What's my rights for returning a faulty car?

Were_Doomed

james2k2 said:

Does anybody know if Merc's do regen's?

If it's a diesel with a DPF ... then Yes, it does regens (when needed. And if it's been sat for a long time or only lightly used then it almost certainly will do - but you should normally see a notification in the instrument cluster display or infotainment display about this).

tacpot12

I have also realised - and apologies for this - that your right to a refund will depend on you being able to show that the faults that you are rejecting the for were present at the time you were sold the car. The MPG issue is going to be difficult to prove that it was present, unless you can get to the bottom of the reason why and you can show that the cause was present (or was very likely to have been present since before your ownership). To illustrate this, lets assume the poor MPG is down to a failed lambda sensor. The fact that the sensor is rusty suggests that it is a very old sensor, and therefore likely to have failed before your ownership started. If sensor was new, and the dealer fitted it prior to selling the car to fix an MPG problem, the likelihood is that the sensor has failed in your ownership and was not present when you bought the car. 

So, you need to figure out how to prove that the faults were present when you bought the car, but account for why they weren't spotted during your test drive. 

photome

what did the dealer say yesterday

james2k2

Hi all,
The dealer hasn't messaged me again in the last two days. However I decided to inspect the rear fuse box just now (this is where the Ambient Lighting fuse is located as I figured pulling it out and back in might reset the system - I didn't do this in the end). Much to my amazement there's a badly fitted aftermarket device inside! I can't tell what it is as it's quite deep behind the panels and I don't want to dismantle the car to get to it, but there's several wires going off to it all taped together in electrical tape. It's definitely aftermarket because I highly doubt mercedes would just ram a loose spade connector in a fuse holder for power. Now do I have a right to return the car? My concern is that there could be other 'devices' fitted or mods made that I've not found and quite frankly I don't want to pay for something this expensive that's been messed with without prior knowledge.

My question now would be should I notify the dealer that I've inspected the fuse box and found a mystery device badly wired in? I don't want them to accuse me of 'tinkering'.

Thanks,
James

photome

I think you should definitely tell the dealer what you have seen and let them take a look and go from there

Korkyb

If there has been an aftermarket device plumbed into the fusebox it may well have been a dashcam (? rear one if fusebox is in the boot).
If it was something along those lines then really no big deal & nothing to be shocked by. (I've piggybacked dashcams into the fuseboxes of all 4 cars in my family).


As for the start stop....  (most likely cause is the battery not being on top of its game).

IMHO you are better off without it - 

I have a Jaguar Xe and the start stop is so trigger happy that it kicks in at junctions which is a pain.
I can disable the stop start but only for the duration of that journey 
My car has a new battery and I'm looking forward it deteriorating to the point when the start stop refuses to function. (which according to user forums will be in a few months time).

james2k2

No forum post would be complete without an ending. In short, the dealer kept trying to send me down the route of repairing the faults and following advice from a friendly solicitor, I explained to the dealer I have the legal right to return the car. They still contested it, so I called the finance company who explained to me also that dealers quite often try to go down the repair route by telling the customer it's their legal right to, when it isn't. They issued an email to the dealer, and strangely enough the dealer called me the next day - again with the repair route. I explained the finance company had now told me I can return it and without even a quibble they finally agreed. Car is now returned! I also got a letter from the finance company that stated to not allow the vehicle to be repaired or diagnosed. A win for the consumer!

FWIW the dealer tried to explain to me that the vehicle had just been used by a director and had always been serviced by this specific merc garage and that nobody had any knowledge of a 3rd party device connected to the fuse box. I used a bendy camera and found it was a fleet tracking device - somebody is telling porkies! Also, the dealer gave me a third (yes, THIRD!) different story about the faulty electric seat controls! Anyway, I think I dodged a bullet here. The Merc forum I signed up to suggests the ambient lighting is going to cost a considerable amount to repair due to how tightly integrated it is to the upholstry. Turns out there are 3 sections not working - Behind the dual screens, the central console, and the drivers door. This means they'd need to pull apart the dash, pull apart the central console, and take the door card off and possibly replace the whole card from my research. The ambient lighting all shares a single fuse, so the fact some of it works and some doesn't suggests it's either faulty wiring, a signalling fault or the RGB modules are faulty in those areas.