For all of you who are following the repair of my wife's 2003 C230K Kompressor, I picked up the vehicle on Friday...finally. It took them 4 days with no loaner provided (I asked!). It turns out the failure started with the bolts that hold the pulley to the water pump. Three out of four of them broke off. They had to tap out the three broken bolts and then replaced all four. The serpentine belt came off when the water pump pulley bolts broke and all other damage happened after that. Have you ever heard of this failure on any car brand before? I can't believe how this could have happened other than the bolts were backing out and the pulley was sliding back and forth on the pulley and finally wore through the bolt. Either that or the bolts they are using are so cheap that the metal is not strong enough.

Did not see the bill that was sent to Mercedes for the warranty repair, but I sure would not want to pay for it. Even the Mercedes techs admit there are too many problems with the newer Mercedes and prefer the quality of the older ones to what we are currently seeing. If Mercedes quality continues down this route they will have to start offering 10 year, 100,000 mile bumper-to-bumper warranties to get people to but their products. Personally, even with a warranty, I do not care to be bothered with the continual problems.