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Sue dough

It has been suggested by many that I contact you to see if you assist with a dispute, over a well-documented fault, that I am having with Mercedes-Benz and MB’s Nottingham dealership. I have a Brabus Smart Roadster Coupe, bought as a 'Used Approved Smart' in 2005, which, in November 2008, had water ingress damage to the SAM (fuse board) which resulted in nearly everything going haywire, the worst being engine still running after key is removed from ignition and the odometer jumped from approx. 38K to 51K miles (luckily mileage was recorded during service 3 weeks earlier). Since then it has resided at the dealership while we argue over who is responsible to fix (over £1,100 not including mileage problem, or my hire car.) The same problem happened in Feb 2007, and was 'repaired' under warranty. I believe they only carried out the minimum required, instead of the MBUK recommended procedure. The Eskulab process has now been rejected twice and MBUK have declined to help since it's not under warranty and my last service was not carried out by MB dealership (the only one that wasn't). I have obtained an official internal training course document (different from all those I have seen on the Internet) that details the problems and how to fix them (including water ingress through wiring loom and bulkhead) dated March 2005, two months before my car was made. Interestingly MBUK, as of today, admitted in writing that these were only a recommended repair (i.e. I presume not a mandatory Service Advisory). Though I know it's a last resort, I am at the stage of starting litigation against the dealership (about to send them a pre-action disclosure request). Please could you recommend any other avenues to pursue or failing that anyone who has gone through the legal route yet.

Asked on 13 June 2009 by

Answered by Honest John
Unfortunately the Smart Roadster was canned before it was properly
developed. MB went overboard with daft things like ESP and the horrible automated manual transmission, asked too much for the car, couldn't make money out of it, so chopped it. Internet forums are your best way of finding information that may help your case. But I should warn you that one reader sued MB Chelsea about 3 years ago, won his case, yet MB successfully argued his costs down from £38,000 to £28,000 so he is still £10,000 out of pocket.
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