[bamaboy]

I will suggest Mr. Ankit Agrawal to escalate this matter to MB India MD/CEO. Write a mail to martin.schwenk@daimler.com. I had gone through the same route when the Infotainment system in my BIL's out of warranty GL350 went kaput. Office of the CEO promptly coordinated with Benchmark MB Dealer and we were offered an 80% discount under goodwill warranty. I've also had a great experience with Auto Hangar Raipur(erstwhile MB dealer) offering a goodwill warranty against bad main battery and auxiliary battery on my 3-year-old C200.

Originally Posted by kamilharis

This is just ridiculous reliability issues with MB, how can someone digest such issues on a brand new car? And they never bothered to give a courtesy vehicle to a customer who has thrown more than 70 lakhs from his pocket!

I haven't heard good things about City Star MB, Raipur. I also had a sour experience when trying to procure some parts for my W124. The Service HoD wasn't at all interested in getting smaller parts procured from the Pune warehouse and insisted I bring my car to Raipur and get it diagnosed and serviced. Auto Hangar(previous dealer) on the other hand had promptly offered off the counter sale of parts for my W124.

[Pashin]

Very Sad! These things should not happen with any new car owner. The Co and Dealer have made their intent clear by not offering a solution even after 45 days of delivering a brand new car.

I suggest the owner to fight it on multiple fronts. Sue the Company and Dealer and make the Road transport ministry a party in the case. Write to the Road transport ministry to withdraw the permission given to the Company to import 2500 units of each model, argue with the fact that the cars aren't fit for India and if broken cant be fixed within reasonable time. Engage a agency to target the company and the Govt depts on social media. Im not sure if a case of cheating can be made against the dealer for selling off a defective vehicle under the guise of a brand new car.

[raunaqv471]

Reading this is apalling and outrageous to say the least. Spending 70 big ones on a reputed brand and then having to put up with this right in the start sends chills down my spine. This seems to be a trend with MB lately. They have to get their ducks in a row. The oil pump failing means the damage has started and the engine would not have been getting lubricated properly which could mean other parts too could be on their way out. MB should replace the vehicle since it's fresh out of the showroom or worst case replace it with a brand new engine. It's sad how ASCs are so tardy at times at diagnosing such major issues. Goes to show that going for a brand new car nowadays isn't a guarantee of reliability. Rather buy a 1 to 2 year old used luxury car under warranty and avail few benefits of depreciation rather than spending such big money on a brand new vehicle and feeling shattered and betrayed. Hope this is resolved at the earliest.

[ASP007]

Infuriating! May be just a defective part, but that ruined the whole experience, period. I don't expect MB to replace the car. They should offer him a similar loaner vehicle, replace the part with zero cost, offer him free extended warranty and some free services. Let's see how it'll unfold.

[arun_m5]

Why doesn't anyone ever consider a Lexus instead of these ticking time bombs? These car's lose value like no other possession money can buy, are insanely expensive when things go wrong and with our absolutely pathetic excuse of a legal system in India, there's literally nothing you can do if you are in-fact given a lemon after spending 70 lakhs of your hard earned money.

For Luxury cars, the safest bet is and always will be Lexus and none of these garbage tier German luxo-barges that are nothing more than showboats that are designed to impress gullible road-testers and auto journalists. Long term ownership on these are essentially like rolling the dice.

[PratikPatel]

My son worked as a summer intern at one of the very reputed MB workshops in Mumbai. He used come home with stories every evening. One of them was a complete engine failure of a AMG C63. A new engine was called for from Germany under warranty. Time taken to resolve the issue was full 4 months. Imagine, AMG engines are build the philosophy of ‘one man, one engine’, yet you have such problems.

Fact is you can get a ‘lemon’ of car in any category and price range. It’s just happens. Even if a production line were certified as ‘Six Sigma’, it would allow for 3.4 defects per million units.

[anjan_c2007]

Quite a letdown by the luxury car maker who claim to be selling the most cars among it's peers in India and even boasting of their achievements due to their age old brand equity that was gained under the stewardship of their dedicated workers under capable CEO's, who were Captains prior to Jürgen Schrempp. Even before Mercedes Benz came into the country to set up shop at Pimpri- Chinchwad in the mid 1990's, most of the high and mighty of the land would swear by the three pointed star, getting their cars through the import route or through the State Trading Corporation (STC) auctions of diplomats' used/old cars, that would routinely come to this public sector undertaking (PSU) for auctions/ sales as was mandatory. The scenario then was in favour of imported American cars for a majority of the high and mighty of our land till the late 1960's. Thereafter, since the turn of the 1960's, the three pointed star catered to a majority of these buyers including film stars as status symbols.

Back to the topic, I would suggest Mr Ankit to contact a good consumer court lawyer and file a case in the competent consumer forum in his city/state with prayers to :-

(1) Seek replacement of his car with a new one or reimbursement in full of the on-road price paid to the dealer with interest @ 12 % thereon from the date of payment by the applicant till the date of verdict .

(2) Damages to the tune of Rs 10,000,000=00 for causing mental torture, distress, agony and inconvenience to the applicant and all his family members.

(3) Any other relief that the court deems fit.

If need be, he can hold a press conference before filing the civil suit (post civil suit the matter will be sub-judice) and this will create a lot of adverse publicity. He can warn the potential buyers and the general public against the realities he has faced with the luxury brand, which is no more top-class as was hitherto thought of in our mindsets and publicised everywhere in the media, including films and social media.