I got this A Class a year ago in 2008. I bought it for £3500 from my old boss.
At first I thought this was a good little safe reliable car (how wrong can one be). It started with the electric powered engine sound, I thought it was the gear box, then came the metal grinding noise when I first started the engine. So I put it into my local garage who told me the engine needed a full strip down and rebuild.
The small bairn is away, and also a con rod needs replacing and the timing chain tensioner is needing to be replaced. The garage told me it £48 a hour for 12 hours to strip the engine, then parts costs, and another 12 hours at £48 to put back together.
I've been made redundant and can't afford this, now I'm left with a car worth scrap. Can I take any action against the car manufacturer? The car is not fit for purpose. I've been ripped off.
I should have stuck with my 1997 Pug 205 GTi 1.9. It had 127000 miles on the clock and never gave me any hassle, just years of pleasure.
How do you expect to take action against the car manufacturer for a car from 2001 which you bought used from your old boss? Maybe if you had bought it from a Mercedes dealer, I suppose. At any rate, if you read the other reviews of A-Class on this site, you'll soon realize how unreliable the older A-Class models were. It seems 06/07/08 ones are much improved. Maybe you could sell off the car as parts on eBay or to a local garage to get some money back?
Be careful, because I have the notion that mechanical service for these cars in the UK is way below the average quality - I don't know why. It is very surprising the case of the UK towards this fine Mercedes model, it is from the UK that these cars are receiving bad reviews; so, I would get a very good mechanic, expert in Mercedes and ask for his advice. I have a very large experience with these cars, with very high mileages (more than double the one you have), and without any problems, just normal servicing at scheduled mileages.
Best wishes, and I hope you will be able to solve this problem.
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