2003 Mercedes E320

[Chevelle_Nut]

I have a 2003 Mercedes that is a nice car, just has a couple of annoying issues.

It has been sitting unused for a couple of months, charging the battery and moving it around. Today I decided to take it to town and put some gas in it. On my way to town the brakes seemed a little soft the first couple of stops. I was going to take a left and the pedal went to the floor and all of the dash lights lit up. Crap! I knew it was the SBC system screwing up.

I turned around and headed home. The alarms on the dash plashing and the car in limp mode, computer did not let it shift out of 2nd gear to keep speed down. Luckily I had 1 car that came up behind me, I was able to take my 3 turns and parked it in the driveway.

I remember an extended coverage on the brake system, sure enough for 25 years unlimited mileage! I will call the Mercedes Dealer tomorrow. I may have them look at the 2 annoying issues while it is there.

 

[Chevelle_Nut]

I called Mercedes Benz of Durham, the car is too old for them to look at, they only service cars 2004 and newer. What a crock!

I then called Mercedes Benz of Cary, they have a check out fee of 2 hours labor for 20+ year old cars! I am waiting for a call back from the service advisor.

When I was an advisor we took work in, sure older cars were a pain at time but they were some of my most loyal customers.

 

[JohnC]

Hope you get it sorted out. Considering legendary German build quality you wouldn’t think that MB would consider their cars to be disposable. I drove a late 90s BMW until a couple of years ago.

 

[Chevelle_Nut]

I called Mercedes and it is covered. It is a hidden warranty somewhere I don't think the dealers want to mess with. Guess what, I was in the car service department business for many years, a dealer must do recalls and campaign work. Unfortunately she told me dealers can set year limitations on what they will service.

 

[Chevelle_Nut]

Mercedes Benz of Cary will work on it, I described what happened and if it meets the failure criteria it will be covered.

 

[SSuperDave]

I'm getting very leary of older stuff, parts availbility from Ford is shrinking fast after 10 years, especially specialty electronics, and we don't use aftermarket stuff, plus most of them are coming apart at the seams, and checking one out causes even more problems when you touch it.. I'd rather use the spot in the shop for something I can actually make money on, not just a $175 diag fee for a car we aren't able to fix.
At Lexus, we took in anything, a 20 year old Lexus was still a good car and they provided parts other than some colored trim stuff. Years ago at a Cadillac dealer, unless the car was a repeat customer, if it was over 7 years old or 75K miles, we did not touch it, period.

 

[Chevelle_Nut]

I'm getting very leary of older stuff, parts availbility from Ford is shrinking fast after 10 years, especially specialty electronics, and we don't use aftermarket stuff, plus most of them are coming apart at the seams, and checking one out causes even more problems when you touch it.. I'd rather use the spot in the shop for something I can actually make money on, not just a $175 diag fee for a car we aren't able to fix.
At Lexus, we took in anything, a 20 year old Lexus was still a good car and they provided parts other than some colored trim stuff. Years ago at a Cadillac dealer, unless the car was a repeat customer, if it was over 7 years old or 75K miles, we did not touch it, period.

With car prices being so high people aren't buying.

We took the 2013 Fusion in today for the brake hose recall, Ford dealer was not busy and the car was done in 2 hours. In the past appointments would have to been made weeks out, not any more.

 

[SSuperDave]

We're snowed under. Recalls, customers leave for 24-48 hours, other work besides transmission has a 48-72 hour diagnostic time, plus what it takes for repairs, and we are not even accepting trans work due to what's already in the shop. Parts are still a major issue, and I have several trans jobs from May that I finally got parts for, but have others ahead of them for actual repair that have been there longer. The trans tech has a helper and works 6 days a week. A lot of the dealers in Houston have delay times longer than ours, and several don't have a trans tech, which is whats making hard on the rest of us. Oh, and no loaners or rentals.
We don't do waiters under any circumstances other than Quicklane stuff. I opened up yesterday with 28 cars carrying over, wrote 13 and delivered 2, wrote 10 more today and delivered 3, you can see how that makes stuff pile up. In the last 2 years we have added 18 more stalls and techs and still can't keep up.
As a former co worker says, I am so far from fucked that I couldn't catch a bus BACK to fucked. Everybody is mad all the time, customer can't understand the delay and I don't blame them. Some will call other dealers and then come to us anyway because out delay is less. Most dealers in Houston have a one month delay for diesel, meaning leave it here and we'll get to it when we get to it, if you take it and come back, it goes to the back of the line. An appointment is a time for you to dro it off, not to get it looked at.

