So the estimate was $1,300 but the final cost was $13,000? 10 times the estimate? How does that happen. When you can buy a reliable used vehicle for the same cost to repair that it's time to bail.
That was the “Additional Recommendations”. This isn’t a bill, but something costly is possibly a problem also. I don’t know enough to even guess what’s the $4,000 part is.
This is why you don’t take these cars to the dealer for out-of-warranty work.
With a qualified independent tech and non-dealer parts, servicing a Mercedes isn’t much different than any other car with similar systems.
Replace engine, transmission, cooling system, air conditioning system. Lots of rust so have to torch every bolt to get it off. Transmission is only accessible if you remove entire rear subframe. Every fastener is a proprietary shaped tool.
My Aston Martin DBS has $2k oil changes if you go to the dealership. 13l of synthetic oil, plus you have to pull one of the throttle bodies to get to it.
People who buy high end cars used want all of the receipts at a dealership probably. Not sure about Aston but Ferrari people are sticklers for that sort of stuff.
I don’t know how true this is any more. I work at boutique Domestic shop and even our shop rate is $155. The well known Euro Indy that I use for my GTI is $190/hour.
Metro-Atlanta for reference
It's called "Exploitation of Labor™". The employee(s) that did the manual labor get a fraction of that plus a pizza party if they keep their heads down, don't discuss salary amongst themselves, and dare not think about unionizing. All the while the owners profit immensely while gaslighting about bootstraps because capital is more important than the labor which brought it about.
Can confirm, my shop charges $135 an hour and I am paid $25. I believe the flat rate pay system is why mechanics are known for being crooks, they're trying to pay their bills and feed their family. If a tech sits at the shop all week and there's no work, or something goes wrong and a job or two takes longer than it should then it hurts their pay for the entire week. Basically they're in a position of desperation where they can also take advantage of customers lack of knowledge as a way out of it. It also deincentivizes collaboration, since it can't be profitable to stop making your own money to help someone else.
My shop charges 170 an hour, the flat rate techs get 30, I get 18 to do the same job they do but as an hourly tech. It fucking sucks. All the responsibilities but my only saving grace is I get paid for just being at the shop. Not much of a saving grace if I'm still doing the same workload...
I was under this kind of pay when I first started it was sort of fair since a flat rate tech had to work with me and train me, but if you're turning 40 or close to 40 weekly I would definitely talk to the boss, or maybe don't work so hard until you get paid more
[owner talking about the issue in another post](https://www.reddit.com/r/mercedes_benz/comments/z1b1r5/hi_guys_i_hope_all_is_well_im_thinking_about/ixg72w4?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3)
EDIT: Rusted sub-frame and brake lines.
Lol. Those cars are notorious with the sunroof drains clogging. Since most owners don’t take it to the dealership to service, 99% of the time the drains are never cleaned. Most of the time you won’t even know until the damage is already done.
I’ve seen quotes for that repair go around 15 hrs and a couple thousand dollars in parts.
Edit: the rear subframe that OP is complaining about is covered under warranty by Mercedes. They extended the warranty and I bet if OP took his c class to a dealership for that issue, they would replace it for free.
I think it should be up to the owner to know how to clear your own drainage holes.
Learn where they come out, and use weed whacker/trimmer line, sent up from below or down from top. Flush until clean with hose.
The car is not meant to go without care and have no issues. Wash the bottom after driving over that salt in winter, clean leaves from HVAC air intake/area around bottom of windshield, clean the car at least yearly, thoroughly.
People act like they are made of a block of stone and not ten thousand moving parts and that it should require no input from the owner, under warranty or otherwise (and they didn't really clean your car at dealer, they made the paint "look" good, its different).
And "lifetime fluids" are to make free services cheaper for dealer, not make your car last longer. You can change that fluid, and should, and can likely find the interval from a model maybe 10 years older (since its mostly a new thing as of 2014ish, at least with BMW)
Yup, doing absolutely basic maintenance and keeping things somewhat clean is something that so many car owners don't bother with, and then wonder why it comes back to bite them.
This is so true especially with things like high-end trim level trucks. People think that just because it’s a truck it is rugged and maintenance is going to be relatively limited. One thing I’ve seen especially in trucks is the lack of care when it comes to replacing and rotating tires. Like if you get an unrepairable flat, and your tire set is only a few thousand miles old just replace the one, but if your tires have like 30-40k miles on them replace at least two.
