but if they lose enough money they will start to care.

jdj27x

I feel truly sick to my stomach reading this. I cant even imagine how upset u must be.

Why dont you contact RENNTECH and explain to them what they are accusing their product of . I bet they would have a great laugh and love to hear this, as it is has a potentional of stopping people from the forums( we all know how many people read the forums, even if they dont post) from doing the simple mod of gaining 15-50 hp from a pulley.


Good luck. What if you call mbusa and claim to be the rep and ask for a reversal... jkjk

v8plus4

...and hang in there. It might take some time.

I ran into an old friend last week who had bought a new R129 SL600 back in 98, and had problems with the self-leveling suspension. MB couldn't fix it to his satisfaction, and as he considered the car unsafe to drive, he parked it in his garage and eventually sued MB.

When I saw him last week, he was driving a new SL55. I asked him whatever happened to the old 600, he pointed to the 55 and said, "that car was part of the settlement, I got it a couple of months ago."

So, he did prevail, but it took NINE YEARS. Don't let them jerk you around any longer, get the ball rolling in court ASAP.

ucsdsig

Man, it's unfortunate the way MBUSA is treating you. Good luck Skeeter.

Can Drive 55

Skeeter, good luck and I really hope this ends in your favor. A couple of thoughts - first, I had some issues with a dealership when they damaged my car. I called and sent certified letters to MBUSA and asked for their assistance. They basically told me to buzz off. They said that the dealership is privately owned and they would not get involved. End of conversation. So, MBUSA could not care less about me, you, or anyone else. Secondly, I do not think you owe anyone any letter summarizing anything. You are just giving them evidence that could be used against you. I wouldn’t do it.

Addicted2Speed

If its $4k in repairs from a Mercedes dealer, its probably half that at a private shop. IMO, it would be much less of a headache and probably less money in the end (how much are you paying lawyer?) to just repair the car at your expense at a private shop

As far as Porsche goes, don't assume the same thing won't happen. Like I said from personal experience, my suspension warranty was denied over aftermarket stereo. Porsche is even worse when it comes to modifications, check the Porsche forums if you don't believe me...

Dan-the-Man

you lodge court proceedings, (that means lodge not send them letters threatening to do so)

This will drag out for many more months if you continue down this track of hope they see sense..

I had similar issues and wasted two years total and settled two days before the court appearance. Hind sight if I lodged straight away I would have saved 10K on legal threats and two years of stress.

Fix it yourself. Lodge procedings. Wait period X until the court date and then either settle or win in court.

You drive your car now and get the warranty reinstated once the court date comes around.