Quote:
Originally Posted by BENZ-LGB
John, you have been lucky.
My former 1999 (I think that in an earlier post I wrote 1998, but I checked the paperwork and it was a 1999 model) Northstar Seville was purchased new by my Dad. Because of my mom's illness the car became very inconvenient for her to get in and out. So I bought it from my dad.
Since new the car had been consuming about a quart of oil per 1000 miles. Numerous "exchanges" with the dealer got us no result. At one point we were even told that the oil consumption was normal and,now get this, that the high oil consumption was a design feature that allowed a fresh supply of oil to be runnign through the engine at all times. HA!!!
There are owners of 150k plus miles W124 in this forum who get all bent out of shape if their cars consume 1 quart of oil every 2k to 2.5k miles.
In a 6 month period of time, before the car reached 48k miles, a number of things began to go wrong with the car, including several tranny "issues." The car was at that point still under warranty, so it cost me nothing, but GM spent nearly $9k in that 6 month period of time. I finally said enough is enough and so I traded it in for my current 1998 E320.
So far the only "unusual" expense for the E320 has been repairing a bulky sunroof. the dealer paid for half, even though the car has been out of warranty for a long time.
I must admit that the Seville was a good looking car. It was black on black, with big, shiny chrome wheels. I felt like a Mafioso, or a pimp, driving it.
I must also admit that out ont he open road the car was fun. Big, fast, quiet and comfortable.
Just not very reliable and really expensive to maintain.
Maybe I got a lemon.  |
I agree, I got very lucky on my car. The dealer I bought the car from is a real gentleman, and I wouldn't have bought the car if someone else had been selling it. I figure if it lasts another five years, I did pretty well considering I paid around 8k for it.
The 2001 Eldorado my wife has is another story, it is still under GM warranty, and it had needed close to 15k in repairs. Mostly, because they rebuilt the engine trying to fix the oil consumption issue and it got worse. Then they ended up throwing the engine away and GM authorized a new factory longblock. The longblock itself retails for around 9 thousand. They even offered to buy the car back, but we declined. The new engine uses no oil between oil changes, go figure. The dealership experience has been without fault, they comp all oil changes and make sure a new Deville is always waiting when we drop it off. The warranty expires in a few months, and hopefully, the bugs have been worked out of the car by now. I'm sure GM is sorry that they ceritified this particular car.
The local MB dealer has horrible customer service, they are a high volume dealer that has changed hands three times in the last 18 years. When you see a waiting room with stained carpet and old magazines, you have to wonder how well they treat your car.