When i retired I thought I would treat myself to a fancy motor car,so i baught a mercedes C220 Diesel AvantGarde, it was the nuts this motor drove like a dream, well last week it developed a electrical fault that kept draining the battery, so off it goes to Mercedes they put it on their diagnostic machine, nothing, that will be £109.00 thank you oh and by the way theirs this wrong and this and this etc etc that will be £2,800 thank you, so I told him to fox trot oscar, the things only done 30,000 miles it aint even run in yet.Now they really know how to put the boot in these people well we could have done it a bit cheaper but its fully imported from germany, Yes you bloody moron thats where mercedes come from,well I lost all faith in my car now so i sold it Got a Ford focus Titanium 5 door better appointed than the Mercedes and you can get parts for it in woolworths.Sorry to bore you with my rant but we aint allowed guns in this country

So much for after service care! Did you think to expose this crock!?
I'd be telling every person I meet about the whos whys hows and wheres...
You spend good Oxfords on a new motor, the least you can expect is that it'll run?

Hi Brad I intend to tell everyone I know and dont know about the wonderful after service Mercedes give,I had heard rumblings about their service but you dont tend to listen till it happens to you.When I asked about the service on the Ford they said most of those problems would be done free of charge You live and learn dont you.

John

Would it be out of order to ask which dealer it was. I have an A Class, and i would not like to use the same dealer for servicing it. I do not have the option of getting rid, as it's company wheels.

Cheers

Andy

Bless your heart Easy-Co. That's an off-topic a man can enjoy.
"ain't allowed guns".
If I was there with you; we'd get drunk, wait for his wife to pick him up at closing and yell at 'em while flashing asses.
Then laugh about it with the Police.

Five year 50 K bumper to bumper warranty on my Chevy truck. If it breaks they better fix it or I'm tossing them the keys and telling them to keep it.

Shaun

Here in the states I have been reading a lot of complaints about Mercedes. the technical innovation is great, but after that they have been dropping the ball. From what I can gather is that the quality of the Mercedes is complete garbage. And the customer service has gone down hill. They still have some loyal customers from when back in the past their cars would last forever, but apparently those days are gone. I've read that their quality problems is begining to affect their sales here.

It is a similar story for VW, while their cars look cool, the quality is so bad that almost no one in the states is buying them (I know, I had one a while back that fell apart and will never buy another one).

Sean

THis is very interresting. My mom has a mercedes C-class, and it always has something wrong with it. We bought it used, so we thought the previous owner just didn;t take care of it, but after reading this, I think it may just be Mercedes themselves. I know we have basically given up on their customer service.

I hope you have better luck with your Focus than I had. I bought one in 2000 when they were first introduced in the States. I had the 4-door ZTX. Seems like I was always having a recall notice arrive in the mail. In 2003, I had to have the front bearings replaced which fortunately came just prior to the 3 year/36,000 mile warranty expiring.

I ended up replacing my Focus with a 2003 Subaru Outback and haven't looked back since. When I let my teenage step son use the Focus after I bought the Subaru, he drove it into the ground in about 15 months.

I traded the Focus in for a 2007 Chevy 4-door Aveo for my step daughter. I thought I was lucky to get $3,000 for it in trade-in value. The Chevy comes with a 5 year/100,000 mile warranty.

Hi Andy, It was Romford Mercedes main dealer.I am a suspicious sort of a person being a cop for 30yrs and every time i told the guy to fix something he would find something else then when he told me the main cylinder for the brakes was rusty and would proberly fail I nearly went for him£27,000 for that car brand new and he tells me that,I think its just a ploy to get money. heres the list
replace master brake cylinder.
replace leaking axle seal
replace broken clip on catalyctic converter
investigate oil leak from engine
investigate smoke in engine bay
invetigate electrical fault
replace wind screen wiper blades(£59.00)
replace brake light bulb(£32.00)
Oh and they would check to see if the cat converter was working ok (really) they cost about £1,500 to replace remember its already been on their super douper diagnostic machine which found bugger all.
total not including cat check £2,800.

Rob Im suprised about the Focus not having a good rep in the States in the U.K. its been car of the year for ages and is still ranking in the top five hatch backs.

I have a hire V W Passat.

It doesn't have a handbrake, just a push button on the dash. CRAP IDEA!!!!! ..... Especially in slow moving traffic. Half the time the brake doesn't engage so I have to poke the button harder...

Should last about six months before I poke it right through the bl**dy dashboard.

Can't wait to get rid of it! Piece of

I remember Tina Fey, a cast member of the TV program Saturday Night Live, doing a line about the Focus during one of the pseudo Weekend Update news skits.

She began by announcing yet another recall of the Ford Focus affecting hundreds of thousands of vehicles.

Making it the first time a US car had been recalled...for not being cool.

I think that any time you take your car to a car dealer to have it serviced, you get screwed. They always find something wrong with it and try to replace things that do not need replacing. Heck, my dealer wanted to do a 30,000 miles checkup on my truck and charge me $360. Such checkup consists of them looking around my truck to make sure there are no leaks or hoses aren't cracked or there are no problems with belts, etc; basically no real work. Total crap! Don't they think that if there was a leak I would probably know about it. Umm...perhaps there would be a wet spot on my driveway

Best thing to do is to have a trusted mechanic. I used to have one before moving away. Now I am at the mercy of the car dealer.

John

Thanks for the tip off. I'm the other side of the thames, so hopefully the Kentish Merc dealers will be better. The computer tellme it's service time in 2700 miles, so it's time to start saving.

Enjoy the Focus. My mate used to have one and it was a delight to drive, and be a passenger in. We drove to Scotland in a day - 720 mile in all - we took the scenic route, and were still fresh when we got there.

Andy

I drive.............a 1987 Nissan 200SX (I believe it was called a 180ZX for you blokes across the pond). Has 200,000 miles on it, a hoot to drive (despite not having anything resembling a pair of balls under the hood~until I finish rebuilding the Jap turbo motor for it), and most repairs that crop up cost me less than a night out at the bar.

"Newer", is not necessarily "Better"

My pleasure Andy, I was talking to a friend in work he owned a Mercedes he used to take it to France to get serviced at half the price and he done a bit of booze shopping in the courtesy car they gave him which by the way you dont get in this country