Simon griffiths

SIMON GRIFFITHS

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I have a s320 cdi 1st registered 1st jan 2002 i have registered my claim on warranty with mercedes benz but they say the car is an import and will not carry out body work repairs due to corrosion can anybody advise me my best course of action
thank you
 

television

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Welcome Simon I do not think that you can get far with this,,its bad enough when they are not imported,,is the car bad
 

Miffy

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I had the same problem as my car was also imported, I had to use a local body shop instead
 

turbopete

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it is a problem id agree. should it be though? are the bodies rust treated/made differently for different countries? if not, why should it make a difference to a corrosion warranty claim? things like this really annoy me!
 

Mic

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it is a problem id agree. should it be though? are the bodies rust treated/made differently for different countries? if not, why should it make a difference to a corrosion warranty claim? things like this really annoy me!

You are absolutely right.....the whereabouts of the car and it's travels should be irrelevant.....Mercedes Benz manufactured.....their corrosion. It may not be MB UK's direct responsibility but they should ''jump through hoops'' to do whatever is necessary to at least assess the validity of Simon's issue and put him in touch with the appropriate department. The support service is appalling as is the fact that an eight years old ''S'' class is corroding assuming that it has been looked after properly.
Sadly the reality is that Simon is unlikely to get any help without a lot of determination and even then it could be time and energy wasted.....not wasted but not fruitful.
It is a disgrace but pragmatism may be the order of the day.

Mic
 

jberks

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All depends on who pays out. MB or MBUK. A lot of warranty work is actually paid for by MBUK, e.g. year 3 of the warranty is UK specific and underwritten by the UK arm specifically. So to be fair, you can't expect MBUK to repair a car they didn't supply. Do remember that MBUK is separate to MB gmbh. What I don't know is who actually underwrites the corrosion goodwill work and whether our European cousins get the same service. It might be worth a call to MB's own call centre.
 

Miffy

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As Jberks, anything after the initial warantee is paid for by MBUK under "goodwill" but as My car was imported via Holland, it would be down to MBNL to pay for the goodwill repairs, but they would not have seen any of my service payments and I doubt it would have been worth while taking my car back to .nl lol
 

turbopete

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fair points but cant MB have some sort of system to 'standardise' the warranty/goodwill system so that all countries/markets have the SAME set of rules etc, and we all get the same level of service? that way there should be no problem about where the car is sold originally! same goes for all makes!
 

Mic

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All depends on who pays out. MB or MBUK. A lot of warranty work is actually paid for by MBUK, e.g. year 3 of the warranty is UK specific and underwritten by the UK arm specifically. So to be fair, you can't expect MBUK to repair a car they didn't supply. Do remember that MBUK is separate to MB gmbh. What I don't know is who actually underwrites the corrosion goodwill work and whether our European cousins get the same service. It might be worth a call to MB's own call centre.

My understanding is that the manufacturer warrants Europe wide the first two years, MB UK the third year in conjunction with underwriters. Most or all of Europe do not ''enjoy'' a third year because their importers have elected not to underwrite a third year. It is clear that MB UK will not fund Simon's claim but they should surely not put obstacles in his way and help so far as is possible. Same car, same factory, same corrosion and if we are agreed that an ''S'' class should not be corroding at eight years Simon should get his car fixed FOC and it should not be his problem as to how the costs are allocated.
Too many hurdles, smoke and mirrors.

Mic
 

jberks

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My understanding is that the manufacturer warrants Europe wide the first two years, MB UK the third year in conjunction with underwriters. Most or all of Europe do not ''enjoy'' a third year because their importers have elected not to underwrite a third year. It is clear that MB UK will not fund Simon's claim but they should surely not put obstacles in his way and help so far as is possible. Same car, same factory, same corrosion and if we are agreed that an ''S'' class should not be corroding at eight years Simon should get his car fixed FOC and it should not be his problem as to how the costs are allocated.
Too many hurdles, smoke and mirrors.

Mic

In an ideal world but from their perspective, the original buyer deliberately chose to avoid them in order to save money. That money saved would have gone towards paying for the extra warranty, goodwill and support so from their perspective, he's asking for a warranty and support he didn't pay for. If he could identify where it was imported from, then maybe approach the importer but otherwise you're at the merc of the factory and none of us know what the factory standard cover/goodwill is.
Per Pete's comments - it would be lovely to standardise service and warranty worldwide -but we get better service than Europe and the US gets better than us. I suspect, the way these things work, we'd end up with what Europe has.
 

Mic

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In an ideal world but from their perspective, the original buyer deliberately chose to avoid them in order to save money. That money saved would have gone towards paying for the extra warranty, goodwill and support so from their perspective, he's asking for a warranty and support he didn't pay for. If he could identify where it was imported from, then maybe approach the importer but otherwise you're at the merc of the factory and none of us know what the factory standard cover/goodwill is.
Per Pete's comments - it would be lovely to standardise service and warranty worldwide -but we get better service than Europe and the US gets better than us. I suspect, the way these things work, we'd end up with what Europe has.

What you say is absolutely correct.....there is no warranty claim.....and goodwill (often neither good nor willing) is within the gift of MB (wherever) and Simon is probably best advised to direct his energies elsewhere.
It does not change the fact that an eight years old ''S'' class should not be corroding wherever it was purchased, wherever it has ''lived or is living'' and in my view MB should take some responsibility for what is their failure.

Mic

PS Simon did start a similar themed Thread yesterday titled Need Help Corrosion/Warranty Claim which may not have helped.
 
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