Mercedes-Benz S350 2006 News

It ranks among the most prestigious car brands in the world, but an Adelaide chauffeur claims that there is nothing luxurious about Mercedes-Benz's after-sales service. Adam Litchfield is suing the car maker's Adelaide dealership, claiming it reneged on its warranty when his S350 sedan's transmission suffered a “massive failure”, costing almost $16,000.Mercedes-Benz has counter-sued, saying that Mr Litchfield's warranty was never valid and he therefore owes the dealership $1300 for earlier repair jobs. Mr Litchfield, who owns Platinum Car Hire, has filed legal action in the Adelaide Magistrates' Court. He is suing Mercedes-Benz Australia Pty Ltd and BEA Motors on Sir Donald Bradman Drive, Mile End.BEA Motors has sold Mercedes-Benz vehicles in Adelaide for 60 years, formerly operating from a Flinders St showroom complete with grand marble and chandeliers. In his statement of claim, Mr Litchfield says he bought a pre-owned S350 from BEA Motors on November 15, 2010, for $95,350. He says it came with a Mercedes-Benz approved two-year warranty.“I am engaged in the business of providing a chauffeured vehicle service to the public at large,” he says. “I informed BEA of the nature of my business… The sales consultant represented that use of the vehicle as a chauffeured car would not cause any problem with the warranty.” Mr Litchfield says he took possession of the car on November 26, 2010, and drove it without incident for almost five months. “Prior to April 2011, I identified various works which were required to be performed,” he says.“BEA performed the works and delivered to me an invoice requiring nil payment.” Mr Litchfield says the car developed extensive problems one month later. “Prior to May 25th, the vehicle suffered massive transmission failure (and) BEA refused to cover the works pursuant to the warranty,” Mr Litchfield says. “BEA invoiced me $15,973.35 for the replacement of a faulty automatic transmission...In order to minimise loss to my business, I paid the invoice.” Mr Litchfield asks the court to force BEA and Mercedes-Benz to reimburse the $15,973.35. “(They) made false representations about the warranty (and) their representations were misleading and deceptive,” he says. In their defence papers, Mercedes-Benz and BEA say Mr Litchfield's purchase was not covered by its warranties. “The warranty states that it `will be void and automatically cease to operate if the vehicle is being used for hire',” they claim. The dispute has been listed for a conciliation conference.

The Lexus SC430, the drop-top coupe from the Japanese luxury brand, has just picked up knee-protection airbags.BMW is touting the night-vision system in its flagship cars and the Honda Legend comes with an active all-wheel-drive system.It all sounds great if you have at least $80,000 in your new-car kick, but there are bigger benefits than a few cashed-up car owners with new bells and whistles.What they are driving today will eventually be fitted to ordinary cars for ordinary showroom shoppers.There was a time when only the most exotic cars had electric windows and mirrors, but now they are common. Parking sensors is still considered a semi-luxury feature, but is standard on the $13,990 Proton Savvy.We should all be keeping an eye on breakthroughs at brands such as Mercedes-Benz, which led the car world into the anti-skid braking era in 1978 - when only planes had the systems.It has recently previewed a range of safety systems that will trickle down to the rest of the car business. Its "Pre-safe" innovation, which senses an impending crash and moves the seats back and pre-sets the airbags and belt tensioners, is one of the best.Mercedes-Benz Australia says Night Vision Assist has been a hit this year, even if it is only available on the super-luxury S-Class - starting price $187,900 - and is pushing ahead with the second generation of its radar cruise system."More than one-third of our S-Class customers have taken Night Vision Assist. That's about 170 cars since the start of the year," Mercedes-Benz Australia spokesman David McCarthy says.But it's not cheap."It's $4090 on the S-350 and $3590 on the S-500. It's standard on the S-600," he says.But that figure will fall as technology and mass production cut the unit costs."People recognise the benefits of technology from a safety perspective and it also makes driving less stressful. That's the same whether it is night vision or parking radar or Distronic Plus cruise control," McCarthy says.The latest version of Distronic will be available soon. It intervenes with more braking power if a vehicle ahead slows suddenly and can also bring a Benz to a complete stop and keep pace with stop-start traffic.And what's around the corner? Better radar parking systems, for a start, which tap into the low-speed engineering in the new version of Distronic. Benz is working on more and better airbags, with fuel-cell electric cars also on the program.