Mercedes Benz and AMG Owners

dlockers said:
Has anyone had experience cancelling the Merc service plan? I pay £42/mo - I am pretty sure it was the same cost for a 2 year or a 3 year deal. I am cancelling with a year left and they said they'd prorate the cost and give me a final bill. The first service was spark plugs though (£800+ for full service + plugs) and the second included brake fluid... Hoping I don't get rinsed!
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This was unexpected..........

Thank you for your request to cancel your Mercedes-Benz ServiceCare Plan. We can confirm the plan has been cancelled. The cost of your services is less than the amount of invoices raised for payment of your plan. Provided that you pay all outstanding invoices up to and including December 2023 and used 2 of the 3 services, we'll refund you £165.53 including VAT. An administration charge of £48.00 including VAT is included in this calculation. The breakdown of this calculation is as follows: Invoices Raised: £1,092.00 Servicing Costs: £878.47 Administration Fee: £48.00 Difference: £165.53

My first service was a Service A including plugs, and a second service including brake fluid. £878.47 doesn't seem too bad?
 
dlockers said:
This was unexpected..........

Thank you for your request to cancel your Mercedes-Benz ServiceCare Plan. We can confirm the plan has been cancelled. The cost of your services is less than the amount of invoices raised for payment of your plan. Provided that you pay all outstanding invoices up to and including December 2023 and used 2 of the 3 services, we'll refund you £165.53 including VAT. An administration charge of £48.00 including VAT is included in this calculation. The breakdown of this calculation is as follows: Invoices Raised: £1,092.00 Servicing Costs: £878.47 Administration Fee: £48.00 Difference: £165.53

My first service was a Service A including plugs, and a second service including brake fluid. £878.47 doesn't seem too bad?
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I cancelled my service plan with Audi when I sold my S5 - I'd had one major service on it, and when cancelled, I wasn't refunded or charged. They just cancelled it.

It was a pretty good deal really, and I can see myself using a service plan in the future again.


How come you're cancelling yours? Are you thinking of selling the car?
 
MrRockliffe said:
I cancelled my service plan with Audi when I sold my S5 - I'd had one major service on it, and when cancelled, I wasn't refunded or charged. They just cancelled it.

It was a pretty good deal really, and I can see myself using a service plan in the future again.


How come you're cancelling yours? Are you thinking of selling the car?
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I decided to hand over custody for the car to an Indy. The Mercedes customer care is just atrocious so I wanted to distance myself commercial.

I do remember they were slightly less mature in how they calculated this before --- when I sold my C180 back in 2012, I think I got about £750 back. No idea how that worked tbh :D
 
I have never understood Mercedes service pricing. It seems incredibly high - compared with their direct competition at Audi and BMW. You'd expect that, given all 3 are largely targeting the same market, that servicing at the main dealers would be similarly priced but it just isn't. Every Mercedes service seems incredibly expensive, BMW seem ok really but at the other end of the scale you have Audi, where service packages are so cheap I doubt you could service a Dacia for less.

Every Mercedes service I look at it seems 50-100% more than the same service on the same type of car at BMW, meanwhile Audi will sell you a service and a warranty package for a 2 litre Audi A4 for... £25 a month!?!

Unfortunately when you look at the future BMW range then Mercedes is the obvious alternative until you consider just how expensive they seem to be to service.
 
[TW]Fox said:
I have never understood Mercedes service pricing. It seems incredibly high - compared with their direct competition at Audi and BMW. You'd expect that, given all 3 are largely targeting the same market, that servicing at the main dealers would be similarly priced but it just isn't. Every Mercedes service seems incredibly expensive, BMW seem ok really but at the other end of the scale you have Audi, where service packages are so cheap I doubt you could service a Dacia for less.

Every Mercedes service I look at it seems 50-100% more than the same service on the same type of car at BMW, meanwhile Audi will sell you a service and a warranty package for a 2 litre Audi A4 for... £25 a month!?!

Unfortunately when you look at the future BMW range then Mercedes is the obvious alternative until you consider just how expensive they seem to be to service.
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How much is the M340 service plan? I guess that is somewhat comparable given it is an I6?

I think I may have dropped a clangor as well, as the final service includes an ATF flush I think.
 
dlockers said:
How much is the M340 service plan? I guess that is somewhat comparable given it is an I6?
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If you buy it before the cars first service, a 5/50k mile year service plan on the M340i was £870. For this, you'd get at least a big service, a small service and a brake fluid change. I think this is the only BMW service pack that was worth considering, I've never been able to make the case for the others against just paying as you go.

However, the individual servicing cost isn't bad - £300 for the standard service (This seems the equivalent of a basic Service B which on a C43 AMG is £430) and £530 for the major service (This looks to be the same as the service with the spark plugs, air filter etc which is £890! for the C43). They alternate and are every 2 years. Brake Fluid is about £90 every 2 years.

