Did I get ripped off?

First service on my 2009 C350, was told at time of purchase that it would be $150. Then when the wife got home she said it was $300.

 

All of the services cost about that much. Valvoline express lube changes the oil and tops off the fluids for 50.00 where I live. The rest of the service I can have my husband inspect or I can do it myself. We could change the oil too but it costs just as much as valvoline after we buy the parts. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see how much tread you have on your tires, check your brakes, or lube things up. I believe your poor wife got took but I believe they do that to everyone and it wouldn't have made a difference if it were your wife or you. I just got out and lubed up my sunroof tracks and my rear sun shade myself with a little thing of lube I paid .25 cents for. Oh, I find it funny they check our wipers and install new ones if needed. Hmm, well I can buy wipers from autozone and put them on for free and I don't need someone checking out my wipers like I'm helpless.

I believe when you roll in for the "service A" or "service B" you are giving permission to inspect and replace anything on the list for those services. They may very well replace things and not tell you and then you end up having to pay for it.

 

I have a 2005 c230K sedan with a liitle over 40K miles and have been paying around $200-$300 for maintenance when taken to the dealerships.
I always tought that a Mercedes can be only mantained by MB mechs but after checking the net I see lot of people doing maintenance themselves, the point is that a Mercedes is not much different than other cars when maintenance time arrives.
I just got maintenance A done like 4 months ago and still have around 10K miles before the next maintenance but next time I'm going to do it myself, I'm not an expert but have done maintenance in other cars before.
The only thing I would like to have is a maintenance manual or pub showing steps for the most common maintenance requirements.

If anyone can find a reliable source of info please let me know so I can prepare better for the next maintenance. Thanks

 

I have the same car as you and I would be happy to help you out with maintenance that you want to do yourself. Some of the things I have done are K&N air filters, spark plug replacement (easy), oil and filter changes, fuel filter changes, and these things have been written about by me on this site for others as well as yourself. I think you can do a search and see most of it, but......if there's any way I can help, let me know. If you are inclined mechanically at all, you can do these things.

 

Yes I am mechanically inclined. I have done maintenance work for the past thirty years. No doubt I can do all of the above as needed.

The main purpose of the original post was about the untruth of my dealer about the price of a service. I had reservations of even spending $150 for a oil change, but decided it was OK because of the extended service interval compared to previous vehicles. $300 for a oil change just seems ridiculous for any vehicle.

 

Time for service again, have a called in for the owner to try and get a "free" oil change because of the untruth last time, he has not returned my call yet.

Assuming he won't do the right thing, I would like to know where I can order a OEM replacement oil filter, google search only comes up with aftermarket filters.

 

Went to NAPA yesterday to get a WIX oil filter. The WIX gold was $17 and the OEM was $19 so I went with OEM. They had a sale on Mobil1 0-40w for $5 a qt.
Curt

 

there are 2 kinds of service, A and B. They alternate. you can read about in your owner's manual. A is oil/filter change and inspections, B is A plus several other things (air filter, cabin filter, etc.). $300 is about typical for B, seem high for A but it varies by where you live. I do all the service myself. I can tell you that $150 seems high for A to someone used to GM cars or something, but just buying 7 quarts of approved synthetic oil and OEM filter can cost $80. The fuel, air and cabin filters (OEM) cost about another $80.

 

http://www.rmeuropean.com/Part-Numbe..._8DF8FDD7.aspx

 

If you really want to get tweaked, read the service manual and see what you got for your $300. I never have found a Mercedes dealer that didn't charge up the *** for everything... I don't think it's necessarily because they are crooks but because they have a flat rate manual that allows a generous amount of time for something that can be done quite quickly by a skilled technician.

For example, suppose there was a manual for cleaning the kitchen and for each dish you needed to load into the dishwasher, they allowed 3 minutes to account for opening the dishwasher, pulling out the rack.. placing the dish in the dishwasher... replacing the rack, adding soap, closing the door, starting it and then cleaning up afterward. Given that "flat rate" you would be allowed about an hour to load your dishwasher... something that can probably be done in 10 minutes or less.

Then there's the biggest rip off of all.. "shop materials". That's simply extra profit they explain by saying it covers the various things like a rag they might use to clean their hands.. or a squirt of WD40 on a noisy hinge. Find a local independent mechanic you can trust and take your car to him.