I know that class-action suits generally benefit only the lawyers, but unfortunately, that’s often the only way we little guys can get the attention of a big company. I know it may seem to some that Roger is “shining�, but the reality is this could happen to any one of us. All it takes is a dead battery or a faulty RFID antenna in the ignition switch and you will need a new key. At $150 each, that’s not such a horrible thing, but when enough keys die that you have to shell out over $3K pay for someone else’s poor design, I say it’s time to get MBUSA’s attention.
I know others have argued that this is no different than transmission, engine or even fuel pump failures, but it is. The difference with those mechanical items failing is that the repair requires labor and replacements of physical pieces. In the case of the key failure, MBZ could, if they wanted to, allow the AAM to be erased to virgin state, then reprogrammed with a new key set (or even the old keyset). Assuming $120 per key and an hour of labor, the repair should cost under $500. Instead, they won’t let the dealers know how to erase the AAM and they make customer pay for replacing expensive parts requiring many hours of labor. This would be like having to replace your computer’s hard drive every time you were infected with a virus.
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