Rip-off Mercedes servicing

serpent13

I've got a Mercedes Smart and I've been very happy with the prices that Mercedes have charged me for servicing it. In fact I'm taking it there this month for its first MoT as well.

spuds_2

I think the best thing is to look on the MB owners forums for a good independendant garage in your area:

http://www.mbclub.co.uk/

http://www.mbworld.org/forums/index.php

I would google Prestige car Servicing as I have read negative things about them in the past, but they may have improved.

54druids

My husband bought a merc which we cannot afford the fuel costs on now so i have it - beautiful car but i prefer my car. Anyway, it is 9000 miles over its service but i know it will cost £400 and more for the service. Can anyone recommend someone other than the merc garage to service the merc near Perth

hotbaws

54druids wrote: »

My husband bought a merc which we cannot afford the fuel costs on now so i have it - beautiful car but i prefer my car. Anyway, it is 9000 miles over its service but i know it will cost £400 and more for the service. Can anyone recommend someone other than the merc garage to service the merc near Perth

Have a look for an independant Merc garage, I'm sure you'll find one close to you.

I can recommend one in Salsburgh which will be about an hours drive for you, Ross Irvine 01698 870180, he's an Ex-Mercedes head mechanic and I've used him for all my cars.

hollydays

spam.........................

indianguy

Mercedes Servicing Birmingham's Number 1 Garage is no other than Andy Gayle at mercedesservicing.com. We've been using the Mercedes Garage based in Oldbury for over 15 years now and have always received an A1 Service both in terms of price and expectations.

hawkwinddotcom

indianguy wrote: »

Mercedes Servicing Birmingham's Number 1 Garage is no other than Andy Gayle at mercedesservicing.com. We've been using the Mercedes Garage based in Oldbury for over 15 years now and have always received an A1 Service both in terms of price and expectations.

Smells like spam lol

glojo

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread but there appears to be a lot of inaccurate information being posted regarding both the servicing and the mobilo warranty.

Firstly we can all have our vehicles serviced where ever we want and by who we want but it is all about choices. If we opt to keep our vehicle within the Mobilo umbrella then we will need to comply with the stipulations laid down by the manufacturer. These stipulations have nothing to do with the UK three year warranty, that is a completely seperate issue with seperate terms and conditions. Mobilo is mobilo with its own terms, some of which require we have the vehicle serviced by a main dealer (or authorised agent) and all bodywork repairs carried out by the Mercedes main dealer or authorised agent.

In my experience I have not heard of any agent that has been authorised to carry out either servicing, or mechanical repairs not connected with accident damage, but yes I have heard of folks who 'claim' they know someone who knows someone that is an authorised agent but when trying to corroborate the claim, it usually turns out to be just that....

There are numerous excellent authorised body repair specialist that are Mercedes agents and these must be used for any body repairs including accident damage.

I am NOT criticising anyone that decides to not use a main dealer, it is all about choice and we all make these choices but I do get frustrated when I read posts from folks that want the benefits of Mobilo, but are not willing to comply with the terms and conditions.

We might ask what has the bodywork got to do with getting the car serviced by a main dealer and my usual reply is 'Nothing' but those that ask this question are usually those that have no idea what Mobilo is and what it offers.

Mobilo is NOT just a bodywork warranty, it is a warranty that has a number of benefits, some of which are connected to the bodywork,but it cannot be cherry picked. We cannot say we want certain bits of cover, but not others.

To those that claim their independant workshop does a better job than the main dealer, then fine. That is great and well done in finding that garage but PLEASE make sure they have the very latest diagnostic equipment with all the very latest software updates because our modern Mercedes is a technological master piece that has numerous items that are regularly being improved by the manufacturer and we owners benefit from this every time our car goes into the workshop of a main dealer.... These workshops all receive updates and these are applied to our vehicles 'free of charge' whenever they are in the shop.

Rather than me waffle on about the so called benefits of Mobilo I will post a message I have just read on a Mercedes forum and let you folks decide whether this warranty is a waste of time:

I thought I'd take the trouble to post my experiences with my bought-from-new SL500. I thought it might be of interest to any others who are unlucky enough to have a serious breakdown and make use of the Mercedes Mobilolife. Or to anyone who like me has grumbled at the cost of Mercedes dealership servicing every time I get the bill.

