S500 Home at last!! - Page 2 - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

ProV1 · #1 12-22-2006, 04:32 PM

wow i'm sorry about your misfortune. as the saying goes, "the most expensive used car money can buy is a cheap MB". how many owners before you? i'd try to trace the history of the car carefully, was it stolen, salvaged or flooded? cars that come up at small indy dealer's lots are some of the worst cars no one else wants.

kudos to your persistence (and wallet) to spend $11Gs on repairs. i would've just gotten rid of it and swear to never buy another MB again if that happend to me.

i hope the car will be trouble-free from now on! keep us posted.

cdplayer · #2 12-23-2006, 12:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ProV1

wow i'm sorry about your misfortune. as the saying goes, "the most expensive used car money can buy is a cheap MB". how many owners before you? i'd try to trace the history of the car carefully, was it stolen, salvaged or flooded? cars that come up at small indy dealer's lots are some of the worst cars no one else wants.

kudos to your persistence (and wallet) to spend $11Gs on repairs. i would've just gotten rid of it and swear to never buy another MB again if that happend to me.

i hope the car will be trouble-free from now on! keep us posted.

Information from Carfax shows the car to have had two owners before me. The car was a lease for the first 5 years 6 mos. Then it went to auction. The second owner bought the car from the same dealer I got it from.
Acccording to Carfax he had it only three months. I brought that to the dealer owners attention, but he told me the guy was having financial problems and had to give the car up. Hind sight

. Should have picked up on that signal.(I mean lie lie lie)

The VMI report revealed the first owner had issues with the integrated phone, shift valve problems (transmission), the transmission control unit
(twice). A fault in the battery and the instrument cluster recall.
The second owner had issues with the gas tank sending unit, fuel pressure regulator, and three jump starts (dead battery).

cdplayer · #3 12-22-2006, 11:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by will70724

cdplayer what dealership in vallejo did you buy it from? i live in valejo and I have a feeling you bought it from nino's motors???

Actually I bought it next door at Sonoma Auto Center.

will70724 · #4 12-22-2006, 11:57 PM

Pretty much the same thing, those cars interchange all the time. That sucks. But as a person that grew up in vallejo my whole life, people go out of town to buy cars everyone hates to buy stuff in vallejo.

cdplayer · #5 12-23-2006, 12:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by will70724

Pretty much the same thing, those cars interchange all the time. That sucks. But as a person that grew up in vallejo my whole life, people go out of town to buy cars everyone hates to buy stuff in vallejo.

I have nothing against Vallejo. I found the W220 on AutoTrader online.

will70724 · #6 12-23-2006, 12:31 AM

Oh Im not saying you have anything against vallejo, but like the common thing here is that we dont buy stuff here because of 2 reasons.

1) people in vallejo dont have much money ( a lot of them dont) and therefore dont have the money to spend at dealerships.

2) People just have negative thoughts about buying in vallejo we dont feel that dealerships and other places in vallejo are on the up and up.

Vallejo has gotten pretty bad with poverty and violence which I think ties into people wanting to spend money here. Just my oppinion.

garymand · #7 12-22-2006, 03:19 PM

What about small claims court. Judges are usually very simpathetic to the car owner, but you probably should have taken it back to the dealer for the repairs. Is there a reason you didn't do that?

You might want look at the front suspension links, check all the rubber close up. the rubber bushings are thin, the rubber tends to break and tear.

cdplayer · #8 12-22-2006, 11:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by garymand

What about small claims court. Judges are usually very simpathetic to the car owner, but you probably should have taken it back to the dealer for the repairs. Is there a reason you didn't do that?

You might want look at the front suspension links, check all the rubber close up. the rubber bushings are thin, the rubber tends to break and tear.

Ya. In my earlier post I mentioned the car could not be driven. The suspension had collapsed on all four struts. The dealer would not offer to come get the car. And the cost to tow this car just two blocks from my house to where it did get repaired was $115. (insurance covered.)
However insurance would cover towing up to 5 miles. The dealer was 53 miles away!!:fork_off:

will70724 · #9 12-22-2006, 03:47 PM

Hey jim no nino's isnt the same dealership that I checked out that 94. It was some little small lot I want to say it was called luma's auto. Nino's I have heard good and bad things about. The guy had a few good cars that I known but also a few really bad ones. And I cant think of any newer mercedes dealership/ places that sell those except for nino's that specializes in luxury cars like that.

I would like to check out that gathering you guys are having. It looks like jan 20th (saturday) right? If so I think I can make it. Now I'm not to familar with Marin but I'm sure it wont be a problem. This will be the first time I show off the 92 white s600 mercedes

should be fun.

ProV1 · #10 12-22-2006, 09:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by buckwheat

I remember many posts along these lines for 140s. Now that 220s are coming off lease repo or warranty, I would expect these types of complaints to increase.

In fact, they may even surpass the great 140 pandemonium of the late 90s. The 220 is a thinner, cheaper, and much less robust car than the 140. However they both share inferior European plastics and cheap 3rd party Chinese electronics.

