I would most appreciate your advice/comments on the following issue. I have owned a metallic silver (what else?) Mercedes C220 CDi Avantgarde since new in 2001. Over the life of the car it has suffered various items of body damage which needed body shop repairs - nothing major, but all serious enough to require insurance claims. As I shop around each renewal I have changed my insurance companies over this period, however, common to them all was their advice to go to their own designated repairer for the body shop repairs. Each and every time however, I said I wanted to go to the Mercedes Bristol approved repairer in order to keep (in my understanding) the Mercedes 'warranty' up on the quality of the repairs for my time of ownership of the car - and to which the insurance companies (usually always reluctantly) agreed. Over this period I had found that the Mercedes Bristol approved repairer also changed on several occasions because, I was told, due to quality or workmanship problems. The time before last, about 4 odd years ago, I went to a company in Bristol that was then the approved repairer to have the rear off side panel and passenger door resprayed following someone denting them in a car park. I have noticed for a while now a degradation in the paintwork in this area - the lacquer gloss seems to have worn away, the paintwork has dulled and is very easily surface scratched - it has picked up many small scratches. I am certainly no expert, but it looks to me the paintwork must never have been baked properly or something and has degraded badly over time and is certainly 'different' from everywhere else on the car. I have contacted Mercedes Bristol who didn't seem very helpful and claimed not to be familiar with any 'Mercedes underwritten' paint lifetime warranty. They stonewalled my questions as to why then ever bother going to a Mercedes approved repairer? Where does that leave the customer if they change their approved repairer? Don't Mercedes accept ongoing responsibility for work done by repairers who they specifically approve? They have yet to come back to me with a definitive response from the Principal, so I would love to hear from you first so I can respond appropriately.