Hello,
I'd be interested for advice on whether or not I should sue MB for the pathetic state of my car, and for their refusal to acknowledge European consumer protection laws.
I am English, was living and working in Germany in 2001 when I ordered a new C-Class Sportcoupé from a MB handler in Konstanz in Feb 2001. Shortly after paying my deposit, my employer relocated me to France. I went to the dealer in Konstanz to explain that I would like to cancel my order as I was being forced to change country. he told me I would lose my deposit if I did, but reassured me that my car would be under guarantee throughout Europe. I quite specifically asked him what would happen if there were a lot of problems with the car, as I would not easily be able to bring it back to the the dealer of purchase. He reassured me that there were "never any quality problems with MB cars". Well I feel a total d*****ad admitting this with hindight, but I actually believed a salesman!!!
My car was ready in Aug 2001, by which time I was relocated to France. I travelled back to Germany to pick up the car and "imported" it to France, meaning I had to pay a whole load of extra taxes and registration fees.
Since then, my car has been a total disaster and nightmare. I have lost count of how many times it has been back to the local French dealer for repairs - but it is well over twenty times and it has been off the road for about 12 weeks in total. It is still a totally crap car, with very loud bodywork creaking noises in corners and on bumps, and endless electronic problems.
If I had still been living in Germany, my car would have been classed as a "lemon" long ago, and MB would have given me a new one in exchange. MB Deutschland even originally admitted this! But because I "exported" my car, neither MB Germany nor MB France will exchange the car. Both country dealerships blame each other. My relationship has now totally deteriorated with both MB France customer services and Herr Stavenow of the DC factory in Boblingen that they both become fairly aggressive to me when I ring them up to discuss the problem. The local dealers originally admitted that my car creaked very badly, but after lots of unsuccessful attempts to fix the problem, now totally refuse to test my car, presumably in collusion with customer services and with Stavenow.
I have gone through several phases of either resolving to fight this problem with a lawyer (which will be hugely expensive) or just saying sod it, selling the car, and buying something else. Whichever course I take, I will be massively out of pocket, as the local MB dealers all know the car and knock around 10% off the book value as they know it is such a shit car.
Any advice?