[John P Daniel]

Even after hearing several stories of German cars being complicated to service and less reliable, the failure of an age old, important part is surprising. The oil pump is the basic component in any car. It's shocking to find the oil pump being an issue here. God knows the damages the engine could have sustained during such low oil pressure running. While a vehicle replacement might be a brushed off by the company, an engine replacement is definitely required. Hope the customer gets the right service from the brand.

[Zinda]

How would the buyer build trust with this car, ever?
What if more components fail in future - can MB-India provide this assurance in written?
How else do we define a lemon?

I think asking for a replacement is right thing to do.

Originally Posted by veedub89

Absolute shambles.
Also I don't think there is any reason to ask for a new car.
A component has failed, yes, it is a critical component and yes things can fail.

Over Engineered parts like Fuel Pump, Brakes, Axles, Steering etc are designed to last for decades. Failure on day#2 is simply not acceptable. And price doesn't matter here - my view will be same for the humble Alto too.

[veedub89]

Originally Posted by Zinda

Over Engineered parts like Fuel Pump, Brakes, Axles, Steering etc are designed to last for decades. Failure on day#2 is simply not acceptable. And price doesn't matter here - my view will be same for the humble Alto too.

Over-engineered parts are from a bygone era.
Look around you and you will notice that most products including cars are now meant to last only a certain period of time. Varies from product to product but planned obsolescence is real in the automotive world.

Failure on day 2 or on day 723 is hardly the issue here. For something to fail something drastic has to happen. Either externally or during the manufacturing of that specific component which leads to failure. Honestly, that part should not have failed. Period.

Trust me, I am not even trying to defend Mercedes or any other manufacturer for the matter. I myself have a B-class in which the air intake hose literally disintegrated within the first year of ownership.

What I was trying to highlight in my earlier post was that let's be realistic here and take it on a case-to-case basis. Not everything warrants the replacement of an ENTIRE car. That's all I wanted to convey.

[jeygani]

Replacement is the best option plus penalty for delay.
MB put a bad component and need to learn a hard lesson.

A factory fit will be lost when just the component is replaced and not the whole product. Customer did not pay for this sort of bad experience to have a brand new car spending time at the workshop.

When we pay full amount for a product, it is supposed to work.

[Lowflyer23]

What the hell is wrong with the three printed star these days? And how did the oil pump fail on the second day itself and not while delivering to the dealer's stockyard from the factory? No offence but something seems shady here on the dealer's part.
Now I understand why does lexus charge so much for reliability.

[sid_deb]

Originally Posted by GTO

Unfortunately, Mercedes is like the "Tata" or "Skoda" of the luxury car sphere when it comes to niggles, problems & reliability.

This is really sad to hear. Wondering how come Mercedes then has the highest market share in the luxury segment then. Both Tata and Skoda are laggards when it comes to market share.

Although I have seen most of the luxury fleet owners (Leela, JW Marriott to name a few) going ahead with BMWs which seems to be far more reliable than both Audi and Mercedes. They clearly know the reliability dynamics well

[TrackDay]

It is a sad situation for the owner, especially on a brand new car. And I feel bad that they have to go through this experience.

But I am not surprised nor am I angry with MB or other luxury brands. Why ? Cause this how it is. Buying a luxury car is always a gamble. Yes, you might ask this is just an oil pump. But that is how it is. I remember someone once saying you need to be able to afford two S class if your planning to buying one. And it is better to avoid a used one, if you cant afford a new one. If available it is better to lease an expensive car or trade it in within one year of ownership before it goes bad. Don't expect them luxury brands to do a Lexus. That is not the idea behind the brand. If you have plenty of money go for it without any second thought.

But this is taking it way too far. Failure on second day of ownership is just not acceptable. Time to make some changes MB.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhL5KN58Sx4

[Salnv]

I know it is a difficult situation, but in reality, irrespective of the value of the car nobody is going to replace the car for a part failure ( I doubt you win even if you go to consumer court ) While I understand the pain, the practical approach may be,
a) Since the current workshop shows poor workmanship , immediately move the car to a good new workshop. Absolutely no point in wasting time in the current dealership by parking your hard earned money. Even if it is fuel/oil pump issue I wouldn't trust the current workshop again for repair/replacement
b) Get the car thoroughly checked with the new dealership
c) Get the part ( or fuel/oil pump whatever it is ) replaced under warranty by new workshop
Hope it won't give you anymore issues and you will have a great ownership experience. Enjoy your car!

