The dealer charges about $124.00 for Service A (The Single Wrench), that includes oil disposing fee, oil change, tire pressure check, top off of windshield washer fluid, battery check and FSS reset) nothing that us owners can't do on a Sat. at home for half the price. Doing it yourself also gets you more familiar with your vehicle.

The dealer charges about $400.00 for Service B (The Two Wrenches) which should appear around every 18K miles or so. This is nothing more than Service A plus A/C Dust filter element replacement, lubing of hood hinges and latch, tire rotation (only side to side not front to back), checking of brake pads, ball joints, exhaust and replacement of wiper blades. Again nothing that the average owner can't do at home on their own. The Dust filter is only on the Limited and SRT cars not the base and its around $41 at the dealer. It's located right underneath the glovebox panel and it's easy to replace.

But for those who don't know how to do any of the above and live and die servicing at the dealer, the XFire can become an expensive proposition to own. It's ridiculous having to spend $125 for an oil change which is very common on all cars and $400 for Service B which comes around at 18K miles. This is in addition to any other problems like tire replacement which are very expensive.

Here is what i've come to realize (no flames please) if you start thinking about it with common sense, I think DC gave us the short end of the stick with the XFire. Compared to the XFire the SLK 320 has more advantages for literally the same car.

1. The Benz has a spare (collapsible type) tyre with a compressor kit just like the one in our car (no more being stranded on side of the road with a flat)

2. The Benz had service included for the duration of the warranty which covered Service A & B at no charge for 4 years or 50,000 miles (NO $125 Service A & $ 400 Service B to deal with) they no longer have this though but at the time of the XFire's introduction they did.

3. The Benz has longer warranty for the exact same car (literally) an extra 1 year or 14,000 miles or a total of (4 years/50,000 mi)

4. Finally the Benz has better mechanics that are extremely familiar with the vehicle and can easily diagnose problems and correct them without drama.

All of this for an additional $6k + price difference for the Benz SLK 320, think about it its not sooo bad.

Regardless of all of this i still bought the car for it's show car styling and price discount over the Benz, but i just would have wished DC gave us a bit better warranty for it, include service for the car and had better trained technicians for it or maybe allowed us to service it under contract with your local MB dealer. I know that now they are doing like a 2 year service agreement thats included but highly doubt it covers the SRT or XFire cars.