A45 build quality rears its head!
Discussion
I'd convinced myself that my A45 was clear of all the chatter about rattling trim and loose panels...... until I took a drive down to my local MB for the Performance Tour thingy they had going on.
The weather was shocking on Saturday and there was standing water on many local roads. The Tour was a flop and i angrily left the dealership having achieved nothing but clocking up 30 minutes of standing around alone and slightly damp from the walk from my car. As i left the car park i had to negotiate a flooded area before the main carriageway that was about 10" deep in my estimation. I ploughed through it, possibly slightly quicker than normal due to my mood but by no means was it excessive. I got through the flood ok but as soon as i turned on to the dual carriageway there was an awful grinding noise from under the front of the car.
Long story short:
I limped back to MB following the 2 mile 1-way system and managed to get a tech from the workshop to get my ill car up on to a ramp. What we found was:
The undertray was hanging down from just in front of the exhaust. It appears to only be made of a thick felt type material and had ripped from the plastic poppers that hold it to the car.
On top of that the arch liners were popped out from behind the arch lips! They aren't secured by anything at all it seems!
The passenger side front brake duct was also hanging down and was being dragged under the car. Shockingly they are only attached to the wishbones by 2 x cable ties!! The force of the water had broken one of the cable ties and had left the plastic box-like thing trailing next to the wheel.
The tech was good enough to cable tie the duct back on and managed to fashion a cable tie support for the ripped under tray but i left less than happy!
When i got home i asked myself a whole bunch of questions:
Why is a £50k car held together by cable ties? Why is the under tray made from felt? Why is the trim just placed behind the arches and not secured in place?
More importantly, what if the duct had come away on a faster stretch of road or on the motorway and had damaged the brakes? It's a fairly sturdy bit of plastic and could easily have got caught in the brakes, wheel or suspension. What of my son and / or wife was in the car with me and something had happened? What else have i not seen?
I've written to MB customer services as i feel the car is unfit for purpose. Your thoughts? Ive never had a car where there have been such poor fitting used!
The weather was shocking on Saturday and there was standing water on many local roads. The Tour was a flop and i angrily left the dealership having achieved nothing but clocking up 30 minutes of standing around alone and slightly damp from the walk from my car. As i left the car park i had to negotiate a flooded area before the main carriageway that was about 10" deep in my estimation. I ploughed through it, possibly slightly quicker than normal due to my mood but by no means was it excessive. I got through the flood ok but as soon as i turned on to the dual carriageway there was an awful grinding noise from under the front of the car.
Long story short:
I limped back to MB following the 2 mile 1-way system and managed to get a tech from the workshop to get my ill car up on to a ramp. What we found was:
The undertray was hanging down from just in front of the exhaust. It appears to only be made of a thick felt type material and had ripped from the plastic poppers that hold it to the car.
On top of that the arch liners were popped out from behind the arch lips! They aren't secured by anything at all it seems!
The passenger side front brake duct was also hanging down and was being dragged under the car. Shockingly they are only attached to the wishbones by 2 x cable ties!! The force of the water had broken one of the cable ties and had left the plastic box-like thing trailing next to the wheel.
The tech was good enough to cable tie the duct back on and managed to fashion a cable tie support for the ripped under tray but i left less than happy!
When i got home i asked myself a whole bunch of questions:
Why is a £50k car held together by cable ties? Why is the under tray made from felt? Why is the trim just placed behind the arches and not secured in place?
More importantly, what if the duct had come away on a faster stretch of road or on the motorway and had damaged the brakes? It's a fairly sturdy bit of plastic and could easily have got caught in the brakes, wheel or suspension. What of my son and / or wife was in the car with me and something had happened? What else have i not seen?
I've written to MB customer services as i feel the car is unfit for purpose. Your thoughts? Ive never had a car where there have been such poor fitting used!
We've got an A Class and I think the build quality is really poor. I've been saying that from the beginning.
I think the A Class has been done on the cheap IMO. I can't wait to get my wife out of her's and although we are looking at a new C Class or 3 series for her I know it will be significantly better than her A220.
We've had non stop error messages recently e.g. service light comes on but 3000 miles until a service... Tyre pressure warning but they are all fine... mutliple CEL's putting the car into limp mode for days on end and when we take it to MB they say nothing is wrong and delete it.
I think the A Class has been done on the cheap IMO. I can't wait to get my wife out of her's and although we are looking at a new C Class or 3 series for her I know it will be significantly better than her A220.
We've had non stop error messages recently e.g. service light comes on but 3000 miles until a service... Tyre pressure warning but they are all fine... mutliple CEL's putting the car into limp mode for days on end and when we take it to MB they say nothing is wrong and delete it.
ecain63 said:
But also at the risk of compromising safety in my opinion. Why would you cable tie a brake duct for christ sake? The repercussions should it bounce into the wheel or damage / jam the brakes don't bear thinking about.
Everything else aside, there is no way a bit of plastic is going to be damaging / jamming your brakes. I feel you are overestimating the strength of plastic and underestimating the strength of metal.The only way it could be dangerous is if it somehow managed to damage the brake line, but the chance of that happening is incalculably small.
IndyH said:
Disagree with your comment SFO, the a45 amg is easily upwards of 40k with even a few options, so its fair to see a reasonable amount of money has been spent! Having said that, 10" of water is a decent amount
+1 The A45 is silly expensive and the non AMG cars are hardly 'for the masses' low cost. That would be a Focus or a Kia C'eed etcSheepshanks said:
I very much doubt that MB claim one of the purposes of the car is to be driven at speed through 10" of water.
Where did I write 'at speed'? I was probably doing 15mph or there abouts. Have you never hit standing water on the motorway?
Aside from that, would you be happy that brake ducts, or any parts for that matter are only cable tied to your £50k car? Would you be happy buying a new car that had cable tied wing mirrors?
Edited by ecain63 on Monday 10th November 17:39
ecain63 said:
Aside from that, would you be happy that brake ducts, or any parts for that matter are only cable tied to your £50k car? Would you be happy buying a new car that had cable tied wing mirrors?
My car is held together with cable ties, but if I'd spent 50k on one then cable ties is taking the piss.Robb F said:
ecain63 said:
Aside from that, would you be happy that brake ducts, or any parts for that matter are only cable tied to your £50k car? Would you be happy buying a new car that had cable tied wing mirrors?
My car is held together with cable ties, but if I'd spent 50k on one then cable ties is taking the piss.The question i need to ask the customer service rep is: would they be happy owning a car worth near £50k that had items cable ties to it? And then, would they be 100% happy having their children ride in the car in bad weather on a fast road? I think the honest answer will determine the solution.
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