I've used pricing from the BMW and Mercedes online booking system so they should be fairly comparable and I think the C43 and the M340i are also directly comparable cars.

For the Audi S4 it seems the service pack is £470 and gives you a standard and a major service. So much cheaper than either BMW or Mercedes.

I think it's reasonable to think these are all very comparable cars and you'd expect the running costs to be very similar...
 
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[TW]Fox said:
If you buy it before the cars first service, a 5/50k mile year service plan on the M340i was £870. For this, you'd get at least a big service, a small service and a brake fluid change. I think this is the only BMW service pack that was worth considering, I've never been able to make the case for the others against just paying as you go.
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Can you purchase the service plan on used cars? I basically called and setup a DD for £42/mo. It includes "everything" that is required - so plugs, brake fluid and I think the ATF flush (which if I'd known before hand I would have probably let it run!).

[TW]Fox said:
However, the individual servicing cost isn't bad - £300 for the standard service (This seems the equivalent of a basic Service B which on a C43 AMG is £430) and £530 for the major service (This looks to be the same as the service with the spark plugs, air filter etc which is £890! for the C43). They alternate and are every 2 years. Brake Fluid is about £90 every 2 years.
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The £530 for the M340 includes plugs? That is good value!

To be clear I've paid £880 for a Service A, Service B, plugs and break fluid. By your BMW pricing that is only ~50 more. This pricing is only available through Service Plan - however the plans are very flexible.
 
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dlockers said:
Can you purchase the service plan on used cars?
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You can yes - but it must be before the cars first service. Once the first service has been done, you move to a different range of available service plans none of which I have ever found worth it.

dlockers said:
The £530 for the M340 includes plugs? That is good value!
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It does include them yes.

dlockers said:
To be clear I've paid £880 for a Service A, Service B, plugs and break fluid. By your BMW pricing that is only ~50 more. This pricing is only available through Service Plan - however the plans are very flexible.
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I think if you've got all that for £880 that is great value - especially as the individual cost of the service with the plugs is quoted as £890 on the Mercedes site (For a C43, but I cannot imagine yours is less!).
 
This is my hypothesis as to why the Customer Service is so crap at Mercedes. The dealerships presumably just see "cost" when a customer comes through the door with a Service Plan. Any mark up they could have claimed is gone/redirected to Mercedes HQ and they get "cost plus".

[TW]Fox said:
I think if you've got all that for £880 that is great value - especially as the individual cost of the service with the plugs is quoted as £890 on the Mercedes site (For a C43, but I cannot imagine yours is less!).
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And to be fair I've included the admin fee to cancel which if I'd just bought a 2 year plan (same price prorata) it would have been cheaper than the Bimmer a la carte pricing.

I guess the Service Plan for BMW is less than the menu pricing?
 
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In my experience (excluding the pack available before a cars first service) no. The advertising seems to focus on the price being inflation proof and available as a monthly payment rather than a discount:

The service cost for your Pay Monthly Plan is fixed for its duration, meaning you're protected against inflation and any price increases that may happen in the future.
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[TW]Fox said:
I have never understood Mercedes service pricing. It seems incredibly high - compared with their direct competition at Audi and BMW.
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Agree that servicing costs are high on Mercedes but to offset that I found the cost to extend the warranty was quite cheap, well compared to Jaguar, cant comment compared to BMW / Audi. On my previous car E43 services ranged from £600 to £850 and the warranty was £1200 odd for two years which I was amazed at. With the E63S, services are £650 to £900 with warranty at £1300 a year. How does the warranty costs compare with BMW for a like for like comparison say for an 530i and an M5?
 
Steedie said:
Yeah not a chance I'd take it to a local car wash. You need to be careful what products you use on it, it's not radically different to look after but you can't use certain products, and you absolutely can't use any kind of wax or polish on them, unless designed for matte paint, which they definitely won't be using. They won't necessarily ruin the paint, but the finish will look awful and blotchy

You wouldn't need to spend much, but I'd definitely be doing it yourself, unless you use a decent car wash and can trust them to listen to you when you tell them what not to use
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Hey @Steedie
I'm in the process of deciding between the Magno Grey or Mountain Grey Metallic for when I place my order in Jan/Feb next year.
Obviously the look of the Magno is appealing but the after care worries me.

Being a complete novice to paint care of this kind is it really that tough or just a simple case of buy the correct equipment to clean at home or have a reputable valet when cleaning?
 
magicroundabout said:
Hey @Steedie
I'm in the process of deciding between the Magno Grey or Mountain Grey Metallic for when I place my order in Jan/Feb next year.
Obviously the look of the Magno is appealing but the after care worries me.

