The dealer wil be able to quote. Cost depends (obviously) on expected mileage.
MB have 2 schemes; Service and ServicePlus.
Service covers servicing(!) and ServicePlus adds wear and tear items like brakes pads & disks.
There are, in theory separate schemes for cars 0-3yrs old and for 3-6 yrs old. max age is 6yrs, and max mileage is 120K.
There's a lot of discusion about ServicePlus on the MB forums. For cars 0-3 it doesn't seem a good deal - unless you do high mileage the car should only need routine servicing and should alternate betweeen an A service at about £250 and a B service for about £450. Maybe you'll need a set of pads and disks in that time - depends on your type of use. MB's pricing doesn't seem to adjust for the fact that the car is in warranty (see below)
For cars 3-6 yrs old it seems reasonable value mainly because (so far) MB's interpretation of "wear and tear" has been very broad. It would seem that if virtually anything goes wrong with the car then ServicePlus will pick up the bill. It also covers the MOT and any repairs necessary to pass.
Therefore what many MB owners do (and indeed I did) is to take out ServicePlus shortly before the car is 3yrs old. I did it 3mths before as I don't use my car much and I thought they would want to replace the rusty disks at MOT - there a 3mth wait after starting the scheme before it will pay for most things.
Take it for as long as possible as the cost is fixed and it can be cancelled with max 3mths notice.
As for cost, my C270Cdi had done 30K when I took the scheme out and for 12K/yr for 3 yrs it costs just under £80/mth inc VAT. I don't think that's cheap, but the MB warranty would cost almost that much, and ServicePlus would appear to give similar coverage AND it pays for servicing etc, that the warranty obviously wouldn't. I may well lose out on the deal, but it wouldn't take much to go wrong to produce a pretty huge bill. I'm buying peace of mind, really.
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"For cars 0-3 it doesn't seem a good deal"
Agreed - it isn't.
Depending on cost, it can be good value for cars needing servicing every 10k or 12k miles, like my current Golf: but I paid £61 per month for 18 months (so £1,098) for the previous Mercedes B-class, and all I got in 29,000 miles was one short service (at 19,000 as required by the car's computer) and two front tyres.
Even if I could have put up with the sluggish, droning tractor for the full 3 years, that would have been £2,196 for 2 or maybe 3 services and six new tyres.
Edited by Avant on 18/01/2008 at 23:45
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If you must have an M-B...
The previous 2 posters' examples should tell you what you need to know - it's for mugs.
I've got a c270 also - I keep up the FD service schedule for residual value & Mobilo benefits, but wouldn't dream of writing a direct debit to MB for the vastly uneconomical service contract.
Over 5 years (of course dependent on mileage - but assuming 15K p.a.) you wont need much more than standard alternating A/B services + tyres/disc pads. (assumes tyres last 18K & pads 20+K miles) So, max. £650-700 p.a. averaged out - maybe less.
Use cheaper generic franchise for tyres/pads.
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Re my previous post (above) - on re-reading it sounds/reads as rather rude - sorry, not my intention to the previous posters - just a quick late night scribble without brain engaged by me!
Perhaps I'm a bit jaundiced towards M-B anyway, re their servicing/repair pricing & policy.
The service contract, as described above, has the advantage of the 'peace of mind/one-stop shop' - but from your post, the minute costings may take priority.
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Re my previous post (above) - on re-reading it sounds/reads as rather rude - sorry not my intention to the previous posters - just a quick late night scribble without brain engaged by me!
There are rumours that the MB scheme is going to change - the 0-3 yr costs are just stupid (the same thing on a BMW 320d would be a one off cost of £900) yet the 3-6 year coverage in practice seems much more generous than MB can possibly have intended. The documentation talks about replacing failed bulbs etc but in practice they seem to cover everything.
I hummed and harred about it for ages, but there are some people on the MB forums who have had small fortunes spent on their cars by ServicePlus. In my case, the COMAND unit (sat nav etc) went a bit iffy. The dealer thought maybe they should change it (cost £3000) all covered by ServicePlus. In the event it seems to be OK, but I'm comforted to know that if it goes wrong they'll replace it.
I know they can be repaired, or I could get one off eBay, but it's all a bit uncertain, and likely to be a lot of hassle.