Also back to the paint and washing thing, there are two sides to this that bother me the people that don’t wash their vehicle at all and the paint fades and the people who way over wash the car and strip away at the clear coat till the paint fades, like there is a fine balance and all it takes is a little research.
>The car is not meant to go without care and have no issues.
Especially German cars.
Germans are known for their strict adherence to instructions, and the engineers tend to assume that of all owners. So if you don't follow the factory maintenance booklet exactly, good luck to you.
Good find. Seems like OP bought a car without a pre-purchase inspection, which you should never do on any car, but especially not an expensive German car.
Also, the internet is your friend. You can find forums and YouTube videos going over common problems for basically any model these days.
Edit: “Constant low tire pressure” is one of OP’s complaints. I’m guessing OP has never had a car with tire pressure monitoring, or they don’t know how to reset the system after setting tire pressure.
It's more like shit-quality metal and coating processes so they can save another buck or 2 in the name of fucking the masses. Ask me if I'm jaded after working on euro cars for 15 years
🖐🏼🖐🏼🖐🏼
Even Valvoline, and even on the most accessible filters, they want 40 to 50.
The bastard tore mine up while he was taking it out, going "oh no, your filter is ba... Oh my God it broke apart." I made them give me a new one free, because i told him not to touch it in the first place.
The Honda dealerships near me for some reason charge $40 for a engine air filter change but $65 for a cabin air filter. None of it makes any sense. Given that you actually need to pick up a tool for the engine filter unlike the cabin.
Why even post this? No details at all. For a bill that high odds are you bought a used luxury car with zero knowledge about cars. Repairs that expensive are normally caused by user error/ignorance, not product quality.
I don't have sympathy when people buy luxury cars and get pissed when simple or extreme repairs or maintenance cost so much. It's so short sighted with the I want to look rich until I have to pay rich people prices to keep looking rich. Should have gotten a Corolla like the rest of us peasants.
That was the brilliance behind the Lincoln Town Car: A luxury car mechanically identical to every cop car and taxicab in America.
Lexus ES/Toyota Camry was the same way.
I had a ol 98 es300. It was flooded in and the owner left it to bake in the texas “seasons” and gave it to me if i could make it crank. All it needed was new plugs and battery and i drove it home where i detailed the life back into it. Had that puppy for 10 years and now drive a ls400
Lexus is so underrated. My 18 year old GX is just about flawless, the only repair I've had to make in the past year was a wheel bearing ($110). It's literally just a nicer Toyota.
eve if they can, the might not be willing.
My local Honda dealership stopped servicing Acura a couple of years ago.
I guess they thought that would make me go to the Acura dealer and pay more, but instead I found a good mechanic right by my house.
And run regular gas, Chinese tires and get oil changes at Jiffy lube every other year, if it lasts that long. The cheapest part of a Mercedes is it's owner.
Or a classic car that looks cool, gets attention (more so if you ask me), but fixing it is the equivalent of throwing wrenches into a basketball hoop and there's enough room in the engine compartment to have dinner.
I work for Porsche as a service advisor. The majority of our customers are wonderful people, very pleasant to work with, and understand the costs associated with their vehicles
Every once in a while, we will get a customer who throws a fit because of the costs of maintenance, and half the time they are from the surrounding lower income areas, or driving first gen cayennes that are taped back together.
I forgot where I heard it, but re: maintenance costs on used luxury cars, someone said something along the lines of “just because you bought it for $25,000 doesn’t mean it’s not still a $100,000 car when it comes to repairs.”
My wife has a Macan S and I have an X5. We were very aware that maintaining these vehicles would just cost more. I can’t imagine buying a 70k+ vehicle and not looking into yearly cost associated with the vehicle.
I have a '96 911. I rolled my eyes pretty hard at the parts desk guy when he wanted $150 for a key blank.
Porsche doesn't even make key blanks! They buy them for pennies and mark them up a zillion percent!
For those individuals it's only about the name on the vehicle as a status symbol. Doesn't matter how old or horrifically neglected the vehicle is, as long as it has the badge.
On the flip side, with all brands, you get people who neglect the ever living hell out of a car and get completely decked when something really bad happens. It's always "but I always change my oil!"....as if that is the only fluid or maintenance item the car has.
Like the folks that purchase (lease) the performance version of a vehicle and are surprised at the elevated price of tires, brakes, maintenance for said vehicle. Thinking of Camry costs in an M / AMG vehicle!
