I stopped to look at a 1998 E320 Wagon today. I want a gas wagon, bad. This one looked decent from the street.

Owner came out and we started chatting as I looked over the car. The car began to make its paintwork clear. Said salesman told me:

"I've been in the business 40 years, and I've never cared about the bodywork."

then proceeded to tell me,

"You know 65% of new cars leave the assembly line and go straight into a bodyshop for a repair before they hit the showroom"

I asked, if Mercedes Benz filled their fenders with a quart of Bondo from the factory?

He said that it was a womans car and bodywork is to be expected, and that luckily the body shop managed to save the OEM fender.

My reply was I would prefer a replacement fender. The fender looked horrendous the bondo had hardly been sanded and the fender was only half repainted in a totally different shade of silver.

Upon closer inspection all 4 fenderwells had rust starting.

I got an LOL, you guys may too.

A San Francisco Sheriff's deputy told me this story which he swore was true:

An elderly couple went to a new car dealer south of San Francisco seeking to purchase a hot new model of car, in the four door version.

All the dealer had on the lot was the 2 door coupe version of the model, which the dealer tried to sell them, but they kept telling him they didn't want.


Finally the new car salesman told them:


"Listen, just buy this 2 door one today. You can come back here later, and we'll put 2 more doors on it for you!!

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1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)

Thats why I hate car shopping, I rather go to the dentist.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

I agree with you on this...

if it had woodgrain siding i'd say yes it went right from the assembly line to the body shop.buddy bought an 82 chevy caprice wagon in the late 80's from the original owner.i happened to know the guy and the car from new and it had never been touched.well my buddy didn't like the bark so we stripped all the chrome trim and pulled the bark and 2 of the 4 doors had bondo in em.and not just little spots,these were football size.right then and there i swore i would never buy a car with bark.

"Mercedes-Benz diesels come in (from Germany) new to our dealership and don't start or run right off the transport.
We have to tear into the IP and get them to run. Happens all the time." -Service Manager, Mercedes-Benz of Omaha, Nebraska

Cars get damaged in transit, and other things, it happens.. but 7 out of 10 cars... yeah no.

lol.

Great, a bunch of tractor mechanics "tearing into" the IPs.

I have a great dentist, no comparison.

:Let's change that to "proctologist."

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Strelnik
Invest in America: Buy a Congressman!

1950 170SD
1951 Citroen 11BN
1953 Citroen 11BNF limo
1953 220a project
1959 180D
1960 190D
1960 Borgward Isabella TS 2dr
1983 240D daily driver
1983 380SL
1990 350SDL daily driver alt
3 x Citroen DS21M, down from 5
3 x Citroen 2CV, down from 6

I was in the insurance claims biz for a decade, and saw a statistic once that 5% or so of new cars got damaged in transit, up to 10% for some manufacturers. I can't say where I saw that, andit would have been at least 10 years ago that I saw it, so don't hold me to it...

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2002 Ford ZX2
2 x 2013 Honda Civics

i'd rather have a tractor mechanic that actually has experience with diesels then some bozo out of community college that believes everything his instructor tells him.

Quote from dockside in a north Atlantic U.S. Port from a Longshoreman:

" 'Those Damn German Mercedes start Everytime ,and drive down the RoRo ramp onto the dock."

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'84 300SD sold
124.128

What other business continually berates, insults, and beats up on their customers like car dealers? Then they ask for a perfect score on the customer response forms....

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags

That is why they rate only slightly above lawyers!

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"I have no convictions ... I blow with the wind, and the prevailing wind happens to be from Vichy"

Current
Monika '74 450 SL
BrownHilda '79 280SL
FoxyCleopatra '99 Chevy Suburban
Scarlett 2014 Jeep Cherokee
Krystal 2004 Volvo S60
Gone
'74 Jeep CJ5
'97 Jeep ZJ Laredo
Rudolf ‘86 300SDL
Bruno '81 300SD
Fritzi '84 BMW
'92 Subaru
'96 Impala SS
'71 Buick GS conv
'67 GTO conv
'63 Corvair conv
'57 Nomad

I deal with a number of industrial salesmen for my Engineering job.

I'd LOVE a car salesman like them - if I spend $20k or more...or less, he takes me to lunch. He calls me on the phone if the manuf. issues a recall. He calls back every 6m or year and asks how HIS product is working. He is fairly technically knowledgeable if I have tough questions and if I have tougher questions, he has a direct line to the highest levels of support that the company offers. He admits when his product isnt the cheapest, but offers good reasons why...or admits when he can't offer good reasons why. If I'm in a jam he'll offer to overnight parts to me (at my expense) and fire emails at 8pm to get those parts shipping.
Heck, I got one guy, who comes to my site every few weeks, checks out his equipment, and tells *me* if it isnt working right - myself and my maintenance staff dont have to do anything. This guy is sorta unique since we regularly buy tanks of chemicals from him, but still... =)


I had one salesman like this (for Carlo-Gavazzi - ever heard of them =) that had all of the above mentioned qualities. But he quit and became 2nd in command of my guard unit. But all of the industrial salespeople I work with have at least one or two of the qualities mentioned above.

-John

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2009 Kia Sedona
2009 Honda Odyssey EX-L
12006 Jetta Pumpe Duse
(insert Mercedes here)

Husband, Father, sometimes friend =)