 

[Chevelle_Nut]

We're snowed under. Recalls, customers leave for 24-48 hours, other work besides transmission has a 48-72 hour diagnostic time, plus what it takes for repairs, and we are not even accepting trans work due to what's already in the shop. Parts are still a major issue, and I have several trans jobs from May that I finally got parts for, but have others ahead of them for actual repair that have been there longer. The trans tech has a helper and works 6 days a week. A lot of the dealers in Houston have delay times longer than ours, and several don't have a trans tech, which is whats making hard on the rest of us. Oh, and no loaners or rentals.
We don't do waiters under any circumstances other than Quicklane stuff. I opened up yesterday with 28 cars carrying over, wrote 13 and delivered 2, wrote 10 more today and delivered 3, you can see how that makes stuff pile up. In the last 2 years we have added 18 more stalls and techs and still can't keep up.
As a former co worker says, I am so far from fucked that I couldn't catch a bus BACK to fucked. Everybody is mad all the time, customer can't understand the delay and I don't blame them. Some will call other dealers and then come to us anyway because out delay is less. Most dealers in Houston have a one month delay for diesel, meaning leave it here and we'll get to it when we get to it, if you take it and come back, it goes to the back of the line. An appointment is a time for you to dro it off, not to get it looked at.

Is this business model sustainable?

My dealer is a small country store, 1 or 2 techs, the owner is the salesman, no fancy showroom or building. Fortunately he does fleet sales, has a lot less overhead than almost every other dealer, oh, his building is paid for and does not floorplan used cars.

 

[SSuperDave]

I have worked here for 4 years and it has been that way the entire time. It's definitely not what I'm used to, I think it's a combination of poor product quality causing a lot of vehicles to have to come into the shop, and a bunch of technicians who are complacent and know that no matter what they do they will always have plenty of work. Nothing keeps them hungry like I am used to at other places I've worked. We own a Cadillac dealership here in Houston and are building a new facility for it that should open in October and I'm strongly thinking of asking for a transfer there at that time. It is very frustrating to me I don't like telling people leave it and I'll call you when I feel like it but we don't have a lot of options.

 

[SSuperDave]

I pride myself on my ability to multitask, and having done this job for over 40 years I think I have figured out the ins and outs of it. But a lot of times I have so much in the shop I literally cannot keep track of it all. Someone will send me a text to my first thought is who is this? Then I realize oh yeah I have his car here. When I worked at Lexus if I took in 20 cars a day at 5:00 19 of them had gone home. We didn't have carry over the text hustled like you can't believe and of course with that product quality we did more services and maintenance than actual mechanical repairs. In 11 years there I replaced One transmission, right now I have six transmission jobs in the shop and I am only one of five advisors. We've got four Fords and a Lincoln in our family but I have to tell you the new stuff is pure garbage.

 

[Chevelle_Nut]

I pride myself on my ability to multitask, and having done this job for over 40 years I think I have figured out the ins and outs of it. But a lot of times I have so much in the shop I literally cannot keep track of it all. Someone will send me a text to my first thought is who is this? Then I realize oh yeah I have his car here. When I worked at Lexus if I took in 20 cars a day at 5:00 19 of them had gone home. We didn't have carry over the text hustled like you can't believe and of course with that product quality we did more services and maintenance than actual mechanical repairs. In 11 years there I replaced One transmission, right now I have six transmission jobs in the shop and I am only one of five advisors. We've got four Fords and a Lincoln in our family but I have to tell you the new stuff is pure garbage.

The average person like most of us are cannot afford a new vehicle at $50,000. Look at the F150 supply, I think it is 150+ days of supply now.

In the South cars last, unlike rust belt cars. People from up North are grabbing up Southern used cars and taking them North. The bubble is going to burst. Unfortunately your customers are dissatisfied because of parts and quality, but many are so upside down in the cars that they are stuck with them. Repos are up too because people are having trouble making ends meet.

The independents are busy because they keep older cars on the road.

 

[SSuperDave]

$50K won't buy you much new car these days. I borrowed an F-150 for the weekend to pick up a cowl hood for my Elky. 2023, 2wd, cloth seat, small nav screen, 2.7 base engine... sticker at $55K. We've had it a while, thats why its a rental, no one wants a low option truck. They'll walk right past it for a Platinum or King Ranch all day long. I read in one of the trade journals the other day that 35% of all new cars go out the door with a payment over $1,000/mo! We have a new Lighting truck out front at $102,000, and two on our used lot with under 5K miles that belonged to two of our managers. Both trucks had battery failure about 2K miles in, and waited 3 months for replacement batteries. They bailed on them as soon as they came out of the shop. We are overrun with Mach E's that no one will buy as well, and the ones we do have on the road are very frequent service department visitors. One customer told me he was starting to expect us to yell "Norm!" when he came in! At least he as a sense of humor about it...

