You won't believe this Mercedes-Benz customer support 'fail' | Auto Expert John Cadogan
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How on earth did Mercedes go from over engineered, reliable and rock solid cars to East German like Trabants?
bean counters
1987 (or thereabouts). They decided to stop engineering for near infinite life and start engineering for the life of the vehicle.
Mid 1990s when the German Greens mandated biodegradable plastics mandatory in all cars manufactured there. Ask ANY mechanic!🤣
I so badly wanted a Mercedes in the 80s... Now I wouldn't take a free one.
When the wall came down and all the commies flooded in.
The Mercedes tag line used to be "The best or nothing". Odd that they chose nothing.
lol
Just imagine what it would be like if our government and its agencies supported Australian consumer law! What wonderful thing it would be!
JC for PM!
And Magistrates enforced section 12
I should have gotten the towel. The tears of laughter about a microfibre cloth damaging the wheel was just amazing.
Yes, I did wee myself a little at that one also.
& now I'm at a total loss as to how to clean the steering wheel in my car... get the dog to lick it I guess?
@@Beer_Dad1975 Now THAT made me laugh even more! (And do ya reckon SuperCheap Auto sells dog lick spray?)
So this steering wheel cost probably $100,000 in legal resources 🤦🤦🤦
To me, I see this as an opportunity. If the steering wheel wears out, that’s the best reason to update to a real nice AMG wheel.
Mr "Levy" is probably a lawyer doing the usual shake down that his folk are known for so no one is in the poor house for this caper gone wrong.
@@Rampart.X No. He just wanted he overpriced steering wheel replaced. As stated, the dealer did what they could to make this happen, but they don’t make the car so it wasn’t on them to simply undo the big nut and replace the wheel. It was MB being proper ass wipes and just not giving a shit about replacing the defective steering wheel, probably because they have already replaced hundreds under warranty and some over educated university trained accountant told the warranty manager to stop replacing them as costs were eating into their budget for golfing junkets.
I have had a Forester for the last 14 years. It has a FULL LEATHER INTERIOR, including the STEERING WHEEL and it is all still in excellent condition
@@brucewoods9377 My 16 year old Citroen's leather steering wheel is just fine, and my car's live in the QLD sun, so I guess quality goes down the more you pay for the vehicle?
Prince Andrew would be just fine with the leather steering wheel in the merc...after all, he doesn't sweat.
No but he is 98% slime!
@@wideyxyz2271 And he drives a Bentley - maybe this is causal.
Goddamnit you beat me to it. Here I was with my clever prince Andrew comment ready to go when I read yours. Fuck it I’ll do it anyway. Mercedes Benz attained royal assent by Randy Andy the party prince.
@@ColinMill1 He doesn't drive it, his chauffeur does.
@@JackOfski There are pictures of him driving it but I'm sure he has a chauffeur as well.
Just imagine if that very same steering wheel were to be attacked without provocation by a square of kitchen paper toweling . My goodness , the damage would be reprehensible.
3prong must have been worried about MANY failed steering wheels, not just one. Now, _why oh why_ would they be worried about setting a legal precedent by freely replacing circular crank of the ONE Mr. Levy? Oh yes, riiiiiiiiight... they already KNEW there was a problem, even before Levy.
In contrast, I remember hearing (many years ago) about Rolls Royce having an official policy of "Our springs DO NOT break!" which they took so seriously, one Rolls in the middle of BFE or the Sahara or some such Nowheresville DID break a spring. In response, Rolls Royce flew a mechanic there, in a 3-piece suit, to repair the car on-the-spot for the customer. No Charge.
Um, regarding Rolls Royce, is that what you call integrity? It seems to be a lost art.
Rolls Royce cars NEVER 'break-down' ! they merely 'cease to proceed'...........
I think you are right on this, from my own bitter experience MB Will tell you that you are the only one, ever, to have a problem ... so pay for the repair yourself.
