2001 S320 Corrosion Warranty

[stonty]

Hi guys,

Sorry to appear to be ranting but just want to get this off my chest.

I have a (November) 2001 S320 Cdi that I've had since January, all is great but just recently I noticed some rust bubbling under at the rear corners of both off-side doors, I took it along to my local repair garage to get a quote & the guy said he'd be happy to take my money but Mercedes have an 8 yr corrosion warranty on their vehicles.

Long story short, I went to my local main agent taking my docs & their bodywork guy says that as I've only had the car 3 months I should have noticed the blemishes when I bought the car & consequently Mercedes will not uphold the 8 yr corrosion warranty.

I really don't get this, the car is generally in great condition, no damage repair & has 72,000 miles with full Mercedes service history, what does it matter how long I've had the car?

If the previous owner had the car 4 yrs & claimed it'd still be work on the same car with Mercedes the footing the bill!!!!!

Sorry guys rant over but it doesn't seem fair to me


Chris

 

[eGuru]

I believe you need to have owned the car for 6 months before you can make a claim. There are plenty of posts on here about this issue.

 

[television]

Some dealers ignore the 6 month rule, its worth asking another

 

[hmang]

if you have full merc history ...don't you have 30 year corrosion warranty ?

 

[Alex M Grieve]

Long story short, I went to my local main agent taking my docs & their bodywork guy says that as I've only had the car 3 months I should have noticed the blemishes when I bought the car & consequently Mercedes will not uphold the 8 yr corrosion warranty.

If the previous owner had the car 4 yrs & claimed it'd still be work on the same car with Mercedes the footing the bill!!!!!

Hi Chris,

Much has been written on this and it is frustrating. Pre 1998 build had an 8 year warranty, cars since 1998 have a 30 year warranty. The previous owner could have had it done without a problem.

When he traded the car, the dealer who sold it to you would not have been allowed to do it at MB expense (even if it had been authorised whilst owned by previous owner) because of a possible conflict of interest.

What others have said is correct - once you have had it for 6 months you should qualify (this seems to be to prevent dealers and their friends picking up rusty cars, getting MB to rectify it, them moving them on with a big margin).

Some dealers misinterpret the "8 years" stricture, either maliciously (surely not), or because they are confused.

Do your homework from what has been written on the Forum under "rust" in Search - Hawk20 did an authoritatve piece on this recently which you should find reassuring - then have another go when the time is right.