Mobilo -a Summary

[Rory]

Well in my experience they have the same 'additional work' as all good service engineers should. e.g. pads, discs, exhausts and all the usual things that wear out at uncertain intervals and are not part of the service.

You're absolutely right.

However Mercedes' idea of "additional work" is things like spark plugs, air filters, fuel filters etc.

 

[television]

Well I live by the sea -as you do- and there are lots of 210s round here with no rust problems so it wasn't the steel. In fact the problems came with the switch to water based paints which the EU insisted upon for environmental and Health and Safety reasons. Check BMW websites and you will see they had similar problems at the same time.

Some say that different primers and pre-treatments were used at different times and on different batches; some worked a lot better than others. In the end MB gave up attempts to solve the problems via paint technology and introduced full galvanising of all steel panels starting around the end of 2002. See my thread on this.
http://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/showthread.php?t=43408

Not true Hawk,, lousy steel that was rusty before it was painted. Opel and SAAB did not have a problem with water based paints, and they are built in Germany, Volvo in Sweden do not rust (same paint) and 100 times more salt on the road than here. fords did not rust and BMW do not go any where near as bad.

There are basically 3 grades of steel for body panels, MB used the worst, just like Citroen in the 60's and 70's

 

[Mr Teddy Bear]

For those of us who attended the Taunton? meet a couple of months ago there was some serious rust evident. I should imagion that car will be scrapped within 5 years, at what 14 years old, that cost £35/£40k new ?

Fords don't seem to rot any more, ok their most made from German or Spanish steel. However I'm sure that Ford don't buy the best steel, so that says a lot about their new anti corrosion/paint spraying techniques??

 

[hawk20]

Not true Hawk,, lousy steel that was rusty before it was painted.

Do you have any evidence at all to back that up?
Any links to motoring experts?

Or just conjecture?

 

[Alex M Grieve]

Do you have any evidence at all to back that up?
Any links to motoring experts?

Or just conjecture?

The conjecture may or may not be just, but the evidence is there in the shape of rusty (and rusting) motor cars, built during a specific period. Things were OK before that and have been OK since.

Or was it a "cost cutting" paint process on which their venture partners at the time (Chrysler) insisted upon?

 

[Rory]

the evidence is there in the shape of rusty (and rusting) motor cars,

Not everyone can see those though. :wink:

 

[television]

Do you have any evidence at all to back that up?
Any links to motoring experts?

Or just conjecture?

I have rebuilt and re sprayed some 100 cars in my life, so I think that I am experienced enough in this field, that includes letting in new panel sections where just painting is a waste of time, as it will come back, just like on most MB resprays.

There are lots of experts out there if you can grab one if you can

 

[mpa]

I've had my E200 from new (March 2001), just had my 10th main dealer service (100% of services have been through MB Main dealer), 115k miles. None of the services have pointed out the rust around the wheel arches or under the headlight. From reading the other messages I believe that the corrosion is covered by the 30 year warranty. However, when I asked the dealer person to look at what could be done about it he said it would require 2 new wing panels and overall would cost approx £2000 and he said the car was not worth much more than that so probably not worth doing! It is in really good condition and has been well looked after so I was shocked to say the least. What's my best course of action?

Thanks,
Malcolm

 

[Mr Teddy Bear]

Get them to sort it out, as you say it's covered by the 30 year warrenty, keep the undersides waxoiled. Then never take it near a Main Stealer evrer again! would be my advice. You've paid for the cost of the repairs by paying their servicing costs. BodyWork that you pay for your self only carries a two or three year garantee I'm not sure which

 

[Myros]

the guarantee varies according to who does it

My mechanic fitted side repeaters in the wings of our 202 in 2001, and gave his work 7 years rust guarantee. The rust didn't appear until after the 7 years were up.
The body shop who put a new wing on the mem's 210 gave their work 7 years, including the matching into surrounding panels.
MB, fixing rust on the same car, their sourced out body shop only give three years.

I amazes me that a little operator like my mechanic can guarantee his work to the same standard as a big, Aston-Martin/Jaguar recommended body-shop, and the works stands up to the test, but MB can't get anyone to guarantee their work to the same level, and it doesn't even last 6 months.

