Ask The Guide

It needs to be fixed, it’s worth very little if you don’t repair it. There’s no reason to believe that you won’t get many more years out of it if you do have it repaired.

It is a relatively common problem, and it’s made worse by towing in 5th gear.

The life of a regular tyre, whether on the car or in the boot as a spare is about 10 years. But if left unused in the boot, out of sunlight, a spacesaver tyre can live longer than that. But they’re only designed to last 300 km or so when driven on the road.

No, yours doesn’t have a DPF filter. The D-Max is generally reliable with no major issues to be concerned about.

They’re a luxury four-wheel drive and perform very well off road. The reliability is generally good, but expect parts and servicing to be higher than the average four-wheel drive. Without knowing what your needs and wants are it’s not possible to say if it’s an ideal purchase for you.

It could be that the clutch needs replacing. It might not be fully disengaging.

Look behind the left hand headlight, it should be next to the windscreen washer reservoir.

Look behind the left hand headlight, it should be next to the windscreen washer reservoir.

It’s not a common fault. Given that your car has only done 94,000 km I would suggest you contact VW to see if they might come to the party with at least part of the cost of repairs as a gesture of good will.

Your first port of call should be to Mercedes to register a claim for updating your car. It would help if you had the promise in writing, otherwise who is to say who said and promised what. If you feel strongly about it perhaps you could get other affected owners together and contact Mercedes as a group.