STARMARK BS & c140 inside rear view mirror

[albert champion]

1. i know that there have been a series of posts on this topic. and i have read them all.

what i would like to learn is this....is there a simple, replacement mirror[such as the ones in my 116, 126, 124] available for this vehicle[perhaps in the euro market]?

all ears?

2. just for the hell of it, i took this low mileage[20,300 when sold as a starmarked vehicle eleven months ago - now 23,900] 1997 c140 to the new dealer in metro houston where the individual that i have worked with for years took charge of the service department. i took the car there because i had a few other starmark warranty issues, but there were two issues that i wanted a "friendly" to address with mbusa since i viewed them as potentially rejectable as starmarkable claims.

a.] one issue was seats. both driver's and passenger's had seatbacks that had stopped being forward tiltable. oddly enough, after battery fried and was replaced, driver's seat became operable again. passenger's seatback remained immovable.

dealer called me today to advise me that the problem was one of cable adjustment - mbusa considered this a "trim" issue - not claimable as a starmark warranty.

anyone have any opinions on that call?

b.] the other issue was the floppy inside rear view mirror. the replacement of that mirror was also denied.

benz considers that a "trim" item, also.

well, i wonder what dot and the nhtsa think about rear view mirrors. i have always considered them the most basic level of safety equipment. to my mind, if rear view mirrors are trim items, then so must be bumpers and sodium azide bags.

i would like to take this issue up with someone at the top at mbusa. any suggestions?

all ears,