Getting Mercedes warranty claim honoured

[Norfolkandchance]

My 2006 Mercedes B200 Turbo has only covered 60k miles but is suffering from rust along the door bottoms of all 4 doors. It is now starting to come through the doors to be visible from the outside.

A couple of years ago, when I first noticed rust on the insides of the door, I took it into my main dealer (Robinsons in Norwich) who literally laughed at me when I suggested it shouldn't be rusting at 8 years and 30k miles old. (He also explained that modern Mercedes weren't very well built!) He filled in forms and took photos and sent them off to head office but the claim was denied.

The rust has now worsened so that it is starting to show on the outside of the doors so I have checked the warranty again. This is rust from the inside of the door - where the outer skin is folded around the inner structure - I believe should be covered by the 30 year warranty which states that "In the unlikely event of the bodywork or underbody rusting through from the inside, this will be repaired by a Mercedes Benz Service Centre free of charge for labour and materials." It does say that each time the car is serviced by a main dealer the warranty is extended for 2 years. It was serviced by them at the time I reported it and a year later so is within 2 years of the last service. The reason for rejection last year was that it wasn't from the inside and that, anyway, it only applied to the "chassis" as the man called it. I wasn't allowed to see the paperwork.

A search on here and my own experience suggests that MB are reluctant to repair rust. When I first tried my car was eight years old and that was therefore just outside the "good will" period. But I spoke to someone the other day who had been successful with a 10 year old car so I thought I'd try again. He did it by starting proceedings in small claims.

I've got to go in and take the documentation with me but is there anything you can think of to strengthen my case on the basis that it is better to get it agreed than be rejected and try to appeal.

Thanks

[Norfolkandchance]

Thanks for the reply. I see that you would have a very good case. However, the wording of the warranty is the same, regardless of owners / age etc.

[Norfolkandchance]

paintman said:

Usual warranty re corrosion is perforation of a panel - i.e. it has rotted through from the other side of the metal & you now have a hole in the panel.
If it's just spreading from damage on the same side of the metal - bottoms of doors esp on low cars are frequently scraped on high kerbs etc, done it myself & see it as a SMART repairer, or spreading from stone chip damage & I see a lot of that too - then that isn't perforation & wouldn't be covered by the warranty.

Any amount on this issue with MB on the web & this is a thread from PH from 7 years ago!: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=937...

Edited by paintman on Wednesday 11th January 14:34

Thanks, I had done a search. I was asking specific questions about evidence and arguing cases for the second time which is why I bought it back up.

In my case, the corrosion is visible from the outside of the car but clearly has its origins on the inside of the car. It is not from damage to the paint from scrapes or stone chips - it starts about 8mm above the bottom of the door and runs the whole length of the door, though it is only coming through in patches. I suspect it is from water running down the inside of the panel, having got past the seal at the bottom of the window, and collecting at the bottom.

[Norfolkandchance]

I think one of the things I will do is get written explanation as to why not honoured (assuming it isn't), so I have something to contest.

[Norfolkandchance]

Thanks for the replies.

The rust is on the inside of the doors where the outer door skin joins the inner structure, having folded round the bottom of the door. Only a few sports have come through to the outside on each door. The whole length of each of the 4 doors is effected. There is no other rust on the car that I know of, certainly not on the outer skin. It is, in my opinion, too consistent a pattern to have been caused by damage. You would have to damage the bottom of the door, from the inside, on all 4 doors without causing any damage anywhere else.

[Norfolkandchance]

Monkeylegend said:

Does your car have a full Mercedes Mercedes service history?

I have always found Robinsons (BSE) to be very good re any warranty claims, but these have to be approved by Mercedes. If there is a gap in the SH, ie not all Mercedes for example, or missing or late services, Mercedes might try to wriggle out of it.

It would be worth speaking to their service Manager if you already haven't, sometimes the guys on the service desk need a bit of pushing.

It doesn't have FMSH. It has some. But the warranty in the service book doesn't mention the need for it. I'm not asking for good will, I don't think, I'm asking them to honour the statement.

[Norfolkandchance]

So, is there a document, that presumably came with the car and I no longer have, that trumps the wording in the service book, which makes no mention of service history other than it has to have been serviced in the past 2 years (as I read it)?

"In the unlikely event of the bodywork or underbody rusting through from the inside, this will be repaired by a Mercedes Benz Service Centre free of charge for labour and materials."

[Norfolkandchance]

paintman said:

Norfolkandchance said:

So, is there a document, that presumably came with the car and I no longer have, that trumps the wording in the service book, which makes no mention of service history other than it has to have been serviced in the past 2 years (as I read it)?

"In the unlikely event of the bodywork or underbody rusting through from the inside, this will be repaired by a Mercedes Benz Service Centre free of charge for labour and materials."

As said earlier, this means perforation of the panel not rust spreading across the surface of a panel.
Your description of the issue appears to say that corrosion started from the seam where the outer skin meets the inner face of the door. If that is the case and it has spread down the inwards facing part of the skin then around the edges and onto the outer face it is on the same side of the skin. If there are no holes in the skin then MB will continue to reject it as it hasn't rusted through.
If the word 'through' was missing you MIGHT have an argument as it has spread from the inside of the car.
Keep at them though, you never know!

Edited by paintman on Sunday 15th January 12:43

its not gone round the edges - the actual bottom of the door, the crease of the folded part is ok. There is about 10mm of outer skin wrapped round the door and folded up. The corrosion is about 8mm up from the very bottom, on the inside, and is starting to show on the outside, again about 8-10mm from the bottom, where it is starting to rust through. It isn't perforated though, though it might if someone jabbed a screw driver into it.

[Norfolkandchance]

The Mad Monk said:

Norfolkandchance said:

A couple of years ago, when I first noticed rust on the insides of the door, I took it into my main dealer (Robinsons in Norwich) who literally laughed at me when I suggested it shouldn't be rusting at 8 years and 30k miles old. (He also explained that modern Mercedes weren't very well built!) He filled in forms and took photos and sent them off to head office but the claim was denied.

If your claim is refused again, it would cost very little to take MB and/or its dealer to the Small Claims Court. It would cost them a bit of money to defend it. Surely it is a contract. Offered and accepted. Binding on both parties. CAB might be helpful.

It does seem that this '30 year warranty' is not worth the paper it's written on - by MB anyway.

Since we are resurrecting: My problem (as OP) is that I can't claim until it has been perforated - this is the wording about rust in the owners manual. Its only rusting very slowly (the car spends most of its life in a garage) so it will be several years before there are actual holes. I've been monitoring it for over 5 years and I still don't think its got to a point where a casual observer would notice. Its ironic - I asked Mercedes to stop it rusting but they can't react until after it has rusted more.

Truth is that I don't suppose we'll have the car when the rust becomes noticeable. Even though its only done about 70k miles, it is 11 years old. If the rust does become noticeable, and I care about the car enough, then I could claim then or do something about repairing it. Its never going to be valuable or worth a great deal of investment so I could rub it down a fill it if needed.

I think I'll try and slow it down by painting something on the inside of the door bottoms, even though this would presumably invalidate the warranty.

Atom: If you want to keep the car I'd go and see a body work or classic specialist and ask them how much to make it look smart and slow the rust right down. They spend their lives stopping cars rust. Then let me know how you get on, please.

Edited by Norfolkandchance on Tuesday 6th March 15:55