MB Approved Used - Retailing Dealer Only?

MB Approved Used - Retailing Dealer Only?

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Discussion

MondeoMan1981

Original Poster:

2,407 posts

190 months

Tuesday 7th March 2023
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We bought an approved used MB last year remotely after seeing it on the MB website and it was delivered to us. It had the approved used 1 year warranty which we received confirmation of in the mail shortly after purchase.

The car has been a bag of spanners when on cold start and the heater has been noisy so we got it booked in.

Apart from zero comms about progress from the dealer, the Mrs was sent a text to pay them £99 for repairs.

On query it's a diagnostic charge and apparently it's because we didn't take the car to the same MB dealer we bought it from - that's surely BS, never heard of a manufacturer approved used scheme not covering all locations. Indeed my VW has been to the dealer 6 miles away instead of the dealer I bought from 350 miles away....

Anyone any experience of this?

Scrump

22,940 posts

165 months

Wednesday 8th March 2023
quotequote all
I bought a used Mercedes from a MB dealer at the other end of the country.
Had a couple of issues sorted in the first year under warranty by my local MB dealer without any issue. (The two dealers involved are part of different dealer groups).

Ian-27xza

221 posts

100 months

Wednesday 8th March 2023
quotequote all
I've bought 2 approved used Mercedes from two different dealers over the past 3 years. They are both different dealers and they are not my local Mercedes dealer that I've used for the past 6 years.

This sounds like BS to me. I've never had any issues at all with presenting my cars to my local dealer for warranty work.

In the interests of fairness, my local Mercedes dealer is Southampton Mercedes (Marshalls) and they've been excellent.

Fady

364 posts

211 months

Wednesday 8th March 2023
quotequote all
Scrump said:
I bought a used Mercedes from a MB dealer at the other end of the country.
Had a couple of issues sorted in the first year under warranty by my local MB dealer without any issue. (The two dealers involved are part of different dealer groups).
Similar story here. My work was done whilst the car was in for a service however I went armed with the warranty letter so they could extract any relevant reference numbers etc. for cross-charging.

Ron240

3,082 posts

126 months

Wednesday 8th March 2023
quotequote all
MondeoMan1981 said:
We bought an approved used MB last year remotely after seeing it on the MB website and it was delivered to us. It had the approved used 1 year warranty which we received confirmation of in the mail shortly after purchase.


Apart from zero comms about progress from the dealer, the Mrs was sent a text to pay them £99 for repairs.

On query it's a diagnostic charge and apparently it's because we didn't take the car to the same MB dealer we bought it from - that's surely BS, never heard of a manufacturer approved used scheme not covering all locations. Indeed my VW has been to the dealer 6 miles away instead of the dealer I bought from 350 miles away....
Well first of all you say you bought the car from MB website, so the dealer you bought the car from is MB.

Without knowing all the specific details of this I and others can only respond to the information you have provided.
Have the repairs been carried out, were you told beforehand that there would be a £99 diagnostic fee?
For this charge to be enforceable it would need to be written into the terms and conditions of the warranty, and you should have been made aware of this charge when presenting the car to the dealer.


Sheepshanks

35,033 posts

126 months

Wednesday 8th March 2023
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A lot of dealers - of all marques - try and charge a diagnostic fee for a couple of reasons. It's extra money if they can get away with it, and if they don't find a fault then they can't bill the warranty company for so they've worked for nothing.

Mercedes' way of doing business was always confusing as they did own a bunch of dealers, then sold them to someone else and now they're taking orders direct (although I think only for new cars).