It's a good feeling when you take in for service, and you're not in fear of the "we've got the wheels off and it needs pads and disks all round" phone call!
One other thing I'd say is don't go for the tyre option unless you're someone who is very heavy on tyres. It's not a good deal and I never like someone else being in control of when I can change the tyres or even what brand is fitted.
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No offence taken at all, Woodbines. To an extent I was a mug - firstly for not insisting on a longer test drive of the B200 CDI, and secondly for not checking how often (or rather, how seldom) it would need a service. Of course it varies according to use, but I'd no idea it wouldn't need a service till 19,000 miles.
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but I paid £61 per month for 18 months (so £1,098) for the previous Mercedes B-class, and all I got in 29,000 miles was one short service (at 19,000 as required by the car's computer) and two front tyres.
If you have hung on a little longer it would have needed a B service, brake fluid change and possibly pads and 2 more tyres, so you'd have probably been ahead then.
How much would it have been without tyres - I've never seen a ServicePlus price including tyres before?
Edited by Bill Payer on 19/01/2008 at 11:57
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I can't remember exactly - I think about £45 possibly.
But generally I agree about tyres, BP. In Reading at least, MB make you go to Slowfit. I'd much prefer to go to an excellent independent supplier, Tyranis Tyres of Reading Road, Woodley, whom I'd warmly commend to anyone in this area. They even repaired a puncture on the Mini - the first time that's happened in 20 years or so. I know that often it isn't safe to do so, but I'm sure that some of the big operators have a poolicy of just saying 'new tyre mate'.
Thinking about it, maybe that's because the fitters are too unskilled to make that sort of judgement, so management plays safe.
Sorry - that's gone off the German taxi topic slightly.
Yes, maybe I should have hung on longer - but the next service was still 8,000 miles away according to the indicator, and I wanted out. Yours is a 6-cylinder diesel and that makes all the difference: also I think the soundproofing in the C-class is much more effective. I had a C220 as a loan car and that was more civilised - either through better soundproofing or the 2.2 engine is quieter.
Edited by Avant on 19/01/2008 at 12:04
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No offence taken at all, Woodbines. - ta, appreciated.
Just going slightly O/T - but still on M-B service/repair cost & policy. I had the c270 MOT'd yesterday - no problems, just an advisory about 2 tyres near the mark. In contrast, the last service in 09/07, the M-B dealer (owned I believe by M-B) advised work with a cost of ~£600 to fulfill the MOT test (excluding tyres). The 'A' service itself came to £450-odd - inc. brake fluid change.
They also charged me in the service for adjusting a front wheel bearing (£48 or 0.5hr @ £96 ph labour) which wasn't done correctly (the play was still 'feelable' back home) , so I used a (0.5hr @ £30pph) local indie to re-do it.
I've lost faith in the original M-B dealer - so didn't even bother going back to complain & get the job re-done - my time's worth more than the cost. Good luck to those who have better experiences than me, but as I said earlier, I'm rather jaundiced in my attitude as a result.
OP - if you like M-B's, pls. ignore these ravings!
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>>(the play was still 'feelable' back home)
If it's anything like the older Mercs, the front bearing play should be so slight as to be nearly imperceptible. In practice, the only way to get this right is to use a dial gauge. Virtually no-one does, so most of them are badly adjusted.
Number_Cruncher
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>>play should be so slight
Just looked it up for a W124, the clearance should be between 0.01 to 0.02mm - in old money, that's between 4 tenths and 8 tenths of a thou. I would like to see anyone set that up by feel alone and get it right!
Number_Cruncher
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>>play should be so slight
I used to cycle quite 'seriously' & did (..and greatly enjoyed!) all my bike's maintenance - it's a real pleasure when you've got high-quality components to fiddle with.
Anyway, one exquisite part of the schedule (..and usually last to be done in sequence) was adjusting wheel bearings (I persisted with loose bearings - although some I'm sure had taper roller types) - the correct 'by feel' adjustment was inidcated by the merest sliver of movement (felt with breathe held!) coupled with the test that when the wheel was rotated on the stand, it came to rest in a rocking movement with the valve at the bottom of the wheel - like a pendulum slowly losing momentum.
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