My car was one of those rather rash purchases one sometimes makes - around 7 years ago of a wonderful new Obsidian Black SL500. It's used largely as a second car hence it's only done 16000 miles but has been serviced every two years as I have been instructed by the car.

A couple of nights ago - at around 2:00 (am!) at our second home one of those dreaded light scenarios attacked us "Brake Failure - Do Not Drive The car Under Any Circumstances Or You Will Surely Die" or something similar. For reasons that you are welcome to argue with me about (but I will ignore) I drove it home very carefully at around 20 to 30 mph. The following day resigned to a lot of inconvenience and cost I phoned the dealership to arrange things. "Have you phoned Mobiolife - the number with 7 x 7's in the telephone number?" - I was asked. I hadn't and did so.

Within an hour or so a Mercedes van arrived with a smart and clever looking engineer and a computer and he started to work his way through the diagonstics and after a lot of testing it looked like a brake unit (EBF? ABG? ..... I don't know - I get the paperwork tommorow) went and he pulled a trailer out of his van - some sort of magic trick and towed my car to my dealership. Mercedes arranged an immediate high car - a Merc CLS. After a day I was called to be told what my car needed with a rough total of around a basic £1500. BUT ... the dealership asked Merc to contribute and Merc agreed without any argument or prompting from the dealership to pay for it all. All the way through this the people at Merc were checking to ensure everything was ok re the hire car etc etc

My car comes back tommorow and the hire car goes back as well.

This was an awful thing to have gone through, but I am speechles at how Mercedes have supported their product. A couple of days ago I was expecting a heap of inconvenience and a mountain of cost and the total cost of the whole thing has been zero and I didn't even leave the house to deliver (well ... I couldn't really could I ....) or collect.

I thought I'd share the experience as it has taught me that there are some hidden benefits attatched to the initial cost and those terrible dealer service charges and I felt it was an unwritten part of the deal that I should tell others 'cos if it was bad I'd say that as well. I understand that the service is for 30 years although I guess I'll have to expect to pay for things next time around.

Jeff

I cannot and will not defend the terrible rust problems that we are seeing with some Mercedes models but hats off to Mercedes in the way it is dealing with this issue and again in my experience, most if not all claims for rust repairs have been settled as 'Goodwill' payments and NOT under the Mobilo scheme. Yes the rust appears as 'bubbles' on the paintwork, but this is usually surface rust which has formed on the surface of the metal, but under the surface of the paintwork. Mobilo only covers rust coming from the INSIDE of the metal work.

I have read folks saying it is wrong that a £30,000 (put in any figure) car should rust but I knew of a four year old Bentley that had corrosion issues and the owner had to pay the full costs of the repair.

I have heard of folks who have never had their Mercedes serviced by a main dealer getting the vehicle fitted out with new wings, boot etc and all free of charge, but others being told to 'pay up' My advice is to be polite and if we don't ask, we don't get, but if we want the benefits of Mobilo then we have to play the game by the rules

Whewww (fingers worn out)

frannyann

Or just buy an Audi!
My A3 had a bit come loose in the footwell, it was picked up and 2.0 TDI A4 left for me to use for as long as it took to fix, no charge and my car was returned to me fixed and cleaned (and it really needed cleaning ) Excellent customer service dept too!! Thanks Eastbourne Audi!

glojo

frannyann wrote: »

Or just buy an Audi!
My A3 had a bit come loose in the footwell, it was picked up and 2.0 TDI A4 left for me to use for as long as it took to fix, no charge and my car was returned to me fixed and cleaned (and it really needed cleaning ) Excellent customer service dept too!! Thanks Eastbourne Audi!

Hi Frannyann,
I am a huge fan of Audi but I did not know they offered a similar free item. Unfortunately you forgot to mention the age of your vehicle because if it is still within the three year warranty then we would all expect the type of service you describe.

The example I posted was of a car that was seven years old and it is certainly not unique. I have a friend with a five year old E-class Mercedes-Benz which broke down on a Friday evening whilst they were travelling across Belgium. They were put up in a hotel for the week-end (the garage had to wait for the replacement part)
anbd once more the repair was done as a goodwill gesture plus the food and accomodation was paid for under the Mobilo scheme which is a free cover which comes with our car.

Mobilo used to be called Mobilo Life as Mercedes-Benz wanted to offer cars with a 'life-time' cover, but the life of a car had to be defined so we now have it as 30 years.