Automotive

patrick_y
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400 Euros is a fair price...

Here, the annual service on a Mercedes can vary. They have odd number years and even number years. Odd number years; 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 are generally not too bad. It's mainly an oil change and a quick inspection. The dealers charge around $300 US Dollars for this, plus taxes on the parts (we don't pay VAT on the labor in most states in USA). However! They may find things in the inspection that need to be addressed. Here's where there is a lot of discretion. A technician can say they find very minor oil seepage and say there's a massive oil leak. For instance, the M112 (320 engine), M113 (430 and 500 engine) M113K AMG (55-AMG Supercharged) engine is known to have very minor oil seepage on the top of the engine. It never turns out to a leak, but you can see a small amount of oil dust on the valve cover gasket. Most service writers will point this out and say that you need new valve cover gaskets. Technicians will point this out too, since this is a job that has a large amount of "book hours" but most technicians can do this much faster than the book hours. So the technician gets to charge several book hours, yet finish it all in about 1.5 to 2 hours. My service advisor, a veteran at the Mercedes dealer, and someone I've been working with for 20 years, has told me to look carefully at the leak. He says, notice there's oil dust just above and just below the valve cover gasket. He said if it were truly leaking, you'd see oil dust dripping all the way down the engine due to gravity, but seeing the 5mm up above the gasket and 5mm below the gasket just means minor seepage. But if there was 10mm up seepage, and 30mm down seepage, that'd probably indicate a more significant leak.
Back to scheduled service; Even number years vary tremendously; some even number years have transmission fluid changes, rear differential fluid changes, the hydraulic oil, and sometimes more in addition to a standard oil change and a standard brake fluid change. So an Even Number year service is always arround $500 for oil change, brake fluid change, and a more thorough inspection; plus whatever else needs to be done on those years.
Brakes on the cars can also be expensive. Fortunately, my brakes on my Mercedes aren't the more expensive ones. Some AMG vehicles have these special brake rotors with floating discs. Meaning that the heat of the rotor doesn't transfer to the wheel hub. Thus, allowing the disc to expand and contract due to heat without warping the entire disc hub. Thus, it's made in two main pieces with multiple metal pins holding it all together. Mine is all made in one piece, which is cheaper. And perfectly appropriate for an AMG sedan that will see the Autobahn but never see a racetrack. But sometimes, they put these kinds of crazy discs on an S-Class AMG. And I sometimes just wonder... There's never going to be a situation where an S-Class AMG is ever going to need that. Even if the car were to drive on the Autobahn and accelerate extremely aggressively and slam on the brakes aggressively, then repeat that multiple times, will the brakes ever need that. So I find that this is a case of overkill, which leads to no benefit, and to higher servicing costs. But, on a sporty car that will drive through mountain roads or on a racetrack, those two-piece brakes can be more justified.

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