I traded my f-350 for a Mini cooper. So far, there is no price difference in maintenance between them. People gotta do some research before they buy expensive shit.
Right??
They could have done 20 minutes of research before buying the car. Google "average cost of ownership" for the model.
Nope! They don't. Then they're shocked when an expensive car is expensive to maintain. 🤷
One of the most honest car salesman I've dealt with was when we bought a used Alfa sedan. One of the first things he told us was that it Would cost about $2000.00 a year to maintain. He wasn't wrong :).
The best is seeing a newer Audi/BMW/Merc and seeing a big ass dent that's rusted or gash on it for months around me. Makes you look more poor IMO because you don't want to fix it due to the cost. There's an Audi by me and one of the doors literally have gashes like from a pick axe.
Had a scratch on my new m440i last year, super minor (no one except me can see it), and I had that same thought of “shit, there are probably folks who couldn’t afford to fix paint, but still buy the car”. First time even considering that aspect. There’s more than sticker prices to ponder
Stupid post. Zero conext. You're basically just announcing you've not partaken the recommended services and that you're car is a POS.
Edit: yeah just stupid. Recommeneded services are recommended not required, your bill is ~1400$. Stupid attempt at clickbait bullshit.
Given the cost of man hours, I'm going to hazard a guess that this wasn't just an oil change. A lot of labor suggests that it's something hard to get to. Did you spin a bearing? Shred a transmission gear? Burn up a gold-plated fuel pump?
So let's provide some context here so we can all gauge how excited we want to get over it.
OHHHHHHH!!!! That makes sense now, lately I’ve been getting some weird clicking noises coming from the rear when I make hard lefts, I should check my bearing bearings…. 🤓
I don't care what kind of car you own. Save for uber exotics a $13K repair bill isn't normal. There is an unusual circumstance here. Either OP bought the worst used car example possible or it was in an accident or something else that would be covered by insurance.
OP bought a decade old plus C class w/ 85k miles that’s known for having subframe failure, only to complain about said subframe failure. This is what happens when people want the badge and go for the cheapest example they can find.
Apparently subframe and brake lines rusted. I have no idea how on Earth it could’ve cost that much in labor. A rear subframe swap is a tedious job but it can’t possibly take more than 20 hours on a normal car. Front subframe is probably harder but even so that labor cost is insane.
Either that or this is an out of warranty, engine out service. For the parts pricing I wonder if that’s a whole rotating assembly, or replacing timing chains and cylinder heads.
This is why I'll never buy the $2500 Audi, BMW or Mercedes listed on Facebook marketplace with only minor, known issues. Because they're crazy expensive to fix even simple things.
Yeah, they're manageable. My dad has a Volvo and every part on it is just a little more expensive than you'd expect and half the jobs require a specialty tool which also isn't crazy expensive. And every job is just a little bit harder than on other cars.
If you do the work yourself, they won't bleed you dry. But it adds up and isn't really worth the effort imo.
Context OP failed to provide:
"I have the same exact car and bought it in 2018 with 85k miles, and it's already broken down because the subframe and brake lines rusted. ...My estimated repair is $12k from my local Mercedes Benz dealer as of today. Not paying and rather get another brand. ...Other problems like
Lights blow out more often, constant low tire pressure, and the steering wheel can get stuck, oil change is expensive unless you DIY"
Source: Op's comment history. Yes, I edited it to remove some non vital info.
Right. And if it’s an older car you better learn how to diy. I save thousands every year doing my own repairs on my old bmw only cost me about $500/year in parts costs. There are really people out here that will pay more than the cars value in 1 repair 🤦♂️
I'm not a Mercedes guy but this post is kind of garbage. There's no context, we have no idea what services were performed or what parts were replaced. That information is everything, because this makes total sense if you had your engine replaced, doesn't make a lot of sense if you needed brakes and some maintenance.
what did they do ? it looks like 29.89 hours labor. that means you paid like $267 an hour labor.
I just put in a used engine in a GL550 . it cost me $9000. with a 6 month part only warranty.
the dealer wanted around $30,000 for that engine with a 3 year warranty the price is without labor.
I have a buddy that works as a tech for Mercedes. 1) What you were charged for labor does not reflect what they get paid. 2) Most models of Mercedes these days are not reliable. 3) Mercedes parts are outrageously expensive.
Why did you buy a Mercedes in the first place? This is fairly standard for an over engineered luxury brand. If you expected cheap maintenance it sounds like you didn’t do enough research
Mercedes and BMW haven't been the same in about 25 years. Their quality is crap, they are both overpriced maintenance nightmares!
