sold yippee !  
Voted the worst car of the BBC Top Gear Survey 2004
What's in a star ?
All is revealed in my letter to Daimler Chrysler,  read it here !

ML5.jpg (10083 bytes)
Mercedes ML320
November 1998 (S)
Under 2200 miles
Cost over GBP 36.000

 

ML10.jpg (12533 bytes)
MLB.gif (6090 bytes)
Spring, summer, autumn and
winter. In town or in the country,
on the road or off the beaten track,
the M-class is the car for all
seasons and reasons
(Daimler Chrysler's blurb: and don't you
believe a word....!  Read this.)
ML7.jpg (14112 bytes) MLA.gif (5854 bytes)





Check this site before you choose a Mercedes Benz, it probably will save you money and lots and lots of hustle:
www.Mercedes-Benz-USA.com
ML3.jpg (11827 bytes)

Treacherous slush-covered roads,
winding mountain passes, narrow country
lanes - the M-class can tackle whatever
is put in it's path. With permanent 4-wheel
drive and Mercedes-Benz intelligent
driving dynamics systems, the M-class
will always be on your side.

(Daimler Chrysler's blurb: they laugh
all the way to the bank while you are pushing it ! Read CarSurvey.org.)

ML4.jpg (16563 bytes)
ML11.jpg (13671 bytes) Read the detail of the full disaster in my
letter to Daimler Chrysler !

MLA.gif (5854 bytes)

                   



Don't just take my word for it: read what Fortune Magazine has to say about the once famous star.  Read more stories of customer support by Mercedes Benz below and don't forget to check out the links provided which should influence your vehicle purchase. Now voted the worst car in the BBC Top Gear Survey 2004 !

Special equipment:
Highly individual alarm system gives hours of amusement (to others).
Pool on passenger side for "Frequent Flyers", i.e. ducks and geese.
Rear seat assembly realistically imitates the thrilling sounds of a cheap motel.
Leather seats highly suitable for Sudanese brass monkeys and Americans.
The battery: expensive paperweight.

ML2.jpg (15992 bytes)

All photographs feature the car which I now got rid of. In the process I lost GBP 10.000 in 12 months and in under 2200 miles. They call it low depreciation....... 
Gimme a break !

Extremely cheap plastics support US and German frail economies
Detachable accelerator pedal. Bet, you don't have one !

Read the detail of the full disaster in my
letter to Daimler Chrysler !

MLB.gif (6090 bytes)
ML8.jpg (14479 bytes) Edmund Nägele F.R.P.S.
Parkgate
West Approach Drive
Cheltenham GL52 3AD

Phone: 01242-242952
Fax: 01242-575359
Email:
junk@nagelestock.com

Would you treat your customers like Daimler Chrysler?  Would you dare?  So what's in a star ?
www.nagelestock.com


Allow me to quote Jeremy Clarkson from the Sunday Times of December 5th, 2004:

......I know one chap who became so disillusioned with his Mercedes garage he parked his car right across the entrance to the forecourt and refused to move it until they found the spare part that hadn't turned up for nine weeks. Mind you, this is Mercedes and they're off the bottom of the  scale when it comes to customer satisfaction. The prisoners in Camp X-Ray are treated with more compassion. Pol Pot wasn't  a Mercedes dealer, but he certainly had all the right  credentials.

......don't just take his word for it !
Find further information and save your money at the following links:

Worst car of the BBC Top Gear Survey 2004

FORTUNE MAGAZINE
Mercedes Benz Recalls & Problems by InternetAutoGuide.com
www.Mercedes-Benz-USA.com
www.troublebenz.com
www.mercedesproblems.com
www.coplaints.com
www.automobilemag.com
www.carcomplaints.com
www.time.com
www.mercedesproblems.com.ar
www.carsurvey.org 
 
www.daimlerchryslervehicleproblems.com

Mercedes Benz - poor customer service
www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/mercedes.html


   Sad end to a dream !

Aug 2003: This M Class has been parked outside the M-B Dealer Road Range in West Kirby (UK) for the past 5 weeks and is still there, only covered in more writing! Shows how good the customer care is............... 
Adam Jackson
adamj@tiscali.co.uk


Why buy a Mercedes when it rusts and rattles from new?    The way to do it !

