Service Contract - Daimler-Chrysler

[xcaliber]

Has anyone taken out a Mercedes-Benz Service Plus contract with Daimler-Chrysler? I bought a E220 (W211 on 53 Reg) from a dealer and the Merc warranty expires in September. I asked Merc to quote me for their service contract which I spotted on their web page. The contract looks pretty comprehensive and covers:

Routine servicing, maintenance, repairs and component replacemens arising from normal wear and tear (eg brake pads, wiperblades etc)

MOT test for vehicles 3 years and over.

Looks like the contarct will cover most things except understandably things like tyres, fuel, insurance, replacement windscreens, bodywork/paint repairs, road fund etc.

They are quoting me £35.93 per month which equates to £431.16 pa. As I have not had the my car serviced myself yet (its an ex lease car with 74K miles) does this look reasonable or would I better off getting it serviced at an independant Merc garage? Grateful for your servicing experiences with a Merc Main Dealer (including experiences with the contract if you have one)and more importantly what it costs for a service (major and minor)!

Ricci

 

[jberks]

What mileage have you quoted?
Its pretty good, just for the warranty aspect (I paid over £600 for a 12 month MB warranty alone). Servicing cost varies wildly on a 211. But its basically £200 to £1000 depending on what comes up. I seem to remember looking at one when I bought mine. I can't remember how much it was but from memory is was prohibitively expensive. Sure it took the uncertainty out of it but the odds were stacked in favour of the dealer.

So, this seems suspiciously cheap. Assuming you do perhaps 10k pa. It has to cover at least a £300-£500 service cost and include a substantial warranty aspect. Brake pads (and disks) alone would come to several hundred at a dealer so I just can't see how they could cover all this for £400pa. Check the small print very carefully.

 

[Rory]

I would think that £36/mth for the cover indicated can't be correct. It wouldn't be bad price for basic servicing on its own, never mind things like pad & disk replacement.
I imagine that won't cover the events that you'd normally expect a warranty to cover so you'd still need to spend the £600 (or whatever it costs) on an extended warranty (if you wanted to). However that's an interesting concept - if it doesn't cover, say, an alternator failing, I wonder if you could expect MB to replace it basis that it shouldn't have failed anyway?

 

[xcaliber]

Thank you jberks and Rory. I have got the paperwork in front of me and it definately says 'The Mercedes Plus contract covers Routine maintenance, repairs and component replacements arising from normal wear and tear (e.g. brake pads, wiperblades etc.) and MOT test for vehicles 3 years and over'.

I have got their quote and now have to send it in for them to issue a full contract so am not sure whether there is any small print that does not give what their blurb that they sent me with the quote says! If what they say is true then I read from your replies that I should snap their arm off! The quote is for an 'estimated' 16,090 km' pa which is roughly 10K miles per year.

Oh to boot the monthly rate of £35.93 is fixed for 3 years ........I rang and checked and I am not tied to using a specific mercedes garage! Once the contract is issued they give you a credit card type of card that you hand in to the dealer then walk away until your car is ready for collection.

Ricci

 

[Blobcat]

It looks correct, on the attached link there are details of the contract. It does say T&C apply and I guess if you go over the mileage they will want some more £'s or 'sorry sir that's not covered'

http://www2.mercedes-benz.co.uk/content/unitedkingdom/mpc/mpc_unitedkingdom_website/en/home_mpc/passenger_cars/home/after_sales/maintenance/service_contract.html

It looks good if your not doing that many miles.

 

[xcaliber]

Thanks Blobcat. The contrat offer does say estimated annual mileage so I would not expect them to try and get out of it if it goes over a small amount. I will certainly watch for the T&C. As they have not sent me the T&C's it will be interesteing. I will follow through with another post once I have the full contract and the small print!

 

[Rory]

Are you sure they realise that the car has already done 74K miles?
From new these things can be pretty cheap - my daughters new Seat Ibiza has 3 yrs 12K per year maintenance which includes everything, even tyres, for £20/mth. I still wasn't sure it was good value but she wanted to go for it.

I guess if you're reckoning on 10K yr for 3 yrs then the car might only need 2 services, which ought to cost something like £700 for both. If you needed pads and disks all round during that period then you'd be quids in. If it needs nothing other than routine servicing then you're probably losing out, but it might be worth it for the peace of mind.

