Do I maintain MBFSH on my 7 year old C Class?

[J2Bs]

So.... my wife has a 7 year old C Class estate. It's gutless, but the pretty glass roof AMG model.

We bought it with only one owner and MBFSH. It's got 88k on the clock and due for a proper service.

We are due to sell the car early next year as my wife gets a company car. Is it worth (for resale value) keeping up with the Merc service history, or just ask my nice guys down the road to do it?

Merc have been less than helpful when we tried to book the car in and expect £50 for a loan car, or £20 to book it in for a specific time and wait in their lounge for an hour or 2!!!

We have 2 small kids and it's a proper faff dealing with the annoying dealers and their less than 'customer first' approach. They're also 20+ mins drive away.

I'd welcome your thoughts on if it's best to keep with MB to help the resale and marketability, or go to the nice guys down the road??

[interstellar]

Difficult one this as once you sell it you will never really know whether the service choice you made helped or hindered the sale.

I would get it done at Merc but negotiate hard. If I were buying it a full merc history with 90k on it would make me pick up the phone and would show me you valued the car by paying a premium to have it looked after.

Mercedes game with charging for loan cars and drinking coffee is ridiculous, I know as we recently had my wife's GLA serviced and it's comical. I don't even like coffee!!

I asked for a discount as I thought the price was expensive, once discounted I didn't play the game of loan car or wait in the lounge, just did drop and go. Lastly once discounted I asked to supply my own oil. They discounted the service by a further £80!!! I ordered the oil on eBay for £28 from Mercedes Newcastle and let it in the boot for them.

Ridiculous story but ended up paying £180 instead of £275 so it was worth it.

[J2Bs]

Thank you, very helpful. I frustrates me that MB have such poor customer experience. I like the idea of taking your own oil - will have to see what oil our C Class takes. How did you negotiate, and was there a specific point they took on board to offer you the money off?

[Mr E]

Our merc was 4 years old with 40k on it and after a single phone call to MB enquiring about a service it went straight to the local specialist.

[MKnight702]

I've been in two minds about this with my CLS. However, my local(ish) dealer does a free drop off and pick up taxi service with the local shopping centre so my wife takes the car I then gets dropped in town.
I find the service cost much more reasonable than my previous Volvo and it gets done less often. One of the benefits for me is the free Mercedes breakdown cover that I get with the continued main dealer servicing, if I take it elsewhere I would only have to take out cover with someone else and that would eat the savings, especially as I do 18k a year. I may try the oil trick though.

[interstellar]

MKnight702 said:

I've been in two minds about this with my CLS. However, my local(ish) dealer does a free drop off and pick up taxi service with the local shopping centre so my wife takes the car I then gets dropped in town.
I find the service cost much more reasonable than my previous Volvo and it gets done less often. One of the benefits for me is the free Mercedes breakdown cover that I get with the continued main dealer servicing, if I take it elsewhere I would only have to take out cover with someone else and that would eat the savings, especially as I do 18k a year. I may try the oil trick though.

Blimey, If our dealer dropped my wife in town my service would cost me thousands!!

[interstellar]

J2Bs said:

Thank you, very helpful. I frustrates me that MB have such poor customer experience. I like the idea of taking your own oil - will have to see what oil our C Class takes. How did you negotiate, and was there a specific point they took on board to offer you the money off?

As soon as they said £275 on the phone I simply said it wasn't competitive and I wanted a discount, don't ask you don't get. Once she came back with a bit off the price it was then discounted because I was going to drop it and go (get this though, at this stage I did ask why they would charge me £20 if I waited for it and was told it was to basically sit on the sofa, watch the tv and drink coffee. I asked if I walked round the showroom and bought a £100k SL63 AMG would they take the £20 off and she said no. I said in that case I'll catch a £10 taxi to Porsche instead!!)

Once I got the best price I chucked the oil line in and get a further £80 off. Not rocket science but I am not giving my money away.

[MaxNg]

Apologies for being slightly off-topic. Two questions:

I have a 63 plate E220 which is booked in for a service in October. i asked the customer service lady about updating the satnav and was told that, as the car is under warranty, it can be done at no cost BUT, that it could take up to 4 hours for the process.

Has anybody here had a satnav update and did it really take 4 hours?

I'm also thinking of replacing this car with an AMG version in the hope of slightly sharper handling and have arranged an extended test drive while the maintenance is being done. Has anybody made the move from E class to E class AMG?

