MB DEALERS BACKED UP IN YOUR AREA???

[Benzmac]

I am wondering if every one else has the same problem as the Atl area?? In Atl. the dealers are booking 1+month in advance!! What is up with that??

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Benzmac:
ASE CERTIFIED MASTER AUTO TECHNICIAN
SERVICE MANAGER FOR 14 BAY FACILITY
MERCEDES SPECIALIST 8 YRS
PARTNER IN MERCEDESSHOP.COM

My shop in Macon,GA. is packed and we are scheduling 2 weeks in advance. It seems the extreme heat is taking out batteries, alternators, relays,and of course A/C and coolant related parts at a rate I've never seen before. This also means burned engines because more owners ignore lights and gauges than ever. I guess we should be happy to have the work, but I see more customers moving to other brands.

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Mercedes Star Technician,
Mercedes Master Guild Technician, ASE Master Tech. 18 years exp.

I had to wait 3 weeks for an appointment
on the West Side of Cleveland at Motorcars West.
Jim Leonard

Shawnee, Kansas (Kansas City Metro Area Dealer)

Local MB dealer is scheduling 10 days from now.

[This message has been edited by TimBru99 (edited 08-20-1999).]

[richard u]

At Rallye Motors on L.I NY
3 weeks WITHOUT loaner car.
Much longer if you want Loaner.
just for Oil change

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1999 E-300TD

I'm a service executive with an MB competitor and one of my responsibilities is retail service delivery. I therefore stay in touch with what goes on with MB, BMW, etc. dealer service operations.

Several dynamics are at work: 1) Summer is the traditional busy period in the auto repair biz, 2) MB's dealers have experienced unprecedented growth in sales volume, which has not yet been matched by comensurate growth in service capacity, that is, available lifts & techs. Lifts and the space they require cost money and qualified techs are hard to find & train. 3), and this may be the biggest problem, MB is experiencing quality problems that are atypical for that brand. In particular, the ML is a real quality dog and it has caused the MB entire service system fits. It doesn't stop there, however, as the SLK, CLK, C & E Class' are not what MB's used to be in terms of quality, and the new S Class apaears to be no better.

My dealer sources claim a significant increase in "things gone wrong" per car sold since '96 and they see no improvement coming from MB. MB's management made a concious decision to cash in on their reuptation to build volume and profits per car. They did this by shortening cycle times and cutting component costs. It remains to be seen how far it can go before the public catches on.

If you want to know how much the automotive quality world has changed, who do you think came out on top in the 1999 JD Power Initial Quality Survey of 1999 models? Was it Acura? BMW? Lexus? Infiniti? Nope, it was JAGUAR! Yes, little Jaguar beat everyone, and when I checked with our dealers who sell Jaguar they confirm that the new Jags are outstanding in terms of quality and reliability. Who'd a thunk it a few years ago?

In my view MB had better wake up or before long they'll become the luxury segments' equivalent of VW in the '70's and '80's, a once-great manufacturer that lost it's way. I look at it this way, for every new owner MB conquests who then becomes disappointed by poor quality, and frustrated by poor dealer service, Jaguar, BMW and Lexus are there to steal the customers from them, just like Toyota and Nissan did to VW in the old days.

[Alain V.]

Things gone wrong since 96? Try since 92! I have a pretty good relationship with the guys at a dealership about 60 miles from me. I send them warranty work and we buy & sell pre-owned cars from each other. I just sold a 96 S-320 to one of my customers about 3 months ago. It was a mercedes credit corp lease return with about 49k miles on it. I checked the car out & sold it to my customer. He brings the car to me yesterday with 52k miles on it for an oil change and says that he's noticed a few drips (oil) under the car. I put the car on the lift to service it and guess what, another freakin 104 engine with a leaky head gasket! This engine was totally dry 3k miles ago, now it has oil ooozing down the block. I called my contact at the dealer and explained to him the situation, the car is now 2k miles out of warranty but this is ridiculous. He told me,no problem, set an appointment for the car and we'll take care of it on a "goodwill" warranty. Then he tells me that they have one tech, dedicated to only doing head gaskets on this engine. That is all he does,EVERYDAY! I bet that out of every 10 104 engines I see,8 of them have a bad head gasket and the other 2 have already been replaced. It has gotten so bad that when dealers go to the mercedes credit corp sale, the mbz rep refuses to arbitrate any head gasket problems. In other words,if you buy a car that day and get home with it and the head is leaking,it's all yours!
Basically what the rep is saying (without saying).
Hey, we know that all of these engines have an expensive problem that we should have taken care of a long time ago, but screw you,it's your baby. Nice huh.

[VA300SD]

Backed up about a week or two.
FYI, our local MB/Volvo dealer shut down their suspension and body repairs.(These are now farmed out to designated shops.)
Also, their dearest and trusted diesel mechanic retired and they're not in any hurry to replace him.

Ouch, the comments of benz quality hurts!!

Reputations out the window and all that stuff!, well, I to have concerns with things, in only a few months ownership of my new Benz, there has been problems, some so stupid you wonder how things ever got to this point.

The biggest thing Benz has to remember, is their Customers are not a stupid lot.

Oh,,and back-ups in this area where 2-3 weeks for a simple oil change.

[Benzmac]

WOW!! From the looks of things I guess I'm in the right buisness. Thanks for all of the response.

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Benzmac:
ASE CERTIFIED MASTER AUTO TECHNICIAN
SERVICE MANAGER FOR 14 BAY FACILITY
MERCEDES SPECIALIST 8 YRS
PARTNER IN MERCEDESSHOP.COM

I just took my E320 in yestderday without an appointment and got it back today. The dealer seems busy but obviously not too much need appointment weeks in advance. My dealer is Skyland Mercedes in Asheville.

JAH

[bdrought]

In the UK, my local dealer (actually *owned* by Mercedes UK who are 500yds away...) is backed up about 3 weeks for major work, but they try to squeeze in little jobs.

On the quality side, its true sadly. My 300CE has had a few problem caused by the prev. owner, but its got 160K on the clock and feels much tighter than my mums C220 with 60K. Her car has had so many minor niggling problems (leaks, bushes, plugs, wires, suspension, a/c etc etc etc)

Anyhoo, I'll stick with my 92 300 for some years to come


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Brian Drought
1991 300CE
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~drought/
ICQ: 2180069

My 86' 420 sel has almost everything replaced on it from the entire transmission to the radiator to P/S pump to resealing everything. And many, many , many other expensive problems that
Oh that is enough!! Do you have a question?
[This message has been edited by Benzmac (edited 08-26-1999).]

[This message has been edited by Benzmac (edited 08-26-1999).]