I would think that the cost of servicing under such a scheme would be very closely monitored - I'll bet DC don't put up with all those rip-off extra charges that appear on our bills, and there won't be any of those 'while we've got the wheels off shall we change the pads and disks, sir' calls.

 

[xcaliber]

Thanks Rory. I too am a little sceptical hence my original question of other peoples experiences. Whatever. I have sent in my application accepting their quote and I shall wait and see what happens. I will report back! They know the car has already done 74K miles becasue I put this on my original application and I also explained that I was a 2nd owner and that I did not expect to cover that sort of mileage. I also asked for a maximum of 4 years that was on offer but they said the offer was only open for up to 6 years after first registration or 120K miles whichever came first. Because my car is now nearly 3 years old they would only offer me a further 3 years! If the deal is as good as it sounds that that will do me for the next 3 years! My next service is due in another 6K miles so that should take me to around Sept then I will make sure I get the other 2 services before contract expiry because the contract is also based on the Asst Plus recommendation for service! All told unless there really is a 'get you' then it sounds too good to miss! I am not sure a main dealer would be too concerned about making a bob or two on the side if he could. The contract sounds like an insurance policy and if the main dealer can tap into that surely he would at the slighest opportunity? I am very interested to see if I can instruct the garage to change pads/disks/wipers etc! They certainly would do whatever I wanted if I was paying directly!

 

[jberks]

Read the link. Its interesting. Without reading the T&Cs, it seems to cover wear and tear, but not items covered by warranty. So, it will cover brake pads, but not a broken cam shaft, gearbox or ECU. Interestingly though, there are a number of cheap after market warranties that state that they don't cover wear and tear, just major component failure, so put the 2 together and you should have comprehensive cover.
In any case, yes it does seem to be pretty good value. I've requested a quote, but with an E270 doing 25k pa I suspect its going to be a bit silly and I'll still be better off at the indie.

 

[jberks]

Well, got my quote. Not bad really,
2 types, service and service plus.
For an 18 month old E270 doing 25k per year, service only is 43.58pm+vat which works out at £615 per year. This basically pays the normal service bills but not any extras. At 25k pa I will need roughly 2 1/2 services a year. At dealer prices this would be £800+ I guess. If i were to insist on main dealers then this is a pretty good deal. However , the service plus offer which includes wear and tear, brake pads etc is £1314.00 per year inc vat (93+vat pm) which is a bit heavier. Still not a bad deal though. I think I may chance it and stick to the indies but as I say, for dealer maintenance I think its actually a good deal.

 

[Blobcat]

Hi jberks,

Looking at your MB Service Plus quote of £1,314 pa for 3 yrs.
I have been running my E320cdi for 3.4yrs and so far spent £3,262.71 on dealer servicing and repairs. During that time I have covered 88Kmiles or 25,882 miles p.a averaged out.
The £1,314 p.a = £3,942 for the 3yrs
My £3,262.71 for 3.4yrs was £2,754.94 for 3 yrs
So my actual is £1,187.06 less than MB's Service Plus.
However it is a gamble and if somehting major decides to leave then the figures could be reversed.

 

[Rory]

However , the service plus offer which includes wear and tear, brake pads etc is £1314.00 per year inc vat (93+vat pm) which is a bit heavier.

For my C270, based on 30K/yr, for 3 yrs, I was quoted £115+VAT (£1621/yr). It seriously made me think twice about buying the car. I didn't go for it and in the event I havn't done the mileage I expected anyway.

 

[SL Boy]

Hi jberks,

Looking at your MB Service Plus quote of £1,314 pa for 3 yrs.
I have been running my E320cdi for 3.4yrs and so far spent £3,262.71 on dealer servicing and repairs. During that time I have covered 88Kmiles or 25,882 miles p.a averaged out.
The £1,314 p.a = £3,942 for the 3yrs
My £3,262.71 for 3.4yrs was £2,754.94 for 3 yrs
So my actual is £1,187.06 less than MB's Service Plus.
However it is a gamble and if somehting major decides to leave then the figures could be reversed.

