Just got my 99CLK back from the dealer tonight. It was in for a new dash (for the 2nd time) and to fix some other minor problems, one of which was some burnt out dash (instrument cluster) lights.
Get this: when I read the invoice, they are going to charge me $120 for replacing 4 bulbs in the cluster !!
Each bulb is $9, and labor is $70 ish.
The car was in about 10K earlier (there is now 45k on car) for the same problem (new dash and burnt bulbs). There was no charge then. Then I'm told that if a bulb goes out under warranty (less than 40k) they replace that one bulb only. If a bulb goes after warranty, they automatically replace them all.
I ask if this is aome sort of common problem, as I really do not want to shelling out $120 every 10K for new dash lights. The service mgr says "well, some models are just prone to certain problems".
Then I'm told that there is a zero tolerance for any warranty repair if the car is so much as 1 km over the mileage limit, and that this is an M-B policy.

At this point, I refuse to pay for any bulbs or labor (they already had the dash totally apart they were REPLACING it) yet they wanted to charge for labor on bulbs.

Lets just say I was a little PO'd. In the end, they did not charge for the bulbs (after I had to put up quite a fuss) and they made very sure that I noticed thier displeasure with me)

I really hope this is an isolated incident with this dealer (I do not think I will be going back for any reason, and for sure not to buy a new car)
Anyone else had dash / light problems in a newer model ??
What about this zero tolerance rule ?