Went to the big MB meet in Irvine yesterday, there had to be 300+ cars there. I ran into an MB dealer mechanic and learned the inside secrets. The mechanics are encouraged to find even the slightest things wrong, for example, a mechanic may note that there's some seepage at the head gasket even though it's normal and happens on every car. They don't feel it's dishonest because they are not saying to fix it, just that it's happening or they'll say the brakes are 20% worn (not 20% left, but 20% worn). The inside word for this is a "safety check". It's the SA's responsibility to turn that information into as much revenue as possible and sometimes it's legit, many times it's out and out fraud. So if an SA can turn a $50 repair into $3,500 repair by saying you have 20% left on your brakes when they are in fact have 80% left or you need a head gasket for no reason, they get more bonus.

This happened to me at MB of Laguna Niguel. Our SLK230 was leaking oil from the oil drain plug, turned out the copper crush washer was reused and eventually leaked, a great independent mechanic in S.D. fixed it for the cost of an oil change. The dealer found $3,455 worth of work my car needed including head gasket, shocks, brakes, belt, etc, ironically, none of which would have fixed my problem. I took it back a week later to a different SA and specifically told him my drain plug is leaking. After 2 days and not even looking at the drain plug (I put putty over it to slow down the leak and it was still there afterwards), they told me a I needed a new oil pan for $865, ironically, this mechanic didn't find one thing wrong that the first mechanic found. This was total out and out fraud, for example, the brakes have about 1/2" of pad material left, both inner and outer pads.

So you may think, just get the extended warranty, then they have to fix everything they say is wrong, no surprises. Not really, he said that cars that come in for extended warranty repair (or any warranty repair) many times are returned to the customer with no work done because it's not as profitable. So he'll get a car in with an intermittent radio problem for example, they never actually look at the radio, they hold the car for the day and say they couldn't duplicate the problem. Or they get a check engine light and just reset it and they are done. So you see, an extended warranty is for the most part, useless.

I'm not saying don't trust your dealer, just verify that any recommended repairs are truly necessary if it sounds out of line. The SA's are their most profitable salesmen, these are professional people trying to sell you something. They are not mechanics and their only interest is commissions.

 

i agree with you as i said in my topic SERVICE PRICE??????????? i paid 677 Euro's. anywaiz, he also founda 1.000euro's icluding gstetc worth ofproblems on my car. he showed mesome of them by lifting the car up on the platform. some others i could tell ifhe was bull****ing me or not. something about a shockabsorber on the strngwheeletc.

 

Actually, the steering damper is a common problem on the SLK, it's a 5 minute repair (2 bolts) and my mechanic charged me $29 for the part. Ask for the old part if you are unsure. Once out, you can tell if they are defective if you can easily move the plunger in and out with your hand. A new one, like a good shock absorber will be very difficult to move in and out by hand, it will move really slow. It's not critical to have a good one, the car will behave the same unless you have rough roads and you may feel some kickback on the steering wheel. Also, it protects the more expensive suspension components by buffering the shocks from road bumps.

Cheers

 

thanx....

 

being a factory trained and ASE certified mercedes benz service tech i am forced to ask the question...
What kind of a shady **** hole place are you taking your car to get worked on?? because where i work that kind of **** does not happen. we dont fix things that aren't broken or make unjust repairs. and to correct you on you "dealer bashing statment" oil seepage or seeping is not normal. for no reson should a gasket leak any ammount of fluid. nor should a silicone seal.

and to reply to your laguna dealer experience, it totally falls into the tech's hands to "upsell" you repairs. your car probably does need all that work. the tech who found all those things is probably a very experienced tech and knows what to look for on your particular model car. and the reason the other shop didn't tell you about all that stuff was probably because the tech was busy and didn't have time to look over your whole car, or they figured you for a "cheap-o" by the condition of your evidently poorly maintained vehicle, or you told them outright you didn't want to spend any money.

i'd also like to say that this inspection you think is so evil, devient, and dishonest is called a saftey inspection for a reason. brakes, belt, head gasket, shocks...all either saftey items or items that could leave you broken down on the side of the road. and you deserve to be ripped off if you actually buy brakes when someone tells you "they're 20% worn" becausse if you cant figure out that that means there's 80% left your an idiot.

and for your example of the tech's that just say they couldn't verify the problem, well they're screwing themselves because then it turns into a RE-CHECK repair, which the tech now has to fix for free with a shop foreman working with him. and if the tech knows what he is doing waranty repairs can be MORE profitable than customer pay repairs. i'd say 3 out of 5 times i make more hours on waranty than customer pay. and waranty is guarenteed hours instead of having to deal with paranoid "the dealership is full of criminals" people who play 21 questions when all i wanna do is repair their damn car and pull the next job and move on.

 

i hate people stereo-typing dealerships. yes its a little more expensive, but you get 1000 percent beter quality work with a parts and labor waranty.

 

thank you dr. benz,
i also am a trained factory tech for mb, btw we are not taught to say 20% worn, i write on all RO's i get how much % is left, and at my dealership attached to all ro's is a safety inspection, we fill it out with what we see.
the service advisors are not the ones who inspect your car so what we see is what they try to sell and seeing as they do not share the money why would we do unjust work for our pay when we can get another car in and out.
as to your can't duplicate concern we dont leave then outside and say npf. i had to go throught 250 start up so i could verify that the radio did not come on. turns out didnt have to look at the radio it was the sdar screwin up.
and dr benz is right on warranty, yes the book says longer times for cp stuff but since more stuff is covered under warranty we can get more, and also because customers like you dont look at our safety sheets and deny all our reccomendations so we get paid less