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*Love your curves and all your edges...Are they crazy or am I out of my mind?*
My heart is broken. I just dropped my baby—a beautiful 2013 E63 AMG with only 58k miles—off at a Southern California dealership for a routine brake service, and what came back was an absolute nightmare.
It all started innocently enough. I took the car in for new Pirelli's, which included a "multi-point inspection." The dealership then emailed me an "urgent" alert recommending new brake pads front and rear—3mm left on the rear, 4mm on the front. A steep but manageable $2,000 quote.
Then came the sucker punch. After I brought it in for the brake job, the service advisor called with an update: "Your rotors are at minimum spec, and they're going to squeak like crazy if you don't replace them." Now, the same job is suddenly an $8,704 quote!
For a standard brake replacement? $8,704?! Are they crazy, or am I out of my mind?
I've put the brakes on this outrageous charge, but I can't shake the feeling that I was just upsold to the point of absurdity. This went from a routine service to a wallet-draining financial crisis in a matter of hours. The thought of my car getting unnecessarily torn apart and paying nearly $9k for a brake job makes me sick.
Has anyone else experienced something this outrageous at a dealership? What would you do in my position? Please tell me I'm not the only one.
Not unusual to get such quotes from the dealer. I was in the same boat, asked my local MB dealer to replace discs and pads on all 4 corners. They quoted me 4870.- Euros.
I sourced all Brembo discs and pads over the internet and paid a total of 700.-, including wear contacts. Front discs have the better and lighter aluminum hats too.
Install is easy, if you're handy with basic tools.
There is a reason we call it the "Stealership"...the fact is, for me....even if someone is "F-You Rich" (for instance my father was....)....well, there is a diffrence between being rich and being mad at your money. Even when my father had his own private jet to fly his drunk *** around the world....he still did his own brakes on the cars.....just sayin. (yes, I do my own brakes).
Oh, and that dealership did not want to sell you brakes. They wanted to sell you a new car.
Last edited by OldManAndHisCar; Nov 4, 2025 at 05:47 AM.
Think how lucky you were they didn't find an oil leak requiring engine replacement. Not unlike a Midas or Firestone promotion; it's the typical bait & switch. This dealer should have measured/inspected the rotors before they quoted the job. The only way to own one of these cars is to DIY or find a competent independent repair shop in your area.
Are you at all handy? A brake job is very easy. Buy the parts for under 1500 bucks from FCP euro and install them. We can walk you through it. Or, take those same parts to an indy mechanic, that will charge maybe two hours and will not warranty the parts which is ok because FCP warranties them. Dealer prices will only become more outrageous as replacement parts supplies dry up in local warehouses. Fortunately you dont need Mercedes branded brake parts.
The second they said "Squeak like crazy" if they don't replace the rotors you know they are full of BS. But yes - you got taken.
Usually you can do two set of pads for each set of rotors. At 58kk mile on (I assume) stock pads you are highly unlikely to be at rotor minimum thickness.
New set of pads will rapidly conform to the old rotors. Do what's called a bedding in process - described here: Zeckhausen - he knows brakes EXTREMELY well
Then find an indy mechanic, and for the next set of pads you can then have them do rotors as well.
As others have said - if you are at ALL handy this car is super easy to do brakes on because of the construction of the calipers. Good luckl!
If you want to stay with the factory correct OE rotors, buy them as the Brembo, not the Mercedes part, regardless of whether you buy them yourself or have an Indy shop buy them for you. Exactly the same parts, made in Italy by Brembo, but 1/4 the price for the fronts, 1/2 for the rears.
You can see this easily on the FCP Euro site ($405 for the front Brembo part and $1676 for MB, $169 for the rear Brembo part and $339 for the rears). Same exact parts.
Get the car out of there as soon as possible
Buy stuff at FCP euro and if you can't do it yourself, just take it to a Good Indy who could knock this out in under 2 hours.
What's this car worth really, $25,000 or something like that and with $9000 that's like 35% of the car's retail.....
Heck no --- Get it outa there.
Does anyone believe dealerships thrive on profits made in the showroom? Service departments are where the money is made. Avoid them - they're liars, thieves and incompetent nimrods. Find an indy or learn to DIY.
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