In the past decade I have had several opportunities to deal with O’Steen Volvo in Jacksonville. Well, they weren’t really “opportunities” because that has a positive connotation, they were more “misfortunes.”
First, several years ago, I purchased a Volvo S80. After 2 previous Volvos, I expected a quality, well-built car. Alas, that was not to be. The Volvo S80 had to go in to O’Steen Volvo at least every 6 weeks. Through a combination of a poorly built Volvo S80 and poor repairs at O’Steen Volvo the Volvo S80 was a terrible car. To make matters worse, O’Steen Volvo promised a loaner car each time the S80 was brought in, yet delivered the loaner only about half the time. With two young kids, O’Steen Volvo… Click to read more …
Perhaps it should have been expected with Mercedes-Benz’ ties to Chrysler, but it appears that the Mercedes-Benz GL-450, released during the summer of 2006 has the same quality problems that plague many of the US car-makers.
When you pay for Mercedes-Benz quality, one would expect a transmission to last more than 60,079 miles. For the GL-450, apparently that is not the case. According to BrumosMercedes-Benz, they have seen this occasionally, but not often. One would think that even “occasionally” would be too much for Mercedes-Benz to tolerate. For a “gear” to just “disintegrate” after 60109 miles and destroy the transmission, something is wrong with the quality of the Mercedes-Benz gear.
Perhaps now that Mercedes-Benz has dumped Chrysler, things will improve, but an $8000 [the final bill was $7848] transmission for an expensive car with 60079 miles on it is not the kind of quality that I want to waste my money on in the future.
Please note that this is not a reflection on Brumos in Jacksonville – everyone there has been helpful and friendly, but their hands seem to be tied by poor Mercedes-Benz quality. Perhaps Brumos could have been expected to go the extra mile to get it covered, but perhaps not. (If you are looking for a car, talk to Scot, he is always great!). Brumos Mercedes and Mercedes-Benz should have stepped up to the plate on the cost.
We’ll see how many people stop considering Mercedes-Benz at Brumos Mercedes after reading this.
9/1/2009 update: After telling a neighbor they are no longer considering a Mercedes-Benz. There goes one new GL450/GL550 sale. Hopefully that was worth it.
9/14/2009 update: Two more neighbors (who currently own Mercedes’ that were purchased at Brumos) heard about what happened this weekend and were both disappointed in both Brumos Mercedes Benz and Mercedes-Benz itself for not standing behind their products.
Brumos says there is a Mercedes program that handles this in some cases, but not here.
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