Overheard at the Mercedes Dealership . . .

CarreraS2 · 10-30-2003, 06:37 PM

I was dropping the wife's car off and heard one of the appointment gals on the phone.

I could tell from the conversation that the customer on the other end of the line had an appointment to bring his/her car in next week.

The appointment gal seemed concerned. A service writer was walking by and she grabbed him.

He gets on the line. Here's what he say:

"What, your oil pressure gauge showed zero this morning when you started up the car?"

Pause for a few seconds to think about it.

"Well, don't worry about it, just bring it in next week. It's probably just the sender. If you had no oil pressure, the engine wouldn't operate."

Hmmm. Pretty cavalier advice!

The customer had some smarts, though, as I heard the service writer spelling his name out for him/her!

island911 · 10-30-2003, 06:42 PM

Ah, but she didn't say anything about an oil light.

singpilot · 10-30-2003, 07:11 PM

Yep, would be my retort as well. Can you spell your last name for me please?

RickM · RickM's Garage

IMO, Mercedes product and service have gone into the toilet head first. This is not an isolated incident.

Z-man · Z-man's Garage

Counterpoint:
There have been issues with electronics with the new cars these days, especially the new E series cars.

Also: if the oil level indicator was showing adequate oil, it could very well be a faulty sender. (Side note: on some newer Benz's, there's no dip-stick: it's an electronic measuring unit!)

-Z.

RickM · RickM's Garage

If anyone has a 320 engined MB have your Crankshaft Balancer inspected as they crack and eventually disintegrate. They almost always fail, some at below 30k miles. This condition can potentially take out your timing chain cover and oil pan....$3 - $4k worth of fun. In it's latter stages the crank pulley will wobble, make noise and sometimes creat an irratic idle.

BTW, the part has been redesigned 13 times.

BGCarrera32 · 10-31-2003, 07:12 AM

That's just poor engineering. If you could get that crankshaft balancer to bust at 36,000 miles or just out of warranty, now that's good engineering...

BlueSkyJaunte · 10-31-2003, 08:14 AM

One of the guys here drives a C32 AMG. His engine blew up at about 1000 miles. Supposedly he wasn't pushing it.

MB took out the engine and put a new one in.

BGCarrera32 · 10-31-2003, 09:17 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by BlueSkyJaunte
One of the guys here drives a C32 AMG. His engine blew up at about 1000 miles. Supposedly he wasn't pushing it.

Doesn't matter if he was pushing it or not...that's ridiculous at 1000 mi for any engine unless its the Briggs in your Yard Man lawn tractor...

BlueSkyJaunte · 10-31-2003, 11:17 AM

Oh, I agree, especially since it's a friggin' automatic!

Though he said the first engine didn't have a "Built by: (insert tech name here)" nameplate on it and the second one did.

BGCarrera32 · 10-31-2003, 11:47 AM

I once worked for a major manufacturer of golf course mowing equipment. Commerical mowers, reel mowers, the big ones with the bat wings that drop down off the sides and take out a 16' pass of grass.

One particular course had problems with the top of the line, $60,000 mower. Kept leaking small amounts of hydraulic oil, a tablespoon here and there. The hydraulic oil would burn the grass, and drip on the course sidewalks etc. After numerous inspections of hoses, driveline, etc., flying a service tech out there, they finally found the cause...

When the factory had riveted the "Proudly Assembled by" plaque to the front console with the 2 dozen or so names on it, they drilled through the console and continued with the drill bit right into the hydraulic oil tank right behind it...drip...drip...drip...went the fluid out the 4 holes ...

RickM · RickM's Garage

Heh heh, thats a good one!

pbs911 · pbs911's Garage

My wife's Benz is always having problems. 2 out of 3 times you get gas the Check Engine Light comes on, the gas guage works only when it wants, etc. Ever since Benz America was bought by Chysler, or is it Dodge, the quality has gone in the toilet.

Once I asked them to change out the trans fluid and differential oil. Mercedes said it was not required until 100,000 miles. I said to change it anyways. The mechanic said they couldn't. What a bunch of friggin idiots.

RickM · RickM's Garage

My 7 series Bimmer had "Lifetime" trans fluid...Heh heh. The fluid was made specifically for this car/trans (by Esso) and was approx $24 litre. Guess how much it used?

Hint: Not cheap!

Reg · 03:59 PM

Quote:

Doesn't matter if he was pushing it or not...that's ridiculous at 1000 mi for any engine unless its the Briggs in your Yard Man lawn tractor...

I cannot speak myself for MB cars, but the YardMan rider I purchased second hand with a B/S engine some 8 years ago has cut 2 acres of grass for 8 years without changing the plugs. Once a year the oil was changed and the foam air filter cleaned. Runs like a champ....knock on wood!

BGCarrera32 · 10-31-2003, 07:09 PM

It would figure that I find the ONE guy on this board that owns a Yard Man tractor...

RickM · RickM's Garage

Confirmed!

Every Mercedes made the "Least Reliable" or Reliabilty Less than average list.

Besides that it looks like Audi and BMW are on their way as well.

From Yahoo: "Less reliable than average were every model by Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Jaguar and Land Rover. Those are luxury brands whose prices can run past $80,000. BMW did better. Only its $70,000 7 Series flagship sedan and $41,000 X5 were worse than average."

A link to the results: http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2003-11-03-reliablechart.htm

turbo6bar · 11-04-2003, 04:30 PM

From what I've read here, Audi is just as bad as Benz. Dunno if BMW is as bad. VW is junk, as well. Are there just too many retired, fat, lazy Germans sucking the value out of MB/Audi/BMW? Would it be a mortal sin to consider one of the Japanese luxury cars? Outside of having no soul, Lexus looks good. What about American luxury cars?

Jürgen

MFAFF · 11-05-2003, 05:53 AM

Real Benz decline started before they purchased Chrysler.

The last of the 'engineered' cars were the monster S class with double galzing etc and the last E class with the suqare headlights......not sure the model designators.

After that the brief was reversed. 'We want to sell this car at that price with an X% profit. What can we get away with'.

Previously the brief was ' We want the best car of thsi type, to last x years with Y maintenace. Design it and then we'll work out how much we can sell it for....@

A very different approach. One more attuned to the disposable nature of cars than befor eand the draconian demands of the quarterly reports...

RickM · RickM's Garage

First, try keeping track of the offerings from MB. Confusing to say the very least. According to MB the part/technology sharing is a one way street. MB technology finds it's way to Chrysler products but not the other way aroung....Hmmmm. This is obvious in the Crossfire, with it's less than intuitive MB controls.

BMW sure did F up starting with the new 7 series. They went from one of the most classic sedan design to a bloated ugly car! And they mocked MB with the original E class design...look in the mirror BMW. I have one friend who works in a BMW dealership and another at Audi. According to this person BMW is suffering big time with new car sales. The Audi sales person can't keep up.

BTW, the Mini Cooper made the Less than Average Reliability list as well, so add that to BMWs score.