New member

[wiz]

Hi

Just joined the site having purchased my first Mercedes E class 320CDI sport, just over a week ago (first registered June 2007). Great car in the short time I have owned.

Would appreciate members advice on the following -

The dealer is trying to persuade me to sign up for a pre-paid service plan £30.89 per month over 3 years based on annual mileage of 12k. They are saying that Mercedes intend to reduce the service interval to either a mileage based interval or every 12 months whichever is the sooner. My understanding is that the service is governed by the type of driving and had expected to get a longer time interval than 12 months. Is this just another sales pitch to get me to sign up or is there any accuracy in this proposedf 12 month service period? Are these schemes worth the cost of paying up front or paying or my service as an when this occurs?

 

[television]

Just saying hello and welcome to the forum, some answers will follow on Sunday with luck

 

[Ant]

I have the same E320CDi, purchased April 06 (Jan 06 car) and apart from a couple of minor matters put right under warranty, it has been superb. On a recent trip to France - 1,800 miles in 5 days, it overtook everything in sight and still returned 37 mpg and I was in a hurry most of the time.

My first Merc was a C250 CDi and I had a service contract. Over three years the service costs were marginally more than I paid per month but I included tyres. Don't include tyres unless you are heavy on them. I also had a service contract on my next car - E320CDi (old shape) but I moved house which resulted in me doing much less miles than I anticipated and. thus wasn't cost effective.

So if you are confident about your mileage it is a great comfort to know that, when you take the car for a service or whatever, you don't have to worry about the cost. MB told me that it is to their benefit for you to have a service contract because it ensures that their cars are properly maintained and this helps maintain their resale value. Possibly sales talk but you judge for yourself.

I also visited my MB Dealer a couple of weeks ago and he informed me that MB were changing the service interval to 12 months or 15,000 miles and he showed me that in print - seems to make Service Assyst a little pointless - but maybe the dealers aren't making enough, especially with diesels serviced every two years.

I don't often get a chance to visit the Forum these days but always find it very interesting. I'm on my third Merc and have been very pleased with all of them, including trade-in value. I try to buy ex-demo cars because you save on the new price and aslo try to change every 3/4 years, thus my car is almost always under warranty. In this time it probably only means two or three services, depending on mileage, a set of tyres and possibly brake pads.

I hope you continue to enjoy it - good luck.

 

[wiz]

Informed by MB today that the service interval is either mileage or every 12 months which ever is first, this is a recent change for newer models, wonder why? Changed from a BMW new 3 series which was 20K or 2 years.

Aware MB cars are expensive to service but this 12 months interval has just potentialy increased the costs significently