Reply With QuoteI've go at a serious dislike for most service plans. Have you priced up the upcoming services individually?
I've just bought a GLC which will be 3 years old next month so it needs a yearly service in the next 3-4 weeks.
When we bought the car (private sale) the owner said it had a service plan for the full three years and that we should book it in soon to take advantage of the remaining service but it turns out service plans aren't transferable so we will have to pay for this.
Does anyone with a long term Mercedes or who has bought a recent Mercedes used have any experience which what is best to do?
If the smart thing to do is go with the service plan for £38/£45 per month I'm happy to do that but if I'm being a mug and a Mercedes specialist / good local mechanic is just the same and there's no loss with going outside of the Mercedes network I'm happy to do that.
Just worried as there are a lot of electronics to go wrong one day!
Any experience valuable.
Cheers
I've go at a serious dislike for most service plans. Have you priced up the upcoming services individually?
I found the MB service plan excellent before i sold the car, I think from memory it was around £35 a month and it took care of everything when the yearly service was required.
It’s just the service cost on HP isn’t it?
I got caught out with a VW service plan, I bought a second hand CC from VW and they included a 3’year free servicing deal, turned out it was in fact 3 services which they assumed was one a year, I went through them in less than a year with the miles I rack up, it was quite a shock when after a major service I had to pay the £280 or whatever it was when I assumed it was still in plan.
It’s been to a Indy ever since.
Last edited by JasonM; 25th February 2019 at 21:26.
It worked out cheaper over 3 years as the price was fixed than having the car serviced each year.Originally Posted by JasonM
I've got the same plan, £35 a month, great plan, poor dealership, Mercedes Grangemouth aka Arnold Clark who were great when it was Weir's. I'll be looking to go to Edinburgh Mercedes (35 miles) away as the Glasgow mercedes dealer (7 miles away) has a poor reputation too.
With a fairly new car main dealer service history boosts resale value IMHO, typically at least the amount of any saving by going 3rd party. It certainly makes it more attractive to a private buyer, again IMHO. At 7-8 years old it's not so important so I'd be looking at a specialist for a car of that age.
Last edited by billymac; 25th February 2019 at 21:31. Reason: typo
Which is the problem.
A lot of service plans are vastly cheaper, the dealership ends up having to do the labour for next to nothing. I've serviced many a car after a service plan to find filter choked and never changed.
A mercedes full service history is genuinely excellent.
They came to get my car in the middle of nowhere in SW France, and as we had to go back found a replacement car.
However the hourly rate is shocking, the spare parts are eye watering and frankly the diagnostic is a bit hit and miss.
My car was 15 yo, yours being much more modern may be a better candidate. But if you have a good independent get him to do the work if you’re going to keep the car as long as possible, and keep the MBFSH if you’re planning of selling sooner.
'Against stupidity, the gods themselves struggle in vain' - Schiller.
I don't mind the service cost so much it's more that if something like the electric seats or lumbar go wrong and then I get stuck with a bill for a grand that won't be ideal.
Had a 2012 Merc e-class which I bought in 2015 at 3 years old and 30,000 miles.
It had specialist indy servicing during my ownership and I took it to a gearbox specialist for the auto box to be serviced. I put 70k on the car in 3 years so it was being serviced twice a year. Never missed a beat and the only thing that ever let me down was the rear air suspension pipes letting go. They are relatively inexpensive to repair / replace.
To give you an idea of the price difference between a dealer and good specialist. For a large service (oil, oil filter, air filter, fuel filter and pollen + MOT was £570 at merc and at the specialist was £253 and they fitted merc parts!!
The gearbox service is one to watch out for, it was £240 at a gearbox specialist locally. It's a 'sealed' unit in that the gearbox has no dipstick and most garages don't want to work on them. I personally wouldn't bother with a service plan as you will get better value and generally better service from a good merc specialist.
No complaints about my Merc at all, it was a hugely competent car and I got well above book when I traded it in even though it was high mileage.
Could the existing owner get it serviced before you buy it??
Paul
Things like that won't be covered by a service plan.
If that's the case the service plan is quite expensive. Seems like the benefit is the known cost and a small direct debit?
Exactly - it is a service plan and will cover the services, rather than an extended warranty which will probably cost considerably more per month.
The benefit is it is easy to calculate if is vfm or not as no real variables as there would be with a warranty when you are insuring against an expensive possible failure.
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Last edited by MB2; 26th February 2019 at 00:58.
I’m sure one of the regulars here work at Mercedes but I can’t for the life of me think of their name.
Anyway I think the service plan is worth it if you time it right. Look at the service schedule and make sure the first service in the plan is one of the major ones (service B) that way over the 3 years your plan is covering B, A, B. If you start with a minor service (service A) you will only cover one major service and it’s less effective. For my GLC I paid for the minor service before putting it onto a service plan. Hope that makes sense.
^^^ Exactly this ^^^
Regards,
Si
That's All Folks
Won't the person you bought the car from help you out by booking the car in for this service in their name?
Service packs are usually a no-brainer.
Example: My current car 1st service cost £270, 2nd service circa £650. Service pack £299.
Should go with the car, not the buyer.
If you bought the car from MB, with a MB warranty, then you will probably need to get it serviced by MB to maintain the warranty. If it doesn't have an MB warranty, then an independent garage might be cheaper.
Of all the extras they try and sell you when buying a car, service plans are one of the better value offers.
It was a private sale, the guy who sold it had it on a three year PCP from mine and his local dealer. At the end of the term he wanted to either sell it for £500 more than his balloon or just give it back to the dealer.
It's currently due an "A4" service and it turns 3 years old on 1st march. It's a low milage car - only 16k miles - and will remain so, so I'm just wondering if the piece of mind for £38 per month is worth it or if I should just pay individually at a local garage/Mercedes specialist.
From one of the comments above it looks like it would be smart if going the service plan route to do it after an A service ready for the B as that is considerably more expensive.
The service plan is with the individual not the car unfortunately and when I called the service plan helpline and asked to extend it they cancelled the remainder of the policy so I can't ask the seller to service it. It was technically covered until the end of the Feb but they have ended it now as it's been sold.
I think I will go with a local garage who has a good name for Mercedes and then maybe take a view 3 months before it needs a B service. As an example below is what I was quoted on the Mercedes website. Horrifying.
Thank you for all the help. As usual on the forum a lot of sage advice. Appreciate it.
Seriously
£685 to basically change the oil & filter and top up some fluids - wow!!
And then they want another £200 plus to run a diagnostics check - which involves plugging in a laptop and running a simple program, printing out the results.
Stuff like this makes me think twice about running a newish "premium" brand.
Wait until they want to change the gearbox oil too; you’re looking at upwards of a grand!
I go to indies with my Merc. They have all the Star system and also update sevices on the online history tracker.
Check on the Merc forum to find a good indie. There's loads in my area (NW) been to a few and all been better and much cheaper than dealerships.
Crazy! Surely they would run diagnostics anyway?
Cheers..
Jase
You would hope!
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