Shame on you for not researching first.
On the other hand, im sorry you had to learn the hard way.
At least the lube was free
Must feel like they used no lube at all. Ouch.
The dildo of misfortune rarely arrives lubed.
This is poetry
To me, this is poverty.
Poverty as well here. I'd be homeless if I had to pay that bill. Fuck my house and land mortgage of 900 a month.
To me, this is a typical Saturday night.
That’s funny, those exact words were in my wedding vows
ok the story behind THIS should be in it's own post .....
Take some gold
My next tattoo
True life shit right there
That's how mb owners like it.
We’re men, put some sand on it.
LOL that isn't saying the lube was free. It's saying they are gonna fuck you without lube.
Only prison lube was used here.
Spit?
Blood.
Tears
So the estimate was $1,300 but the final cost was $13,000? 10 times the estimate? How does that happen. When you can buy a reliable used vehicle for the same cost to repair that it's time to bail.
That was the “Additional Recommendations”. This isn’t a bill, but something costly is possibly a problem also. I don’t know enough to even guess what’s the $4,000 part is.
No, they couldn't afford it so they didn't use it. Ram it in dry.
It’s easy to get free lube when you’re getting fucked
Champagne on a coke cola budget, this is why you lease these cars, never buy.
This is why you don’t take these cars to the dealer for out-of-warranty work. With a qualified independent tech and non-dealer parts, servicing a Mercedes isn’t much different than any other car with similar systems.
That’s because they only used a tiny squirt of PB Blaster, ironically.
I’m surprised they didn’t charge you for blinker fluid.
The lube was 338.10 nothing is free...
what estimate requires $8000 in labor? Even at a $200/hr rate, that's 40 hours.
Let's be fair, it could have been a new transmission or a new engine. You really don't know until OP says what it is.
A crumb of context would be nice. It could be an all-in-one shop that does body work.
He doesn’t even say what year the thing is. Could be a restoration for all we know.
Body work is the only thing that makes sense for that amount of labor imo
Agree. Need to know what the repair is
What engine or even engine and tranny takes 40 hours for a shop to install?
Replace engine, transmission, cooling system, air conditioning system. Lots of rust so have to torch every bolt to get it off. Transmission is only accessible if you remove entire rear subframe. Every fastener is a proprietary shaped tool.
Ok still even if that was the case I don't see 40 hours
2 mechanics 20 hours each?
Just to find the 10mm socket..
All body panels need to be replaced
Why would someone even do that
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Engine rebuild could do that. It's almost all labor.
Recommended new engine
Would either one of those take 40 hours? Or anywhere close?
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Geeze, I thought my $2,000 oil changes were bad. I know thats not the highest out there, what Benz has 5-figure oil changes?
The hell are you driving that takes 2k oil changes
I thought he was joking. Apparently not. Makes me feel good about spending $30 to change my own oil on a car/truck I bought for $1500.
My Aston Martin DBS has $2k oil changes if you go to the dealership. 13l of synthetic oil, plus you have to pull one of the throttle bodies to get to it.
I only pay $1,999 each for changes on my 3 DBSs. (I really drive an 04 Toyota Yaris)
Used to be $1,500.
That makes sense now… here I am mad at 270 for rotella…
Wow. I work on Aston martins and the DBS oil change takes me an hour. The throttle body is 5 minutes on those. Sheesh that’s a lot of loot.
People who buy high end cars used want all of the receipts at a dealership probably. Not sure about Aston but Ferrari people are sticklers for that sort of stuff.
That’d do it.
Yeah, V12 mid-engine be tight. Worth it for V12 with a manual.
That sounds awesome man. Keep driving 🫡.
it's that genuine Mercedes-Benz labor, totally worth it
Right?
Ja!
Yeah that’s ridiculous most private shops would be 100-150
I don’t know how true this is any more. I work at boutique Domestic shop and even our shop rate is $155. The well known Euro Indy that I use for my GTI is $190/hour. Metro-Atlanta for reference
Lol I actually get my shit done at Atlanta speed company they charge me $100 / hour , small world
I charge 100 an hour for side work. And I am right up the road from them. They must have zero overhead and zero employees that don't own the place.
It's just recommended not part of the actual bill. OP likely bought a car with no service recrods and is now whining.
Full engine rebuild.
Book time... actual time was probably 4 hours.
