Hi all, not been around here for a while, but I need some advice. Had my xf about a year now and its due its first service (first by me). The car is coming up to 40k and I have contacted my local dealer with regards the cost of the service as both spanners are showing on the display.

Looking at the service schedule that woody has on his site (BTW where is woody?) the 20k & 40k services are exactly the same. Yet the dealer has come back and said.

Quote:

The B service price depends on the mileage of your vehicle,

A 25,000 mile B service will take one and a half hours and cost £310.60 fully inc

A 50,000 mile B service has additional content & will take two and a half hours and cost £561.46 fully inc.

who is right? woodys pdf document or the garage? and what did anyone else pay for a 40K B service.

Thanks in advance.

 

the dealer quoted you on the 20K service (but called it 25K) and the 50K service, not the 40K. recheck the chart and look at the extra work listed for 50K.

 

The sheet says 50k is an A service the next B is 60K.
The sheet shows a 20K and a 40K B service as having the same things checked.

 

My double spanners (wrenches?) just came on at 29K and change. The B service excluding oil change (my oil changes are free) cost me right at $500. With pounds pushing 1 to 2 that puts your quote in the ball park.

 

What exactly do they do at 50K...cause I'm not about to spend $500 on a glorified oil change/inspection.

 

yeah you're right. but then it also shows a 30K Service A gets different treatment than a 60K Service A.

boy am i glad i do it myself.

 

I just had my second maintenance visit this morning.

I first brought my car in for the correction of a small problem, an oil change and "A" service when I hit 3,500 miles. The service guy said they only do "B" service because of the harsher conditions (heat, I assume) here in South Florida. I had no problem with that. When it came time to pick the car up, it was near closing time and the mechanic that worked on the car had left without finishing off the paperwork. I was assured all work was completed and that they'd mail me the finalized work order the next day. I paid the bill, which was about $100 for the oil change and that was that. They never did mail the final papers, but I didn't want to call them because I was afraid they would realize they never charged me for the "B" service if there was a fee.

Today's visit was for another "B" service and oil change. I'm now at 12,800 miles. This time, I got the final paperwork. It shows:
B PERFORM 23 POINT INSPECTION 9023
TOTAL: 0.00
The oil change again, was $104.39 incl tax.

Of course, I'm still well under the 25,000 mark but it's nice to know the service dept. didn't try to charge for a simple inspection even though they probably could and get away with it.

 

When researching doing my own oil change (which I plan on doing in a week or two thanks to research on the forum!) I came across this helpful post by forum member Bullfrog. Hope it helps you out! All the maintenance the dealer does for a "wrench A" check up or a "wrench B" check up as you will see (read on) can be done by yourself like me!

The dealer charges about $124 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 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.

Hope this helps you out!