[s70rmp]

Had a map upgrade in a c220 coupe and I had to leave it for the day with them
It's a slow process

[Sheepshanks]

J2Bs said:

So.... my wife has a 7 year old C Class estate. It's gutless, but the pretty glass roof AMG model.

We bought it with only one owner and MBFSH. It's got 88k on the clock and due for a proper service.

When you say a "proper service" do you know what it actually needs? If it's 7yrs old the service should be very basic, if it's 8 yrs old then it'll need everything doing. It's impossible to compare prices unless you understand the scope of work that's being quoted.

Have you looked at MyService? https://www.mymercedesservice.co.uk/home
Try a few dealers on there for pricing - my local dealer is in the Inchcape Group and much as I like to moan about them, their pricing on older cars isn't bad. I've never paid for a courtesy car. With dealer groups especially, it can be hard to get to someone who will negotiate, but emailing the local dealer seems to work for me.

Many dealers offer discounts on older cars - ask. You could even just have the 7+ Value service for (I think) £149 although the snag there is the dealer might not stamp the service book and it doesn't renew the Mobilo assistance cover.

[Mr E]

MaxN said:

I'm also thinking of replacing this car with an AMG version in the hope of slightly sharper handling and have arranged an extended test drive while the maintenance is being done. Has anybody made the move from E class to E class AMG?

AMG sport trim line with skirts and a slightly revised suspension setup, or full fat fire spitting AMG loonie wagon?

[MaxNg]

Mr E said:

AMG sport trim line with skirts and a slightly revised suspension setup, or full fat fire spitting AMG loonie wagon?

Sadly, not the full-fat loony wagon, just the AMG trim line! Have spoken to the sales guy who has agreed to let me have a test drive while the service is happening.

[svracers]

Iv just been quoted over £660 to give my 2012 Mercedes CLS 350CDI AMG a service through Mercedes Myservice!! The car has done 50000 miles. Are they having a laugh??!!

[Sheepshanks]

svracers said:

Iv just been quoted over £660 to give my 2012 Mercedes CLS 350CDI AMG a service through Mercedes Myservice!! The car has done 50000 miles. Are they having a laugh??!!

Again - what's included in that? 4yrs old (assuming average mileage) is when "everything" needs to be changed. The car has twin air filters and the diesel filter with its water monitor on the later cars is expensive. Brake fluid is every 2yrs too.

If all that is included then it's not an outrageous price bearing in mind main dealers costs etc etc.

It can't need an ATF change though - that would have taken the quote to over a grand.

If the car needs an ATF change at 5yrs and you're going to keep it then it might be worth looking at ServiceCare - it's pretty clear that MB has leaned on dealers to maintain high PAYG pricing so as to make ServiceCare look attractive.

Otherwise, find a good indie.

[svracers]

Yeah think il be finding an indie. I dont mind paying a reasonable amount but other quotes iv recieved have been nearer £300 from a good indie.

[Sheepshanks]

svracers said:

Yeah think il be finding an indie. I dont mind paying a reasonable amount but other quotes iv recieved have been nearer £300 from a good indie.

Make sure of what that includes - if the car does need the "everything" service then £300 is stretching it, especially if that includes VAT.

Be easy to get the car in, and add £250 for the fuel and air filter, and brake fluid - it's what the dealers used to do before MB had the MyService system, but that system must put loads of people off as can throw out insane prices.

[svracers]

Yeah dont worry im doing my research. Just had a heartattack when i saw the ptice on Mercedes Service. Id ideally like to keep the serving full MBSH as my cls 350 is only 3 1/2 years old 👍 Cheers

[ZX10R NIN]

svracers said:

Yeah dont worry im doing my research. Just had a heartattack when i saw the ptice on Mercedes Service. Id ideally like to keep the serving full MBSH as my cls 350 is only 3 1/2 years old ?? Cheers

At 50k I'd be getting the transmission fluid changed as the rule is every 40k to be on the safe side.

[hilly10]

I bought the two year service package for my 64 plate E220 cost £720 inc VAT if I paid separate they would charge £1200 inc VAT Bloody mad prices for very little work

[Sheepshanks]

hilly10 said:

I bought the two year service package for my 64 plate E220 cost £720 inc VAT if I paid separate they would charge £1200 inc VAT Bloody mad prices for very little work

Unless the car's done enough miles to warrant an ATF change (think it's 75,000 miles or 5yrs now) then what they've done is massively exaggerated the PAYG price to make the service package look almost reasonable.