[niruvrs9669]

@Ankit Agrawal,

I was in the same boat with my BMW X5, back in 2016 with fuel pump failure. With a bit of talk at all levels, BMW was professional enough to replace the part under warranty and provide 6 years service/repair package for 1,20,000 km for free.

Similar emotions back then, but the truth is these are electro-mechanical components which are prone to failure. I think asking for a service & repair warranty free of cost from Merc for certain mileage/years is the best solution.

[v1p3r]

This is bad form by MB. Diagnosing a critical failure should be done in an hour, not days. I can't help but think that Tier 2 town dealerships have a lack of commitment which is not helped by the lack of competition. The metros have more than one dealership and workshop, which keeps them on their toes.

Originally Posted by veedub89

Over-engineered parts are from a bygone era.
Look around you and you will notice that most products including cars are now meant to last only a certain period of time. Varies from product to product but planned obsolescence is real in the automotive world.

...
Honestly, that part should not have failed. Period.
...

What I was trying to highlight in my earlier post was that let's be realistic here and take it on a case-to-case basis. Not everything warrants the replacement of an ENTIRE car. That's all I wanted to convey.

I disagree that planned obsolescence is a feature of these components. As someone who researched, developed and designed these parts for a living, I can tell you that they are meant to last the life of the vehicle - over 300k km on average currently. Planned obsolescence is only present in electronic components, which also occurs because electronics grows 10x faster than anything else.

I completely agree with the rest of your post.

Originally Posted by niruvrs9669

@Ankit Agrawal,

I was in the same boat with my BMW X5, back in 2016 with fuel pump failure. With a bit of talk at all levels, BMW was professional enough to replace the part under warranty and provide 6 years service/repair package for 1,20,000 km for free.

Similar emotions back then, but the truth is these are electro-mechanical components which are prone to failure. I think asking for a service & repair warranty free of cost from Merc for certain mileage/years is the best solution.

This is probably the best advice. A solid warranty on the engine and parts, which is all-inclusive and has no caveats. Get a good lawyer to check it.

[Axe77]

Keep legal remedies aside, if there was ever a case of a goodwill replacement of a car then this would be it.

A two day old car suffering such major issues means any of the following at the least.

1. Replace the car altogether; OR
2. Replace all the defective parts, provide a similar replacement car as long as it takes to do the above; a very generous extended warranty as a measure of goodwill for the loss of faith and general inconvenience caused to the customer.

Selling an inadequately QC’d car to a customer is bad enough. On top of it to exacerbate the issues by not providing the best possible resolution is just adding salt to the wound.

[snap2329]

Now I’m worried. Although there was an article regarding engine issue in 400D, we went ahead to book a 300D back in december. The car is yet to be delivered, but this news puts me in a dilemma whether to go ahead.

[Lowflyer23]

Originally Posted by snap2329

Now I’m worried. Although there was an article regarding engine issue in 400D, we went ahead to book a 300D back in december. The car is yet to be delivered, but this news puts me in a dilemma whether to go ahead.

If this is bothering you a lot, you can spend a bit more and go for an X7 30d DPE, will get almost all the features and will be more spacious than GLE, BMW's are said to be quite reliable too. The difference between the on-road price of the GLE and X7 won't be much after discounts by BMW. The X7 has great presence and the grille will grow on you, you can get in touch with Turbanator sir. I think he has contacts in BMW and he has great knowledge of luxury vehicles.

[Sivacar]

If someones observes carefully, most of the issues are with the GLE and GLS models. It seems some compromise is there in the assembly lines of the factory, with respect to the quality/quality check for these models.

[carthick1000]

Originally Posted by snap2329

The car is yet to be delivered, but this news puts me in a dilemma whether to go ahead.

When you are in a dilemma, I think you should not go for it.
If it comes to reliability, BMW is a far better option.