Wheels and main dealers

Alex240

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2010 E350 Agantgarde
Hello everyone, Just thought i'd say something about recent events.

I want to get some new wheels for my car. I looked around a bit and found the alloy wheels direct website, i actually saw that someone on here had mentioned it so i had a look. I found the wheels i wanted, they were £598 for a set of 4 which sounds great, far cheaper than i was expecting new wheels to be.
The thing is that if I were to buy these wheels, and the bolts which is an extra £45 on that particular website and then pay someone to put them on for me, instead of going entirely through the main mercedes dealer, would i really be saving a significant amount of money?

I don't know how much it would be at an average garage to have these wheels and obviously the tyres, fitted. But let's add it up roughly.

Wheels = £598
Bolts =£45
Fitting =??, maybe someone could give an educated estimate. For now i'm going to guess all the fitting at £100.

That would be £743, maybe minus a bit, to do it the website way, and there may even be other delivery costs etc, that i havent considered... and i would always have that feeling of uncertainty that maybe the wheels werent balanced as perfectly as they would be if done at the local mercedes garage. I'm sure that sounds silly to some but i'm really not good with car repairs so my view on theses matters is very simple i suppose.
Anyway, to get the wheels, bolts and have the whole thing done at my local mercedes garage would be £209 per wheel plus £49 for the bolts, so in total it would be £885, which suprised me.
So all in all, there would be a saving, but not that big, I personally would and will choose the mercedes garage just for the peace of mind, and the extra service history credit doesn't hurt i suppose.

I got my mercedes around a year ago now, and at first i tried to find a cheaper way with someone a friend reccomended, it never felt good, i never relaxed after the service, and then he found mercedes specialist for me when i had a warning light issue, because he admitted that he found my car was OVER-ENGINEERED!!. Well that was nice to hear.
Anyway after my car was taken to this mercedes specialist i had to fix a dent that had appeared on my car, and a general feeling that things were not as smooth as they should be. Also this mercedes specialist told me that i needed a new, Light Control Unit, which just made me suspicious, even though i know nothing about it really.
So, last week i went back to mercedes, had a full major service, all niggle fixed, loose connection or something simple like that, that was causing the warning light problem, was fixed....NOT £200 LIGHT CONTROL UNIT, that the greedy little mercedes guy was trying to tell me i needed. Luckily he was one of those guys that just oozed the feeling of greed and deceipt, so as he was telling me, in a very impatient manner what he wanted to do, i said I'd like to come and collect the car and get back to him at a later time, maybe it was him that dented my car out of spite because he wasn't going to get an easy score. I suppose i'll never really know who did it.
Anyway, sorry to ramble on. I suppose my point really is this, I personally am going to always go to mercedes from now on, it's always that bit more, but i'm sure if you add everything up it's worth it, unless of course you are lucky enough to live close to one of those rare little diamonds that love and know all about mercedes and have the gear to do it all properly, and don't want to overcharge you.
One day i'll live next door to one of those guys....I just know it. ;)

I forgot to mention that i already have a full set of new tyre to go on the wheels. They were about £69 each from the mercedes garage.
 
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SQ_W211

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W219 CLS55 AMG
Wheels and tyres can be bought for far less if you do a little more research. I am not sure if you included the tyres in that cost as £885 seems rather low to be done by MB.

I bought my 18" wheels off ebay after alot of research (yes they are replicas to Brabus ones and little heavier but they do look nice and they served the purpose) for £700 with some cheapo tyres fitted and balanced. I then paid my local tyre place to put them on and take the originals off for £10. Thats £710 for a complete new look and they are still going strong after 2 years apart from some kurb marks etc.

So the point is, Yes MB are very nice car to own and also True that dealers will make the ownership alot more that you could wish for but if you are happy to shop around and find yourself an experienced mechanic, its all worth it and not alot more expensive than owning any other brand
 
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Alex240

Alex240

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Yes, you're right, i forgot to mention the tyres. It's definately possible to save a bit of money, i suppose it's just what you feel comfortable with.

I've edited the post.
 

GeorgeA

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Sounds like you have not found yourself a garage that you trust. Why not ask the forum for a indie near you who is recommended then call in and see if they are suitable.

Many have found the dealer experience expensive and poor in a similar fashion that you have described. You may still feel the main dealer is the best option for you as it seems you have made your mind up.

In any event good luck with the new wheels it can certainly transform the look of the car.
 
N

npuk

Guest
Alloywheelsdirect are highly recommended and use the latest equipment to fit and balance tyres so you have no worries there. Why do you need new bolts? If you already have alloys and the alloys you are getting are the correct ones for your car you shouldnt need new bolts.

My local tyre place charges about £10inc vat to fit a new tyre to a rim, new valve, balance and fit the rim to the car so counting £100 just to put the ready balanced new alloys on is OTT, it wont be anywhere near that.
 
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Alex240

Alex240

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Yes, i have'nt seen anything to suggest that the wheels would be anything other than the genuine product if I bought them from Alloy Wheels Direct, I'm sure that would be fine, i wasn't aware that AWD would actually fit the wheels for you, i thought it was just a mail order thing.
As i said, i'm sure it can be done, maybe even a couple of hundred cheaper than going through the mercedes dealer but I have had nothing but trouble with local garages in the past. And when you add up all the driving back and forth to these people when things aren't quite right, and phone calls made, apparently my local breakers has an 0800 number that costs £1.50 a minute, it just doesn't seem worth it to me anymore, not to mention the stress of it, this is the most costly thing. At least with the mercedes garage, they just do it.
Believe me, i really dislike being overcharged for things, but after years of independant garages, with other cars too, it seems that in the end you end up overcharging yourself by trying to find a cheaper way, and sometimes we convieniently forget all the extra little costs mounted in finding that way, so that we feel we got a 'better deal', even if really, stress included, we didn't.
I would love to live close to a friendly, independant specialist, but it seems that none are within a reasonable distance from me, none that i have found anyway.
As for the bolts, maybe you are right.. I just thought that new wheels deserved new bolts, but you don't see them i suppose.
 
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npuk

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Well if you post up which area you live in people would be able to recommend a good indie and tyre fitter.

AWD can supply the alloys with tyres fitted and balanced but I just noticed your edit at the bottom of the post saying you already have tyres. If you bought the alloys alone most places charge roughly £10 a corner to fit tyres and balance. The bolts can be found for about £30 for a full set of genuine mercedes benz bolts on ebay.
 
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S.Speed

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Older Citroen Now :-(
I recently got some genuine Merc wheels off eBay withGoodyear tyres on which all had 5mm left.
I live in Lancashire and had to travel down to Gravesend but the wheels are absolutely as new and I paid £310 for them..
Better still he gave me £60 for my old wheels which had several kerb scuffs (previous owner) and a set of barely legal tyres..
The wheels I got are 16" 5 spoke which I priced up from Mercedes and they are typically £260 each + Tyres..
Soooo its certainly possible to get bargains if you look around and are prepared to wait..
Incidentally I very nearly bought mine from Alloy wheels direct, but spotted the eBay ones literally at the last minute..

Hope you find what your looking for at the price you want to pay.:D
 


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