Battery replacement cost, £15,000!!!
Discussion
... Apologies if already posted.
This would really put me off buying a 2nd hand one of these.
https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-...
This would really put me off buying a 2nd hand one of these.
https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-...
Plenty of modern mercs crap their engines out too, and I'm sure the dealer would want the same (or more) to replace your 4 cylinder diesel rattler.
Complex machines cost a lot to fix when they break, this is not news.
Also, don't buy a Mercedes if you don't want early and expensive failures. They're s
t quality and they've been st for 25 years now, if you hadn't noticed that yet you need to start paying more attention.
Complex machines cost a lot to fix when they break, this is not news.
Also, don't buy a Mercedes if you don't want early and expensive failures. They're s
t quality and they've been st for 25 years now, if you hadn't noticed that yet you need to start paying more attention.I do find it bonkers though- 8 years of age and regardless of mileage to expect a £15k bill is just not right!
How did Mercedes themselves think this would ever be environmentally friendly- engineering a battery to last roughly 10 years max and expect that owner to foot a bill exceeding the car's value?
How did Mercedes themselves think this would ever be environmentally friendly- engineering a battery to last roughly 10 years max and expect that owner to foot a bill exceeding the car's value?
But on the other hand how long can manufactures stand by the product to work in perfect order??
Everyone swoons over Kia 7 year warranty.
The Merc is 8 years old.
You're taking a gamble at that age no matter what you buy.
This fella seems to expect his 8 year car to work as well as the day it was made, but not hearing much in that article about the warranty products he purchased to achieve this experience.
Everyone swoons over Kia 7 year warranty.
The Merc is 8 years old.
You're taking a gamble at that age no matter what you buy.
This fella seems to expect his 8 year car to work as well as the day it was made, but not hearing much in that article about the warranty products he purchased to achieve this experience.
Edited by The spinner of plates on Thursday 27th January 18:07
Leicesterdave said:
I do find it bonkers though- 8 years of age and regardless of mileage to expect a £15k bill is just not right!
How did Mercedes themselves think this would ever be environmentally friendly- engineering a battery to last roughly 10 years max and expect that owner to foot a bill exceeding the car's value?
They didn't give a damn. They cared about it getting out of the warranty, and they cared about getting it out of a 2nd 3 year finance cycle perhaps, but why should they care about the 3rd owner at 8 years old, he was never their customer in the first place, and none of their actual customers keep their cars long enough to care what a load of crap they really are.How did Mercedes themselves think this would ever be environmentally friendly- engineering a battery to last roughly 10 years max and expect that owner to foot a bill exceeding the car's value?
All of these more recent German cars are the same, you only have to spend a bit of time working on them to realise that durability past 6 ish years is simply not a major consideration.
Leicesterdave said:
I do find it bonkers though- 8 years of age and regardless of mileage to expect a £15k bill is just not right!
It's not hugely uncommon for engines to fail at this sort of age resulting in a similar sort of bill. Especially in German cars!Of course if you buy a hybrid, I suppose you double the risk of a big bill.
There's thousands of gen-2 Prius, coming up to 20 years old, many on well over 200k miles, still on their original batteries. I'd have serious reservations about buying any German car these days, let alone one this complex.
Edited by kambites on Thursday 27th January 18:36
The spinner of plates said:
SidewaysSi said:
Not surprising really...new car with new tech trying to save the planet costs the owner a shedload.
Keep it simple and keep smiling.
Tend to agree, early adoption costs. Keep it simple and keep smiling.
But... plenty of 10+ yr Toyota / Lexus rolling around.
The spinner of plates said:
This fella seems to expect his 8 year car to work as well as the day it was made, but not hearing much in that article about the warranty products he purchased to achieve this experience.
Interesting point there about a warranty; would an aftermarket warranty cover a new battery in a case such as this? Dracoro said:
The spinner of plates said:
SidewaysSi said:
Not surprising really...new car with new tech trying to save the planet costs the owner a shedload.
Keep it simple and keep smiling.
Tend to agree, early adoption costs. Keep it simple and keep smiling.