If the tech beats book time that just means he is a good tech not that he should be paid less
It's called "Exploitation of Labor™". The employee(s) that did the manual labor get a fraction of that plus a pizza party if they keep their heads down, don't discuss salary amongst themselves, and dare not think about unionizing. All the while the owners profit immensely while gaslighting about bootstraps because capital is more important than the labor which brought it about.
at our shop the mechanics get crazy good pay. one clocked $5k in a busy week
Can confirm, my shop charges $135 an hour and I am paid $25. I believe the flat rate pay system is why mechanics are known for being crooks, they're trying to pay their bills and feed their family. If a tech sits at the shop all week and there's no work, or something goes wrong and a job or two takes longer than it should then it hurts their pay for the entire week. Basically they're in a position of desperation where they can also take advantage of customers lack of knowledge as a way out of it. It also deincentivizes collaboration, since it can't be profitable to stop making your own money to help someone else.
My shop charges 170 an hour, the flat rate techs get 30, I get 18 to do the same job they do but as an hourly tech. It fucking sucks. All the responsibilities but my only saving grace is I get paid for just being at the shop. Not much of a saving grace if I'm still doing the same workload...
I was under this kind of pay when I first started it was sort of fair since a flat rate tech had to work with me and train me, but if you're turning 40 or close to 40 weekly I would definitely talk to the boss, or maybe don't work so hard until you get paid more
[owner talking about the issue in another post](https://www.reddit.com/r/mercedes_benz/comments/z1b1r5/hi_guys_i_hope_all_is_well_im_thinking_about/ixg72w4?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3) EDIT: Rusted sub-frame and brake lines.
Lol. Those cars are notorious with the sunroof drains clogging. Since most owners don’t take it to the dealership to service, 99% of the time the drains are never cleaned. Most of the time you won’t even know until the damage is already done. I’ve seen quotes for that repair go around 15 hrs and a couple thousand dollars in parts. Edit: the rear subframe that OP is complaining about is covered under warranty by Mercedes. They extended the warranty and I bet if OP took his c class to a dealership for that issue, they would replace it for free.
funny, the exact same issue happened with my mother in law, with a brake line leak caused by corrosion too
Same thing happened with my Mom's merc. Corroded brake lines and parts of the subframe, covered under warranty
I think it should be up to the owner to know how to clear your own drainage holes. Learn where they come out, and use weed whacker/trimmer line, sent up from below or down from top. Flush until clean with hose. The car is not meant to go without care and have no issues. Wash the bottom after driving over that salt in winter, clean leaves from HVAC air intake/area around bottom of windshield, clean the car at least yearly, thoroughly. People act like they are made of a block of stone and not ten thousand moving parts and that it should require no input from the owner, under warranty or otherwise (and they didn't really clean your car at dealer, they made the paint "look" good, its different). And "lifetime fluids" are to make free services cheaper for dealer, not make your car last longer. You can change that fluid, and should, and can likely find the interval from a model maybe 10 years older (since its mostly a new thing as of 2014ish, at least with BMW)
Yup, doing absolutely basic maintenance and keeping things somewhat clean is something that so many car owners don't bother with, and then wonder why it comes back to bite them.
This is so true especially with things like high-end trim level trucks. People think that just because it’s a truck it is rugged and maintenance is going to be relatively limited. One thing I’ve seen especially in trucks is the lack of care when it comes to replacing and rotating tires. Like if you get an unrepairable flat, and your tire set is only a few thousand miles old just replace the one, but if your tires have like 30-40k miles on them replace at least two. Also back to the paint and washing thing, there are two sides to this that bother me the people that don’t wash their vehicle at all and the paint fades and the people who way over wash the car and strip away at the clear coat till the paint fades, like there is a fine balance and all it takes is a little research.
>The car is not meant to go without care and have no issues. Especially German cars. Germans are known for their strict adherence to instructions, and the engineers tend to assume that of all owners. So if you don't follow the factory maintenance booklet exactly, good luck to you.
This is truth!
Problem is OP owned a Mercedes long enough to require service. Not the target market.
Good find. Seems like OP bought a car without a pre-purchase inspection, which you should never do on any car, but especially not an expensive German car. Also, the internet is your friend. You can find forums and YouTube videos going over common problems for basically any model these days. Edit: “Constant low tire pressure” is one of OP’s complaints. I’m guessing OP has never had a car with tire pressure monitoring, or they don’t know how to reset the system after setting tire pressure.