It was fact checked and it was actually a crankshaft in France. When the owner returned to England he asked RR for the bill to get the reply "You must be mistaken, Sir, Rolls-Royce crankshafts do not break."
@@Peter-ex9ve so says every service manager … for any product, not just cars … “hmmm, I’ve never seen this problem before”.
Then the service tech turns up and says “I always carry 10 of these parts in my van”
Went into my local Kia dealership recently (Sharp Motors Tweed Heads).
The rubber coating on the steering wheel mounted cruise control lever had cracked on our nearly 7yo Carnival.
They took a quick look and said, yep, not a problem, we'll sort that out. We have to order the part in, so would next week be ok?
That's it, simple and easy. That's how to treat a customer.
Also, we did not purchase the car there, we purchased it 2nd hand and don't service it with them.
You asked for a free replacement plastic part for a 7 year old car?
@@Rampart.X nearly 7 and it's a rubber coating.
I expect the part to last a lot longer than 7 years. The cruise control controls on my 29 year old LandCruiser are not broken or deteriorating.
I bought a cheap leather steering wheel cover from K mart 6 years ago, no damage at all, looks new, hasn't even become shiny despite many hours and many sweaty hands, engine grease, dirt, the lot. Maybe Merc should invest in whoever made those things for the whole $20 they're worth. Unbelievable.
You got ripped off...I only paid $10 😂
Three Prong has no choice but to keep rejecting warranty claims, for if they ever approved one it would open the flood gates to Hell given the shit quality of their cars and they would be inundated with claims. The best thing that Three Prong could do would be to vacate the country and close up shop here in Shitsville.
Well they took a major step on that short journey a couple of years back when they pitch forked all their dealers, to give as they surmised - the customer a better deal.
Long live Ford Falcon.
AU’s for ever.
I had an AU2 V8 Fairmount for almost 20 yrs.
@tomy8339 nice, have you been watching Mark Behr youtube videos.
The leather wheel on my 12 year old Falcon is like new.
But then I use my feet to steer. No hand lotion that way.
LOL
I owned a W210 e320 for 15 years and with 300,000km's the only things it needed were 2 rear window regulators , an A/c compressor clutch and some ball joints in all those km's, now that was a car. When it was written off in an accident I went out and bought an FG Falcon, not because they're a great car but because the parts are cheap and they are straight forward to repair. I really can't see the point in risking the massive repair costs of a German car these days.
Hmmm Hitlers monetary revenge???😅
Hmmm so you never had a time up oil change or brake pads? That's amazing tell me the.brand of oil you were using?
@@SteveEddy-od7fb I don't know if you are an idiot or trying to be funny. Parts failure is different to maintenance. You failed to mention tyres, batteries and windscreen. It had an Mobil 1 and filter every 10k, it had new brakes and rotors when needed, it had top of the range tyres roughly every 40k, I put 3 batteries in, it had 3 windscreens, it had new spark plugs, air filters, fuel filters, 1 centre muffler, etc, when due. I think I'll just assume you're a idiot.
@@SteveEddy-od7fb He was obviously talk about repairs , not servicing. Not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, are we?
My Commodore VR1 went 750,000 km before we had to put it out to pasture. We bought it near new but second hand for about 30% new sticker price. Hit a cluster of maintenance items around 300,000km (cooling system, brakes, suspension and recon gearbox) but after that it ran trouble free until the rings went. Felt I got my money's worth.
MB do this because they have a known quality problem and they don't want their customers to get it repaired at their cost.
I had numerous quality problems with MB, for example after a couple of years the front seats started to crack and split. Unfortunately I believed them when they told me it was a unique problem, in my defence I was suffering from MDS. It was only when I did some research later, that I found out it was a prevalent failure for Alcantara seats to split due to them using thin material, apparently I was sitting on it wrong, or I was too heavy, me at 80kg, wife considerably lighter.
I am amazed that MB went from reliable, durable cars with good customer service in the UK, to mobile money pits in 3 years.