 

[Chevelle_Nut]

$50K won't buy you much new car these days. I borrowed an F-150 for the weekend to pick up a cowl hood for my Elky. 2023, 2wd, cloth seat, small nav screen, 2.7 base engine... sticker at $55K. We've had it a while, thats why its a rental, no one wants a low option truck. They'll walk right past it for a Platinum or King Ranch all day long. I read in one of the trade journals the other day that 35% of all new cars go out the door with a payment over $1,000/mo! We have a new Lighting truck out front at $102,000, and two on our used lot with under 5K miles that belonged to two of our managers. Both trucks had battery failure about 2K miles in, and waited 3 months for replacement batteries. They bailed on them as soon as they came out of the shop. We are overrun with Mach E's that no one will buy as well, and the ones we do have on the road are very frequent service department visitors. One customer told me he was starting to expect us to yell "Norm!" when he came in! At least he as a sense of humor about it...

It wasn't long ago you could drop $25k and have a nice new car. Ford will regret not having a lower price point car for young people, lower income families and those that don't want a higher dollar vehicle.

$1000 a month payment for 72 to 84 months will leave more customers upside down in a car and unable to trade in for a new car in 2 to 3 years. Repos will also increase, banks have already tightened car loans and will repo faster when delinquent.

Stelantis has already dropped prices and offered rebates because their stuff is not selling. GMs latest figures said sales s were good but that is due to fleet and government, not retail.

Also, many dealers still have new 2022s on the lot with 2024s coming out eating up floorplan payments. Also, some dealers are still pushing market adjustments, they are full of cars. Those that are selling for MSRP or less are moving units.

We are in interesting times.

 

[Nashville Cat]

I've always been amazed how men who don't really need a truck will spend $30,000 to $50,000 extra
for a truck over a good SUV like a Toyota Rav4.

In 2019, I paid $32k total (including 10% tax and $1500 for a lifetime warranty) for a Toyota Rav4 hybrid.
Sticker price was only $27,000 !
It has averaged 37 mpg since I bought it ; even in city driving.
I have a 4X8 trailer and can haul almost anything a truck can.

IMHO most men have been brainwashed into thinking they need a $60,000+ truck for a status symbol.
And it destroys many people financially.

 

[kmakar]

Since when did the value of trucks increase so much that it could be justified? The value just isn't there. The first brand new full size truck I bought was back in the late '80s and I thought the price was bordering on insane back then, but what gets me now is the people who are spending more on a truck then they spend on the house they are living in. Buying a full size truck costing over $100k is the definition of insane, but what's even crazier is then they spend another few thousand to change the rims and tires. It's just plain nuts. I don't care if I was a multi millionaire, there is absolutely no way I'd buy a new truck simply because they value just isn't there and quite frankly the build quality just sucks.

 

[Chevelle_Nut]

Since when did the value of trucks increase so much that it could be justified? The value just isn't there. The first brand new full size truck I bought was back in the late '80s and I thought the price was bordering on insane back then, but what gets me now is the people who are spending more on a truck then they spend on the house they are living in. Buying a full size truck costing over $100k is the definition of insane, but what's even crazier is then they spend another few thousand to change the rims and tires. It's just plain nuts. I don't care if I was a multi millionaire, there is absolutely no way I'd buy a new truck simply because they value just isn't there and quite frankly the build quality just sucks.

That is why I am going to keep my old garbage going. The Mercedes was the only one up in the air, if I can fix it for a reasonable cost it will be back in service.

 

[kmakar]

That is why I am going to keep my old garbage going. The Mercedes was the only one up in the air, if I can fix it for a reasonable cost it will be back in service.

Define reasonable cost. To me spending anything over $500 on it is not reasonable (and I'm not talking about consumables like tires). Unless it has sentimental value, repairs on it will become unreasonable rather quickly. If it were your only mode of transportation, then what's reasonable takes on a different meaning. Maybe I look at things differently than most, but I have a hard time pissing away money that will not return value.

 

[Chevelle_Nut]

Define reasonable cost. To me spending anything over $500 on it is not reasonable (and I'm not talking about consumables like tires). Unless it has sentimental value, repairs on it will become unreasonable rather quickly. If it were your only mode of transportation, then what's reasonable takes on a different meaning. Maybe I look at things differently than most, but I have a hard time pissing away money that will not return value.

Think of a car payment. You can't buy a used car for a cheap cost anymore, so spending money on repairs makes sense.

 

[kmakar]

Think of a car payment. You can't buy a used car for a cheap cost anymore, so spending money on repairs makes sense.

Only if it serves a purpose. Having a car just to keep it in the stable only goes so far, then it becomes costly to own and its' purpose is outlived.