Clearly the owner of this GBP 45.000 Merc was not impressed by the build-quality and wrote on both sides of the car:
"WHY BUY A MERCEDES WHEN IT RUSTS AND RATTLES FROM NEW ?"

Seen and photographed May 14th, 2000,
in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom.


.............. just when you thought Mercedes Benz quality could not get much worse:

the following 3 letters were published in The Sunday Times, March 20th, 2005

CZECH MATE: I was very interested in your article on the decline of Mercedes (Mercedes, the marque that lost its lustre, last week). I had been a lifelong fan, having had the thrill of a ride in a 300SL Gullwing back in the mid-1950s when I was a 13-year-old petrolhead.

I finally got my first Merc in 2002, my last fling before retirement. I shouldn't have waited all those years: everything Clarkson says about their service is true, and the build "quality" is awful.

I am happy to say I've now rid myself of the problem. I have a Skoda Superb TDi: wonderful car, super dealership - I wish I'd done it three years ago.

David Jones, via e-mail

POOR COMMUNICATIONS: I read with considerable concern your report on a problem with some Mercedes CLK sports models built between 2002 and 2004.

As I have such a car, I decided to contact my local dealership - the John Weir group - to be advised that they knew of no problem and this was the first that they had heard of it. They further stated that were there any problems Mercedes-Benz would have contacted me.

A few hours later we heard from the dealership until my car was taken to them for a service and registration had been entered in their computer , there was "no way" they would know of this problem. When my registration was entered , "Recall" flashed on the screen. The dealerships are, apparently, not advised by Mercedes.

Considering the seriousness of the possible problem, I am concerned that I have to read about it in the press. How fortunate that I read The Sunday Times.

Elizabeth Johnstone, Inverness

ROUGH DEAL: My parents own a 1994 E280 and a 2001 A160 and have been loyal Mercedes customers for over 20 years.The quality of the A160 is appalling for a premium marque.

And the dealers have gone downhill too. Most used to be independents who really cared about customer service - my father dealt with a salesman who had been with the company for over 25 years before retiring. Now they are either owned by impersonal chains or by Mercedes-Benz itself. Mercedes' policy of shutting down independent dealers has stifled competition and cut down on choice.

Mercedes is closing the stable door long after the horse has bolted.

Che Tsang, Maidstone

 

three more letters from The Sunday Times, dated November 3rd, 2002


ALL AT SEA: Further to the recent tale of the woe with the Mercedes S 600 (Flagship that's dead in the water, last week), I am sure many other readers have evidence of the shocking fall in the once legendary build quality of Mercedes cars.

I bought an S 280 in November 1999 and it had more than 20 unscheduled days off the road due to warranty claims, including rust/paint flaking from rear wheel arches, automatic wipers that would not switch off, jammed glove box, faulty petrol gauge and various electrical problems. A rear window-mounted aerial had to be replaced several times until it was cured by my suggestion of using bathroom sealant to prevent water penetration.

More annoyingly it took several months of correspondence with Mercedes-Benz before it even acknowledged my concerns.

John Nutton, Sheffield, South Yorkshire


PROBLEMS: In February 2000 I bought a Mercedes S 320 L and from the first day it has had problems in every operational area. It is the worst vehicle I have ever driven. I have had to take it in for attention 52 times.

The car was delivered with mismatched seats and has suffered brake failure, acceleration problems, ABS failure, air-conditioning and gearbox faults, Airmatic suspension failure, partial engine shutdown and light failures.

I am most worried about the fact that the body does not sit properly on the rear axle. When measured it was found that the offside was almost 8 inches higher than the nearside.

Phil O'Connor, Ilford, Essex


AGGRAVATION: Your article on the Mercedes S 600 is the tip of a very large iceberg. I got rid of my SLK 230 after a catalogue of problems and would not have an other. With a vehicle costing more than GBP 32.000 one does not expect so much time off the road, so much aggravation and such poor service. My analysis is that most dealers are trying their hardest, but are overwhelmed with quality problems.

I am not a person who readily criticises dealers, having family connections in the trade and knowing how demanding the British public can be, but I write in the sure knowledge you will hear many similar tales from Mercedes owners.

