so you knowingly purchased a USED car with a faulty wiring system and now want someone else to pay for its repair. :laugh3: :inquisiti

and you say its the "principle.":bowrofl:
:eek2: :bsflag:

how about the principle of buyer beware?

this isn't even buyers remorse. its buyers selected use of "principles" to their gain.

Yeah because its FAULTY AND DANGEROUS, thats why. What part of that do you not understand?

Chris

the part where he knew about it, bought it anyway, and now expects someone else to foot the bill.

if it was dangerous and he knew it, he shouldn't have bought it. period. the fact that he did obviates the danger from his point of view and as far as I'm concerned he has assumed all risks associated with the danger by buying it. its his fault for buying a known "defective" product. if his safety was paramount he wouldn't have bought it.

its like me going to a garage sale and buying some old lead based paint. then trying to sue someone for its Toxic effect.

Fair enough, your point well taken. But for all of those who did not, were not aware, purchased new etc, I definitely feel its Mercedes responsibility to fix a known and dangerous problem. :D
Chris

I actually don't expect them to reimburse me or any of that. I merely inquired about covering part of the cost of repair b/c if they had, I would have let the dealer fix it, rather than do it myself (selfish but at the time it was very cold here and I am w/o a garage). For example, if they had paid the labor then why not let them fix it and I'll cover the harness (which I did anyway). It's also the idea that if I had succeeded in that endeavor, others might also and I could pass on the info. I mentioned I was happy with the deal I got for the harness and the fact it fixed my issues. The principle is more their admission of guilt than it is me getting my money back. For what I've put into the car cost wise, it was a bargain. I only want MB to accept responsibility and take care of others who unknowingly are stuck with the issue.

I don't know who it is we are referring to as "knowingly purchasing a car with a bad harness and expecting someone else to pay for it", but I had never heard of the problem when I purchased mine 4 years ago and I dont ever think I would buy another that had NOT been replaced and the owner would have to show me proof! The fact that current owners of these cars do not pursue MB for replacement is rediculous. It also does not make sense that anyone would say that if you did not purchase the car originally, it should not be covered. Would it make sense for Ford not to cover dangerous vehicles just because you were not the original owner?? Second and third owners spend the same if not more on maintenance that original owners (I've said it before and I'll say it again; my immediate family ownes 13 mercedes benz, all except 1 bought second hand and all cars have nothing but Mercedes parts from local Mercedes Benz dealers in them. If mercedes were a little more reasonable (especially with issues like these) maybe these owners would spend more money at their local dealers instead of going to private mechanics or trying to fix them thenselves.

msethk--I'm the one who knowingly purchased the vehicle...though I've explained my position on pestering MB regarding the harness. The car was cheap enough when I bought it that I didn't mind shelling out for the harness at some point. However, after the car literally dropped dead on the road I figured I would be a pain in MB's butt. I wasn't looking for a coverage of costs, but would've accepted a labor reimbursement (read my posts earlier in the thread for my reasoning). I merely wanted MB to admit there was a problem b/c I'd like others who paid top dollar for their car who unknowingly ended up with the harness issue to get what they deserve, some help from the manufacturer. They continue to deny the problem even after the 10th time I've spoken to them, and despite Consumer Reports listing it as a common issue.

msethk

ever hear of a concept called "due diligence?" its mostly a business and law terminolgy but ti applies to life in general.

i'll quote the second definition from dictionary.com
theres this wonderful thing called the internet these days. people can go on it and look up all sorts of things before they buy something.

before i bought my 124 i made sure to find out all i could about them. so i knew going in that i would probably have to do a cylinder head rebuild if i bought one and it hadnt been done. should i sue mercedes coz my car blew the gasket and would have overheated if i hadnt been aware of he situation and prepared (carried a 2 gallon bottle of water in the trunk until ihad the head done.)

That's a very good point.... there's not so much as a tsb on this subject!!! Yet the manufacturer sees fit to issue tsb's on issues considerably more minor!

