carnut13
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2008
- Messages
- 1,345
- Reaction score
- 27
- Location
- Nr Sherborne, Dorset
- Your Mercedes
- R231 SL400 & Audi A1 Sport
A few weeks ago I had the embarrassment of my roof on my R230 SL jamming halfway through its operation outside my local Homebase. 
Posey or what? Nothing I did would get it to move so I phone Mobilo and was told that it would take about 90mins to get someone to me ; however a technician talked me through a process over the phone which got the roof to close and said it was a “5 minute fix” at my local MB dealer. I then drove straight there and was told that whatever the Mobilo guy had said it wasn’t going to be that quick. The Dealer (MB of Oxford) put the car onto the Star diagnostics and came up with a faulty microswitch in the header rail.
The Dealer ordered up the part (£231) and booked me in for the work at a later date when the part was delivered. Although the car was out of warranty (Nov2003 registered) I felt that the roof should not have failed and MB oxford duly persuaded MB to provide a 30% goodwill contribution. This made the quote with labour etc £331 which I accepted. It did occur to me to go to an Indie but I felt that as it was a complicated roof I would be better off sticking to my Main dealer…how right I was!
When the car went in for the work it transpired that a new header rail assembly didn’t fix the problem and the dealer even cannibalised another SL in stock to check this out in case of a faulty component. This clearly took longer than anticipated. A fault in the wiring from the header rail to the control unit was then suspected. Another day and a courtesy car later the fault was apparently fixed. A week later another roof failure and back to the Dealer. Another 2 days courtesy car and MB dealer time and it’s fixed by completely renewing the rail and wiring to the control unit; not a simple job!!
The Dealer has taken 16 hours labour to fix the problem but has stuck by its initial quote and cost!!!!
Often Main Dealer get stick for their costs and Indies can be better value due to lower labour costs for certain work but this is clearly a stunning example of why a Main Dealer can be excellent value and outstanding service.
Well done MB Oxford and thank you...5 star!
Posey or what? Nothing I did would get it to move so I phone Mobilo and was told that it would take about 90mins to get someone to me ; however a technician talked me through a process over the phone which got the roof to close and said it was a “5 minute fix” at my local MB dealer. I then drove straight there and was told that whatever the Mobilo guy had said it wasn’t going to be that quick. The Dealer (MB of Oxford) put the car onto the Star diagnostics and came up with a faulty microswitch in the header rail.The Dealer ordered up the part (£231) and booked me in for the work at a later date when the part was delivered. Although the car was out of warranty (Nov2003 registered) I felt that the roof should not have failed and MB oxford duly persuaded MB to provide a 30% goodwill contribution. This made the quote with labour etc £331 which I accepted. It did occur to me to go to an Indie but I felt that as it was a complicated roof I would be better off sticking to my Main dealer…how right I was!
When the car went in for the work it transpired that a new header rail assembly didn’t fix the problem and the dealer even cannibalised another SL in stock to check this out in case of a faulty component. This clearly took longer than anticipated. A fault in the wiring from the header rail to the control unit was then suspected. Another day and a courtesy car later the fault was apparently fixed. A week later another roof failure and back to the Dealer. Another 2 days courtesy car and MB dealer time and it’s fixed by completely renewing the rail and wiring to the control unit; not a simple job!!
The Dealer has taken 16 hours labour to fix the problem but has stuck by its initial quote and cost!!!!
Often Main Dealer get stick for their costs and Indies can be better value due to lower labour costs for certain work but this is clearly a stunning example of why a Main Dealer can be excellent value and outstanding service.
Well done MB Oxford and thank you
...5 star!