The good news for me is that I am now fully cleared of Mercedes Delusion Syndrome. I share my experiences on-line, so other MDS sufferers don't feel so scared and alone. If I can help one person to not buy a MB and suffer the MB Ownership Experience, I consider it a worthwhile endeavour.
100%
Hats off to ford (I know this is not something we do), at the last sercive on my Wildtrack (30k) I had some minor delamination on my leather wheel. They replaced it no questions asked.
Nothing to do with 3Pong. In fact one of your favourites. I have ACCC and ACT Fair Trading, both after Volvo about Jan's T4. Both agencies have rung Volvo Customer Relations. Guess who are refusing to return those phone calls? You got it!
That’s what you get for buying a Volvo though.
JC already said in a previous video that volvo are a major fail when it comes to customer service. You should watch his 'don't buy' vids before buying from a crappy dealer.
Volvos were amazing moons back. But for some time China has owned them, and they became a POS.
I find it interesting that a mechanical engineer is the expert …. Would more be the realm of a textile engineer.
Disclosure : I am a mechanical engineer and a textile chemist :D
I'll hear no ill words about Three Prong they suggested I have my C Class Blitzinwaggon repaired somewhere else...and I did... Result.
John, Thank you for your evening entertainment
How can a company that in 1886 got the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, widely regarded as the first internal combustion engine in a self-propelled automobile.
It's slogan for the brand then was "The Best or Nothing!".
All they had to do was spend the what, $200, and replace the darn steering wheel!
What a monstrous waste of Court time.
Surely the court can send them a bill?
Keep up the superb top level journalism JC.
You might get a free Maybach S680 for the huge advertising you're doing for MB!
Had to duck away it's now 1 hour since you posted and 3,963 views!
They succeeded 50% with the nothing objective.
As a kid, teen and young man I thought MB was the ultimate in automotive excellence. Better by far than Jaguar of which 2 of my uncles where owners and great fans. But over the last few decades the halo of excellence has 😮slipped off to be replaced by a rusty old trim ring. Sad really. 😔
But the steering wheel is totally resistant to ky lube! You’re going to need to used gobs of the stuff with service from merc!
Ha Ha Ha 😅😅😅😅😅😅
Sounds like the old swimsuits that you shouldn’t expose to chlorine. Who’d have thought a swimming pool would do such a thing.
The dealer could have bought a new wheel for the dealer price and just fixed the problem. The dealer did not do their best to fix this issue. They are as bad as HQ.
I disagree. The dealers have been reamed by Mercedes Australia plenty of times. Mercedes Australia should stand behind their product.
@@RodneyW it just would have fixed the problem and maybe retained the owner for his next car. I really think the dealer comes out of this looking stupid. Hourly service rates are probably higher in so called " luxury cars"so the wheel cost could have been found somewhere in the business just to make the problem go away.
@@michaelswonderfulworld And then Mercedes will expect dealers to cough up every time one of their cars has a manufacturing problem! The fault here clearly lies with Mercedes being complete jerks.
@@RodneyW one thing we agree on is that Mercedes are not doing themselves any favours in the PR area.
Maybe being a " stand out" dealer may help in sales also..
In contrast : I purchased a second hand Porsche 911 ( 997s) from an official dealer, 8k 2 year old car - with in two weeks of purchase the engine started burning oil ? Dealer took car back in 24hs dismantled engine and found broken piston ring ? Ring me and side “ bad news engine is right off “ good news new engine ( complete) on its way from Germany by airfreight 😮 should be on two day sorry for delay - keep lone car , all casts covered by warranty ? End bill was over $55k my cost $0 dealer just siad sorry our cars don’t break , apologies ✅ what brand loyalty dose that create ? Needless to say I have purchased only Porsche cars since ✅ thank your Porsche
How can you afford a modern Porsche 911 but can't spell?
That's nice service, but what if it hadn't been in warranty period
@@xpusostomos not sure ? Good question maybe ?
