Scoob
Senior Member
- Joined
- May 19, 2013
- Messages
- 742
- Reaction score
- 6
- Location
- Oxfordshire
- Your Mercedes
- 2012 C350 CDI Sport Estate
Hi all,
As you may know I recently (May 29th) picked up a year old C350 CDI Sport Estate. Car sourced directly from Mercedes Benz Retail, and it was one of their own cars from new, belonging to one of their technicians – I assume as a company car – I was told.
As planned, I popped the car in for a full "New Car Detail" today. This basically consists of applying a Glass Coat protective layer to the car - a real proper job, done by an expert detailer, none of this Star Guard crap.
Anyway, as part of this detailing process, the car first has a full inspection of the paintwork, body etc. I just found out that my car has multiple instances of accident damage and bodged repairs! Here's the short list:
- Crack in front bumper filled and painted (badly) by hand.
- All four wheels have been kerbed and had a dodgy repair, with the wheel being sanded back (1mm form edge) and simply painted – NO LACQUER USED, so wheels will not survive the winter too well. Add to that the colour is wrong.
- Repair on Rear Quarter bumper – painted, but not using MB paint and lacquer. Due to different uv properties, colour difference will become more apparent over time. True of the other painted areas too.
- Dry lacquer & pitting of aftermarket * painted bumper.
- Sanding marks from aftermarket * painting of bumper.
* Aftermarket, as in they've had some guy out in his van, rather than proper paintshop job.
When I looked at this car I explicitly asked if it'd had any repair work done and was told categorically not. When I spotted (if you remember my prior posts) that the near side chrome strip was missing, I queried this again, only to be told it had been missing from new. I now wonder if this was true.
So, I have a car, currently in with the detailer, that's far from perfect with numerous botched repairs. From what I can see, the car needs the following:
- Four new wheels, these ones have been damaged and poorly repaired
- A new front bumper, this one has a crack that was exposed when the car was cleaned. This needs to be properly painted by MB, not by some “Smart Repair” dude, using the wrong paints etc.
- Possibly a new rear bumper due to bodged repair. Not quite so bad, but colour match will be a huge issue as time goes by.
This detailing was to be the final step of getting my car ready for its time with me, yet it's uncovered these issues. I cannot see how the dealer did not know of these, as it's been their car from new, then it was mine. I'm really very angry indeed! Plus I worry that this will be a battle with the dealer to get things sorted – best case it’ll involve a lot more of my time, as it did with the simple missing chrome strip.
F.Y.I. My detailer is preparing an official report of the defects with far more detail. He’s recognised by MB as he does a lot of his work with them, doing proper repairs on customers cars.
If anybody has any thoughts/advice I’d welcome them.
Cheers,
Scoob.
As you may know I recently (May 29th) picked up a year old C350 CDI Sport Estate. Car sourced directly from Mercedes Benz Retail, and it was one of their own cars from new, belonging to one of their technicians – I assume as a company car – I was told.
As planned, I popped the car in for a full "New Car Detail" today. This basically consists of applying a Glass Coat protective layer to the car - a real proper job, done by an expert detailer, none of this Star Guard crap.
Anyway, as part of this detailing process, the car first has a full inspection of the paintwork, body etc. I just found out that my car has multiple instances of accident damage and bodged repairs! Here's the short list:
- Crack in front bumper filled and painted (badly) by hand.
- All four wheels have been kerbed and had a dodgy repair, with the wheel being sanded back (1mm form edge) and simply painted – NO LACQUER USED, so wheels will not survive the winter too well. Add to that the colour is wrong.
- Repair on Rear Quarter bumper – painted, but not using MB paint and lacquer. Due to different uv properties, colour difference will become more apparent over time. True of the other painted areas too.
- Dry lacquer & pitting of aftermarket * painted bumper.
- Sanding marks from aftermarket * painting of bumper.
* Aftermarket, as in they've had some guy out in his van, rather than proper paintshop job.
When I looked at this car I explicitly asked if it'd had any repair work done and was told categorically not. When I spotted (if you remember my prior posts) that the near side chrome strip was missing, I queried this again, only to be told it had been missing from new. I now wonder if this was true.
So, I have a car, currently in with the detailer, that's far from perfect with numerous botched repairs. From what I can see, the car needs the following:
- Four new wheels, these ones have been damaged and poorly repaired
- A new front bumper, this one has a crack that was exposed when the car was cleaned. This needs to be properly painted by MB, not by some “Smart Repair” dude, using the wrong paints etc.
- Possibly a new rear bumper due to bodged repair. Not quite so bad, but colour match will be a huge issue as time goes by.
This detailing was to be the final step of getting my car ready for its time with me, yet it's uncovered these issues. I cannot see how the dealer did not know of these, as it's been their car from new, then it was mine. I'm really very angry indeed! Plus I worry that this will be a battle with the dealer to get things sorted – best case it’ll involve a lot more of my time, as it did with the simple missing chrome strip.
F.Y.I. My detailer is preparing an official report of the defects with far more detail. He’s recognised by MB as he does a lot of his work with them, doing proper repairs on customers cars.
If anybody has any thoughts/advice I’d welcome them.
Cheers,
Scoob.