Some people can learn from other's mistakes and some have to learn from their own mistakes. Some will not learn. Which one is she?

Similar to mine. 70% of that is accomplished by aiming your eyes at things. Open/close the hood, doors and if they don't squeak that's another step.
Not rotating your tires on schedule isn't going to do anything, but I can see that being a pain to do. Most tire places offer free rotate and balance for the life of the tire though. Oil change needs to be done. The air filter anyone capable of driving a car can do themselves.

We took the ML320 in for service B and they charged 500 dollars. Ouch. it was just an oil change basically as they charge extra to do anything else. They stated the brakes needed to be done to the tune of 700 dollars, and some plug needed to be done on the transmission as it was leaking and a fluid change to the tune of 450 dollars, and the battery needed to be replaced as it failed their "test." Well, it was overdue for a transmission service, it needed brakes shortly thereafter, and it's battery gave up too. I took it to my indy who did the oil and trans fluid and replaced that plug for 300 dollars I think. I did the brake pads for 80 dollars myself.

What would that encompass? Just saying "brakes" is not sufficient. Is it pads or pads and rotors?

If they are changing that plug and then draining the fluid and the TC then filling it up again with the expensive fluid that might come to $450 since they have to drive it, hook it up to SDS and then fill with even more expensive fluid. Also, does that include the gasket and a couple of updates?

Did you do an item for item check to see what cost what? I mean, if there are 5 steps and your indy is doing 3, that might make it cheaper. If he doesn't do certain things, you are comparing apples to oranges.

Yes but you didn't pay for labor and shop supplies. Kind of an apples to oranges again. I did my brakes for $250 but I don't count my time, buy parts at a discount, etc, etc so it changes the equation.

When i first bought the SDL years ago it had been 100% MB maintained by the good Dr. So when it was ready for service I wanted to keep the tradition and took it to MB. LOL $545 Never again. Shortly after that I became a member of this forum.

It's great fun when I stop by the dealership service "suites" on my way to the part desk. Generally, the folks sitting in the glassed in booths with the SA or waiting in the lounge sipping their expresso drinks . . . wouldn't know how to open the hood latch, let alone find the air cleaner box in a current Mercedes.

I can only presume that a big part of these owners having dealer service is that there's someone else to blame if it's not right.

I am skeptical they actually check all that stuff on a brand new car. Heck my friend took his Mazda 3 with 30K miles on it for its first service, which includes tire rotation, and they didn't even rotate the tires. What else didn't they do I wonder. And that was a good 300 or so dollars. Some dealerships have their own services that aren't even mentioned in the owner's manual. I have heard a service writer try and scare someone into getting one of these ripoff services by insinuating that if they ever have warranty issue, it might not be covered because they didn't get the service :rolleyes:

She is driving a 2004 C320 4Matic. 30,000 miles.

How many times around the island is that for you?

I told her take to an Indie shop instead of the dealer. But again its like talking to a wall.

Its not bad if you put it off for time constraints. But just do not put it off too long. IIRC, FSS in the newer cars is like 10k mile intervals.



Hell, if she brings it to the steal-ur-*****, they will even give you a loaner.



IMHO people that do not maintain vehicles should probably be driving something likea a Honda Civic, not an MB.

Yup. I don't follow these rigid laundry lists of things to inspect. I stare at my cars including from the bottom often enough that my cars actually get inspected pretty much all the time. The main thing is to follow the really important maintenance, especially fluid & filter changes. The rest is pretty much just fluff that becomes important only if you never pop the hood yourself.

Clockwise or counter?

Roughly 292 laps.

On new cars you really don't have to do much to 100k miles. Just a few oil changes, maybe a couple tranmission fluid changes, and a few air filters. So unless you are really clueless about cars you can skip all those services. Even if you don't work on it yourself, just have the fluids and filters changed on schedual.

Like my moms new Rav4 we just ignore that "service" stuff and do it ourselves. A lot of it is inspecting stuff, I'm not paying someone $300 to make sure my lights and wipers work.

I printed off the old Mercedes service sheet from my FSM, and I think its the one to follow. Change the brake fluid every spring, lube the door hinges, etc, etc. You know back in the 80's when people who could afford Mercedes bought them, and paid to have them taken care of for 20 years. Mercedes figured the owners would want to keep the cars for a long time, so recomended maintenance accordingly. Not the wannabe's sipping coffee who can barely afford the rental I mean lease payments, they freak out if a MAF sensor blows out of warranty since the Visa is probably maxed...:D

I was talking to my indy today, who had a C320 on the lift.



A chick owns it, and brought it in for an oil change. He checked the FSM and he got confused....


He thought it originally read 1300, but when he did a double take, it really was 13000 over. Figure 23000 on the oil.



He was draining the oil when I got there, and there were chunks and the oil was really thick.... Its synthetic too.