2000 E430 Best Car I've Ever Had, but Poor Service

Maybe you should keep the car and find a better dealer

A sad commentary on the ancillary side of "luxury product" ownership - lousy service.

So, if not another M-B, what?

I guess a: Cadillac, Lexus, Honda, Saturn, Toyota, Buick, Infiniti, or the myriad of other car companies that have better service that Mercedes-Benz

I think it's not the service that's lousy, but the incompetence... I guess this is a case of where technology has out-paced training on repairing that technology when it breaks...

R Green Technical Support

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No, in the case of MB it's pretty obvious they did not have a proper strategy in place to match service capacity to their sales growth targets. That plus their quality has slipped significantly in recent years, putting even more stress on their service delivery capabilities.

All of the shops I've dealt with over the last 6 years of MB ownership have had long waiting lists for even basic service. MB tried to manage this issue back in '98 by simply getting their dealers to provide exclusive facilities if they wanted the ML, obviously this wasn't enough.

That's a good question, Infiniti or Lexus perhaps.

Indeed, it's sad to see that MB service isn't much better than average on the latest JD Power CSI, and they're sucking eggs in the short & long term vehicle quality studies as well.

I've personally had no experience with Infiniti service since almost nobody I know has one. However the one person I know that does have one tells me a similar story, that their service center is far beyond what you would expect in terms of friendliness, convince, etc. It almost makes me want to buy one and with the power in the Q45 I might check them out although I doubt I'll sacrifice my love of Mercedes and BMW for one.

-Adam

Not sure what I'm going to get next. Just booked by 30k "A" service with another Denver dealer, lets see what happens this time!

Hi Gerald, I've been a Merceds owner with 2 cars in last 5 years & I must admit the service from the dealers has been shocking....I've had my CLK320 into the Dealers twice since I had it ...The first time for new Alloys ( the Dealer Trashed all 4 tried to disclaim any fault & had to have the wheels refurbished once I contacted Mercedes UK HQ.

The Other for a B Service only to find afterwards the car had developed an oil leak from the rear Diff....Fault ...two much oil in Rear Diff....If they can't tackle simple problems what chance have they with anything major.

The attitudes I've encountered have actually been fairly positive, it's the execution that's far too many times has been poor.

I have MB E430 2000. 4 Matic. The car had a few minor problems in the beginning with computer controlled programs, such as faulty indication of engine trouble. I have to sent it back to Helmes Brothers of MB dealer in Bayside, Queens to fix the problem, and it took three visits. At the third time they said "You are lucky that we finally found the problem. What should I do if I am unlucky, and let the car malfunctioning all the way? Whenever I asked either for A or B services, request for an appointment usually will take at least a few weeks in advance. Even for a simple oil change. I am wondering how MB will let their dealer get away with .such an under capacity maintenance services.

CY Chang

find a better place for service

Unfortunately, it seems MB dealer service in the USA is overbooked, understaffed and lacking in quality assurance processes. Since 1997 my 3 W210s have been serviced by seven different dealers in NJ, FL, CO, NM and AZ and not one has provided consistent quality service. If I'd presented them with difficult problems to solve this might be understandable, but the problems have always occurred AFTER the vehicle was brought in for simple maintenance services, etc.

My most recent experience last week was more of the same. All I wanted was a simple "A" service and a wiper blade change. After I got the car back, a day later the "low coolant" light came on suddenly. Back it went to the dealer, where I found green fluid all over the engine compartment. It turned not to be coolant as I'd suspected, but oil the tech had spilled all over the front of the engine and didn't clean it up properly. The fan did it's job and threw it everywhere. I still don't know why the coolant light came on, but they "topped it up". Now the best part, they charged me for the wiper blade but never put it on, the blade smears all over and has been further damaged by the oil that got on the windscreen from the fan, etc.

In short MB service is horrid. When the lease is up in 4 months MB has lost my business.