Tim Brook, Creaton, Northamptonshire



Email received from Leslie Hatcher

27.July 2007
 

My Mercedes came out of warranty in Sept 2006. I always drive it carefully and it has always been maintained by MB.
 
In March 2007, whilst parked, both front coil springs broke. Yes its true. Both broke while it was stationary and parked. MB later told me that this was a known fault and was caused by a design fault allowing condensation to gather leading to corrosion and the break. The car should have been recalled for this but it wasn't. Instead I was charged for a proportion of the repair which I objected to. £142.00
 
Next, about a month later the boot flooded to a depth of about 6 inches. The electrical junction box there was heavily corroded. This was due to a leaking rear light seal. It was fixed for free but it should not have happened.
 
Next, in June, on my way to work the gear box destroyed itself. Apparently this had happened before but I certainly hadn't been told. MB picked up some of the cost of the repair but after bitter argument I still had to pay £1085:05 for a repair for a failure which should never have happened.
 
On talking to MB HO I said to the agent in customer services that the springs were a major structural failure. If it had happened whilst I was driving I could have died. His reply, wait for it was, "but you didn't die did you". What do you say to a quality car manufacturer when they come out with a comment like that?
 
The same agent, when informed that my gearbox failure could only have been cause during manufacture, the car had only done 70,000 miles, asked me "How long do you expect  a gearbox to last? I replied, "how about a lifetime". He thought that I was being completely unreasonable.
 
The outcome is that I have completely lost confidence in MB and their cars. I had to force myself to collect it from the garage. Now I am suing them for the cost of both repairs and 3 days after I collected it I sold it.
 
I part-exchanged it for a VW Phaeton, new and only £35000. It is better than an S Type and half the price. I will never buy another Mercedes again as long as I live.
 
If anyone out there is looking for a good car buy the Phaeton. There is nothing better on the road today.  
 
Leslie Hatcher
LHatcherswindon@aol.com

Email received from Nicholas Dayman
04 December 2006


Very interesting info on your site re MB… my most recent experience has lead me to stop using our local MB agent:

Having booked my ML270 in for its yearly service to include a tracking check (my tyre supplier found excessive wear on the inside rims of the tyres) I was telephoned at work the day before the due service to delay my visit by one day as the tracking machine was broken…fair enough.

Arriving the next day I found the service manager to drop my keys off…I was greeted with a blank stare and the words “we texted you to say the machine was still broken, you’ll have to come back when it is fixed”

I very occasional receive texts and I do know how to work my mobile phone…no bloody text was received. Regardless of whether a text was sent… I pointed out that they had all my other contact numbers and why hadn’t they called my office where they had called just two days previously to cancel my last service? Also regardless of whether they had sent a text surely it was only right and proper to make sure their customer had received the message in order to avoid a longish wasted journey? The fact that one was sent is bloody useless if it has not been received! Apparently not…all customers are now informed of service changes by text…apart from the first time I was informed 48 hours before!!

I wrote to Mr Weir of the Weir Group asking for his take on the matter…I also added notes about his surly unshaven service manager and the fact my car had been back to them on numerous occasions for faults they had failed to rectify not once but several times and the best of all…one day after a major service the car required an oil top up of 2 litres. I even pointed out my Wife’s car was due to be replaced (also a Merc)

Mr Weir did not once apologies and rather than tackle the problem he skirted around and supported his staff and their texting.

So I took the car to another MB dealer and had the tracking checked…£140 later…no problem with the tracking…absolute bollocks according to my tyre man.

Anyway…I still have my ML…can’t bear to take the depreciation hit…hoping some TV show might want to use it as an example MB’s decline…it is serviced by a local garage using Merc parts which is v cheap.

Nicholas Dayman
nick@weve-a-gift.com


Letter to Daimler-Chrysler UK Ltd. as supplied by Chris Kisielewski
ML270, Reg: KM03 JSY now CSK 942, VIN WDC1631132A405410

Mr Wilfred Stefen
Daimler Chrysler UK Ltd
Tongwell
Milton Keynes
MK15 8BA

8th March 04

Dear Mr Stefen,

Having been a proud Mercedes-Benz owner since 1990 with my first ever 190 and my father also owning a selection of MB products from the old 220/8 in 1971 culminating with his ownership of an S Class in later years. I have considered myself to be a bit of an MB enthusiast, also being a member of the MB Owners Club and MB Owners Association in the UK.