@@Low760 dyslexia plus auto correct 🤨
@@aliveRaptor2929 presumably the answer is fishing in your pocket for $55000 .... I wish there was just a simple cheap sports car... Maybe the corvette is the closest, that engine isn't $55000
Lex Fridman podcasts are the GOAT miracle cure for insomnia. YT puts them on, I go comatose.
You've brought us enough of these from 3 prong that we can indeed believe it. Always entertaining to hear about these.
In short, Mercedes are saying that touching your steering wheel with your bare hands (and presumably any other part of your body) voids the warranty.
Same deal with the rest of the car, just driving it will void the warranty.
My manager purchased a 2020 A Class and collected it on a Friday. She drove it home and parked it in her garage but could not turn the lights off, and she could hear a motor whirring somewhere behind the console. She could not contact the stealership as it was late Friday afternoon and by the next day the battery was dead. Monday the stealership got the call and sent out a tech with a new battery. It didn't fix it and the lights still remained on. Tuesday came and two techs arrived with laptops and spent the entire day messing with the car. It turned out to be a computer module in the boot that controlled the headlights, boot release and the fuel pump that had failed. Two more weeks with a loan car before she got it back and it lasted one more week before a transmission module (computer) died. The technician informed her the car had around a hundred computers across three levels of can bus, and any of them can fail at any time. She had more problems regularly requiring a flat bed truck to recover the car and eventually sold the thing at a huge loss three years later. After having Mercs her whole life she said 'never ever again' the company has churned it's talented engineers for keyboard cad engineers with zero practical knowledge, and as a result they produce pretty shiny junk that doesn't deserve the badge on the front.
Aren’t you supposed to wear white gloves like a snooker referee?
My Toyota steering wheel is starting to come apart.. After 17 years. What a shame I don't drive a 'premium' brand.
I have a 2007 BF Ford ute and the material on the steering wheel started to come apart in 2022 at 310,000 kilometres, so I spent $50 at the wreckers and we’re good for another 15 years or 300,000 kilometres.
OMG, what if they were wearing driving gloves, imagine the implications of that.
So who's getting threatened or paid to pass this stuff? In particular.
No way they said the steering wheels are damaged by a microfibre cloth, what are are you supposed to clean them with?
Camel hair brush and gentle air puffer, of course. Just don't touch the bloody thing with your hands lest it disintegrate!
The feather of a swan.
And here I thought everybody knew the microfiber cloth should be used to dry the sweaty hands, remove the moisturizer and the sunscreen BEFORE getting into the car. Geez... that is just so freaking obvious.
I had a 2015 W212 which had two problems. The steering wheel (as you describe) started to peel right at the top on the side facing the screen. I put this down to the sun (we used to spend 3 months/yr in southern Europe. Not a part of the wheel that I generally touched, so not due to any abrasive coating on my fingers!!!
The other thing which was bad, but Customer Service was good for 6 years, was the NOX system. Sensors failed every year, and they replaced them FOC for 6 years, even though the warranty was only 3 years - because I had their service plan.. Then they started making me pay - and it was only just 60k miles by then...
I don't drive a MB any more!!
I had a very similar problem on my Citroen. The dealer simply replaced it under warranty. That's why I bought many more cars from the dealership.
Shame on Mercedes.
The engineering expert stating that further testing was financially unviable because it would cost $5000-$8000 almost sounds reasonable...
Until one considers that is probably his daily rate... charged in 15 minute increments.
Meanwhile my ‘89 300E 356,000 kms is still running around Melbourne like a switch watch.
They are good them switch watches 👍🏻👍🏻
Meanwhile ml320 petrol and 280cdi running around Geelong with f... all issues
You cheap bastard, just go out and get a Chinese supercar.
@@lomate1963 yep, totally dyslexic thats me 🤣
YOU ARE ONE MOTHER OF AN ENTERTAINER, JOHNNY BOY
Subaru replaced the steering wheel a couple of months out of warranty not a problem.
