Mercedes - Main or Indy? West of Scotland

[PD9]

Hi all,

I recently entered the world of Mercedes ownership through the purchase of a CLS320. Brilliant so far and I have thoroughly enjoyed driving the car over the past few months. I'm quite keen to get the car in for a service and 'once over' to ensure everything is in good condition underneath. I'd also like to get the VIN checked against the recall history of the CLS range if this is possible.

Through research I've noted a few places people would recommend; mostly Merparts in Port Glasgow. I did visit Mercedes Benz of Glasgow in the City to see if I could get a copy of the service history that is in the MB system emailed to me; it was never passed on after the branch taking all my details - not the best customer care.. especially as a new owner into the world of MB and potential future customer.

Is it 'worth' taking the car to a main dealer for service / maintenance or Independent? Would be good to hear the feedback over both from MB owners. Main Dealers in vicinity: Glasgow and Giffnock.

[RBrown]

I can't speak on Indy experience but can on both Giffnock and City Centre MB service. I have been MB customer for nearly ten years. I find Giffnock are better at sales and City Centre better at servicing and warranty work.

It probably depends on the age of your car and if you want the cover of using MB service rather than Indy. You could get health check done by MB and then decide on a good Indy?

[PD9]

RBrown said:

I can't speak on Indy experience but can on both Giffnock and City Centre MB service. I have been MB customer for nearly ten years. I find Giffnock are better at sales and City Centre better at servicing and warranty work.

It probably depends on the age of your car and if you want the cover of using MB service rather than Indy. You could get health check done by MB and then decide on a good Indy?

Thanks RB, what does the Health Check involve and is there an associated cost? I guess this would enable me to weigh up the options on the service they (City Centre) would provide. I think a Health Check is a good idea.

[RBrown]

Sorry, I would only be guessing how much it would cost. Probably best to phone them up and explain you just want an overview of the car. Who knows, they may do it for nothing if they think they may get more work out of it. Once you get the report, you can decide what to do. Good luck!

[PD9]

Good man, I'll drop in and have a look. One more query; what MB forums would you suggest?

[RBrown]

I find Pistonheeads the best - also use the "Scotland" page. I am not overly mechanically minded so find I get good responses to any queries.

[Sheepshanks]

Try either (or both) of these:

http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/

http://forums.mercedesclub.org.uk/index.php

..both are pretty active.

[anonymous-user]

I've owned various Mercs over the last 10 years and had them into most of the central Scotland dealers in an aim to find a good one. Firstly, Glasgow City, Giffnock, Ayr and Hamilton are all now Stratstone, but experiences vary:

Glasgow City - forget to reset service indicator and/or stamp book, dinged a door whilst they had a car, needed 2/3 attempts to fix various faults on different cars, really uncompetitive pricing for tyres, hard to get through to by telephone, limited/cramped customer parking, rotten tiny Vauxhall courtesy cars, most convenient for me but I'll never be back.

Giffnock and Hamilton - night and day compared to above, have always kept me in an equivalent car (I'm not fussed for servicing but for warranty work where it's not my fault I always feel it's nice to be given something at least of the same size), have fixed faults first time with no drama.

I have also used these guys and will do again for any additional work (that doesn't need a stamp in the book to keep MB happy whilst it's still under warranty) - http://www.mercedescarspecialists.com/

Hope this helps.

[Dryce]

PD9 said:

Is it 'worth' taking the car to a main dealer for service / maintenance or Independent? Would be good to hear the feedback over both from MB owners. Main Dealers in vicinity: Glasgow and Giffnock.

My feeling was that the main dealers offered little benefit unless there were likely to be issue that related to goodwill.

We used T J O'Neill in Carntyne for our MBs and I would go back again if we have MBs in the future.

We've used http://www.prestigecarspecialists.com/ for BMW - they also do MB - and have been quite happy with them too. They're a bit bigger and shinier than T J O'Neill but not so big and shiny as a dealer.

[anonymous-user]

Dryce said:

We've used http://www.prestigecarspecialists.com/ for BMW - they also do MB - and have been quite happy with them too. They're a bit bigger and shinier than T J O'Neill but not so big and shiny as a dealer.

Thats 2 recommendations then, just noticed they are the same place as I linked above, just different web addresses pointing to the same site/firm - just though Id add that in

[mischaRS]

Best is Paul Mazzoni at Merparts Port Glasgow..very good

[E39 M5]

Western Mercedes Edinburgh

Always looked after my old E63 and now my current one.

[RogerTheDodger]

I cannot rate T J O'Neill in Glasgow highly enough. They are very fair and very honest. I took my SLK to them because the front suspension was knocking. They identified that one arm and three bushes needed replacing. They also advised me that both front shockers were worn but still perfectly serviceable and didn't need replacing at the moment. They could easily have charged me more by telling me it needed more work but they didn't. They also identified that the timing chain was badly worn. I'd heard a noise when starting the car and thought it was just a noisy starter motor but it was the chain on its last legs. Neither of the garages that the car had been to over the last six months mentioned the problem even though the noise had been there then. If the chain had snapped it would have wrecked the cylinder head or the whole engine. They replaced the chain and checked the sprockets and now the engine is silent. The whole job cost me less than I expected and they even washed it for me! I won't be taking my Merc anywhere else in future. 5 Star Service.

[david mcc]

James at Benzcar in Anworth Street, Glw is well worth a shout too. Used for both MB and BMW and always excellent service.

[Orchid1]

I used prestige car specialists before until I had a bad experience with them the last time.

Try https://mbjarvie.co.uk/ they were very polite and helpful when I went to see them about something. Looks dodgy and rundown from the outside but if you go in you'll be amazed at the types of cars they work on (mostly classics) and are definitely better with slightly older cars.

[clarki]

Good info there folks.

My SLK55 is due its first service shortly. MB is sooooooooooooooo ££expensive it's good to know there are other options.