Mercedes Benz Service A Special

If anyone is in need of a Service A on their Mercedes Benz, Beverly Hills is offering this special for this Saturday only.

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And they even polish the logo on the front.

That’s actually an up-charge.

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I’m sure the Benz dealer is a pleasant place to be on a Saturday :no_mouth:

Do they really gouge idiots $230.37 for an oil and filter replacement? That’s insanity. I pay $34 for a full synthetic oil and filter change at the dealer every 10k or so miles. Granted the Honda dealer has more undesirables than the Benz dealer…

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@chrishs2000 haha I know you love me bud so I hope this doesn’t change your mind. I am one of those idiots that is~ my mom wanted the GLE350 as a retirement gift and the plan is to keep it forever so we purchased the darn thing brand new at roughly 15% off MSRP and the goal is to keep it forever. Type A oil change was $250 but I had a $125 off coupon = $125 ; type B was $650 and again with coupon = $525

Take a look at this invoice for type B some of these charges are pretty lucrative I’m not gonna lie (look at the charge for wiper fluid…) - but the point of this is that it’s a new car and the plan is to keep it forever without voiding the warranty <~ at least the general idea and I’m not sure how true it is if I go to a non dealership shop. But yes it’s a ripoff and people are really paying for the “peace of mind” or call it insurance if you will.

I shopped around for my last B service and ended up getting it done at a local MB shop for $380. And that included $60 for new wiper blades that I didn’t need because I had already installed some new free ones months earlier from an MB special offer.

So for leasing purposes that should be good enough. Just keep the paperwork.

If you bought and plan to keep forever, then peace of mind with the dealer is worth something. Plus you also get a loaner.

If no one ever gets serviced at the dealership, then we wouldn’t get these ex-loaners to hack! :sweat_smile:

I do love you and that’s still totally insane :no_mouth: FWIW they cannot void warranty as long as service is done. There’s nothing special about the oil or filters that MB specifies nor the method in which the techs do the service. IMO save the money until it actually needs the real maintenance/repairs. These things tend to sadly get quickly discarded once hard parts or electronics start needing replacement.

The brake fluid line item - Is brake fluid change interval really 20k? Or does she have a fluid leak? That’s a closed system and the fluid should be good for at least 60k miles unless she’s doing track days.

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Yes, they do.

Back when I had a Honda, I think the dealer (Honda Pasadena) charged me $80? It seemed so cheap compared to an MB that I was fine paying it, even though I was sure that they were over-charging (and this was like 15 yrs ago).

I used to bring my own 5 quarts of synthetic oil to my Infiniti dealer and they would only charge for a filter and 1 hr labor. It was less than $30.

Geez. Must be SoCal premium. The oil/filter changes at Honda dealers here are actually cheaper than I could buy the materials myself for. Of course while I’m sitting there waiting, they usually convince a person or 3 who came in for just an oil change that their blinker fluid is REALLY due to be changed and that their engine air filter is looking REALLY dirty but good news it’s only 2 labor hours to remove the 4 clips on the box and replace it - so that must be how they justify it.

No problems at all- it’s just how they name their B plans. 10k for A and 20k for B.

I do most of the fixes for my old Honda and Toyota as well. Regular oil changes at 5k miles are $29 tops. Filters I get from eBay or Walmart. Batteries I get from Costco.

They charged for 2 pints of the most expensive brake fluid I’ve ever seen. Maybe brake fluid is code for Ciroc and they drank it?

Hair under $80 for a “service B” at my local independent that specializes in MB. What he does is go through the same steps of a dealer service B but only does things that actually need to be changed. He said 95% of the time it’s just oil, filter and washer fluid. $80 is a lot for that but I like the piece of mind that they go through everything.

The service light on MBs go on every 10k miles or 1 year, which ever comes first.

Every 10,000?

My maintenance alert is going off in my car to service it for an oil change, car has approximately 5500 miles. Shows 15% oil life, you made it to 10,000 miles for your first oil change??

MB? I recall that, when I was running low on antifreeze, I bought some at the local Pep Boys and added a bit. Then, I did a Google search on whether that was okay (whoops). Nope! Apparently, MB likes some special type of antifreeze (that’s blue) that you can’t get in stores. I asked my then service manager about it, and he said that it wasn’t a good idea to add the green antifreeze you can get everywhere b/c it interacts w/ MB’s preferred antifreeze and cause a precipitate for form. LOVELY.

It’s also entirely possible that I look like a sucker (and apparently act like one, too).

What “peace of mind” are you talking about?
You don’t even know what they are doing to your car behind the curtains.
You’re not even sure if they are using a good engine oil.

I always like to maintain my own cars its a terrible idea to let anyone touch it unless its a trusted person.
However, if the car is a lease I dont mind taking it to the dealer if maintenance is free, but again why pay for oil changes can’t you do it yourself to save money?

Roughly. I’ve got 35k and I’ve had 3 oil changes. Oil life is currently at ~50%. But I have a long commute and do a lot of long distance traveling.

Yeah that sounds about right. I know Honda coolant systems are extremely sensitive to Honda coolant only. And that crap is expensive. But the 2 pints of brake fluid on Alex’s receipt mystifies me - it’s not nearly enough for a brake fluid change, and if a car is leaking that much brake fluid there is a serious problem. Brake fluid does not evaporate and it’s a closed system. If a car is low on brake fluid that’s an easy red flag that there is a brake fluid leak, somewhere.

Right there with you. I don’t mind the dealer doing the oil change on my Accord, I want to have the service history as I plan to sell it privately within the next couple years and it’s pretty hard to screw up (even though I always double check their work). But I don’t let anyone else touch my used cars. Also keep in mind that all dealerships have “special” techs that only do oil changes; they’re typically young kids and not well paid. The six figure salary Mercedes master tech is definitely not doing your oil change. He’s busy doing the $15k repair on the S600 that the vast majority of techs aren’t capable of even diagnosing let alone repairing.

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Bringing this thread back to life based on search feature rather than starting a new thread I used the search feature. I got an A7 maintenance alert in my 2018 Accord which calls for brake fluid change and oil change.

Do you think the brake fluid change is uneeded?

I just did the first brake fluid change on my Accord at 60k miles. 60k miles is typical interval unless it’s a track car or there is water/contamination in the brake fluid. You can get a test kit or find instructions online for how to test water content in brake fluid.

I’ve seen cars with over 100k on original brake fluid and fluid tests OK.

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Thanks, my car has just under 20k miles and definitely no track days or hard driving on it.

I think it’s kind of nuts that a brake fluid change is part of the automatic system alert/recommended maintenance before 20k. And of course the dealer wanted 160 bucks for it.

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