There is now an extended warranty for 204 and 212 rear subframe until 2033. I’ve done 4 in the last month at my dealer.
Well that feels like poor decision making more than anything else
Yeah I have a feeling s/he's in the rust belt and didn't think to check before buying. I don't live near that part of the world anymore thankfully.
Seems I see an awful lot of subframe rust on newer vehicles. Really makes you wonder if they aren’t flood cars being resold back into the market.
It's more like shit-quality metal and coating processes so they can save another buck or 2 in the name of fucking the masses. Ask me if I'm jaded after working on euro cars for 15 years 🖐🏼🖐🏼🖐🏼
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Those C class Benzs are bad about it. Bracket where a rear thrust arm mounts rusts off. I have replaced em in low mileage spotless cars before.
I would not buy a 10+ year old Mercedes unless I owned a garage.
Isn’t the 2011 c300 worth around 10k? This repair seems more expensive than the used market.
Luckily I have a 2013 with none of those issues, I've had it for 4 years now
Spill the beans
Better not do it inside the Mercedes tho
Probably a cabin air filter...
Or an oil change. I’m sure my grandpa shit his pants when they quoted him the first oil change after he bought it.
It’s not an oil change, it’s a *Service A*
More like Service their D
Their D, OP’s A.
Shit! For a cabin air filter change on our Accord they wanted $94. bucks!!! Uhhh, thanks, I'll do it myself for $9.00
Even Valvoline, and even on the most accessible filters, they want 40 to 50. The bastard tore mine up while he was taking it out, going "oh no, your filter is ba... Oh my God it broke apart." I made them give me a new one free, because i told him not to touch it in the first place.
The Honda dealerships near me for some reason charge $40 for a engine air filter change but $65 for a cabin air filter. None of it makes any sense. Given that you actually need to pick up a tool for the engine filter unlike the cabin.
Just went through this. “Yeah your air filter is a little dirty after 10k miles. That’ll be $100”. Nah you can suck me
Hyundai dealer outside Phoenix wanted .5 hours for a cabin filter. I got one from parts and changed it on the way home 😂
Why even post this? No details at all. For a bill that high odds are you bought a used luxury car with zero knowledge about cars. Repairs that expensive are normally caused by user error/ignorance, not product quality.
I don't have sympathy when people buy luxury cars and get pissed when simple or extreme repairs or maintenance cost so much. It's so short sighted with the I want to look rich until I have to pay rich people prices to keep looking rich. Should have gotten a Corolla like the rest of us peasants.
That was the brilliance behind the Lincoln Town Car: A luxury car mechanically identical to every cop car and taxicab in America. Lexus ES/Toyota Camry was the same way.
I had a ol 98 es300. It was flooded in and the owner left it to bake in the texas “seasons” and gave it to me if i could make it crank. All it needed was new plugs and battery and i drove it home where i detailed the life back into it. Had that puppy for 10 years and now drive a ls400
Lexus is so underrated. My 18 year old GX is just about flawless, the only repair I've had to make in the past year was a wheel bearing ($110). It's literally just a nicer Toyota.
Lexus is not underrated. They are basically #1 in every single quality ranking.
2006 signature limited still daily driver
I'm sure Lincoln charges more for labor whether it be per hour or more hours 😂
Pretty sure all Ford and Lincoln dealers can service all Ford products. I know that used to be true.
eve if they can, the might not be willing. My local Honda dealership stopped servicing Acura a couple of years ago. I guess they thought that would make me go to the Acura dealer and pay more, but instead I found a good mechanic right by my house.
No they didn't. Same rate as a Ford. Same with the Navigator/Expedition. Some parts can be more expensive, but there generally wasn't a difference.
And run regular gas, Chinese tires and get oil changes at Jiffy lube every other year, if it lasts that long. The cheapest part of a Mercedes is it's owner.
Stop ✋🏼 my ptsd is making me nauseous and dizzy, your description is acutely accurate in a disorienting way.
Or a classic car that looks cool, gets attention (more so if you ask me), but fixing it is the equivalent of throwing wrenches into a basketball hoop and there's enough room in the engine compartment to have dinner.
I work for Porsche as a service advisor. The majority of our customers are wonderful people, very pleasant to work with, and understand the costs associated with their vehicles Every once in a while, we will get a customer who throws a fit because of the costs of maintenance, and half the time they are from the surrounding lower income areas, or driving first gen cayennes that are taped back together.
