I have a Mercedes-Benz C180 which I bought from new in late 2002. It has a full Mercedes-Benz service record. Despite its age, the car only has 17,000 miles on the clock. I had the car serviced recently and incurred a bill of close to £1000, which I winced at and discussed extensively with the service manager why this was the case and how bad it was. Among other things, they discovered a milkiness in the gearbox which was all flushed out etc, and they said they would like to check it again in a couple of months' time.

Almost immediately the car didn't seem to drive very well, and less than 100 driving miles later the car started juddering alarmingly. I took it in and it appears that there is catastrophic gearbox failure with coolant from the radiator into the gearbox. I was told it would need a new radiator, gearbox, torque converter etc and advised that this would be expensive and probably not worth doing. I told them that given the mileage this must be a manufacturing issue, and they said they would go to Germany and UK to seek a contribution. I then did some internet research and read all about the long-standing problem with the Valeo radiator causing this precise problem.

Initially Mercedes-Benz in Germany and UK said no contribution. After doing my research and confronting them on the Valeo radiator issue (I have asked them to confirm it is Valeo and the manager said he didn't know but was pretty confident it would be) they have offered some reduction in cost of repair, but frankly it is still probably not worth doing.

I feel most aggrieved about this, and in particular I believe that as a Mercedes-Benz specialist they should have picked up on this as a potential problem and preventatively advised me to change the radiator. Even if not, a few years ago it should have certainly been advised at the last service that this might be the case. Mercedes-Benz are clearly not standing behind their product, and in a car with 17,000 miles on the clock I think it is a disgrace. I would appreciate any advice.