PINBALL
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2005
- Messages
- 586
- Reaction score
- 50
- Age
- 75
- Location
- East Grinstead
- Website
- www.coin-opcommunity.co.uk
- Your Mercedes
- 124 E230 / 124 E220 /124 E280 /210 E320 CDI Wagons
After getting my 190,000 mls E280 Estate a couple month's ago now, and putting aside £500 to have it overhauled or major - major serviced for peace of mind & better reliability for the next 2 years or so.
Planning to tour France / Spain early next year for 3-6 month's.
I took it along to my local MB dealer (Malaya of Gatwick, Crawley) who quoted me £700 + should anything untoward be discovered & prior to my approval etc.
Without even looking at the car they said that both wiper blades would be included (even though they hadn't even seen them!), and couldn't do the work for at least 2 weeks, or 3 weeks if I wanted a courtesy car (thier idea of a courtesy car is now a Smart car - praps they think thier improving but wheres the sense in giving thier customers a lesser car than they already own) whilst they had the car in all day.
1 week later took it to an unknown (to me) MB Specialist (12 yrs in business) & whilst waiting for quote spoke to 3 of thier customers in waiting room who praised them very highly & had been returning to them over last 5 years or so.
They quoted £400 + to do the same & promised to use all proper MB parts, plus a courtesy 190E for 1 & 1/2 days work.
Gave the specialist the job with instructions not to go beyond 500 without phoning me.
Car has been done for £485 & runs as sweet as a nut! But NO brake fluid change even though they said it needs changing (booked in next week for £30) and rather than doing this they changed the poly V belt which was going hard due to the build up of crud between its ridges etc.
Oh & by the way, when taken to MB Dealer they said age of car would qualify for a 15% discount overall, plus a further 10% for **** membership on top of that off bill before VAT added.
Do you think I should have stuck with dealer, or considering mileage & age of car I've taken the more sensible route of taking to MB specialist.
I've always been rather dissapointed with dealer, even after 15 years of being their customer thier workshop bookings are still no better than they ever were. If anything workshop delays are far worse (they blamed it on staff holidays - theyv'e always got an excuse).
I do hope Milton Keynes MB importers Head Office reads this.
Am a firm believer in "you only get what you pay for" and as this car is used for my business as well as private mileage - reliability is essential.
Am keeping to an old car as it difinately does not pay to have a better car than your customer, but also to show that your doing quite nicely though.
Many thanks for any comments, particularly from those who use thier cars for business please.
Regards,
Keith.
Planning to tour France / Spain early next year for 3-6 month's.
I took it along to my local MB dealer (Malaya of Gatwick, Crawley) who quoted me £700 + should anything untoward be discovered & prior to my approval etc.
Without even looking at the car they said that both wiper blades would be included (even though they hadn't even seen them!), and couldn't do the work for at least 2 weeks, or 3 weeks if I wanted a courtesy car (thier idea of a courtesy car is now a Smart car - praps they think thier improving but wheres the sense in giving thier customers a lesser car than they already own) whilst they had the car in all day.
1 week later took it to an unknown (to me) MB Specialist (12 yrs in business) & whilst waiting for quote spoke to 3 of thier customers in waiting room who praised them very highly & had been returning to them over last 5 years or so.
They quoted £400 + to do the same & promised to use all proper MB parts, plus a courtesy 190E for 1 & 1/2 days work.
Gave the specialist the job with instructions not to go beyond 500 without phoning me.
Car has been done for £485 & runs as sweet as a nut! But NO brake fluid change even though they said it needs changing (booked in next week for £30) and rather than doing this they changed the poly V belt which was going hard due to the build up of crud between its ridges etc.
Oh & by the way, when taken to MB Dealer they said age of car would qualify for a 15% discount overall, plus a further 10% for **** membership on top of that off bill before VAT added.
Do you think I should have stuck with dealer, or considering mileage & age of car I've taken the more sensible route of taking to MB specialist.
I've always been rather dissapointed with dealer, even after 15 years of being their customer thier workshop bookings are still no better than they ever were. If anything workshop delays are far worse (they blamed it on staff holidays - theyv'e always got an excuse).
I do hope Milton Keynes MB importers Head Office reads this.
Am a firm believer in "you only get what you pay for" and as this car is used for my business as well as private mileage - reliability is essential.
Am keeping to an old car as it difinately does not pay to have a better car than your customer, but also to show that your doing quite nicely though.
Many thanks for any comments, particularly from those who use thier cars for business please.
Regards,
Keith.