But back to the issue. Normally the answer here would be the infamous class action lawsuit - but I think there's two problems with that - 1) MB has covered a lot of people, and the lawyers are not really going to have a good feel for how large the case is, or maybe even how good the case is, and 2) the 190E court case a few years ago, in which the court ruled the car so old, and the case so frivolous, that the plaintiffs were stuck with several hundred thousand dollars of defendant costs or court costs or something. In any case it's sort of precedent that willl scare the bejesus out of the tort class action attorneys.

Sound familiar?
 

.

"THE DEFECT COULD MANIFEST ITSELF AS ILLUMINATION OF THE "SERVICE ENGINE SOON" WARNING LIGHT, CESSATION OF THE ENGINE WITHOUT WARNING DURING OPERATION, REDUCED ENGINE POWER, OR A NO START CONDITION. ODI HAS RECEIVED 29 COMPLAINTS FROM OWNERS OF MY 2003 NISSAN ALTIMA VEHICLES ALLEGING SYMPTOMS SIMILAR TO THOSE DESCRIBED IN RECALL 03V-455."

Sound familiar?

For those that insist it takes a fire or a roll-over to get the NHTSA to effect a vehicle safety recall, the above is "A RECALL QUERY HAS BEEN OPENED TO DETERMINE IF THE SCOPE AND REMEDY OF RECALL 03V-455 ARE ADEQUATE."

While this is in regards to a NHTSA safety recall of bad Nissan crank position sensors, the symptoms could just as well describe those of our bad Mercedes Benz wiring harnesses. And note, that the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigations (ODI) has received nearly five times as many MB wiring harness complaints (138) as those involved in the Nissan recall (29).

NHTSA Action Number : RQ06001
(type in the above number in the below link)
http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/defect/defectsearch.cfm

MB Wiring Harness Failure
http://sites.google.com/site/infoage1/mercedes-benz-1991-1996-engine-wiring-harness-defect
.

My Car began to suffer electircal and operational problems. Over the course of a month, my car was at the mechanic almost every day with odd new problems. My worst fear had come true, as my mechanic had worned me. My car's wire harness had began to fall apart, even simply touching is would cause it to disinigrate which caused many problems for my car. My mechanic told me for the early 90's to 95 model years they have changed many of the wirehanesses on these car's. I contacted mercedes wanting to work out a deal for their defective wire harnesses, and was told no such problem exisited. Customer service was very rude to me, and it ended with mercedes accusing me of creating a false claim to extort the company. I was hurt by the way they treated me, and wowed never to buy a new mercedes again. I have my old wire harness, and you can't even touch some sections of it...it'll simply fall apart. In the end I paid $2000 dollars for a new harness, install...few days worth of diagnoisis time was added to the bill also, and the power surges caused my bulbs and some minor parts to blow, in total after taxes I was in it for $3000 dollars. Mercedes thinks I'm lying and this problem never existed...customer service was rude enough to tell me, its not their fault if I got ripped off...extactly ripped off buying a mercedes.

"few days worth of diagnoisis time was added to the bill also, and the power surges caused my bulbs and some minor parts to blow, in total after taxes I was in it for $3000 dollars".


A few days diagnosis time??? For a bad engine harness??? That's ridiculous. Bulbs blowing bacause of a bad harness??? Never heard of that until now!!! It stinks that MB treated you poorly, but let's get real for a minute. The harness replacement should have cost about $1000. It sounds as though your car had some unrelated issues and/or the shop that did the job has some explaining to do.

I have two thoughts on this.
 

1. How about making an expose about the wiring harneses and notifying Mercedes that you would give this to local television stations during weeks with slow news?

2. I wonder how Mercedes can continue to say they are not aware of these deteriorating harnesses when they are selling a disproportionate numer of replacement wiring harnesses to these model year cars owners.

Couldn't a lawyer have the courts demand the sale records on replacement wiring harnesses and point to this obvious fault?

If you choose to make biodegradable insulation for your wiring harness, it will degrade even before it hits the landfill. Whether this is a defect or a plus depends on your view of the big picture. My car had its harness replaced before I bought it, and it didn't cost a grand.

I doubt that you'll generate much interest in such an expose, but by all means, be my guest.