Mazda had the decency to change my 10 year old pseudo leather dashboard that was disintegrating free of charge. Really surprising that Mercedes wouldn’t do something similar to protect its own reputation on product quality.
I’ve been driving Mercedes cars for almost 40 years. My current car is a 2019 E300. I love it BUT I think that Mercedes decided back in the 90’s to focus on technology AND build a car to a price point rather than excellence. Additionally the governments have mandated smaller engines, lower emissions and better fuel economy which dictates the cars be lighter in weight. The tech is unproven and thrown in just to be “the most intelligent car in the world”.
Meanwhile customer service has gone from being made to feel like a king or queen to “my advice is to trade it in on a new Mercedes” when something major happens. Engine has a catastrophic failure six months after the warranty expires? Sorry, would you like us to order you a new engine for $25,000 plus installation? Infotainment center is dead? Sorry, we’ll order you a new one for $5000 plus install. This all started when Juergen Schrempp was hired as CEO back in the 90’s. The terrible “merger” of Chrysler(really an acquisition) and a profits over quality were his gift to Mercedes Benz customers. It used to be that 85% of a Mercedes was manufactured by Mercedes Benz or a subsidiary so there was a direct line to quality. Well Jumbo Schrempp sold off all the subsidiaries so that they rely on suppliers. The current CEO sold off Daimler truck and concentrated on making the company an EV builder which has been a disaster.
In fairness I’m a Mercedes Car Group and Daimler Truck shareholder so I follow the company religiously!
I am so glad that the original owner of my 42 year old Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit chose not to specify a leather rim on the traditional enamel? bakelite? steering wheel . I do not have to worry about rim delamination in a luxury brand motor car.
You p!ss me off and crack me up at the same time but I can’t cancell my subscription😂😂😂😂
John admitting his inability to do as badly as MB: "I couldn't actually make this stuff-up!"
Why would you own a three prong?
For the AMG V8 Biturbo in my C63. It’s a beast of an engine. Even the car that’s wrapped around it is well built and more so than the BMWs that I used to own. My E36-46 M3s were built like tanks, E90 M3 not so much and their modern F&G series cars are not built at all well.
Because self indulgent Weiner with no sense but plenty of dollars
@@JelloTypeR interesting that redriven did a c-class amg review recently and rated the trim pretty much as cheap plastic shit. Tacky sounding and a poor finish for the money. Engine a dream, interior not so much.
Aus uv deals with leather in short order.
We've got a Hitachi TM4000 benchtop SEM at work - it's easy to use as you don't have to mess about coating the sample beforehand.
I've just started watching 41 mins after you posted and you've had 2,817 views already!
13:35 - I'm sure 3-PRONG would rather that owners cleaned their steering wheels with 40-grit sandpaper than the DREADED microfibre cloth!
What a shame the once great Mercedes Benz has sunk to a new low.
Gone are the days of engineered like no other car.
Let's hear from Benz techs or warranty clerks. Back in the day the same thing happened to Hyundai Getz and warranty price for the wheel was about $900😳
Brilliant. I love the passion with which John spit roasts car makers, especially Three Prong and Vag, and often toothless consumer watchdogs.
I often wonder if company’s like ‘three prong’ watch or are aware of such comments & sensible broadcasts..
Obviously not.
Keep it up JC. 👍🍻
When you go full Streisand like this you clearly don’t give a fuck.
The problems this car maker has is akin to when 'The Rootes Group' went belly up. Chrysler Australia took over and built a factory sporting the name on the vast roof. Chrysler Rootes Australia. A colleague flew over and took photos, of which I had a few. Sadly, I've lost them. p.s. The steering wheel problems sound like a top sexual lubricant. p.p.s. no names.
