SL350

Awfully cheap built vehicle and not a patch on the previous versions

Having acquired the vehicle from a Mercedes main s******, the vehicle developed a problem within the first 7 days, namely the ABS Braking system, requiring the return to the "Main Dealer Display".
Needles to say the Dealer, did express his enthusiasm "We will need to place it on diagnostics at a cost of £125, to esatblish the fault", It was determined the ABS Pump unit had failed and come to the end of its anticpated use, this was on a vehicle with just over 20k miles on the display. The offending part was replaced, at a cost of nearly £2k, of which they requested that I contribute 30%. The where politely pointed about there errors and legal standing in the first instance and I had the car returned.
The next occasion of a problem, some 2 months later was the gear selector, not moving. Fortunately the vehicle was at home and again I spoke to the dealer, who stated they could send a tow truck to retreive the car and again "place it on diagnostics". At this point I reveiewed the matter on the web and found that the gear selector used has a common fault, along with other models that use the same selector/shifter unit. A kind gentleman in the USofA explained the issue and how to repair the offending item. When the key is inserted and the barke pressed, a solenoid presses against a small pivoted L-shaped plastic lever, which disengages from the selector handle enabling the selector to move forward/backward etc... This small L shaped piece of plastic splits on the pivot (the corner of the L) and duly flexes thereafter preventing the disengagement and leaving the lever stuck, thankfully I was not in a carpark or stationary traffic. The offending £3.00 item was repaired by a third party, as Mercedes wanted to replace the Selector Box and reprogramme the EMS (£1500.00)
All in all a rather awful experience of owning a Mercedes. Mercedes must have been manufacturing vehicles based upon the Accountants numbers and from their previous reputation of quality in the previous Years.

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