It saddens me to feel that I have to write to you to express my dissatisfaction with the MB product that I have unfortunately purchased from MB-Direct. I am the unhappy owner of a 2003 Mercedes ML270CDI Auto. Since I have had this car I have been hoping that I would get used to it and that I would start to like it and that maybe it would "grow on me". After 4 months to the day, I can honestly say that I really wish I had taken out the GAP insurance that was offered to me at the time of purchase, so that I could drive the car into a wall or set fire to it and recoup all that I had spent on it !

Although MB-Direct in Birmingham have offered to take the vehicle in part exchange for another MB product, I have spent an additional £2,000 on top of the original purchase price, which I think was £31,500K (although this initial purchase price is difficult to establish, as I was entitled to some MB Owners club discount) for the vehicle. What I have been trying to obtain is a price from MB (as you know the product and this car in particular !) to purchase the vehicle back, this is proving to be almost impossible as MB-Direct were not keen to offer a price and my local dealer still hasn't called me back about a price for the vehicle. I feel so disappointed with this vehicle, that I really do not want to be tied into any MB product anymore and am seriously considering either a new Range Rover or a Toyota Amazon, with my own feelings steering me to the latter. I do not normally complain, but in this case, I feel that unless I put pen to paper, my feelings and the feelings of other disgruntled MB owners (details of which can be found on the 2 MB club web-sites in the UK) will not be heard.

I feel that you are misleading potential purchasers with the claims that you make for the ML on your website, my reasons are as follows:-

  1. Ride

    Your advertising says "And unlike ordinary off-roaders, when you're driving in the city or

    cruising down the motorways, it drives like a luxury saloon" ...well I find that the ride is absolutely dreadful and it feels like the vehicle is on solid tyres, every pothole reverberates into the cabin and after even a short journey I feel absolutely worn out. It is by no means a relaxing car to drive, in fact I would consider this to be the worst car that I have ever driven from this respect, offering no possibility of relaxation or enjoyment. I previously owned a 1995 SL320 and supplemented this with a 1998 Ford Explorer for children carrying and for transporting goods. I do not consider that the ML is as comfortable or as relaxing to drive as my old Ford Explorer with over 100,000miles on the clock and a purchase price of £6,000 a year ago. In a attempt to solve this problem I have spoken to MB Technical and they suggested I speak to my local dealer, they in turn cannot suggest anything else apart from smaller wheels and bigger tyres to "insulate" you from the road. When I then tried to get a set of steel wheels for the car (which, to me would seem to be the cheapest option) they said they cant get any, so that leaves me to get another set of alloy wheels and tyres, to see if that will make a difference. Brabus and the other Mercedes tuners also cannot offer a solution.
     

  2. Economy

    Again I take issue with your advertising. In my experience I find it difficult to better 25mpg, which is a combination of both motorway and city driving, your advertising suggests that I should be attaining around 30mpg (combined). This again puts it on a par with my 1998 4Litre V6 Petrol Ford Explorer, from which I get between 20-25MPG, 25MPG being the combined figure, the lower figure is for all town driving. This seems to suggest that I have spent Thirty odd thousand pounds on a Mercedes diesel for no actual benefit (well, no benefit to me anyway !)
     

  3. Refinement

    In a car whose initial purchase price from new was somewhere in the region of £37,000 you would expect a large degree of comfort and refinement. May I firstly say that I was dreading changing my car because of other owners comments and I felt that I would be disappointed. In this case only to be proven absolutely right in having these fears. The vehicle is only refined if you compare it to a Diesel Sprinter or Transit Van and then only in that it is trimmed in leather inside, carries 5 people and has air conditioning. In every other respect these load carriers offer a similar ride, but with the addition of better economy and increased carrying capacity, but at a greatly reduced cost and subsequent depreciation.
     

