Pre-WARNING!!!
It started with my car not going into gear s... read morePre-WARNING!!!
It started with my car not going into gear sometimes. So I had it towed through AAA to the Mercedes dealership. They checked it out and recommended transmission valve body be replaced for $3,200.
I decided to call around to a couple of mechanics in the area. I decided to work with Paul from Melbourne Motorsports. He recommended two option's to fix my car.
1. Valve body replace at $1,800
2. Buy a used transmission at $2,800
I asked what he recommended and if it was his car what would you do, he said replace the whole transmission with a used one.
I also asked Paul how many days to complete the job and what do you need to get started. He said 5-7days to complete everything and would need $1,200 down, so I went to the bank and withdrew $1,500 cash to get the work started.
So 4 months later and he still couldn't get the used transmission to work, he had it towed to Stan over at Strictly Foreign to try to program the transmission with no luck, Stan told me he made him replace the thermostat because it might keep it from programming the transmission, so he towed it back again to his shop again. I went up the same day to see why its taking so long and he was replacing my thermostat that he had in his hand?
I was thinking.... he's just throwing parts at my car to try to fix it!?
I'm very sure the 1st month that went by he didn't know how to fix the car because he told me only 5-7 days to fix it!
He then had my car towed back to Stan shop to scan & program the tranny again with no luck?
He even ordered a new valve body from the Mercedes dealership parts department they needed my drivers license, car registration & Vin # and said it would take two weeks because its coming from Germany and needed to be programmed to the cars Vin#.
He then towed the car back to his shop and called me and said he can't program the transmission with the new valve body from Germany and was going to send it to the dealership to program it.
Remember he is a ASE certified mechanic and told me to buy a used transmission and he didn't even know that you can't program a used transmission to a Mercedes CLA250 because it will Only work with the original Vin# of the original car.
He sold me a transmission that couldn't be programmed to my car because he didn't know will not work and should have! Now its around 4 months later and I was original told 5-7days with the car now back at the Mercedes dealership to get it fixed because he didn't have the knowledge or the proper tools to fix my car.
During this time my other car was overheating and I said I'm going to need a loaner or something because this is taking way to long to fix my car and my wife and I both work and need a car to drive.
He gave me his car and worked on my other car that was overheating.
Got that car back and my wife had the DSC light pop on the next day after we got it back from him.
So I brought it back to him to check it out, he said its probably the steering sensor?
I didn't believe that so I took to one of my BMW dealer friends to check it and said the the steering is not centered anymore causing the DSC light to turn on.
So I took it to get alignment and they said the CV boot is leaking everywhere and needs to be fixed for $280, I also looked at the boot and seen the grease everywhere!
I called him and asked about the boot and he said he had to move it to get the water pump into the vehicle. Bring it back to me and I will fix it.
I had to get the vehicle realigned to fix the DSC light to straighten out the wheel he moved over to fix the problem. I had to pay
Tire Kingdom $100 to fix the alignment to fix the DSC light.
Then also during this whole time driving his car one night to pickup my daughter from church his front tire blew out on his loaner car he gave me. I called AAA to help because he didn't have lug nut wrench in his car to fix the tire, I didn't get home that night until 11:30 PM and the next day I had a 10AM appointment with a customer from GA!
He called me the next morning telling me to bring his loaner car by to fix the front tires. The next day a personally bought two like new tires for the front of his car for about $80.00.
When it was getting close to having my car back, I personally went to the Mercedes dealership to look at my are and their was parts everywhere in my trunk in my rear seats and floor boards. I started looking around and noticed my glove box latch broken. I told him about it and called the dealership to ask what happened, no one would answer my question. So I called parts department out of Orlando to get a price they wanted $400-600 to purchase a new glove box for my car.
I started thinking... Who's gonna take care the warranty work when does a problem after everything is fixed.
Because now their is two different people working on my car?
Then after everything was completed he was asking me to Pay around $8K for fixing my transmission. My wife was pissed and called him on the phone and said you told us $2,800. He was telling us that he had to get the car towed to other mechanics to try to fix it and still couldn't?
He told my wife I was just trying to be cheap and save money from the dealership. Duh of course I am?? I went to him to save money not pay more or the dealer fees!
He had to sent it back to Mercedes dealership to fix it!
I asked to talk about what is going on with my car at the Mercedes dealership and they said we can't talk to you, you need to ask Paul at Melbourne motorsports.
Well I would like to know what's going on with my car? Paul told me they are putting another valve body which was the problem I first started with now we are back to the beginning 4mths later trying to fix the problem I started with now back at the dealership! I was thinking this is crazy I should have just went to the dealership because my car is back at the Mercedes dealership where all this started!!
So finally at the final bill we fought back in fourth trying to get the towing charges and glove box fix that someone broke and to pay me back for the tires I bought for his car.
He said NO I'm not taking a loss!! You are going to take the loss??!! What kind of person tells you $2,800 and 5-7 days to fix your car then tries to tell you $8k and four months later stays in business?
I will never do business with him ever again in my live!
He gave me a final bill for $4,846 dollars!!
I called him to ask where is my hood trim part to my car and the missing bolts are? He said I have the hood part bring it back and don't have the bolts, but bring it up and I will put it on trim piece. On the way up to pickup my missing parts my car over heats??? This is Only three days later after getting it back.
So I leave it at his shop to check it out overnight again. Because I didn't want to damage the engine or transmission because they are all cooled on the same system.
The next day he called back and told me to come up and look at the car, he thinks its my radiator is bent and caused the car to over heat and will cost me another $860 to fix it?! I said its bent because you guys had to jack up my car to move it around and for towing it. This is crazy $$$
I did feel comfortable with the answer so I went to the dealership to ask what did you guys do to the car because now its overheating?! I had to talk to the manager that gave me very vague answers. I said who is fixing it? They where both playing the blame game with each other and they did say Paul is the one how messed with your thermostat. So I asked the was it the new one he replace or was it original, they said we don't now ask Paul.
Now I was thinking who is going to do any warranty work on my car now because they are going to blame each other for any future problems that come up.
I emailed Paul and he said he changed out the new one and put back on the original old thermostat back on my car, I was thinking why would go back and do all the work and reverse back to my original part?
So after no one was taken car of the issue of overheating! I called Stan Strictly foreignand told him he said I can't believe he put it back on the old part. I was going to use him but he was working on programming it with Paul.
I decided to take it to Vlad's autobahn and paid to fix overheating, he replaced cooling system parts and they noticed all this gunk in the thermostat. (see attached picture) I was thinking why would Paul put a bad part back on my car and he told me it's my radiator?
I will never go back to him and will also not recommend him to anyone, he was a jerk to me at the end and we never had a problem with each other than he just didn't know how to fix my car and didn't know that a used Mercedes transmission wouldn't work.
The bad thing is the Mercedes dealership wouldn't give me the details of exactly what was done and replaced in my car or even show me the invoice or work order? They told me you need to talk to at Paul at Melbourne motorsports.
I also notice on my invoice he back dated all the warranty stuff back 3mths earlier and lowered my mileage?? I did even get my car back until 4mths later? read less - 2/25/2020