Bought a nice used 94 E320W. Had it run through my quality independent, who serviced it, installed a new water pump , a few other items and pronounced it healthy, save the wiring harness. Having recently done this on a 93 300 2.8, it didn't worry me too much, other than the fact that our local franchised MB store isn't exactly the best place to have a 124 fixed. It was repaired, no charge, on the 300. Ticket showed 2.2 hours of labor. I know it can be done properly in around .75 to 1 hour, but who should complain under those circumstances? Assuming the situation would be appropirately handled again, I made the trek to the dealer last week. Well, these are now handled on a "case by case" basis. And the most that any 100k+ customer can expect is for the factory to pick up the tab on the harness, with the cusomter paying the labor. That still wasn't too unreasonable, 3 hours labor being about $200 bucks. But guess what--that job had mysteriously expanded to 7.5 hours! now that's about $500--isn't that strange?! And a call to 2 of the Atlanta metro dealers indicated that their service directors had informed technicians and writers that there would be NO participation in ANY car over 100k.
Ain't that nice? It's just amazing to me that these harnesses, which were obviously defective on DAY ONE from the vendor -a problem known to Mercedes- all of a sudden are no longer a problem, but just a wear item. Isn't this the company that used to pride itself on durability and longevity? The same company that said customers would stick with them and avoid the Japanese lusury cars because they had no "heritage" or brand loyalty? Exactly what kind of "heritage" is that, New Jersey? And if you'd like to get my name, why don't you get it off the customer response forms that I filled in for both of the 2001 models I bought--the surveys you still haven't responded to?
By the way this is Mercedes number 30 something for me, excluding the ones I have bought for resale or profit. A twnety plus year geek. Welcome to the new Mercedes Benz--a company not interested in making the best automobiles,just making money.
Sorry, I'm through now.