We supplied GM Steering wheels (Bridgestone /TG) had similar issue with Driver of the MD’s car, on inspection the guy used copious amounts of Pino, found the bottle and the rim reeked of it, been splashing himself before every drive🤦, wasn’t our leather issue but replaced FOC, told him to lay off the Pino on this one, and you might be let the GM MD breath again 🤣 (btw Joyson is German Merc airbag wheel supplier)
We have two cars (not cows) - one is a Commodoare VE Wagon and it's steering wheel has a light shine between 11 and 2. No damage ... no splits or peels. The other is a 2017 Yaris. At two years old the steering wheel started to peel .. quite badly. Toyota replaced it with a new one under warranty. The replacement had a different feel to the original and is nice to drive with. But now, with the wheel at five years old it's starting to peel as did the original but much slower. A leather cover should fix that.
I've watched so many of your videos John I don't see the brand Mercedes in my mind when I see one on the road, it's now Three Prong 😊
Had the same happen in a Mazda out of warranty, it was replaced within two weeks . The dealer offered the replacement before I asked what we could do!
I think I'll keep my 2009 XF Jaguar and never mention the war.
You could imagine three prong designing and building a boat with the caveat of " do not immerse in water ".
Actually NCAT Commissioners don't wear wigs. They wear suits. Just been there done that.
The 3-Point Swastika went to shit around the time they introduced the C Class and went after the mass market.
As soon as you start competing in the volume market the margins have to drop, expectations rise, accountants get too much say, and everything goes to shit.
Mercedes n Volkswagen, the 4th Reich.
It seems that every corporation has decided to cash out the line item of "GOODWILL" on their balance sheets. Just like Boeing converting from engineering to accounting--it does not matter if the planes can actually really for real do flying.
This Merc crap comes from the very simple fact they see you (the customer) as and inferior been and not deserving of driving their soap box marvel. Therefore you should be thankful and not throwing tantrums over tiny details.
New Merc owners are not people.
Bought a 4 and 3/4 year old 2015 Mitsubishi challenger from Dubbo which if anyone doesn't know is a sundrenched dust bowl.
It had less than 2 months warrenty left and when I got it back to Sydney I noticed that there was some discoloration and very minor delamination on the steering wheel. Put it into a dealer who I had never dealt with before and never have since without requesting any paid work and the steering wheel was replaced no questions asked. I remember thinking that sun and suntan cream probably played a major part but nevertheless it was replaced no questions asked
So About 30 years ago i lived next door to a guy who was a Mercedes Benz service writer at the time i was wrenching at a Toyota dealership we often traded Horror stories he said at the time the average service bill at the dealership in Seattle Washington USA was 1700$ US that's including basic oil changes and Brake pads
They spray a carcinogen on the steering wheel that wears off due to human hands touching it?!
A friend took me from Dandenong back to Melbourne City in his newish AMG Merc. Told me it cost him around 200K, I dunno, out of my range but I took his word. There was a rattle, a huge annoying rattle coming from the dash somewhere and I said, Fark, mate, that is terrible. He said he has complained about it several times but continues to be told that it is a normal rattle in that type of interior finish, think it was wood grain.
Back in the day Seinfeld had a bit about suede jackets and how they couldn't get wet - he made the same observation about cows in the rain.
Holden ute has the same problem. Steering wheel and gear stick turning to black mush. I've driven hundreds of cars, never seen one do this.
Thesaurus on the rev limiter this episode😂😂
Good on you for another expose of the ongoing efforts of the chamber operators to conquer the globe😉
One of your best John.
I love these kinds of videos by John. Just brutal 🤣
Awesome John just love it
Consumer should have gone for the optional MB Driving Gloves, retail $10,000. That would have alleviated the problem before it became a problem. Just tick the option box.
It sounds like it might be something the Working Dog group could use for their excellent TV show on ABC, Utopia.
Also, has anyone any idea what the cost of a replacement steering wheel would be?
Had two Mercedes, a 1966 230S in Europe and the Middle East, and a 1981 240D in the States. LOVED both of them, but would never buy a Mercedes now.
I drive a 23000kg Isuzu heavy rigid approaching 500,,000kms and its steering wheel is close to perfect very little wear of any kind
I clean my steering wheel with wet wipes. I'm terrible.The leather is starting to wear on the top side but thats due to sun exposure.
