After the Deer incident earlier this week and finding a replacement grille, I went ahead with the new appointment at the MB dealer to have the Perma Coat put on. It was interesting to pull up to the line of MBs and have the folks gawk at me and my XFR. The girl directing the cars to the service advisors had a strange look on her face when she asked me if I had an appointment, and is that a Mercedes? I smiled and said, it is inside. A woman who had brought in her SLK 230 kept glancing back at my XFR and I bumped into her at the rental counter when we were picking up our loaner cars. She said" You don't have a Mercedes, do you? What is that?" I carefully explained the heritage of the XFR and she said" Wow, that sure is a good looking car. How much are they?" I used the retail prices that I knew for my SRT6 Roadster and a regular Roadster and she couldn't believe the prices. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I'd paid far less than that.

If I'd known about this Forum prior to buying my XFR and had learned about the expertise on many subjects, including detailing, I would have asked if it was worth it to get the Perma Coat. I must say it looks awfully good with it on at the moment, and they gave me a kit with the Perma Coat renewal, wash, Leather treatment, and chamois to keep it looking good. I took some time to take some pics of my XFR, my wife's T-Bird and added a few of our other Ragtop and added them to my Member Gallery. Let me know what you think.

 

You should have made nice / nice with the service manager just incase you ever need any work performed on the car because MB dealers are really the only one's who know how to work on these cars properly.

I'm sure you've read the service horror stories with chrysler dealers and our little german "red headed stepchild".

 

Chrysler dealerships are plainly inept at our cars. Definitely make nice with your local MB dealer.

 

Permacoat??

A new term for me - what is it?

Thanks.

 

Actually as I look at the box with the renewal supplies it is actually called Perma Plate, paintguard for the exterior and fiberguard and leatherguard for the interior. Manufactured by Siskin Enterprises in Salt Lake City. UT. www.perma-plate.com I'd never heard of it either.

 

Can you share the cost for this product and what was involved with getting it done? Thanks.

 

I had to go back and look at the contract documents to find it and it isn't cheap. For the Perma Plate Paintguard, Fiberguard & Leatherguard it was $749.00 added to the selling price, plus $100 for window etching, which was done at the same time. Because the car had less than 7,500 miles (5,561 at the time of purchase) it includes a 5 year limited warranty against fading, oxidation, loss of gloss to the paint or permanent stains on the interior. As to the process, I dropped the car off, and picked it up 6 hours later. Don't know the exact method used. I hope this helps.

 

I am being nice to my mercedes dealer. I even took it there for my oil change. They were very nice. Here is the post I started.

https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...ad.php?t=14262

 

The Mercedes dealer here (Austin, Texas) wont work on Crossfires. I tried to make an appt for an oil change and was told "Sorry, we only work on Mercedes". This is the same dealer that told me, six years ago when I was I the market for a car, that there was a three hour wait to test drive a C320 because they only had one test drive vehicle and there was a line. Needless to say I went down the street and bought a different make (SAAB) that day.

Going to try a couple of the dealers in neighboring cities to see if I can find one that will service it; I hope they aren’t all as snobby as the one here. I still haven't had the fan recall done as the ability of the local Chrysler dealers here in town to service a crossfire is suspect.

 

Patrick, You should send a letter to Mercedes of America, and tell them just what you told us, about how their "snobbish" attitude cost them a possible sale that day.
Every dealer is a reflection of their salespeople, and the manufactures don't like hearing how customers get turned off, and turned away from their products.
It would be interesting to hear their response.