Team-BHP - Brand new Mercedes GLE300d | Oil pump failure

Ankit Agrawal shares his predicament with us! Unfortunately, Mercedes is like the "Tata" or "Skoda" of the luxury car sphere when it comes to niggles, problems & reliability. A cursory search shows many other such reports including engine failure in a new GLE, brand-new cars with issues, obscene repair costs due to a broken bolt, 4 breakdowns in 5 years and more. It is quite disappointing that Mercedes still cannot get its reliability right, 3 decades after Jürgen Schrempp almost ruined the company's reputation with a brutal cost-cutting drive.

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I am from Raipur, Chhattisgarh. I bought a brand new GLE300d in December, but Mercedes India delivered a vehicle with a defective engine to me. Since the day of delivery, the SUV is with the Mercedes Raipur Showroom and they haven't rectified the defect yet. We are having a major dispute with Mercedes-Benz India.

1. First of all the vehicle was sent to the showroom on the second day of ownership. The Mercedes team coordinated with Germany for a week and sent the vehicle back saying it's just a sensor fault.

2. It has been one and a half months that the engine issue has not been resolved.

3. Being such a major issue in a brand new vehicle of a brand of this stature, they didn't even provide me with a courtesy vehicle :mad:.

4. After 10-15 days, the vehicle was sent back :Frustrati. They now told me that there is an issue in the oil pump and the new pump set needs to be ordered from Germany.

5. I denied going through any engine part replacements and asked for a new vehicle.

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Originally Posted by GTO (Post 5009440)

Ankit Agrawal shares his predicament with us! Unfortunately, Mercedes is like the "Tata" or "Skoda" of the luxury car sphere when it comes to niggles, problems & reliability.

What is wrong with MB? An oil pressure pump is crucial to the very existence of a IC engine, and to have it show a fatal error in 2 days is simply inexcusable. Not rectifying it ASAP is criminal.

Ankit is correct in demanding a new vehicle. :thumbs up

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 have an opinion that the cars(especially expensive ones) should come with 6 months replacement warranty along with the standard 3/5yrs warranty. And at least the engine and transmission should be covered in the replacement warranty category.

Absolute shambles.
Mercedes really needs to get their stuff together. You can't have such expensive cars having critical component failures.

At times like this, the dealer must provide a loaner car. If a situation like this does not warrant a loaner car then I don't know what does. A test drive car can easily be made available to the customer. Doesn't necessarily have to be the same car but any car from the brand's portfolio should do. Give the offer and let the customer accept it or reject it.

Also I don't think there is any reason to ask for a new car.
A component has failed, yes, it is a critical component and yes things can fail. To ask for a new car just because one component failed is a bit of a stretch to me. After all, this is what warranties are for. A component fails and it gets replaced. You can't ask for a new car every time someone component stops working. Imagine the logistics involved in a arrangement like this.

The customer must set realistic expectations and then follow up with the dealer or manufacturer accordingly.

In my experience, unreasonable expectations rarely tend to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.

70 lakhs is no small amount to pay for a car. Paying that kind of money to leave your possession at the workshop is shattering to think about.

It's high time luxury brands start focusing on reliability too. It's natural to expect better when you pay more. High time we stop encouraging these German brands to get away with failures just because it's complicated.

If it's not going to work as expected, there is no need to demand such premium. If it's not going to work, why even sell it?

I used to justify this complexity some time ago but I feel things are going overboard. Yes, I do understand the unreliability tub curve but still.

MB better pull up its socks. There are now cars a segment or two below giving a similar experience (Kodiaq, Allspace), better presence and ruggedness( Fortuner/Endeavour) and their immediate competition, the BMW just topped the reliability charts and offer great service packages and an inhouse warranty. Not the 90s anymore where having a 3 pointed hood ornament triumphed all else.

To have a crippling issue in such a high-end vehicle at the inception of ownership is shambolic indeed! Engine and Oil-pump are vital components that shouldn't need attention this early in a vehicle's lifespan.

MB India should ensure that their dealerships across the country conform and adhere to certain quality standards when it comes to addressing serious grievances such as the one in question. The vehicle should not have been returned to the owner in the first place without ascertaining that all the irregularities had been ironed out.

Vehicle replacement would perhaps be a bit of an overreach considering the car is still in its early days of warranty. Perhaps if there is an Irreparable fault with the vehicle, that would be an option but otherwise, a thorough overhaul of the affected components should suffice.

I can't even imagine how frustrating it is for people paying that much money for a car, only to find that they must face all sorts of niggles and complications. People paying that much money expect a pretty much flawless experience ownership wise. I really hope that luxury manufacturers are able to provide that absolutely flawless ownership experience to those paying that much of a premium for a car.

Buying a car is an exciting event for any family, and when buying a luxury car, it is that much more frustrating that it is faced with problems and niggles. MB should sort their niggles out. :mad:

I agree asking for a replacement vehicle may not be appropriate if the vehicle was atleast few months old. But it's just a day old and oil pressure pump pathetically failed.

Providing warranty doesn't mean that having poor quality control and providing a defective vehicle so that it can be rectified as and when defects arise.

It spoils the ownership and leads to mental agony. Customer has to live with a sense of unreliability everytime he or she takes the car for a ride.

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Originally Posted by veedub89 (Post 5009586)

Absolute shambles.
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In my experience, unreasonable expectations rarely tend to resolve the matter as quickly as possible.

Taking a week and discussing with German service team to find out that a pressure sensor fault shows the poor level of workmanship/skillset of the dealer service center. The service center should be able to find these issues within an hour. Otherwise imo, they are not worth being a service center in the first place. I presume the car is being held for the last 1.5 months, due to owner refusing to replace the part and demanding a new car. I don't think that is the way to go.

A pressure pump failure is not very common, but at the end of the day, it is a mechanical component and prone to failure either due to bad design or due to bad assembly processes/Quality control. Denying replacement of a part under warranty and expecting a new car won't happen, I think. Agree that is a luxury SUV with a premium price tag, that does not mean any OEM is going to replace the car for a part.

The following would be my suggestions, if I would put myself in the owner's shoes:

1. Learn and move on - Since the dealer already wasted 1.5 months and showed poor professionalism, it is not worth leaving the car there. It is already a soured relationship. Just tow it and bring it to another MB dealer who can work on the car under warranty. Wasting time is not worth it.
2 Make the point - Meanwhile contact MB India and MB Germany and get a confirmation from them that the part will be replaced under warranty and will be done by another MB dealer/service
3. Make use of available options to your advantage - Try to get MB India and/or MB Germany to accept that they made the owner suffer and get a compensation of first 5 years of zero bill warranty and service package for labour and parts.
4. Document and dont believe in words -Get everything in writing