Just interested in a few dealers and other opinions on here about this situation.
My father in law bought a w211 e350 off a dealer in auckland the car arrived from japan they went to pick it up. This was a grade 4.5 vehicle. Other than whats noted below its a nice car.
The rear bumper has a off black repair and pretty poor job doesnt match well, we even found a roll of tape jammed up in the bumper (masking tape) holding the parktronic sensor in position! The parktronic does not work its faulty! Probably due to this crappy repair and poor installation of the sensors.
After the trip from Auckland to Rotorua the the SBC battery is still flat at 9v Its been on a ctek charger for the last two days aswell and its clearly dead. The dealer clearly knew this as they saw him fiddling with the dash trying to get the errors to go away before handing the car over! On top of this he made them sign a thing to say NO COMEBACKS ON THE BATTERYS!
As you can see its developing a pattern here.
I have a mercedes star diag computer so i put the car on. I get about 10 or 15 logged faults. Most of them look to be previous repairs that seem o.k. Things like cam angle sensor. Main engine ecu, SBC bits and bobs, PARKTRONIC (OBVIOUSLY) I own a w211 myself so most of this stuff is no surprise to me although slightly concerning all the same given the dealers shiftyness.
So whats the go can this dealer get away with this and should they let him? I think it was pretty shifty making them sign a battery no comebacks thing when he KNEW the battery was dead. He knew no doubt about it.
And on top of that the parktronic is faulty due to the rear bumper repair!
What says you's?
bigfatmat1,
Oct 5, 7:38am
Did your father in law have a ppi done?
butterfly05,
Oct 5, 7:42am
No and I already know the reply your going to give. I dont think thats the point. The car was in transit from japan until they went to pick it up so was sight unseen until the handover. I dont know the exact details if it was paid for while in transit not that it matters.
butterfly05,
Oct 5, 7:49am
The crux for me is the car was rated at grade 4.5 Can't say iv ever seen a 4.5 car with a repair that poor on the rear bumper with dead parktronic to boot. They did agree to take the car even after grumbling a bit about the shody repair. Didnt look underneath though and had no idea about faulty parktronic as it almost looks like it might be working if you'd never seen one work before.
Then getting them to sign a contract on the batterys when he knew they were dead. That to me is just a bit OTT.
The issue is they've obviously not crossed the T's and dotted the I's so the dealer probably isnt obligated but not sure on the exact rules. Just the shiftyness of the whole thing pisses me off a bit.
Dealers can get away with a bit but this to me is just pushing it.
tamarillo,
Oct 5, 7:51am
Did he buy from dealer, or was it imported on his behalf? I believe it makes a difference to CGA . If from dealer and buyer is a consumer not a business, you cannot contract out of CGA so dealer needs to fix it.
butterfly05,
Oct 5, 7:53am
Yep dealer wont say the name on here though. Yet. Still in emails with him so will wait and see.
brapbrap8,
Oct 5, 7:53am
I don't think the contract about the batteries would be worth anything, can't contract out of the CGA.
tamarillo,
Oct 5, 8:02am
That's right. Form isn't worth the paper it's just to trick the gullible. Which makes this dealer highly suspect.
butterfly05,
Oct 5, 8:06am
Yep thats what I was thinking. On top of that anything wrong with SBC is a bit of a safety issue. You cant just clear red battery errors telling you the friggin brake backup battery is dead and not tell the customer!
This is the sort of thing that probably damages alternators and electronic stuff (SBC) in these cars! The SBC battery is dated 06 same as the car.
bigfatmat1,
Oct 5, 8:14am
I think maybe a bit of blame for both parties. Accepting a item with faults as well as some odd behaivour by dealer. I personally think the battery should be replaced, providing it is faulty. A battery can take upto 3 days to charge on some of the lowergrade low amp ctek chargers. Quite often batteries are left flat to long while on route. Which then intern sulphates them resulting in premature failure. I think a a constructive phone call to the dealer is in order. Quite often people will go in all guns blazing which inturn gets peoples backs up and makes the process harder and sometimes unacheivable if the dealer has to act in good faith. Rather than by law. If this fails then you would seek further legal advice.
bigfatmat1,
Oct 5, 8:18am
I do not think safety issue would be a very good arguement. As the system will revert to normal braking in a failure resulting in slightly longer braking distances but the driver would be aware of this via the multifunction display. I do agree with second arguement. However this could be due to time constraints dishonesty or lack of knowledge on the system.
butterfly05,
Oct 5, 8:28am
Have you ever driven a merc with SBC down? There is NO hydraulic booster on these cars effectively without the SBC. The brakes are very poor without SBC working. It does give a pre warning from memory though.
The real issue here is lack of disclosure I think.
butterfly05,
Oct 5, 8:29am
I have a digital battery tester (quality one) its very accurate. That battery is done.
Lucky its not me doing the negotiating. LOL.
bigfatmat1,
Oct 5, 8:37am
Yes I have also fixed quite a few faults with the system. That is why i stated stopping distance reduced. No booster on the hydraulic cylinder.I am not doubting your battery testing skills just pointing out obvious outside advise. like you asked for
mimik3,
Oct 5, 11:41am
Wot, where is the resident "ex"purt. He will answer all the problems, and blame JK
petal_91,
Oct 5, 6:38pm
Isnt the SBC Battery only for back up if the main electrics fail?
butterfly05,
Oct 5, 8:13pm
Pretty much yep. Its not something I mess about with I ensure its all A1. Iv had the alternator totally fail on mine before this was caused by the original battery being old and putting a huge load on the alternator. DEAD CELL!
So yeah old batteries and these cars I dont reckon they mix well.
This is why I dont like this scenario. This little battery may not be as big an issue as far as damaging the rest of the cars electric system but the big battery in the boot CERTAINLY is in my experience.
robotnik,
Oct 5, 8:47pm
Interesting, I read on Wikipedia that SBC has been discontinued on current production models. Seems a bit of a step backward, but then I guess having a second battery for safety is getting a bit complicated.
pico42,
Oct 5, 11:39pm
And here is me thinking that SBC meant small block chev.
butterfly05,
Mar 21, 6:10pm
Its an amazing braking system but the issues just werent worth it to Merc in warranty repairs etc etc I suspect. They extended the warranty on SBC out to 10 years and it has a limited amount of brake pedal presses before the counter needs to be reset or replace the unit which is big $$$$.
I have the AMG model so it has the big 8 piston caliper and discs up front and when you really put your foot into that pedal for a big car its amazing how it stops no matter what speed your doing.
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