How to Part Exchange Your Car
- Thread starter bum
- Start date
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
I'm not at all sure how this is relevent to the servicing costs on a 4 cylinder fleet special C200 CDI.
I think you are in a very small group if you think 'Bentley' when somebody says 'C200 CDI' and I cannot imagine many fleets going 'So the C class costs a load to service but thats cool, its like a Bentley'.
They are as much a feature of the volume fleet premium eco-diesel market as Audi and BMW - as thats where the money is.
It's true that Merc is the 'prestige' choice, BMW is the 'sporty' choice and Audi is the 'quality' choice (Before you go banging the sporty drum again note deliberate inverted commas) when it comes to perception but this alone isn't enough to justify the bizarre dealer pricing structure and it absolutely must be hurting sales as a result - whole life cost is becoming increasingly important in fleet markets.
Last edited:
Good job that is not even close to what I did say then is it.[TW]Fox;23079675 said:
[TW]Fox;23079675 said:
Agreed, how ever I am more than confident that inflated prices mean people think they are getting a better product and service. Maybe this is their angle? Mad profits plus prestige image maintained.
I doubt very much that people judge the product and service based on how much extra it costs over the competition. Especially as most people probably won't find out until either:
a) They find the fleet manager has removed it from the list as a result or the maintained lease cost is sufficiently more expensive as to place the car out of reach
b) They turn up and get burnt at the first service after trading in an A4 or a 3 Series
c) They call and enquire before purchase - though in my experience Merc seem to do everything they can to avoid telling you the price, which was particularly odd but might just have been my local dealer.
I'd imagine that Merc will at some point wake up to the fact that expensive servicing bills erode the value of your efficient engines, I guess its just a case of when that is.
Sorry to revive this thread, just wanted to give everyone an update on the situation - for those who're interested.
After about 3 weeks of parking the Mercedes down Mercedes Service Centre, I finally had the car towed to the mechanic. The place was recommended by a friend of mine, and said the owner was originally working for Mercedes (very nice bloke he is)
So far the price was £180 for 2 inspection sessions (£90 per hour for car inspection) at Mercedes.
Towing the car to the mechanic 17 miles away from RAC costed £119.
The car arrived at mechanic on Friday late late afternoon 5pm, the bloke who ran the place went through the report printed out by Merc service centre and had a laugh about the quoted price + problems listed on it.
For those who are interested, I can provide that list here once I retrieve the car, but on top of my mind, few things that was listed on the report were:
- Break fluid might be contaminated, so change that would be £400 ish.
- Rare spring show sign of corrosion
- Under plate were missing
- A tyre require replacing.
So only then we realised the report did not list anything about why my car cannot get into shift (engine wouldn't switch on)
I left the car over the weekend and received a call on Monday morning - the cause was due to a broken oil pump. With no petrol being pumped into the engine, that's the reason why the engine wouldn't start up.
By the same afternoon around 5pm, my car was already fixed. An oil pump costed £210 with labour about £300ish.
Lesson learned.
After about 3 weeks of parking the Mercedes down Mercedes Service Centre, I finally had the car towed to the mechanic. The place was recommended by a friend of mine, and said the owner was originally working for Mercedes (very nice bloke he is)
So far the price was £180 for 2 inspection sessions (£90 per hour for car inspection) at Mercedes.
Towing the car to the mechanic 17 miles away from RAC costed £119.
The car arrived at mechanic on Friday late late afternoon 5pm, the bloke who ran the place went through the report printed out by Merc service centre and had a laugh about the quoted price + problems listed on it.
For those who are interested, I can provide that list here once I retrieve the car, but on top of my mind, few things that was listed on the report were:
- Break fluid might be contaminated, so change that would be £400 ish.
- Rare spring show sign of corrosion
- Under plate were missing
- A tyre require replacing.
So only then we realised the report did not list anything about why my car cannot get into shift (engine wouldn't switch on)
I left the car over the weekend and received a call on Monday morning - the cause was due to a broken oil pump. With no petrol being pumped into the engine, that's the reason why the engine wouldn't start up.
By the same afternoon around 5pm, my car was already fixed. An oil pump costed £210 with labour about £300ish.
Lesson learned.
the oil pump pumps petrol?i think i can tell why you took it to a main dealer
I just hate it when my fuel tank doesn't pump enough oil into my engine.
I remember getting my car serviced at a Honda dealership when my EP3 had done about 48k miles, they suggested it needed a new clutch.
My car is now on 105k with the same clutch.
I guess some dealerships juts want to rip people off.
the oil pump pumps petrol?
Be gentle
as I have already stated I am totally clueless about cars 
The mechanic said a lot of stuff listed weren't exactly necessary, for example he said the rare spring show corrosion - "the bloody car has been on the road for 10 years of course it shows corrosion" (his original words)
When I had a oil service for my Prelude at a main dealer they did a health check and said the power steering pump was leaking and quoted £635 just for the part, 2 and a half years later just before I sold it the fluid was at the exact same level.
That's exactly what I would have done!