CAR THIEVES

I think one of the best people to know in this life is a good car mechanic. I’m pretty useless when it comes to cars. I have no clue and unfortunately, I don’t know a good mechanic. That’s not a good combination when you own an eight-year-old car with 111,000 miles on it. I love my car, but I’m being forced into a decision.

I took it into the Mercedes dealer because of a loud rattle. I’m really not sure how long the rattle had been rattling because it was one of those things that was drowned out when you had the radio playing and the air on. I only heard it when it got cool here and I had the window open. What I DID know about the car is that the noise only occurred when I had the air condition on and it seemed to only rattle when I put the brakes on. I was guessing it was a fan belt or something. Optimistically, I was hoping I could get out of it for under $100. Yeah, I can hear you all laughing at me. So I relayed the rattle story to my ‘service professional.’ She told me they would diagnose the car for a minimum cost of $180. If I refused their repair recommendation, I’d owe the $180. She also said they could do an entire car evaluation for free. Oh sure, I knew what was coming but since it was a free service, I told gave her the OK.

That was Wednesday. I didn’t hear back from her until the following Tuesday. Like in a Seinfeld episode, they were very good at taking the reservation, but they weren’t really good at holding the reservation since it took so long to get back to me. Well, she might as well have been speaking Chinese because I didn’t understand a word she said about what was wrong with the car. It was belt-related but because of some tension thing, they couldn’t just replace the belt; they had to take the whole apparatus apart blah blah blah. A mere $450 to fix it. Yeah I knew this was crap, but who was I to argue? I had no basis to know whether this was BS or not. She then rattled off the free estimate results to the tune of another $2,500. And everything that needed to be fixed was seemingly life threatening. The wheels were gonna fall off, the brakes were gonna fail, I was gonna lose my steering, yada yada yada. I told her to fix the rattle and pass on everything else. She seemed somewhat surprised at my decision. I guess she was used to rich Mercedes owners just saying ‘OK fix everything.’ Well, I wasn’t nearly rich and could hardly afford the $450 let alone the $2,500.

And that got me to thinking. I’m sure some of what she said was true, but did I really want to invest all that money into an old car with tons of miles on it. I was thinking I’d rather spend that money on a new car. I was undecided. I picked up the car and shelled out the $450. I really hated that dealership and I hated that so-called service professional. I couldn’t wait to get out of there. I got in the car and noticed it was below empty yet I had a 55 mile trip home to make. I should have looked for a gas station but I decided to just chance it. I got on the highway, fought traffic, but got myself home and to a gas station. And that’s when I got my surprise. I didn’t hear it at first because I was on the highway with the radio and the air on. Yup, the rattle was still rattling. They didn’t fix crap and I was out $450. I was so friggin’ mad.

I immediately called the dealer. She didn’t answer. I could have easily yelled, but I simply left a disappointing message. I told her I was disappointed that 1) the so-called Mercedes service professionals mis-diagnosed the problem and 2) and even worse, they didn’t drive the car to make sure they fixed the problem. I mean, how do you NOT do that??? She never called me back. Not even the next morning. So I decided to call the head Service Director. I told him the story and told him that I wanted my money back because they didn’t fix the problem. Naturally, he first wanted me to take the car back in. I told him I had no confidence in their ability to fix the car. A year ago, I had to bring the car in four times before they finally fixed the air. Ooh, was I mad. I really didn’t have any desire to go back there. I just wanted my money back. If they say no, I’m going to dispute the charge and let American Express fight it. This whole nightmare of an experience convinced me. I didn’t want to throw any more money into this car. It’s time to find a new one.