A-Class (W176) [Official] Mercedes-Benz A-Class (W176)

[Shillo]

Hi Joyjas, thanks for the reply. Sorry my bad being a novice at this. I'm in Sydney's East. I did a search on the internet and came across a wheel repair centre in Botany which I called this morning. Spoke to a very knowledgable guy who said they just did a repair on three wheels of an A250 so that gave me confidence. They are more expensive than the mobile repairer but I think it's worth every extra $$ to get it done properly. Given the light damage I only need to drop the car in for the day.
Do you know of anyone you can recommend? Otherwise I'll be taking the car into these guys next week. Thanks.

How do they go about repairing polished aluminium ? i've had painted alloys repaired before on my Mazda 6 but i'm interested as to how you repair the rim on a polished alloy, normally if it's gutter rash (gouges) it takes material out, these scratches or gouges would surley then have to be filled with aluminium and machined before re-polishing and sealing otherwise you will notice the repair?

 

[gun16]

Q.

Has anyone been provided a loan vehicle during the waiting process (regardless of duration)?

Cheers

 

[Monster]

Q.

Has anyone been provided a loan vehicle during the waiting process (regardless of duration)?

Cheers

Has that happen to anyone before? I think it is highly unlikely.

 

[Shillo]

Finally happy with the repairs on the car although the jury is still out on the Distronic issues until I have more time to road test it as it only happened now and again.
The Good
The Drivers door had a new inner wing trim installed, all ok
They polished out the scratches on the rear window, all ok
Chips on passenger door repaired (whole door re-painted along with the front wing) all ok
The not so good
Indication in bonnet where chip previously was still visible (after being painted)
repair to scuff on passenger side of centre console was carried out using a paint product, unfortunately whoever did it made a lousy job of masking up the surrounding area and proceeded to get over-spray on the console storage flaps/covers as well as the Air Con Control unit !!
Distronic was apparently re-programmed but proved unreliable to trust it after testing it for only a short time
Obviously the above issues were brought to the dealers attention, I suggested that as I was going on Holiday that I drop it back to them to investigate/rectify as required.
This I did and can confirm the following after picking the car up yesterday;
The Bonnet was re-painted again, all ok
Top Section of the Centre Console was replaced with a new unit from a new A250 Demonstrator c/w a new Air Con Control Unit
Distronic re-programmed, more testing required although it seemed ok on the way to work.
All in all i'm finally happy as I said but disapointed I had to return it a second time to get it repaired properly.

 

[gun16]

Has that happen to anyone before? I think it is highly unlikely.

With Mazda, Subaru and VW it has for myself personally due to various circumstances.

 

[gun16]

Shillo you are the most patient, glass half full person I have ever seen on a forum.

Kudos to you sir.

 

[g0dskitchen]

http://www.australiasbestcars.com.au/WINNERS-2013/Best-Sports-Car-50k-100k
man,,, this is bulls**t, how can bmw won, I can not believe this. he/she must be a bmw fan, A45 AMG is a way better car

 

[Monster]

With Mazda, Subaru and VW it has for myself personally due to various circumstances.

Hummmmm...I didn't get anything from Subaru or Mercedes when our orders were delayed due to unforeseen circumstances. You must be doing something right.

 

[Shillo]

Shillo you are the most patient, glass half full person I have ever seen on a forum.

Kudos to you sir.

Thanks Gun, I'm not normally so patient and I get very p****d off when tradies who charge like wounded bulls, have no pride in their work, can't respect that they are working on someone's pride and joy or take the appropriate time to do the job right 1st time.
It was disappointing when I took the car back to the dealer only for the service guy comment that it should have been perfect considering how much they had paid the paint guy to carry out the repairs! You would think they would have inspected the car before even calling the customer to collect it considering they were paying the bill. When I get poor service like that it just makes me even more determined to persist until it's done correctly no matter how small the issue maybe.

 

[Monster]

Thanks Gun, I'm not normally so patient and I get very p****d off when tradies who charge like wounded bulls, have no pride in their work, can't respect that they are working on someone's pride and joy or take the appropriate time to do the job right 1st time.
It was disappointing when I took the car back to the dealer only for the service guy comment that it should have been perfect considering how much they had paid the paint guy to carry out the repairs! You would think they would have inspected the car before even calling the customer to collect it considering they were paying the bill. When I get poor service like that it just makes me even more determined to persist until it's done correctly no matter how small the issue maybe.

Do you have the details of the repairer?

