I just had my first B Service on my CLK W208 (at 20 400 miles and 2 months
short of 4 years).

(Just shows you how little I drive!)

Because of the low mileage the trip computer started counting the days to
service -- instead of miles -- at some point.

The cost should have been, so to speak, just over GBP 500.  However, MB UK
have introduced a notional membership scheme for cars over three years old,
i.e. out of UK warranty, that offers substantial prices reductions.

Just register your car with the central database and you get 20% off labour
and 10% off parts.  This resulted in a final service bill of GBP 426.51 incl
17.5% VAT.  Seems quite reasonable to me.  The standard job-time was 3.4 h.
Lucky I noticed the leaflet at the start of my visit so that I could
organise the registration immediately.

I waited in the garage during the service and the job indeed took about that
time.  The car came back washed, of course.

When I discussed the scheme with one of the service team managers he freely
admitted that the aim is to keep people from going to independents.

This discount applies to cars being serviced by MB-owned dealerships, which
are mainly (solely?) in the main metropolitan areas.  The administrator at
the call centre had no info about the franchises.

Seems a pretty good package to me.  Isn't it?

DAS

For direct contact replace nospam with schmetterling
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