But... plenty of 10+ yr Toyota / Lexus rolling around.
Toyota/Lexus builds cars for the used market, not the new one. Which is all well and good if you’re happy buying cars that are a generation behind the competition.
There's nothing unusual about this case, plenty of similar reported cases on various fora and not restricted to MB. I think a lot of people thought that if (when) the hybrid battery fails, the car would work under its petrol or diesel engine; sadly, not the case and another example of the hidden costs of 'green' policies.
The spinner of plates said:
But on the other hand how long can manufactures stand by the product to work in perfect order??
Everyone swoons over Kia 7 year warranty.
The Merc is 8 years old.
You're taking a gamble at that age no matter what you buy.
This fella seems to expect his 8 year car to work as well as the day it was made, but not hearing much in that article about the warranty products he purchased to achieve this experience.
I don't think anyone with half a brain expects an 8 year old car to not have an element of reliability risk. However whilst most would expect an ICE engine change performed by a dealer within the warranty period, this rapidly becomes blurry with dealer jobs becoming specialist jobs, non-dealer garages and even those of us who just roll up our sleeves and crack on ourselves as the cars get older and worth less.Everyone swoons over Kia 7 year warranty.
The Merc is 8 years old.
You're taking a gamble at that age no matter what you buy.
This fella seems to expect his 8 year car to work as well as the day it was made, but not hearing much in that article about the warranty products he purchased to achieve this experience.
Edited by The spinner of plates on Thursday 27th January 18:07
The major difference is that 8 year old or even 15 year old engines generally do work almost as well as when they were new and they tend to continue to work well until they're broken. With the exception of rarer performance engines, we could pick up a 40,000 miler from a breaker car for much, much less than £15,000 and there would be consumables on top and either their would or wouldn't be labour but it won't come to even half of £15,000.
Batteries however get crap quite progressively with both milage and age. You will, one might assume, be able to get batteries from crashed cars at some point in the not too distant future. This might make these BEVs less of a financial liability for later-life owners. The question remains how usable are these second hand batteries going to be and can these cars be economically repaired?
If these cars cannot be economically repaired later in life, then very serious questions about whether these cars should be permitted to be built and sold need to be asked, since their reason for existing is that they're supposed to be better for the environment. They have a heavy carbon footprint to build though so they can only help the environment if the vast majority of them survive in a useable capacity a very long time. They have to reach late life and high milage before they net any real benefit. They need to be economically viable for the late life users if that's going to happen.
Edited by jamieduff1981 on Thursday 27th January 19:06
This probably why Tesla only warranty the battery for 8 years i.e. its useful life.
Maybe the owner could take the car to Iceland and blow it up with a load of plastic explosive like the Tesla recently.
The real shocker is the labour rate of £200 an hour in Leicester.
I think we are now starting to get a better picture of future EV values, 8+ years old, uneconomic repair, fit only for the scrappy.
Not exactly environmentally friendly is it.
Maybe the owner could take the car to Iceland and blow it up with a load of plastic explosive like the Tesla recently.
The real shocker is the labour rate of £200 an hour in Leicester.
I think we are now starting to get a better picture of future EV values, 8+ years old, uneconomic repair, fit only for the scrappy.
Not exactly environmentally friendly is it.
Does not seem too bad really, Lithium Batteries are expensive.
Have recently been fitting a hybrid system into NHS Breast screen trailer's.
These 25V 200AH Lithium batteries are £2500+vat each, so £10K per trailer just on batteries.
So £15K for specialist/ purpose made batteries seems decent value.
Have recently been fitting a hybrid system into NHS Breast screen trailer's.
These 25V 200AH Lithium batteries are £2500+vat each, so £10K per trailer just on batteries.
So £15K for specialist/ purpose made batteries seems decent value.
Here you go: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255243456996?epid=15039...
£800 buy it now.
In other news, a main dealer will also ask you over £1000 for a replacement alloy wheel.
£800 buy it now.
In other news, a main dealer will also ask you over £1000 for a replacement alloy wheel.
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