 

[clip]

Did you tell them to get effed?

yep, usually just an "f off idiot" will do it. I don't/wont drag on the road (of course around some quiet twisties I'm more than happy to let it do it's thing though )

 

[Shillo]

Do you have the details of the repairer?

Unfortunaley no as it went through the dealer, all I know is that the paint shop they use is an approved MB crash repairer close by.
To be honest, the paint job was very good, you can't notice it's been done even if you were looking for it, it was just the hazy area around the repair which was only visible under artificial light if you knew where to look, probably due to the metalic paint reflecting light or a reaction of some kind but in day light you could'nt pick it out.
As for the Trim guy, that was also arranged by the dealer, probably one of those mobile guys that come out to you and fix it on the driveway, either way it's disapointing it was left for me to find the issues, seems like there is no one from the dealership checking the quality of the work being done.

 

[Shillo]

Can anyone please provide me with the dimensions of the Footrest available on ebay?

I have a guy who maybe able to provide an alternative, also does the foot rest need to be Parallel in shape or could it be scalloped in on the upper RH Side ?

 

[MTBRider]

Car has been to the beauty parlour today. John Cowley CCP Brisbane also known as the Detailing Studio has done the work. Nanolex Ultra Glass on all exterior glass,nanolex Ultra alloy protection on the rims. Due to colour we did not go the Nanolex on the paint and went with 22PLE Pro VX1 Glass coating. Man the colour just pops looks fantastic. Photos only crap on ipad and in bad light but you get the feel for how it looks. I can recommend this guy for sure. Thanks Frostee for putting us on to Car Care Products which lead to John here in Brissy.

 

[Iain]

That really is a beautiful colour! Congratulations!
I think the Merc A Class and Golf GTI reds are definitely the best proper reds going round at the moment.

 

[Iain]

I'm kind of glad I got out of my GTI now. Not just because I love my A250 but with more VW recalls happening. This has only been forced on them due to constant complaints. My car was a manual so no DSG concerns. VW's fix for the problematic 7 speed DSG's is to change to non synthetic oil to stop them overheating! I think they might be missing the point that it sounds like a design fault but they won't admit it.
I had been noticing that my GTI certainly sounded rattly at start up and continued for about 10 min (over the last 12 months). Only done 40,000kms. Service blokes said it was normal but now I'm reading that they have a dodgy timing belt tensioner that eventually fails and lunches the engine. People have spent months fighting VW to replace their engines. My wife wants a Tiguan but they seem to have a lot of trouble (reading the forums) as well but are a very nice car to drive. I've certainly heard of friends with horror stories trying to deal with the service departments. How much is the GLA going to cost? It probably looks too close to my A Class though!

 

[alebonau]

That really is a beautiful colour! Congratulations!
I think the Merc A Class and Golf GTI reds are definitely the best proper reds going round at the moment.

yep red gti and red a250 now. love them in red and suits them well as cars

 

[Frostee]

I did the drive morning yesterday out at Sandown Racetrack and had a ball. The highlight of course was the couple of hot laps in the all chrome C63, but the rest of the day was heaps of fun. Drove lots and lots of different cars, including the prime mover! The morning flew. It was very professionally run, and all of the instructors were great. We were split up into groups of 3, assigned an instructor and a car and then we rotated around the various activities. I did a fair bit of my driving in a CLS which was lovely! If you get the chance to do this, do it! It is a morning or afternoon well spent.

 

[gun16]

I did the drive morning yesterday out at Sandown Racetrack and had a ball. The highlight of course was the couple of hot laps in the all chrome C63, but the rest of the day was heaps of fun. Drove lots and lots of different cars, including the prime mover! The morning flew. It was very professionally run, and all of the instructors were great. We were split up into groups of 3, assigned an instructor and a car and then we rotated around the various activities. I did a fair bit of my driving in a CLS which was lovely! If you get the chance to do this, do it! It is a morning or afternoon well spent.

Sounds fantastic.

 

[alebonau]

I did the drive morning yesterday out at Sandown Racetrack and had a ball. The highlight of course was the couple of hot laps in the all chrome C63, but the rest of the day was heaps of fun. Drove lots and lots of different cars, including the prime mover! The morning flew. It was very professionally run, and all of the instructors were great. We were split up into groups of 3, assigned an instructor and a car and then we rotated around the various activities. I did a fair bit of my driving in a CLS which was lovely! If you get the chance to do this, do it! It is a morning or afternoon well spent.

I saw the all chrome c63 on moray with dealer plates. amazing looking machine.

whats the cls frostee ?