RUST- THE RULES Aug 2009

[hawk20]

No high horses for me ..or side snipes .......

Oh come come. Don't underate yourself. How about: -
"Hawk and his google influenced information..or the facts as they actually are.. "
Not bad as a side snipe.

Or how about
"If you post rumour and half truths then I feel it is incumbent on me ..who is aware of the full facts , to post those facts and make them known..."

Sounds pretty high horse to me and quite a good side-snipe too.

Look back through the thread and I think you can take credit for more side-snipes than almost anybody.

 

[Alex M Grieve]

Goodwill has never been 30 years.
All the threads on owners experiences suggest clearly that goodwill has long been 8 years.

The advantage of goodwill for many has been that it has often covered problems that would not have been covered by the 30 year warranty.

These are two statements, each of which is disingenuous.

We await a logical and reasoned statement as to why rust, in the absence of surface damage (which they always use as a disqualifier) is not indeed rust from the inside out.

It would also be good to have a lucid statement as to why goodwill for 8 years has had to be introduced, and subsequently enforced as a fig leaf when Mobilo Life warranty at 30 years became unaffordable. There is no mention of good will, or an 8 year limit, in the terms and conditions on which many owners bought their cars in the late 90s and early 2000s.

 

[television]

The 30 year bit is no more than a sales ploy by MB to hood wink the ones looking at the sale books into thinking that if this is the case, then the car will last, and never go rusty. To prove the point just read all the comments from the new owners that have joined here to post of their shock and horror that their car is going so rusty.

All new car buyers are not industrial chemist that understand metals and rust and that there is a difference in the qualities of the steel sheet that can be used to build motor car.

The whole point is many Mercedes cars have gone a lot rustier than many other lesser makes.

Cheap steel delaminates into flakes as in the rear wheel arches of many Mercedes, good metal just gets a surface rust.

 

[Frontstep]

However caused, I am in the poor steel and ineffective finishing process camp, it was or maybe still is for some a manufacturing defect perpetuated for too long.
The cars initial bodywork warranty seems mostly to be effective.
There was a further warranty or contract "Mobilo"
fully dependent on manufacturers servicing which with the hindsight of ensuing corrosion problems would never have been isssued.
This contract has had more weasel words and vacuos interpretations than the Bible at a Gay Pride meeting,
all to resist the legitimate claims from affected owners.
Simple conditions are intepreted to have meanings that defy the Oxford English Dictionary.
Customers are led a miserable dance by MB the dealers and their sycophantic employees and to my eternal confusion members of this forum into doubting their sanity.
The Courts thankfully don't support these people.

 

[hawk20]

We need to be careful not to raise false hopes and mislead. How many cases do we know about of people who have gone to Court and won with claims under the 30 year warranty? One? More? Is Frontstep unique?

And the trouble with the lower courts is that one decision does not create a precedent for other claimants. Each case is looked at on its merits and each one is subject to the sometimes rather odd decisions of individual judges.

Personally I have always viewed the 30 year warranty as a bit of a PR exercise and not something worth pursuing unless you are prepared to go to considerable lengths – and maybe costs- to get expert testimony in your favour. One swallow does not make a summer.

Goodwill on the other hand has proved a fertile source of help for many. Judging from all the threads here, and on other UK forums and abroad, Mercedes have repaired either free, or with significant contributions, hundreds if not thousands of cars under goodwill.

Trouble now of course is that virtually all cars from the bad period are over eight years old, and many are on their second, third, fourth owner or more and hopes of goodwill contributions are inevitably fading towards zero.

 

[Frontstep]

No I am not unique, but I do hope your loyalty to MB is somehow recognised.

 

[whitenemesis]

Time this thread faded away, started in 2009 it cannot still be relevant/accurate ...

Thread closing...