Lugnut, email me via private email, about your post on the lemon business, I practiced law for 10 years, so I need to tell you something, to your benefit. you will find my email on my profile.

Thanks!

 

lemon or no lemon there all just cars, it ant exactly going to explode on you and kill you and if u crash into a honda you will be glad u are in a relatively safe car

 

hey guys, thanks for all the input.

I did a CarFax report on the car and spoke w/ MB customer service. MB told me that they take the buyback cars and completely redo the systems that have caused the problems, and then do a check on everything else, which made me feel a little better. In my case it was the transmission and A/C unit. Those are the only 2 problems it had had. I guess they were pretty severe, but we did that on my wife's Honda Odyssey, so it didn't freak me out. Then I went ahead and bought a 6 yr/100k bumper to bumper warranty on it. Cost me $2500, but I figure that's worth it for peace of mind, and it will more than likely pay for itself.

Cosmetically the car is perfect. I just washed it today and found one very small little scratch behind the rear wheel, but it could probably even be buffed out. The interior is flawless.

So anyway, I'm keeping it, and hopefully for a long time.

Thanks again for all the input.

 

Makes you wonder why they didn't fix it for the other owner, doesn't it?

Good luck with it.

 

Lugnut:

MB doesn't care about their owners in a "touchy feely" way, but they do care about them as potential buyers of their product.
Any corporation knows it is less expensive to keep customers than to win a new customer. I don't really want MB to care if I want them to care about the bottom line, and that includes keeping customers happy so they will buy again.
Also, don't confuse the dealership with the manufacturer. Dealers can be shortsighted.
When one wants action from the manufacturer; one must talk to decision makers, not lower level bureaucrats.
Not long ago I had a problem with a Ford that was still under warranty. The dealer felt he didn't need to fix the problem. I wrote to a “specific person” at the corporate level in the Customer Satisfaction dept. My letter was firm, but not full of threats or angry language and I told them what they needed to do if they wanted me to continue to purchase Ford products. Not long after that I received the red carpet treatment from my dealer. Everything was fixed in a thorough way, and the CS manager personally took over my case.
Manufacturers that have been around as long as MB definately depend on repeat business. If their motivation is so "they must make a profit or they lose their job", what do I care? (And why is that a bad thing?)

BTW-Case in point, Customer Campaigns: Before I picked up my 6 year old, out of warranty C280 with 77K mi. , MB Corp. payed the dealer $400 to replace the harmonic balancer. (And no, NHTSA was not theaten MB with recall) MB realized that the engineering of this part allowed premature break down hot climates. They certainly have no legal obligation to improve the engineering of a part so it lasts longer for the third owner. What motivated them to spend millions of dollars on a customer satisfaction campaign? Pure and simple-the expectation of a satisfied customer, leading to repeat business.

 

However you or anyone else thinks about this is fine with me. I'm not trying to change anyone's mind.

Someone working for the corporation was paid to pretend to care about you, make you "happy," and make you go away with the least cost. That was my point. No biggie.

 

[sm=exactly.gif]

 

Let's face it, every company has people paid to make you feel good or important. If they don't, they won't be in business long. I have been in business for over 20 years and I have people that I pay to make my customers feel that way and we mean it, so does Mercedes. You are obsolutely correct in your statement that all they care about is their bottom line, as every business does. But they have not gotten where they are without knowing that their bottom line comes from their customers.

The real issue is the dealership. They are nothing more than someone who posted a fixed amount of money in an escrow account to show that they were sufficiently capatilized and passed a dealership interview and approval process. If you have problems with a Mercedes (or any other car for that matter) and are not taken care of by the dealer, contact the regional manufacturers representative. The reality is that it is their product and reputation on the line and most automobile manufacturers are very protective of their reputation.

With no customers, there is no company!

 

Sounds logical. The market place deals with posers.

 

Hi,

The real questions are:

1) did you pay too much for the car?
If the car has a lemon title then that is going to affect the resale value of that car by upto 20-30% (I can't remember how much exactly). It's like buying a car with accident damage, maybe a frame/unibody, flood. You get a reduced price and a reduced piece of mind.

2) Is the car going to be a good car?
That all depends on the problems and if they have been fixed. For example you said the car was a mfg buy back. There are two main reasons why they buy it back. Some are not bad.
a) A customer buys the car and then has an electrical problem. Takes the car back and dealer says oh the part is on back order for 3 weeks. No one is going to wait three weeks on a brand new car - so the dealership buys the car back etc..

b)The other is lemon cars. A lemon that isn't a lemon is still worth less (see the above reason). In the best situation it was just a few items that the dealer repaired but a difficult customer and took longer to resolve then expected. The other is this car has problem and always will.

So what to do. Well you bought the car it's a little late, but I think you were smart with the extended warranty. Question is did you get it from a reliable warranty company? If so then that should protect you. Make sure they don't have some clause about "lemon" or buy back car issues not being covered.

BMW took a similair approach with their 745 serious that had such a problem with the I-drive. Many of them now come with a 7 yrs/100k warranty.

So if you plan on keeping the car - take good care of it and drive it into the ground :-)

Oh yea - one more thing - you are certainly suffering from buyers remorse. I buy cars weekly (BMW/MB/Volvos etc) and afterwards you are a bit sensitive about your puchases, no matter how good they turn out to be.