  4. Quality

    Internal panel fit is poor and there is a persistent squeaking when turning the steering wheel either way, The heater has an intermittent fault, but only on cold mornings so the dealer cannot do anything about it unless it persists ! The drivers seat base looks like it has been removed from a high mileage vehicle and fitted into this 16,000 mile car and the vehicle smells of exhaust fumes internally. I am given to understand that this 03model is better than the earlier ones, but this just goes to show how MB standards and quality have slipped over the last few years. I do not know if you are familiar with the consumer magazine "Which" it is similar to JD Power in the US. "Which" magazine produces a report based on car owner surveys. Their October 2003 survey indicates that MB have slipped 2 places from "best" to just "average" for reliability and it is the newest cars from 2001 that are letting drivers down, 61% of owners were satisfied with dealers when buying (which was above the average) and 51% when servicing which was just about on the average. If your product is now an "Average" product, then why don't you charge "Average" prices for it. If you are marketing yourself as a "Premium" product with subsequent premium pricing, then you must have standards and quality to match.
     

  5. Depreciation

Whereas traditionally, if you were sensible with your purchase of a Mercedes, owners will not have suffered greatly with depreciation, I feel the same can no longer be said of modern Mercedes products. You will no doubt disagree and quote some exception to the rule, however being of modest means I cannot afford to buy the latest SL, CLK or SLR which I am sure will in the short term retain their values, my vehicle choice has to some extent be fairly sensible. Here’s the facts:- In depreciation I lost £17,000 in 4years and 15,000miles of ownership of my 1995 SL320, most of which time the vehicle spent under a dust sheet in the garage. My wife lost £12,000 in 3 years and 35,000miles of ownership of a 2000 C220CDI Estate.

Getting back to just the ML, I noticed the following comment on your web-site "it's hard to believe you're driving what has been described as one of the ultimate off-roaders" well I certainly agree with this comment because I just shudder to think what driving something worse could be like !

I am sorry to have to make these comments to you, but I thought I would always be able to rely on MB for a quality product and that my only decision in buying another vehicle would be which one to choose, whether sports, saloon, estate or 4x4. I feel that my wife has had the best idea, she picks up her Audi Cabriolet in 2 weeks time and as soon as I can sell my ML, I will be doing the same, we will then have an end to our association stretching back some 33 years.

Yours sincerely

Chris Kisielewski

and one for the Marketing Guys:

Nick Ratcliffe
Marketing Director
Daimler Chrysler UK Ltd
Tongwell
Milton Keynes MK15 8BA

Customer Reference 3828996

7th May 2004

Dear Mr Ratcliffe,

Thank you for your letter accompanying the Mercedes magazine which was dated March last. I hesitated to respond as I have been in correspondence with Daimler Chrysler UK regarding my total disappointment with the Mercedes ML270CDI that I purchased in December 03 from MB Direct.

I would like you to print the letter enclosed to Wilfrid Stefen in your publication as I think it would be useful for customers both old and new to truly understand how Mercedes quality standards have slipped so that they can make a properly informed decision when spending £30K plus on a new vehicle.

The build quality of the ML, both inside and outside is appalling and the only description that I can offer on the vehicle is that is like driving a "shed on wheels". Please see the copy of my letter to Wilfrid Stefen disputing Mercedes’ claims for the vehicle and asking for Mercedes to take the vehicle back and give me my money back or a reasonable proportion of it bearing in mind that I just cannot drive the car, it is sitting in my garage losing money and gathering dust and that no-one else seems interested in the vehicle either.

The whole exercise of buying a new Mercedes to replace both my old 1995 SL and Ford Explorer load carrier has made what should have been a pleasant experience into a costly nightmare both mentally and financially for me. I always thought I could rely on Mercedes for producing quality cars, well this is just not the case any more, so much so that I have totally lost interest in your product and the sooner I can dispose of my ML the better. Please remove my details from your database, I do not wish to have any marketing information from Daimler Chrysler UK ever again.

The way I feel at the moment is that I will never buy a Mercedes again and I will make sure that I inform as many people and publications of my recent experiences with your product as I possibly can,

Yours sincerely

Chris Kisielewski


Letter to Daimler-Chrysler (USA) as supplied by Tim Forrester
ML430, VIN 146812, Model year 2000

To Whom It May Concern:

I purchased the above ML430 in November 1999 and have since driven it approximately 27,000 miles with no off road use or any other treatment, which could in anyway be considered harsh.

