The customer that they seek is the one who leases a new car for 36 months and then drops it off three years later in exchange for a new one.
^Repeat.
The customer that they seek is the one who leases a new car for 36 months and then drops it off three years later in exchange for a new one.
^Repeat.
All of that is probably true. I still want to be able to cut a deal where they pay for the motor, I order a new GLA45 and they get a customer for life.
You might have something there, but you might have to start above the dealership level. Maybe talk to the marketing people.
Do they sponsor a One Lap car? Maybe share some stories about the limited production Cadillac flagship that you bought new.
SO you buy a starting at 50k car. they pay for a 54k motor?... Profit on the car is <10% if you believe all the waaing motorcar manufactuers are doing nowadays.
even if you promised to buy a new amg every 5 years. it'd take them what 50 years to make back the money it'd cost to warranty your car.
I mean, I'd love for them to take care of you. but...
Well, that and the 'factory' sponsorship that Honda, Toyota and BMW have done and how Mercedes is missing out by not having a One Lap presence other than Sonic who did the brand proud last year.
All of this is going to come up during the next level of discussions. All I've done so far is talk to the very nice person who takes the relavent information for the inquiry and passes it on.
In reply to Mad_Ratel:
Math like that is why I'm where I am. They know about the head bolts (I have the internal document) but the failure is low enough to deal with it case by case. So their plan is literally to talk to each individual person who experiences a failure until they can ignore it completely because it's the cheapest route.
I know what's going one here, I'm not ignorant about how this works or is likely to end up, but for a variety of reasons I want to come to a solution that makes both me and the company happy today and in the long term.
And they're not selling that $50k motor at cost, they have profit built into that as well so they need to do their own math.
After talking with my neighbor over the last year Woody is on the right track for the most part. If you had purchased a number of Mercedes over the years and had taken them to the dealer for service they would almost bend over backwards to help you with this. But, since this is an AMG and you have documentation of the issue I got the impression that if you were up here my guy would help in some way. Good will goes a long way to making\keeping customers and from my conversations with my neighbor MB is serious about that. They want to beat BMW and Audi in sales.
They've been amazingly nice so far. In several ways even better than Cadillac when I bought the V new. That matters. What also matters is the idea that I don't matter because my relationship with them is just starting. I know I need to so some salesmanship to convince them that cultivating this relationship will be good for both of us long term, but I'll give it a try. And you guys know me, I really would go order a new GLA45 if I were treated right. Does that one car pay for the engine? No, but how about the next 5 or 6 plus helping expose MB and their AMG cars to a maturing audience that shops Ford and Subaru right now.
And Mrs. Deuce cross shops Audi and BMW for her ever increasing daily fleet. Mercedes is now on her radar because of how good the R63 is. She is......watching how this unfolds.
And a lot of this is just me organizing my thoughts and formalizing my sales strategy. The facts are what they are but you guys are helping figure out how to present them. Thanks for that.
Sorry dude. That was just my thoughts. Was not trying to be a total dick.
MB and Porsche are notorious for doing the right thing. Hell even BMW. Audi notsomuch somehow.
Dad's seat broke in his 2004 545i. 1400 dollars to fix it so that the airbag worked. 1 year later bmw came back and refunded him his money because they had come up with a recall.
GM would have said great we do not have to pay for that car to be repaired...
His 2012 550i had 2k miles on it from when he bought it (used with 20k miles). Certified. the clutch error came up on the dash. when they got done with the car three weeks later (after letting him put 5k miles on a brand new 328i) the parts bill was $15k with labor being some crazy number above that... BMW covered ALL of it. (including a new dual mass flywheel and clutch.) They also did any UPDATES and UPGRADES they'd done to the 550i line since his car was made 2 years before including a full new fuel system, retuning for additional power etc...
The other side of the thought process is good. MB is going to tell me no in some fashion, at least I expect them to, and then we work from there. I need organized thoughts, you guys are helping.
Mad_Ratel wrote: Dad's seat broke in his 2004 545i. 1400 dollars to fix it so that the airbag worked. 1 year later bmw came back and refunded him his money because they had come up with a recall. GM would have said great we do not have to pay for that car to be repaired...
Wrong on the GM part. GM does reimburse repairs that were done if it becomes a recall at a later date. And we're talking yeeeeeears down the road.
NickD wrote:Mad_Ratel wrote: Dad's seat broke in his 2004 545i. 1400 dollars to fix it so that the airbag worked. 1 year later bmw came back and refunded him his money because they had come up with a recall. GM would have said great we do not have to pay for that car to be repaired...Wrong on the GM part. GM does reimburse repairs that were done if it becomes a recall at a later date. And we're talking yeeeeeears down the road.