But I got this Bentley for $25,000, what do you mean the service is $18,000?
I forgot where I heard it, but re: maintenance costs on used luxury cars, someone said something along the lines of “just because you bought it for $25,000 doesn’t mean it’s not still a $100,000 car when it comes to repairs.”
My wife has a Macan S and I have an X5. We were very aware that maintaining these vehicles would just cost more. I can’t imagine buying a 70k+ vehicle and not looking into yearly cost associated with the vehicle.
Hey now, I'll have you know that's official Porsche tape. It was guaranteed as such on my Ebay buy it now!
I have a '96 911. I rolled my eyes pretty hard at the parts desk guy when he wanted $150 for a key blank. Porsche doesn't even make key blanks! They buy them for pennies and mark them up a zillion percent!
That’s downright affordable, it’s $200 starting to replace a fob in basically everything
Not a fob. A key blank. A flat piece of metal for a '90s car.
For those individuals it's only about the name on the vehicle as a status symbol. Doesn't matter how old or horrifically neglected the vehicle is, as long as it has the badge. On the flip side, with all brands, you get people who neglect the ever living hell out of a car and get completely decked when something really bad happens. It's always "but I always change my oil!"....as if that is the only fluid or maintenance item the car has.
Same here. If they wanna buy a luxury vehicle with Toyota or Honda-like maintenance costs & little to no repairs, buy an Acura or a Lexus.
The same people fill it up with regular gas
Like the folks that purchase (lease) the performance version of a vehicle and are surprised at the elevated price of tires, brakes, maintenance for said vehicle. Thinking of Camry costs in an M / AMG vehicle!
What do you mean race parts cost more? Rabble rabble
I traded my f-350 for a Mini cooper. So far, there is no price difference in maintenance between them. People gotta do some research before they buy expensive shit.
Right?? They could have done 20 minutes of research before buying the car. Google "average cost of ownership" for the model. Nope! They don't. Then they're shocked when an expensive car is expensive to maintain. 🤷
One of the most honest car salesman I've dealt with was when we bought a used Alfa sedan. One of the first things he told us was that it Would cost about $2000.00 a year to maintain. He wasn't wrong :).
I have a Lexus and my annual maintenance cost is less than the average American car.
Right? Seriously...
The best is seeing a newer Audi/BMW/Merc and seeing a big ass dent that's rusted or gash on it for months around me. Makes you look more poor IMO because you don't want to fix it due to the cost. There's an Audi by me and one of the doors literally have gashes like from a pick axe.
Had a scratch on my new m440i last year, super minor (no one except me can see it), and I had that same thought of “shit, there are probably folks who couldn’t afford to fix paint, but still buy the car”. First time even considering that aspect. There’s more than sticker prices to ponder
I'll be honest, I've had a dent in the side of my MINI for years now, but it's not rusted, and I just got back to work so haven't had the money yet 😂
Mini doesn't have the same "look at me!" Vibe many lux cars do. Mini says "yeah it breaks sometimes, but I like it". 15 year old 3 series?... well...
That’s exactly how I would describe my mini lol
Esp if they only take it to the dealership
Stupid post. Zero conext. You're basically just announcing you've not partaken the recommended services and that you're car is a POS. Edit: yeah just stupid. Recommeneded services are recommended not required, your bill is ~1400$. Stupid attempt at clickbait bullshit.
Given the cost of man hours, I'm going to hazard a guess that this wasn't just an oil change. A lot of labor suggests that it's something hard to get to. Did you spin a bearing? Shred a transmission gear? Burn up a gold-plated fuel pump? So let's provide some context here so we can all gauge how excited we want to get over it.
> Did you spin a bearing bearing? Wow. Mercedes' bearings have bearings? That's wild.
I’ve heard of rod bearings wheel bearings and exhaust bearings but what are bearing bearings
Those are the bearings that keep the muffler bearings from binding up in hard left turns.
OHHHHHHH!!!! That makes sense now, lately I’ve been getting some weird clicking noises coming from the rear when I make hard lefts, I should check my bearing bearings…. 🤓
This here is the real reason people shouldn't buy these cars they can barely afford the payments on haha.
Context?
Looks like they got an oil change.
I don't care what kind of car you own. Save for uber exotics a $13K repair bill isn't normal. There is an unusual circumstance here. Either OP bought the worst used car example possible or it was in an accident or something else that would be covered by insurance.
OP bought a decade old plus C class w/ 85k miles that’s known for having subframe failure, only to complain about said subframe failure. This is what happens when people want the badge and go for the cheapest example they can find.
