Mobilolife - any good??

[Bobby Dazzler]

My breakdown cover expires the end of the month (Jan), and always had both mine and my wifes cars on a 'joint' policy - roadside, recovery and home start. (My car's not an MB by the way - no hissing at the back!!)

However, since my wife has had the ML270 CDi (Sep 03) we supposedly qualify for Mobilolife. As I understand it, it is for all cars during the first 2 years, and thereafter providing that a full MB service history is maintained(up to 30 years maximum).

I have a few questions that the MB website doesn't answer:

(1) Presumably Mobilolife is transferable to subsequent owners (ours was purchased at 12 months old). Is this the case?

(2) Does Mobilolife offer cover comparable with upper-range AA/RAC/Directline/etc?

(3) Are there any aspects that aren't great but I really need to be aware of, like not valid on the second Sunday of months with an 'R' in them?

(4) Is it worthwhile keeping cover through an independant breakdown cover provider like AA/RAC/Directline/etc?

(5) What happens if you call out when the indicator is showing that a service is due, ie would a call out be honoured?

Many thanks in advance...

 

[jberks]

I have personally never had the need to use my mobilio, but my understanding is as follows:
1) Yes - covers the car not the owner so is transferrable so long as it is still valid (fmbsh)

2) I believe it has similar cover to the higher end RAC etc- but the details of cover are all in the book. Check for the things that you are concerned about.

3) The only condition, which would apply to RAC etc in any case, is that the car must be attended to at the roadside. It doesn't kick in and you don't get an automatic loan car if you limp your poorly car to the dealer.

4) I wouldn't keep both normally, but if the cost for 2 is little different to the cost for 1, which you need anyway, it may be worth it. You don't insure your cars per person so why cover the breakdown twice?

5) So long as the indicator doesn't say you are 2000 miles overdue for a service, I can't imagine they would give you any trouble. If it did, then technically the car no longer has fmbsh (wasn't serviced) so it would probably invaidate on that score. Given that the assyst warns you at 1000 miles off and it doesn't generally take more than a few days notice to book in for a service, you would have to be pretty neglectful for this to be a concern.

HTH
Julian

 

[jimti]

I would keep it, If for no other reason look at its anti corrosion warranty, there are bound to be some rust problems as the car gets older

 

[mlc]

Firstly I declare an interest - I used to work for the AA ( but I escaped!).

Lots of car companies, insurance companies etc. offer free or cheap breakdown cover. Most have very severe limitations - MB wont cover you if youre in a friends car for instance ( I assume). If you and your family only own one car, only drive that same car and are happy to limit yourself to covering that single car then one of this cheap or free services may be enough, for everyone else dedicated cover from one of the market leaders is essential. And who are the market leaders? The AA and the RAC! Lots of other people claim to be as good or even better and cheaper of course, but all the market research shows that these two companies are head and shoulders above the rest.

For most people they never have to see the service in action, but thats the same with lots of things. If you had the misfortune to crash at 70mph and need the safety of the cars structure and airbags to save you which would you prefer - an MB S class or a KIA - after all the KIA salesman assured you the car had a safety cage and a drivers airbag!

Bottom line - my AA membership is money well spent each year.

Mark.

 

[OlafMaxwell]

I have had to use Mobilo for breakdown. First time, on M6 it worked a treat. Brake failure, car lifted and taken to Coventry, back on my way in a loan car one hour after calling in. Car hire and a lot of expenses taken care of.

Five months later, brakes fail again with the same cause. Mobilo collect car, refuse to supply replacement car, refuse to meet costs of alternative travel, refuse to pick up alternative travel costs.

I also had car in with suspension problem under warranty. According to Mobilo replacement car will be provided for repairs if they take longer than specified period. MB refused to supply replacement car, refused to even collect the car even though they were refusing to supply a replacement.

In my opinion a good annual travel/breakdown and an extended warranty policy is better and much cheaper.

The only reason I keep it up now is the rust issue, but even in that the car was in last August for rust issues, all 4 doors rusting. Still no response from MB on what they are going to do.

 

[penrecon]

Mobilolife

I had to use Mobilolife 4 times on a previous ML270, which was a bit of a dog!

On three occasions the car was recovered back to the dealer who supplied the car as it was still in their area and on the third occasion it was away from home but the problem was sorted at the roadside.

I have nothing but praise for the set up. Your call is routed to an international call cente at Maastricht in Holland who liaise with the duty technician from the nearest dealer who will normally come out to you. they call back with updates on arrival time and so on and been very helpful to me.

The beauty of this set up is that no matter where you call from in Europe, you speak to an English speaking operator who can talk to the local dealer in their own language to get your problem sorted. Plus the person who comes out to you is an MB technician, with a prtable diagnostic computer not a breakdown generalist such as the AA or RAC will provide.

In my case despite the fact that two of the incidents were related to the same apparent fault there was absolutely no problem with recovery or replacement car - I even rejected the first hire car brought to me as unsuitable for our use and this created no problems. In the case of this last incident the car was out of warranty.

I might add that the car that had all thses problems is now gone and it's replacement (another ML270) is a much, much better car that has had no problems to date.

