Do I go Independent or Stick with a Main Dealer

[peterchurch]

Hi,
I have just bought my first Merc, a 99 SL. The car has done a very low millage but the last service (an A by the look of it) was not carried out by a MB dealer. I have been recomended an independent guy that specialises in German cars and has been running for 15 years. Given that I want to keep this car for a long time and I could not claim the car has a FMBSH should I be keeping the car servicing inside the main dealers? If I can show pedigree in the service history should it matter where it was serviced.

Thanks for your thoughts

Regards,

Peter

 

[landover]

service

Yes it will matter to true merc enthusiast . But if you are going to keep car for along time go for independant garage It will save you shed loads of money.when it gets older [mbsh] wont really matter.

 

[nasher]

As far as the cars value is concerned it probably will affect it a small amount, but not that much. From a quality point of view, most of Merc specialists were Mercedes mechanics who have left and gone there own way. A friend of mine used to work at an Audi dealership and told me horrendous stories of the screw ups that were made by other "technicians". Interestingly enough, he now works for Mercedes and a new guy walked straight in from a Ford dealership. Same mechanic, now his work is charged at double the rate.

 

[justin1820]

their labour rate is a third of the dealer and the will use factory parts which will save you too, also you wont have to wait for four weeks to get it done! also you get to speak to the organ grinder not the monkeys

 

[teky]

independant mate they need the work and dont take your eyeballs out as nasher pointed out the dealer ship has bad techs and you dont see behind the door what goes on and i can confirm nashers view on that point, the mb holds its value well as long as you keep the reciepts from the garage as proof the work has been done by a qulified tech and in most cases they use oem parts and can buy them cheaper than the dealership so they can offer a much better price for the job

 

[peterchurch]

Cheers for this guys,
I found an independent guy down in Frome. He specialises in German cars but mainly Merc & BMW he did me a full B service plus some other bits and a new set of brake pads for about the same as MB would have charged for the basic B service. He only uses Merc Parts,although he will fit better aftermarket parts where available if you want .
I got the car booked in and back the same day!! If Anyone wants his name PM me and I will send

In contrast I popped into Merc yesterday to get a price for a new sunglasses box on the front dash and out of 3 guys in there including me and 2 had complaints. (never got the cost of the part in the end... said they would phone me later that day :roll: ) good to have your gut instinct verified



Merc UK need to buck their ideas up big time !

 

[OlafMaxwell]

Stay with the independents, they are much better. After 4 years and 85k i reckon the score is
Independents 10
MB network Nil

 

[sheffmax]

Is there an independant within a sensible distance from Sheffield?

 

[mickl]

Is there an independant within a sensible distance from Sheffield?

Is Oldham too far? www.dronsfields.co.uk

 

[LNM]

Mine has been serviced at MB from new (NOT at my expense I hasten to add) + I've absolutely no desire to pay £75 an hour for labour. Particularly when they have been rather poor at diagnosing faults.

This site, addmitedly has many many people contributing, is more use than any dealer. Could do with a more advanced search feature like, but hey, its free !!