Hi John, Just wondering if you could do a bit of a deep dive into the power grid and the complexities of variable generation technologies. Specifically on the amount of storage required to balance against decreases in generation output. 12 weeks of storage = 3-4x generation capacity. = instead of $50/kwh, renewables equate to $200 dollars per kWh. I think it would also be worth touching on the work of Prof Archie Chapman at UQ.
Teflon coating on a steering wheel? So the coating rubs off onto your hands, you then put your hands to your face / mouth. Next thing you know, you're ingesting Teflon! Feeling healthy?!
@AutoExpertJC Hi John I'm a fan and I respect you and your opinion. I'm asking a question for a "friend". If I am in an electric boat with a very powerful battery and the boat sinks and to make things worse there is a big shark 10 metres away. As a respected engineer can you tell me what would happen to me and what are my options? ps apologies for grammar mistakes. Love your work 👍😀🇦🇺
My fear is this atrocious attitude to lack of customer service will jump the back fence at the Death Star HQ in Mulgrave and come back to Mazda. (Both HQs share a rear property line).
I think your shirt was very appropriate to this video! Old "three prongs" never stood a chance!
I'll stick with my older Mercedes and AMG cars. When they were bulletproof and looked better, barring the GT coupes. No delamination issues here.
How did they lose the 1st case?
Owners manual warnings
To prevent Steering wheel degradation
Don`t touch your steering wheel
Don`t drive your car
Warranty does not cover this part if it is used ........................
nb please insert [up there] in your owners manual
Gold again John, many thanks.
I polish mine with cream at least 1-2 per week makes me happy and keeps it feeling good
Benz accountants decided in the early 90s that building cars that last wasn't profitable, the real money is in spare parts
Love it keep up the good work. Not many people have the balls to say what they want. And it's backed and 100% correct like you are..Torse
My suggestion to Mercedes would be to sell every new car buyer a pair of fine leather driving gloves to avoid potential damage to steering wheel that must be warn at all times whilst driving their cars. At the MB cost of say AUD5k.
The mighty really have fallen - I have rented a slew of cars over the years and the only two with a fault were:
- a Three-prong that had something wrong with it's boot-latch; did not close flush [And Europcar at first tried to blame me]
- a Toymota Hilux that wouldn't lock by remote; but the remote UN-lock still worked [ I drove that some days in the bush; I probably should have refused - misfiring remotes and immobilizers have left people stranded ].
I've seen the astonishing video of the lengths Sydney has had to go to to get over height truckers to stop before demolishing the roof of a tunnel, and I can only assume that Australian Mercedes execs are sourced from the truckers that ignored the stop signs and lost their jobs after the huge damages were paid out.
What another three pronged suppository death star failure, who would have thought.
You rival Dr Sheldon Cooper in t-shirt choices, keep up the good work!
Perhaps a male mating fluid was released on the steering wheel? When the wheel started to come apart, it was attempting to release progeny?
At 11:30 I Don't Understand what they would use a GCMS to Analyze? A GCMS is a Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer. It breaks compounds into simpler compounds.
It then Analyzes those simpler compounds by Mass and based on those Ratios you back calculate what the sample was.
I simply don't understand why Trace Analysis was going to affect the outcome of the case. Perhaps looking for an Embrittling Agent like Acetone?
I expect just that. Has it been cleaned with an inappropriate substance, etc.
To be honest, a company that cares should be doing this anyway on returns. Replace it for the customer and be happy you have got a failed example back to use for improvement. Root cause it. If the failure was the customer using IPA to clean their steering wheel (or alcohol hand gel not evaporating) then you put a tag on the wheel in future stating what to avoid. I've seen that plenty of times where a new item is delivered and it has a little tag on it which is clearly there due to returns and failures.
You read it and cut it off and carry on.
As i understand it the retailer is responsible not the manufacturer, ie the dealer should have fixed it. Is that not true?