Every get rich quick little 1 man dealer in the country with gold chains and Rolex watches will be buying them at auction for pennies on the dollar. Aftermarket warranty companies come and go in the night, and often give new uneducated Mercedes owner a sense of complacency. We often hear the results on this forum. I would think only airplanes offer a more punitive outcome to ignorant unprepared owners.

It may take a year or two before it all flushes out. After that 220's will be a great deal having filtered out the riff-raff. And this poor fellow won’t be the last “220 Sux” post we see.

I cringe at every one

haha, i LOLed at your post. i hope the W220s become the alltime fastest depreciating MB ever so i can pick up a low mileage 2004 S500 sport in 5 yrs for dirt cheap!

DR.DIESEL · #11 12-22-2006, 10:49 PM

I can't help but recommend a buyers inspection at a MB dealership.
It may cost more than at your corner gas station, however we know
what to look for with each model and year.

On 2000-2002 W220 S classes, all those issues are very common.
There are factory DTB's for almost all of them.
A burned out air pump or suspension pump will set all kinds of dtc
faults. Those would have been caught on a Buyers inspection.

That car most likely got wholesaled to a cheezey dealer because it
had an owner that never had it serviced at the dealer.
We look for those issues and will fix them under warranty when
we look the cars over during a service.

That car probably blew through it's warranty before addressing anything.
After being traded in or off lease the dealership gave it a once over and saw all the needed repairs.
Off to the auction or wholesaler she went.

Buyer beware with late model MB's from non-MB dealers.

There are lot's of badly rebuilt Katrina cars hitting the market now.
Watch out.

DR.D

Hatterasguy · #12 12-23-2006, 12:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DR.DIESEL

I can't help but recommend a buyers inspection at a MB dealership.
It may cost more than at your corner gas station, however we know
what to look for with each model and year.

On 2000-2002 W220 S classes, all those issues are very common.
There are factory DTB's for almost all of them.
A burned out air pump or suspension pump will set all kinds of dtc
faults. Those would have been caught on a Buyers inspection.

That car most likely got wholesaled to a cheezey dealer because it
had an owner that never had it serviced at the dealer.
We look for those issues and will fix them under warranty when
we look the cars over during a service.

That car probably blew through it's warranty before addressing anything.
After being traded in or off lease the dealership gave it a once over and saw all the needed repairs.
Off to the auction or wholesaler she went.

Buyer beware with late model MB's from non-MB dealers.

There are lot's of badly rebuilt Katrina cars hitting the market now.
Watch out.

DR.D

Thats pretty much what I was thinking. The MB dealers keep the cream of the trade in crop, everything else is auctioned to non MB dealers.

cdplayer · #13 12-23-2006, 12:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DR.DIESEL

I can't help but recommend a buyers inspection at a MB dealership.
It may cost more than at your corner gas station, however we know
what to look for with each model and year.

On 2000-2002 W220 S classes, all those issues are very common.
There are factory DTB's for almost all of them.
A burned out air pump or suspension pump will set all kinds of dtc
faults. Those would have been caught on a Buyers inspection.

That car most likely got wholesaled to a cheezey dealer because it
had an owner that never had it serviced at the dealer.
We look for those issues and will fix them under warranty when
we look the cars over during a service.

That car probably blew through it's warranty before addressing anything.
After being traded in or off lease the dealership gave it a once over and saw all the needed repairs.
Off to the auction or wholesaler she went.

Buyer beware with late model MB's from non-MB dealers.

There are lot's of badly rebuilt Katrina cars hitting the market now.
Watch out.

DR.D

Actually the VMI report shows between 9/2000 and 1/2006 the first owner did have the car in to a dealer for service a total of 32 times.
The same dealer in San Mateo.

Jim B. · #14 12-27-2006, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cdplayer

Actually the VMI report shows between 9/2000 and 1/2006 the first owner did have the car in to a dealer for service a total of 32 times.
The same dealer in San Mateo.

Probably Autobahn Motors.

32 tmes!!! WOW!!!!

Were the damage codes all different? Identical damage codes over 5 times mean L E M O N. Maybe a prima facie lemon law case in California, if the dealer can't fix the problem after that many tries.

(I had a successful Lemon Law buyback on a new 2001 Volvo C70 HPT turbo coupe in 2002 but an attorney got involved, however he was good, and got a full refund, not another junker or that car fixed, just wanted it gone)

This is a great argument for getting the VMI before you buy.

I got one all the way back in 1996 (just AFTER I got the 1991 560SEC and there was nothing serious, just a few warranty claims, door check strap, dead battery, p/s pump, stuff like that)

They could avoid a problem like this

Sometimes lessees take less care of the car, they have no proprietary interest or reason to care, just minimal, if that, then dump the car at lease's end. All things being equal, I would avoid them in favor of one that had one fussy owner instead

60fairlane · #15 03-04-2007, 02:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cdplayer

Actually the VMI report shows between 9/2000 and 1/2006 the first owner did have the car in to a dealer for service a total of 32 times.
The same dealer in San Mateo.

It sounds to me like the dealer had more then enough chances to fix the problems that are "well known". It would seem that the shop that finally fixed everything should get an "'at-a-boy" for sticking with it until it was fixed. I know from my personal experiance, that just because you pay someone a lot of money, it still doesn't mean you will get a good job.
J.S.