Despite the local dealerships best attempts, I have suffered 23 warranty incidents / repairs. Please see the attached list for details.

Certainly some of the warranty items have been trivial or cosmetic and fixed by the dealer without my request.

However putting these trivial items aside, 13 have been hard failures caused by a combination of poor assembly, quality of component or design. Hard failures are shown in BOLD.

Many of these hard failures have resulted in un-scheduled service visits and general inconvenience. On average a failure has occurred every 2 –3 months.

I attempted to resolve this situation with the local dealer, but without success and have recently escalated the matter to the regional manager of Southern California MBUSA – no satisfaction was obtained. I escalated the matter higher still to DC HQ in Germany, same result – no satisfaction. Basically keep taking back to the dealer for repairs…. 

Problems to date with my 2000 ML430, VIN 146812

  1. MCS (radio, CD player, nav system) unit failure – replaced under warranty.

  2. Remote central locking failure – keys replaced 5 times on 4 separate visits, authorization module changed 3 times.

  3. Engine check light – Oxygen sensor replaced.

  4. Door locks fail to lock – take 2-3 attempts. Authorization module changed again and locks re-aligned.

  5. Rear window switches failed. Replaced under warranty.

  6. Front driver’s window switch failed. Left with window in stuck down position. Switch & motor replaced under warranty.

  7. The passenger front seat rocks under acceleration – loose / broken mount. Repaired under warranty.

  8. Fuel gauge inaccurate – replaced under warranty.

  9. Whirling noise from engine – alternator replaced, bad bearing.

  10. Front passenger power seat failed – switches replaced.

  11. Battery failed without warning – went open circuit.

  12. Remote key entry in-operative again – key replaced.

  13. Brake pad warning light failed to indicate warn brake pads.

  14. Excessive sunroof wind noise when open – deflector added FOC by dealer.

  15. Auxiliary cooling fan (F44) fuse blown – fixed by installing a slightly higher rated fuse.

  16. Drivers side seat now loose, rocks back & forth under acceleration.

  17. B pillar black plastic wrinkled – replaced under warranty at dealers suggestion, but they messed up the interior trim.

  18. The driver’s window rattles when lowered 2-3 inches – sounds like something is tapping the glass inside the door. Still not fixed – seems all ML’s suffer from this problem, ignoring it from now on.

  19. Center console material cover stretch, replaced under warranty by dealer without my prompt.

  20. Squeak coming from the light / handle fixture behind the driver above the rear left hand door. Fixed under warranty.

  21. Since the seat belt recall was performed on the rear seat belt it has become more difficult to lower and secure the rear seats. Seats adjusted but still difficult.

  22. Leather on underside of rear seats keeps coming un-clipped – poor design, not repaired as yet. Fixed myself.

  23. Loud bang from rear seats when going over speed humps – even slowly. Fixed myself by adding felt.

Tim Forrester
timf@qcpi.com


Email received from Philip Page
10 November 2004

I too have had several problems with my M Class.

The main problem was the tendency for the vehicle to pull to the nearside. This was so bad that a long drive gave repetitive strain injury to ones wrist. It took more than a year of complaining and finally a letter to Tongwell to get problem fixed. After several months of denial that any problem existed, it was eventually found that the king pins were shot. These have now been replaced and the car goes in straight line for the first time since being purchased.

Other problems have been opening rear tailgate when going over speed bump into Council dump and hitting overhead barrier, replaced by Mercedes, Also rattles and automatic wiper failure etc.

However I am very concerned about excessive brake wear. This has resulted in £600 of repairs after a loud shrieking started only 10,000 after first service. Not counted as warranty. No warning lights appeared at any time. Now I notice that the discs seem to be wearing again, but again no warning lights have appeared on dash. The service advisor still tells me that I have some 9000 miles to go before before I need to visit garage for regular service.

Has any other customer found that brakes need attention between services intervals. This is very dangerous and if common a serious problem.