Mark

 

[jberks]

I can't quite understand the problem you have with your dealer Olaf. Refusing to collect the car is a very odd one, even my local back street mechanic will collect a car. My dealer even delivered my mum's smart at the last minute when she suddenly couldn't get in to collect it after a service. What reason did they give for not supplying ? As I understand it, if they collect the car when it is in a state that can't be driven (else you are supoosed to book it in) they supply a loaner. Was your car actually driveable?

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Penrecon

Sounds like you were unlucky with the car, but the service and support you received was pretty good.

Out of interest, was the firrst ML a pre-facelift, and the second one post-facelift?

Ours is a facelift 53-reg, and was advised by the dealer that some reliability issues had been resolved on the later cars. That said, ours had to have a steering angle sensor replaced (took 5 visits to fix), and two catalysts, all within first month!! Hoping things will be better moving forward.

Bobby

 

[philharve]

You've lost your Mobilo'?

Hi All

I wasn't entirely sure what Mobilolife was until today when I visited my local M-B dealer to discuss a corrosion problem. The service manager studied my service documentation and suddenly declared, 'You've lost your Mobilo!'

Up until that moment I assumed that Mobilo' was an all-embracing insurance scheme that covered such things as corrosion. It took a few moments for me to realize that we were talking at cross purposes. I bravely declared, 'I'm confused!' when I realised I didn't understand what Mobilolife actually was. I thought 'loosing your Mobilo' was like loosing your virginity because the service manager gave me a stern look and said 'You cannot buy it back - ever!' I resisted bowing my head in shame.

He then explained in terms not too dissimilar to the preceeding thread that Mobilolife was a superlative breakdown recovery insurance that could be offered on all M-B cars provided that certain 'fmbsh' conditions were met.

It was explained to me that I lost my (actually my car's) Mobilo' because the previous owner (and original purchaser) did not fully meet the requirements in order to retain the Mobilolife cover. Mobilolife refers to the car and not the owner and consequently it is transferable to successive owners.

I subsequently discussed Mobilolife cover with the original owner who said he never needed it because the car never broke down in almost 90K miles.

It appears Mobilolife does offer extensive cover including attendance by a M-B qualified technician at the breakdown; provision of a M-B courtesy car; repayment of excess travel charges; etc., etc.

However, you will not derive any benefit from Mobilolife cover unless you are unfortunate enough breakdown. If you already have cover under the AA/RAC then Mobilolife's primary advantage is that it's free up to 30-years but it is conditional on maintaining a fmbsh. If any of the owners default then the Mobilo' is lost for good.

Could it be that Mobilolife is merely a mechanism by which M-B ensures complete loyalty from their key customer base?

It was the '30-years' that confused me because I thought the service manager was referring to the 30-year anti-perforation cover on M-B cars.

The service manager argued that Mobilolife was important to most M-B customers because it gives piece of mind. He added that loosing ones Mobilo' (like me) was a significant loss because the technical sophistication of modern cars, like M-Bs, meant that a breakdown was virtually garrantied. Mobilolife buffered that eventuality. He added that calling out an A. N. OTHER's breakdown service would cost the average car owner at least £200, and that's before other out of pocket expenses begin to accrue, e.g cost of alternative transport to complete ones journey. In this light, Mobiliolife was an excellent 'free' service covering virtually the life of the vehicle.

Am I sad I've lost my Mobilo'? No, it wasn't something I had any control over. If any of the previous owner(s) fail to comply with its requirements, it's a service that is denied to successive owners. I can appreciate the logic of this approach.

So, now I know what Mobilolife means but it wasn't the main reason why I visited the dealer. I visited with a corrosion problem which is a quite separate issue to breakdown recovery.

Photographs of the corroded door were duly taken and my claim for a repair/replacement was underway - again!

The reason the previous owner sold the car in the first place was because he was chasing a claim for exactly the same problem in the very same place. He patiently waited for a reply from M-B but after 6-months and no further contact from M-B despite frequent visits to the dealer, he decided he would sell the M-B and buy a Volvo instead.

I asked the service manager about the original owner's claim and he stated he knew nothing about it. Why, I asked? Apparently the dealership changed hands 3 years previously and all service data prior to the changeover was no longer available to the new dealer. I find this admission very strange indeed because maintenance of Mobilife is dependent upon complete service records being available.

I was advised that I shouldn't have to wait more than 2-3 weeks for M-B to process my new/resurrected claim regardless of the status of my Mobilo'. I just wish I could be sure of this.

Incidentally, the service manager stated that the corrosion problem only affected certain E-class models and there never was quality issue.

M-B continue to spray their cars with water-based paint but because it is baked onto the steel substrate, corrosion is not an issue. Anyway, many body panels on the latest M-Bs are a composite material.

The decision to adopt water-based paint was an environmental decision and M-B were forced to comply by environmental regulations. It wasn't a financial decision that forced a switch to a different base for their paint. Most car manufacturers used water-based paint. So now you know.

I sensed the service manager wasn't pleased with my apparent attack on the quality of the marque. I smiled and quickly made my departure.

I will return to this dealer for A/B servicing but I will consider other specialists for more routine maintance work.

REGARDS Phil