For clarification Blobcat was the £3,262.71 you spent the total cost of service, wear and tear items and items needing repair? If I read the T & C's correctly only servicing and wear and tear are covered by this scheme so if your total costs including repairs are £500 less than the scheme price and the payments you have made are typical of what charges an MB car owner can expect to face then there is no point in signing up to a service contract.

 

[Blobcat]

For clarification Blobcat was the £3,262.71 you spent the total cost of service, wear and tear items and items needing repair? If I read the T & C's correctly only servicing and wear and tear are covered by this scheme so if your total costs including repairs are £500 less than the scheme price and the payments you have made are typical of what charges an MB car owner can expect to face then there is no point in signing up to a service contract.

Hi,
Yes the £3,262.71 inc vat is the total cost of servicing and repairs for my e320cdi for 3.4 yrs and 88,000 miles.
As per my post above for 3 yrs my costs were £2,754.94 and the scheme is £3,942 for 3 yrs. So I spent £1,187.06 less than the service plus contract for 3 yrs.

 

[xcaliber]

Have been reading the threads with interest. I am a little concerend that it has cost Blobcat over £3K for servicing and repairs over 3 years. One of the reasons I bought a Merc was for its reputation for reliability (isn't that why they are such popular taxis?!). My old 850 Volvo which I recently swapped for the Merc had no repairs for the full 11 years I had it! The only costs I incured were servicing and tyres(around £400 pa servicing with a volvo main dealer and around £300 with a very good ex volvo mechanic who set up as an independant). That brings me to the point of servicing. I thought the reason to get a car serviced regulalrly is to prevent expensive repairs. Is Merc servicing poor or the car mechanics? I may need to get shot of the car if the general feeling is that mechanically it is a dog as I wouldn't want to spend the sort of money being talked about in this thread hence my interest in the service contract (which compared to the other quotes people have been getting is for some reason substantially less for mine at £35.93 per month-£436 pa!).

 

[Rory]

Well Blobcat's costs are for 3.4yrs and 88,000miles - you're looking at 10K/yr.
Dpending on his car's service interval, he might have had 6 or 7 services in that time, plus brake pads, disks etc.

If you're concerned about the potential servicing bills then clearly you should take up the service contract, so your service costs will be known and fixed.

Anything else going wrong with the car is a matter of chance - I'm sure there are Volvo owners (especially the more recent cars than your's) who'd say 'never again'.

 

[Blobcat]

Thanks Rory,
I think one of the big differences is that non of my figures are 'around' As I bought my E320 to replace a company car I wanted to be very clear on how much it is costing me. I therefore log everything into an excel spreadsheet I built. I have every cost associated with the car in it and can give cost graphs and ppm figures, whole life costs etc. etc.
People can forget exactly how much things have cost and only when they see it lumped together do they take notice and think 'thats bad'.
Servicing has been the biggest cost.
The only repair has been the diff breather and oil seals. Everything else has been service items.
Had 3 sets of front brake pads, 1 rear set, 1 set of discs (Front and Rear - although rear changed in error)
4 glow plugs - 1 under warranty

88K is over 7 yrs of motoring for average 12K driver. I would have done well over 90K in 3 yrs but I was off for 4-5months end of last year.

I can post further details when I siwtch to my other pc which has the spreadsheet on.

 

[xcaliber]

Thanks. Point taken! So my impression that mercs were less reliable are unfounded! I accept I will not be covering the same sort of miles as Blobcat....on this basis the service contract does look attractive for me but I will make my mind up once I have seen the small print. With roughly 10K miles pa I would expect to get 3 services in over the term of the contract and I will need to keep my fingers crossed that there are no unforseen mechanical problem in between services!

 

[jberks]

I take the view that if I were to stick to main dealers as I used to, the contract is good value. If I use indies however, they should still be substantially cheaper. I'm probably going to stick to indies as the contract doesn't cover wear and tear (and I will need pads shortly) and that extra alone at the dealer would render the contract expensive.

 

[xcaliber]

You will recall I said that the MB contract offer for around £35 pcm covered:

"Routine servicing, maintenance, repairs and component replacemens arising from normal wear and tear (eg brake pads, wiperblades etc)" - MB quote!

I haven't got the copy of the contract so cannot elaborate on the 'actual' final T&C's! But if the offer quoted above is correct I take it you would think that the offer was a good one? I am not sure how they define routine mainteneance, repairs!