Being a complete novice to paint care of this kind is it really that tough or just a simple case of buy the correct equipment to clean at home or have a reputable valet when cleaning?
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Hey mate, absolutely 100% go for the Magno, it's stunning

But don't let the thought of caring for it worry you, there's just certain chemicals/products you shouldn't use on it. So if there's a shampoo you like, it may be absolutely fine or it may have a matte paint equivalent, it will say on the packaging/description on the site. It's no more difficult to look after in terms of how you actually wash it

My comment was purely because the local handwash guys will not care about whether or not their products are suitable for matte paint, and it may leave you with a horrible streaky finish
 
Steedie said:
Hey mate, absolutely 100% go for the Magno, it's stunning

But don't let the thought of caring for it worry you, there's just certain chemicals/products you shouldn't use on it. So if there's a shampoo you like, it may be absolutely fine or it may have a matte paint equivalent, it will say on the packaging/description on the site. It's no more difficult to look after in terms of how you actually wash it

My comment was purely because the local handwash guys will not care about whether or not their products are suitable for matte paint, and it may leave you with a horrible streaky finish
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cheers for the reply.

I love the look of the Magno but had heard people mention it was tough to maintain. But then I hear more stories of how easy it is to maintain just as you say using the correct shampoo etc.

I certainly won't be using my local car wash that's for sure :cry:
 
dlockers said:
I actually really love the look of the GLB. Like a modern Nissan Cube quirky look. The only thing that put me off was the interior is closer to the A class than the E class IIRC.


This went roughly fine - service A performed. It said a surcharge would be applied for AMG models. Now I know mine is a baby AMG but on the last Mercedes service history it distinctly said Mobil 1 0w oil. This chap either didn't put the Mobil 1 0w oil in or didn't bill me the surcharge. Probably fine as its just the standard v6 3.0 lump found in the E450s... Furthermore, no MOT issues. Flew through. Tbh I am not even sure they did a proper MOT as the seatbelts were not latched in, and they never ticked the "child seat preventing rear seat belt test" box either..

Has anyone had experience cancelling the Merc service plan? I pay £42/mo - I am pretty sure it was the same cost for a 2 year or a 3 year deal. I am cancelling with a year left and they said they'd prorate the cost and give me a final bill. The first service was spark plugs though (£800+ for full service + plugs) and the second included brake fluid... Hoping I don't get rinsed!
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Had it for a few days and finding I don’t mind the shape, it’s grown on me. I think it’s a bit colour dependent too, we went for the dark grey
 
Greebo said:
Won another car last night

Not a classic car this time, it's a boy racer car!! Now do I keep it and have a mid life crisis (55) or take the cash?

It full on "pops and bangs". Oh and it has black wheels

MERCEDES C63 AMG NIGHT EDITION

Palladium Silver | Night Pack | 360 Cameras

Modifications:

Ispiri FFR6 Wheels

CT Carbon Splitter

CT Carbon Side Skirts

CT Carbon Spoiler

Carbon Front Mudguards

GAD Tuning Remap 580hp/850nm 0-60 3.1s

High Flow Panel Air Filters

Aftermarket Exhaust

Black Grill

Autowatch Ghost Immobiliser

Facelift Tri Colour Illuminated Vents

Black Door Handles & Front Bumper Fins

All Black Badges

Dynamic Mirror Indicators

AMG Puddle Lights

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You lucky git, congrats. Which site did you play? I sometimes play LLF games but only when it's a car I actually want.
 
@dlockers @[TW]Fox interesting to read your thoughts on service plan costs between BMW and Merc. I've just booked the wife's 128Ti in for a brake fluid service to be told that it doesn't come under the service plan and will be £140, which is a joke. Similarly, they wanted £120 an hour to investigate a brake squeal when reversing.

The Merc plan seemingly covers every service item, and they also have never quibbled over 'while you're there could you look at X' items I've raised in the past, like a bit of wind noise around the drivers window, trim out of alignment etc. So worth the extra IMO.
 
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From what I've learnt in this thread, I think:

Mercedes servicing plans are excellent value, BMW not so much
BMW menu pricing is good value, Mercedes not so much
Audi servicing plans are so cheap I wish I wanted an Audi

:D

I'll be sure to take out a service plan when I buy my next car, because I cannot see how it will be a BMW.

Interesting comment about diagnostic charges - I've never experienced that from BMW but have read countless posts from people who have so I suspect it's down to each individual dealer group how they do it, rather than the brand. That said brake noise is one of the few areas where it's probably very likely whatever is wrong isn't a warranty claim whereas wind noise is usually some sort of trim item which is normally covered in the first 3 years. So perhaps that is the difference in this case.
 
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