Hi All,
So following the purchase of my E350 Sport Cab I thought we'd also get the Mrs a new Merc and opted for a new B180 Sport.
1) Picked up on Saturday
2) Wife complains the clutch has slipped a couple of times on the Tuesday afternoon. (Totel mileage 90)
3) I drive it 120 miles on Wednesday with no discernable issues. (Total mileage 210)
4) After 20 more miles of driving on Thursday the clutch shreds itself. (Total mileage 230).
So we think 'sh^t happens' I guess and it gets recovered to the dealer and the hire car arrives.
This happened 4 weeks ago and due to parts shortages and a request to send the ECU to Germany it's taken this long to fix.
Here is the shocker; MB have refused to fix under warranty due to it being 'driver error'. Apparently the 'Clutch Protection System' kicked in 80 times in the first 160km leading them to that conclusion. I've now had to pay £3k for the repairs and need to pursue a claim with MB directly.
Some information, before anyone asks:
1) We haven't rallied the car (it's a B180 for heavens sake).
2) We always go easy with our cars when new.
3) We've had loads of manual cars in the past with no clutch issues.
4) We've clocked up over 1k miles in the Hyundai hire car so far with no issues.
I've just spoken to MB customer services and so far I'm less than impressed. They said I didn't need to send an email with any more detail as they'll contact the dealer and do some investigation. Then I said, well without additional information about us and our driving history/style then surely you are going to come to the same conclusion as the dealer/germany did originally? They then said, yes probably.
Anyway, I've got an email address and am going to send something shortly. Do you guys have any experience with this sort of thing or have any advice on the angle I should take? I've already mentioned that I'll take it as far as I need to including claims court and/or media as it's just ridiculous.
I'm just fuming at the whole thing.
So following the purchase of my E350 Sport Cab I thought we'd also get the Mrs a new Merc and opted for a new B180 Sport.
1) Picked up on Saturday
2) Wife complains the clutch has slipped a couple of times on the Tuesday afternoon. (Totel mileage 90)
3) I drive it 120 miles on Wednesday with no discernable issues. (Total mileage 210)
4) After 20 more miles of driving on Thursday the clutch shreds itself. (Total mileage 230).
So we think 'sh^t happens' I guess and it gets recovered to the dealer and the hire car arrives.
This happened 4 weeks ago and due to parts shortages and a request to send the ECU to Germany it's taken this long to fix.
Here is the shocker; MB have refused to fix under warranty due to it being 'driver error'. Apparently the 'Clutch Protection System' kicked in 80 times in the first 160km leading them to that conclusion. I've now had to pay £3k for the repairs and need to pursue a claim with MB directly.
Some information, before anyone asks:
1) We haven't rallied the car (it's a B180 for heavens sake).
2) We always go easy with our cars when new.
3) We've had loads of manual cars in the past with no clutch issues.
4) We've clocked up over 1k miles in the Hyundai hire car so far with no issues.
I've just spoken to MB customer services and so far I'm less than impressed. They said I didn't need to send an email with any more detail as they'll contact the dealer and do some investigation. Then I said, well without additional information about us and our driving history/style then surely you are going to come to the same conclusion as the dealer/germany did originally? They then said, yes probably.
Anyway, I've got an email address and am going to send something shortly. Do you guys have any experience with this sort of thing or have any advice on the angle I should take? I've already mentioned that I'll take it as far as I need to including claims court and/or media as it's just ridiculous.
I'm just fuming at the whole thing.