MOT Cover

[BassMerc]

I had to have a suspension ball joint replaced on my GLC last week after less than 16k miles. Out of warranty but MB paid 90% of the cost on a goodwill basis. So thanks for that but I still paid £70 making the alleged cost of repair a whopping £700. Fair ‘nuff but I wondered whether the repair should have been covered by the MOT cover that Iget through the MB Club. Ball joints not covered, everything else is. It seems they’ve taking everything out that’s likely to fail an MOT. I’ve asked to see the full terms and conditions and I’ll be surprised if I don’t see these exclusions applied right across the range of potential failures. Another cynical marketing device. They must be feeling very pleased with themselves in MB marketing land.

 

[matthew k]

16k from a ball joint seems pretty bad, I presume it must have been faulty?

 

[EmilysDad]

That seems to be a manipulation of figures if your £70 was allegedly 10% ..... I wonder how much the joint was to just buy, even an OE part It looks like you can buy a complete lower arm for around £100 (pattern part)

 

[Dean Fletcher]

My garage gets them for £55

 

[BassMerc]

Just an update, looking through the T&Cs I see that swivel joints are included in the cover. Meaning the ball joints. Unfortunately this ship has sailed but the dealership was no help. Their default position was ‘no chance’. An independent beckons perhaps.

 

[d215yq]

It's like all insurance/warranty, for the average punter to break even then 100% of the premium would go on payouts. Obviously you have IPT (5%) offices, salaries, profit, regulations, actuaries, trading of debts and liabilities etc so actually very little of the premium is paid out so the average punter loses big time.

In other words insurance is a very expensive service that should only ever be used to insure against things that cannot be possibly afforded if they break. I've only ever bought breakdown (convenience), house insurance (structure only no contents) as I can't afford to lose my flat/house and the cheapest 3rd party car insurance (as it's law). I'm 36 and if you count the number of insurances I've truned down that are offered and taken up by many and the interest on that in my adult life I've already saved over €25k of premiums - it all adds up. Sure, once I had to pay a few hundred out for a new washing machine when it broke out of warranty and in the UK I'd pay a few hundred quid every MOT...so maybe I'm only 23k up....but the point stands if you can afford the odd MOT repair it's best not to be insuring against it no matter how small the yearly cost seems.

 

[BassMerc]

I agree with that in general terms. I only insure things that could be very expensive to replace, for instance the house against fire, and I certainly don’t have pet insurance. But the point here is that this MOT cover is trumpeted as a free benefit of being a member of the MB Club. You get enrolled into this as a free reward/incentive for taking out a service plan, having your car dealer -serviced, whatever. If Merc aren’t going to stand behind the cover all it becomes is a cynical marketing ploy. And this is supposed to be a premium brand. Well, from this experience it’s no different from the rest of the motor trade.