 

[Rory]

Noticed a letter in HonestJohn's Telegraph column the other day from someone who appears to have been unfairly treated:

"I remember some discussion in your column of the tendency of a certain era of Mercedes to be extremely rust-prone. In our extended family we have an 18-year-old Volvo 760 estate, a 14-year-old Peugeot 106, a 12-year-old Saab 900 and an eight-year-old Mercedes E 200K, all owned from new and kept on the drive. The only one with rust problems is the Mercedes, which we have owned from new and which has been regularly serviced at Mercedes Brooklands.
Just before it reached eight years we took up the rust problem up with Brooklands, which said we might be eligible for a goodwill payment. They sent photos of the car to head office, which requested more photos then rejected the claim. Appealing through all levels of management and even to Germany produced neither resolution nor explanation. We can’t see us ever buying another Mercedes, but the Peugeot 106 has been a revelation."

 

[television]

I wonder what the cost has been to MB on this rust issue, just painting the same cars over and over again, that is without the damage to their image and new sales lost

 

[Dosco]

I wonder what the cost has been to MB on this rust issue, just painting the same cars over and over again, that is without the damage to their image and new sales lost

considerable Malcolm considerable. If only one could post what one knew of the Mercedes machination...and survive

 

[Alex M Grieve]

I wonder what the cost has been to MB on this rust issue, just painting the same cars over and over again, that is without the damage to their image and new sales lost

Absolutely huge Malcolm. But the most serious damage is to the brand - not just because cars of that era rusted. Much more importantly MB altered the rules and the interpretation of the rules and are inconsistent in their application of these rules, having given owners to believe that they enjoyed comprehensive protection against corrosion in the absence of damage.

Anyone can make a mistake. It is the way that it is dealt with that differentiates the good guys from the others.

 

[Rory]

I wonder what the cost has been to MB on this rust issue, just painting the same cars over and over again, that is without the damage to their image and new sales lost

It just seems ridiculous that some claims get turned down. OK, I know no more than is printed in the letter I pasted in above, but the guy bought the car new, had full dealer service, was less than 8yrs old, and he still got turned down.

With the best will in the world it's unlikely that he, or close members of his familiy, are ever going to buy Mercedes again. Yet MB could so easily have cheefully fixed it. The customer would have thought well of them, wouldn't have written to the press, and may well have gone on to replace the car with a new Mercedes.

 

[Alex M Grieve]

It just seems ridiculous that some claims get turned down. OK, I know no more than is printed in the letter I pasted in above, but the guy bought the car new, had full dealer service, was less than 8yrs old, and he still got turned down.

With the best will in the world it's unlikely that he, or close members of his family, are ever going to buy Mercedes again. Yet MB could so easily have cheerfully fixed it. The customer would have thought well of them, wouldn't have written to the press, and may well have gone on to replace the car with a new Mercedes.

Couldn't agree more Rory. We know times are hard. We know that selling cars at present is a nightmare and we know that having made the promises they made on bodywork MB are now on a hiding to nothing with the cars of the rusting years.

However. The alternative tactics for increasing revenue (including increased servicing frequency for low mileage cars) are not helping. It is also disaffecting their core saloon car market - especially the grey members. Getting out of bed with Chrysler was a sensible move and profitability is more likely since then. But they really do have to go back to their roots - and study what made the brand it is today - and stick to the knitting.

Whilst it is still the brand we know and love!

 

[hawk20]

Numerous threads here and on other forums show MB have dealt with a huge number of claims at no cost to owners, here, in Europe and in the USA. Vast cost.

Trouble with individual cases is you don't hear the other side of the story. I have seen a couple of cases that got turned down and they were covered in stone chips -untreated- and both had accident damage which had been repaired at non-MB-approved paintshops.

There may well be genuine hard-luck stories; I don't doubt that. But it is very hard to judge from short forum postings.

No doubt though that it has dented the image and affected values of older MBs'. And.of course, it is depressing for fans of the brand, as can be seen in some threads where members treat possible purchasers to a deluge of reasons not to buy MBs from the period when some undoubtedly had serious problems.

 

[alanuk400]

If your car was first registered before Jan 1st 2004, the T's and C's say you cannot re-instate MobiloLife if the MB service record has been broken.

Had a call today from my local dealer asking if I wanted my W220 serviced, I said that it had been serviced by an inde before I bought it last year,if I let them service it would I be covered by MobiloLife,she said it was, I asked her to check, asked the manager, came back and still insisted it was. Mine is 03/2003
Think I will call in tomorrow to check.

Alan

 

[hawk20]

Had a call today from my local dealer asking if I wanted my W220 serviced, I said that it had been serviced by an inde before I bought it last year,if I let them service it would I be covered by MobiloLife,she said it was, I asked her to check, asked the manager, came back and still insisted it was. Mine is 03/2003
Think I will call in tomorrow to check.

Alan

Why not just copy my opening post setting out the T's and C's and show it to them. All of it has been checked against MB information.

 

[television]

On my 2002 car it says that it will be reinstated with one MB service