My slr came back from major warranty service.

Well i kinda drove it really hard and a few track days. No more track from now on lol.

 

 

the SLR is a very interesting car. kind of reminds me of an automatic Zee R One, brutish and LOTS of fun..

 

my dealership has one SLR mechanic and while my car was up on the rack, he pointed out some of the interesting and expensive parts to an SLR. He also said that the car was designed and intended for track days. my dealership services a SLR that is tracked. the gentleman that owns it also has some race cars incl. an MC12.

 

 

the longer i had the car, the slower i drove it. not that it seemed fragile like a ferrari or lambo but maybe i was aware of ALL the carbon fiber and what it would take to fix it. (although my insurance premiums weren't huge)

 

kudos to MB for such great customer service..

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an upside even if the warranty is about to run out, all the parts that were just replaced should carry an additional warranty above and beyond the cars original warranty. I ended up getting three engines out of porsche on a car that was out of warranty this way, they replaced the first engine while the car was under warranty, the second engine was replaced when the car was out of warranty but was covered by the engine warranty which started the day it was installed.

Another thing to remember is MB originally planned to make 3500 SLRs. There are plenty of parts on shelves that have to go away.

I wouldn't be surprised if some of the work isn't done.

 

It is common practice for dealers to bill for work not performed, especially for warranty.

 

I don't agree with that. Ever heard of a warranty audit? They will fcuk you up the ass with a pine cone if they catch you, it is called warranty fraud. Used to happen a bunch before, hence the reason for the audits. Parts have to be sent back or kept until the warranty admin for the company can come and see it. I have seen people go down for it before, not pretty.

 

As for billable work, happens yes, I would not say it is common practice though. The shady dealers always get caught and it is getting tougher to do now than ever before as car parts are not "fixed" in the operable sense of the word as parts are now just replaced with new.

You have a valid case but they do show me the parts they took off. It would look terrible if the part that was replaced breaks again, especially the tranny at the cost of 18k. I am not worried about it.

 

If you have MB replace it yeah it's $18k... but I would bet a good tranny guy that builds race autos could rebuild it for 1/3 of that and make it hold twice the power at that. Yeah it's an MB, but it's still just some drums, planetaries, few clutches, bands, and a couple hydraulic solenoids. Truth be told I would bet it's less complicated than the 6 speed allison in my pickup truck.

If you have MB replace it yeah it's $18k... but I would bet a good tranny guy that builds race autos could rebuild it for 1/3 of that and make it hold twice the power at that. Yeah it's an MB, but it's still just some drums, planetaries, few clutches, bands, and a couple hydraulic solenoids. Truth be told I would bet it's less complicated than the 6 speed allison in my pickup truck.

 

I'd say everything they changed was truly out of spec. Before a dealer would be authorized by MB corporate to do that much warranty work on ANY car, (especially an SLR), a factory authorized rep, (who is NOT affiliated with the dealer), HAS to inspect the car with the tech before it's taken apart for the repairs. The tech/MB rep comb through the SDS, (which is factory MB diag computer), and also check the hardware that's at fault. That's the only way MB pays on something this big...

 

This is info I learned from a friend who is a top 40 MB tech in NA.

I don't agree with that. Ever heard of a warranty audit? They will fcuk you up the ass with a pine cone if they catch you, it is called warranty fraud. Used to happen a bunch before, hence the reason for the audits. Parts have to be sent back or kept until the warranty admin for the company can come and see it. I have seen people go down for it before, not pretty.

 

As for billable work, happens yes, I would not say it is common practice though. The shady dealers always get caught and it is getting tougher to do now than ever before as car parts are not "fixed" in the operable sense of the word as parts are now just replaced with new.

 

Yup, the biggest case of MB warranty fraud happened in Lexington MA many years ago. The guy who owned the MB dealer there ripped off Mercedes for a couple million. After that MB really cracked down on warranty work.