New to UK, looking for indie in London?

[matei72]

Hi all,

We just brought my wife's 2000 E200 K over from the continent, and on the way we encountered several issues which prompted us to bring it in to the local MB service (Stratford).

Prior to our trip, the car had been just been serviced (Service B) and had been running with no issues whatsoever. It has about 70K miles.

It had been sitting for three months before we brought it back. I needed to jump and charge the battery, and it was fine after that.

On the way over to the UK, the transmission started to slip, and at times not shift out of 2nd or 3rd. Oddly enough, I was able to get around this by shifting manually with that touchtronic feature.

We also experienced a high-pitched whine, around 2k/3kRPM. Other than that, the car worked fine...

So, on Saturday I drop it off at the service station, and I'm told that the car will be looked at first thing on Monday, and they'll call with a diagnosis and estimate.

I had to call them several times, and when I did the mechanic assigned to the car was very condescending and rude... basically told me that it needed a new gearbox and turbocharger, they'd gone because of the high miles. He didn't bother to elaborate how he arrived at this diagnosis - and didn't bother addressing some of my other queries.

He went on to tell me that it wasn't worth it to repair, the car was old and that was about it.

Granted, I would rather not spend 6K on this car - it is 9 years old - but still... my wife does still need it! Can anyone recommend a decent indie dealer in London? We're based in Islington.

I'm not a mechanic, but I'm not convinced that the gearbox is shot - surely if it were on it's last legs it wouldn't shift manually without a hitch, no?

Thanks - sorry about the long post!

 

[television]

Hello and welcome to the forum, just one question first, is the car a 211 or the last of the 210's

 

[matei72]

Sorry - forgot to mention, it is a w210 E200 Kompressor!

 

[television]

OK I agree, that was a stupid statement that he made


Colen Ferns
THE REAR OF 65 RALEIGH RD
RICHMOND-UPON-THAMES SURREY
TW9 2DU
TEL: 020 8332 7660

Wayne Gates Mercedes Benz Servicing
Unit F5, Pheonix Ind Est Rosslyn Crescent
Harrow Middlesex
HA1 2SP
020 8863 9233

 

[matei72]

Many thanks!

 

[matei72]

Well, I went to pick the car up from the dealer today. When I called to arrange the pickup, the manager with whom I spoke (not the same rude eejit who fed me a line the day before) told me it would be £115 for the time to diagnose.

He also told me that there might be a way around a new gearbox, that the problem "could be" the valve body, and that it would "only" be £1000 for parts and labour. He did add, however, that this wasn't guaranteed to sort the problem.

I said no thanks.

When I came in to pick it up, I waited for close to an hour. The jerk with whom I left the car on Saturday (actually not a mechanic but some sort of customer service lackey) got someone else to deal with me, as I'd complained about him the day before and obviously he didn't want to deal with me himself.

The new person started to settle my bill, and proceeded to read me the diag report. To my surprise, the mechanic who looked at the car first recommended changing the filter and oil to see if this did the trick! They also mentioned that the drain plug was leaking... Neither of these things were mentioned to me over the phone - they just cut straight to the chase and tried to sell me a new gearbox.

The report also mentioned a number of other things that I suspected were wrong with the car - secondary air flow metre and o2 sensors were playing up, and they believe that a bearing in the turbo was going (the whistling noise I'd hear at speed).

To top it all off - they tried to charge me £145 instead of £115. Good thing that I had a voicemail from the customer service manager, which I duly played to yer man, stating it would be £115.

They then tried to claim that my car is a 2008 - hence the higher price... It clearly is not a 2008, unless the 2008 models are going for a retro vibe and imitating the 2000 ones.

Do they really need the money this bad? What a bunch of crooks.

I'll be ringing one of the indies you so kindly mentioned above.

Thanks again!

 

[jibcl500]

Sounds to me like you need a new MAF sensor and nothing else, easy trick to see if the MAF has failed, drive the car at 30mph, brake and slow down so you can do reverse turn into a side street, select R and if it sits there in R but doesnt move its the MAF.

jib

 

[matei72]

Thanks for the tip to check if the MAF has failed... I'll give it a try tomorrow!

 

[matei72]

Hi all,

Thanks for providing the contact info for Colin Ferns. I brought my E200 K there, as that garage is a bit closer to where I live.

I'm glad I did - as they did an wonderful job. Highly recommended.

Before I brought it down, I called them up and had a quick chat. I spoke with Brian, and arranged to bring it down yesterday morning.

I described the issues I was having, and Brian listened without rushing me to the door (a lá the MB dealer I first brought the car to). He said that he'd give me a call later in the day after they've had a look at the aul girl.

About 10:30Am or so they called back. They confirmed that my gearbox was fine - just very low on oil. No damage to it, the would carry out a standard service (filter/gearbox oil change, new sump seal) and they also replaced the wiring loom.

The oil had leaked out the sump seal, not the drainplug as MB had asserted. No surprise there - as they didn't really look at the car.

As to the CEL light, Brian told me it was due to errors created by the issues with the gearbox, not various sensors as asserted by MB.

They had a look at the supercharge, and asserted that it did not need to be replaced, that there was no faulty bearing and no whistling noise. Said noise disappeared once the gearbox was sorted.

I forgot to tell him about the brake warning I also received, however they noticed that the front pads and discs were in bad shape (I had meant to replace them but I hadn't had the time), and this service was included in the price.

All in all it was the best couple o'hunnert pound I ever spent. Not only was the price very reasonable (especially compared to the thousands that MB quoted), they had the car back to me a few hours later.

I highly recommend the guys down at Colin Ferns. In all my years of motoring it was one of the easiest and most trouble-free experiences I've had when it comes to getting a car serviced.

On the road, the car is as it was previously. Fast, responsive, a dream to drive.

I will, however, be filing a complaint with MB Customer service over those charlatans that I dealt with at Stratford MB. We were originally considering buying a new Viano, however after dealing with those crooks (and reading about other dealer horror stories) MB have lost us as a new car customer.