2000, S280,a very unhappy owner....

What was wrong with the repairs?

Why would you bother shipping a car from Trinidad to Malaysia?

Crikey I can't imagine Mercedes coping with that! They couldn't even cope with the warranty claims on my car after I moved from Germany to France shortly after purchasing the car!

As a former British colony, Malaysia is a right-hand drive country. There has been a large grey market for Mercedes cars brought in from other right-hand drive countries. The official M-B prices are high enough to make it sometimes worthwhile for enterprising businessmen to import grey-market vehicles from the Caribbean and even the UK.

The extent of this activity, of course, varies with exchange rates and other factors, such as the availability of import permits.

The local M-B organization naturally frowns on this, but not just because it affects their sales volume and/or profits. Many of the grey-market cars were sold with different warranty terms and may have non-standard components for which there's no parts or service locally available.

This can be a major customer satisfaction problem for upscale makes like M-B and BMW--it's hard to explain to a customer that you don't have the parts in the country for a engine you don't sell in any of your models, that none of your mechanics have any training on a particular component, and that you don't have the required special tools or even the appropriate repair manuals.

In the past, locally-assembled and/or officially imported models may also have had some components chosen specifically for local tropical/semi-tropical conditions, e.g., upgraded cooling systems, etc. I don't know if this is still true.

These comments are based on some automotive consulting work I did in Malaysia a few years ago. The situation may have changed somewhat since then, but I suspect that gray market vehicles--like the one in question here--are still an issue.

'Grey' imports are frowned upon for a variety of reasons, and the technical ones you mentioned are probably still valid in a number of cases.

In the UK the 'official opposition' comes because it undermines/undermined margins. When the pound was high relative to the euro in 1999/2000/2001, personal and 'grey' imports were flooding into Britain covering all sorts of brands and models, and not just high-value cars. Based on some official figures I estimated that about 8% of all cars registered in the UK in 2000/1 bypassed the official dealerships. I have no doubt that the figure was much higher for top Mercs, BMWs and Porsches. I imported by own CLK in 2001 by ordering it in Germany and driving it home to London. Simple way of saving about GBP 5k.

In that period Merc reacted by lowering the UK prices and raising the RHD price in Germany, making the direct import a lot less attractive (UK dealers were suffering greatly) and I probably would have saved another GBP 5k before the price changes.

There were threats of not honouring warranties, service refusals and other garbage. All empty threats. What was/is true that my German/international warranty was shorter than the one issued by UK dealers (UK = 3 yr).

Now that the currency relationship has shifted I gather that many fewer cars are coming into Britain 'unofficially'.

BTW, in this context I have been fascinated by Ric's service problems moving his car between Germany and France. It is outrageous and shows that the European Commission has still work to do to eliminate car manufacturer's restrictive practices, which have been legion. Some have gone and are going but clearly the job is not finished. We'll see what happens what happens when the block exemption is lifted, i.e. when car manufacturer's hold on dealers is loosened, i.e. allowing dealers not to dance to the dictates of the makers.

DAS

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I`d be unhappy with an S280 as well... you`d be able to walk to your destination quicker than driving.... :)

Brett....

I have to say that the warranty service I have received from MB UK on my French registered E500 has been exemplary.

-- JB E500

Coming shortly W126 500SEL