GM has yet to recall the fuel rail covers on gto's that have been proven to severe the fuel line over the headers and caused multiple cars to burn to the ground. There are a multitude of huge issues that GM just never owns up to...
Mad_Ratel wrote:NickD wrote:GM has yet to recall the fuel rail covers on gto's that have been proven to severe the fuel line over the headers and caused multiple cars to burn to the ground. There are a multitude of huge issues that GM just never owns up to...Mad_Ratel wrote: Dad's seat broke in his 2004 545i. 1400 dollars to fix it so that the airbag worked. 1 year later bmw came back and refunded him his money because they had come up with a recall. GM would have said great we do not have to pay for that car to be repaired...Wrong on the GM part. GM does reimburse repairs that were done if it becomes a recall at a later date. And we're talking yeeeeeears down the road.
Not trying to derail the thread, but Nick is right, and not just for recalls, but service bulletins as well. I just got one for the accelerator pedal on my Volt, and not only do they reimburse for previous repairs, they extend the warranty on that particular component. I'm sure other OEMs do the same, and I'm sure there are many issues like the GTO issue you mention that are only known and "proven" by enthusiasts on the interwebs. With enough exposure they do gain traction, unfortunately there are so few GTOs that will probably never be the case. (Though the guy sitting beside me at work does own two of them, and works on many many more, so I will mention this to him.)
But back to our regularly scheduled programming... Hope this all works out for you Deuce, either way we are all watching and wishing you the best, and hoping to see either the R or GLA on One Lap.
This is the risk of a typical low production classic type car. I had a Porsche 928, always worried something big would go wrong, since I was fool enough to use it as my only daily driver. Now I have a Maserati Biturbo, but that can sit for months if there is a problem. I sometimes look at other low production classic's or exotic's but always wonder what do you do about that big issue, and the newer stuff is just not really meant to be repaired. But it sometimes adds to the adventure. Sometimes this stuff wasn't made very well to begin with and tie and miles didn't help.
Did you know that MB never makes a bad part? They may upgrade them through time to make them better, but every part is good.
That's according the MB USA on the issue of head bolts with another person who is unaware of the head bolt issue.
My first experience with someone at MB being openly rude.
I need to cool down.
In reply to mazdeuce:
That's a pretty common German Corporate attitude, IME. Buggy software would get a fix added, and the buggy code would stay but the entrance criteria would be changed so the buggy code would never be executed. I LOL'd.
mazdeuce wrote: Common wisdom says buying a ten year old AMG Mercedes out of warranty is certain to cause immense pain and maritial strife. I don't doubt that for a second, though I harbor a hope that I'm the one guy who gets away with it. I just can't not buy it, even knowing how stupid the whole thing is.
Don't forget your own words. You, and most of us, completely expected something exactly like this to happen.
I don't want to give anybody the impression that I realistically thought I was going to get a different answer than I got. Even if they DID want to help I expected them to say no first. That's not a huge deal. The issue is with HOW is was presented.
The dealer/tech knew exactly what it was, why it was like that, and that is was SOL. MB screwed up, I am unlucky enough to have a late stage catastrophic failure, sometimes this happens. They were sympathetic and kind.
Corporate just told me that MB doesn't make mistakes and if anyone made a mistake it was me for purchasing a used Mercedes from a non dealer and I should have known better.
Delivery of bad news is the difference between a life long customer and....not.
In reply to mazdeuce:
Ugh, sometimes people suck. Kindness/polite goes a long ways in life.
Was that the be all end all person or can you go higher up?
It's still progressing. I just had a fantastic dealer/tech experience and a really good first call with them and then this second call was dramatically different.
mazdeuce wrote: Did you know that MB never makes a bad part? They may upgrade them through time to make them better, but every part is good. That's according the MB USA on the issue of head bolts with another person who is unaware of the head bolt issue. My first experience with someone at MB being openly rude. I need to cool down.
That right there is the exact german indifference I had to deal with when I worked at Bosch.
Contact mother plant about an issue we are having "such and such is doing this!"
mother plant:" that is not an issue, we are perfect; by the way, this is how you solve that issue".
Some chatting between MB USA and the dealer has me headed back in tomorrow to discuss other repair options. The rep was.....better. She still spent more time than necessary trying to convince me that the bolts aren't actually a known issue when she already knows that I know that they know that they are.
mazdeuce wrote: Did you know that MB never makes a bad part?
All the electronics that failed on the 01 C Class I had disagree with this. All 4 doors that were rusting also disagree.
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