Philip Page
sales@redpage.fsworld.co.uk


Email received from A.E.Montague
22. January 2003

I was most interested in your site, being the unfortunate owner of an A170 CDi. We bought this second-hand for £11995, as a 2 yr-old, 28000 mile example. I bought it for its practicality, not for the badge, but I thought that a certain intrinsic quality would be part of the deal. Not so. Apart from the truly awful low-speed ride quality and woolly, "guess-where-I'm-at" steering, it was soon apparent that the internal build-quality was bettered by my previous car, a Fiat Cinquecento, which had done 85000miles. Examples included the unit between the front seats that you can waggle about with ease, wobbly front seats, electric window switches you have to press "just-so" to get them to work (careful! don't press too hard), underseat storage trays that are impossible to pull out, or push in again once they are; an alarm system that intermittently goes off after you've been driving for about a mile, necessitating the ignition be switched off, the alarm disarmed manually and the ignition re-started to turn it off. Added to this, the rear suspension arms had to be replaced after 42000 miles after a loud clunking started to occur going around corners and roundabouts. The last was covered under warranty, but they weren't happy about it. And now, a gearbox that gets jammed in 2nd! Guess what, no dealer can see me for 10 days plus! When we tried to trade the car in last September (after 18 months ownership), the best price we were offered was £6300, thereby loosing me over £5500! Mercedes Benz? Never, ever again. It's back to the "biscuit-tin" cars for me.....

Arthur.E.Montague@gsk.com


Letter to Daimler-Chrysler (UK) as supplied by Simon Smith

08. August 2002

Dear Sir 

In September of last year I purchased a Mercedes A 170 CDI , from Road Range in Liverpool, and to put it bluntly I have been disappointed on several fronts by the vehicle. 

Upon delivery, the vehicles alarm was too sensitive, and would go off by itself whenever the car was alarmed. This was the first time I used your “24 hour” support services, and a mechanic was duly dispatched, and arrived some 9 hours later. Not the quickest of response, I’m sure you’ll agree, and particularly worrying as my partner and our 1 year old child use the vehicle most often, which means in the event of a mechanical fault disabling the vehicle, they could spend several hours at the side of the road waiting for assistance. 

Despite the ardent assurances by the salesperson upon the quality of Mercedes vehicles, the car has been dogged by petty faults, I can only put down to poor QA. The drivers side window needed reseating, Panels have yellowed (because I “park in the sunlight”) the passenger side window now works intermittently, The CD holder has stopped working and the rear cup holder had been loose since delivery of the car. I’m sure you’ll agree none of these faults are life threatening, but I’d like to expand on the last one so you can better understand the problems your product has caused. 

The rear cup holder sits between the two front seats and on the car it didn’t clip in fully. This is a fault that is clearly visible , and should have been fixed long before the car left the factory, but it wasn’t . This fault , although clearly visible passed PDI (pre delivery inspection) and was noticed by my child (aged 12) upon her sitting in the rear of the car.  

I decided to phone the suppliers of the car, but said I’d leave replacing it until the service, as its only cosmetic, and visiting them is out of my normal routine.

When the car was serviced I was told that a new part was needed, and had not been ordered, and can I bring the car back, which I agreed. However in over a month I was not informed that the part was there and when I visited Road Range, they had no record of the part being ordered, although a particularly gifted service mechanic re fitted the cup holder in 5 minutes, all this time however, I have wished to sell the now quickly depreciating car but could not (and still cannot) due to work outstanding on the vehicle. How is it that a part so visible, with a clearly visible problem passes QA on several occasions? , And what security does a customer have that more critical parts cannot slip though the QA net?  

My final point is that the car is depreciating in value at a quite horrific rate, due in no small part to the deal Mercedes UK have done with Easy jet, which floods the used car market with A class Mercedes, and recent price changes that mean the new range of A Classes start at under nine thousand pounds.   

I have been reassured on numerous occasions that this is an unusual turn of events, that Mercedes customers are usually very happy with their purchases, some simple research on the internet concludes that I am not alone (please see http://www.carsurvey.org/review_25336.html) . 

I would like to hear your views and any possible remedies you would like to propose at your earliest convenience. 

Yours, 
Simon Smith

simon1127@yahoo.com


If you have had a similar experience and want to share it, email me
or
visit www.Mercedes-Benz-USA.com


 

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