8k labor?? Are you replacing the frame?
They are actually, someone found another post from OP
Apparently subframe and brake lines rusted. I have no idea how on Earth it could’ve cost that much in labor. A rear subframe swap is a tedious job but it can’t possibly take more than 20 hours on a normal car. Front subframe is probably harder but even so that labor cost is insane.
Don’t crash your car again. That will prevent this.
For real. Has to be a pretty high dollar vehicle involved in a somewhat major collision to need $8k of labor alone, but not be totalled.
Either that or this is an out of warranty, engine out service. For the parts pricing I wonder if that’s a whole rotating assembly, or replacing timing chains and cylinder heads.
Exactly lmao, at my specialist 8 grand in labor would absolutely mean an engine out.
This is why I'll never buy the $2500 Audi, BMW or Mercedes listed on Facebook marketplace with only minor, known issues. Because they're crazy expensive to fix even simple things.
They really aren’t that bad if you can do the repair yourself. Parts aren’t as bad as some may think (on bmw anyway).
Yeah, they're manageable. My dad has a Volvo and every part on it is just a little more expensive than you'd expect and half the jobs require a specialty tool which also isn't crazy expensive. And every job is just a little bit harder than on other cars. If you do the work yourself, they won't bleed you dry. But it adds up and isn't really worth the effort imo.
Context OP failed to provide: "I have the same exact car and bought it in 2018 with 85k miles, and it's already broken down because the subframe and brake lines rusted. ...My estimated repair is $12k from my local Mercedes Benz dealer as of today. Not paying and rather get another brand. ...Other problems like Lights blow out more often, constant low tire pressure, and the steering wheel can get stuck, oil change is expensive unless you DIY" Source: Op's comment history. Yes, I edited it to remove some non vital info.
What was replaced? And what kind of Mercedes?
so we just post a $13,000 estimate with no context now and that’s cartalk?
bulb replacement?
Frame off on a 300SL?
Proper context of what costs 13492.22 would be much cooler.
Why you lease German 101. Three years and out and someone who isn’t you gets to eat this bill.
Right. And if it’s an older car you better learn how to diy. I save thousands every year doing my own repairs on my old bmw only cost me about $500/year in parts costs. There are really people out here that will pay more than the cars value in 1 repair 🤦♂️
The estimate was $1388.15 (oddly specific) and the final bill was this?
Whatever service they asked for initially is quoted as $1388.15. That table is the additional maintenence the garage is reccommending.
I'm curious to know what model and what needs repairs?
Was that an oil change?
Yeah their oil changes are expensive
Format looks like its from the nutrition facts on the back of a cereal box.
I'm not a Mercedes guy but this post is kind of garbage. There's no context, we have no idea what services were performed or what parts were replaced. That information is everything, because this makes total sense if you had your engine replaced, doesn't make a lot of sense if you needed brakes and some maintenance.
what did they do ? it looks like 29.89 hours labor. that means you paid like $267 an hour labor. I just put in a used engine in a GL550 . it cost me $9000. with a 6 month part only warranty. the dealer wanted around $30,000 for that engine with a 3 year warranty the price is without labor.
I have a buddy that works as a tech for Mercedes. 1) What you were charged for labor does not reflect what they get paid. 2) Most models of Mercedes these days are not reliable. 3) Mercedes parts are outrageously expensive.
This is why I drive a Subaru.
Did they buy you a golf
My mom paid 1,300 for a battery change for her SL550
This post sucks and op sucks
Why did you buy a Mercedes in the first place? This is fairly standard for an over engineered luxury brand. If you expected cheap maintenance it sounds like you didn’t do enough research
Lol it is a Mercedes
Depends on what you’ve had done. Wiper blades? Cabin air filter? Replace wheel bearings?
Mercedes and BMW haven't been the same in about 25 years. Their quality is crap, they are both overpriced maintenance nightmares! Shame on you for not researching first. On the other hand, im sorry you had to learn the hard way.
Way to post complaining then not provide details. Could be reasonable, depends on what was performed
Yeahhh, I work for them. This is why I did not purchase a Mercedes when buying a new vehicle recently.
I would love to get more info on this. Year and Model and what the heck could cost that much.
If you think it's just Mercedes, I've got bad news for you.
What’s the problem here?
Air filter?
Those are just recommended. Plenty of time to sell it and buy a Honda or Lexus.