[supernsx]

I just picked up my pampered 2006 R500 with 54K miles after the dealer fixed the front passenger airmatic suspension and driver side mirror.

Here is the breakdown of the invoice:
Airmatic:
Passenger front Hyprophneumat (Airmatic Strut): $1144
Valve Block: $246
Labor: 770

Side Mirror:
Side Mirror assembly: $466
Labor: $126

Total: $3000 :rocketwhore:

Luckily, I have an extended warranty and my our of pocket is only my deductible of $200. :beerchugr:

Anyway, I am sure the other 3 Airmatic Struts are all going to fail soon and they will probably cost somewhere about $7000. My advice, GET A GOOD EXTENDED WARRANTY if you want to keep the car for a while after factory warranty ends. I was in total price shock on those items especially my car is very well maintained.

 

[refresher72]

Do you have EXTENDED WARRANTY from MB or THird Party?

 

[supernsx]

Do you have EXTENDED WARRANTY from MB or THird Party?

Chrysler but I believe they have stopped to sell it to Mercedes owners starting this year.

 

[alvin18]

When buying a pre owned MB vehicle, it is a good idea to not buy a vehicle with Airmatic suspension, they will all fail as the vehicle gets old, very pricey to fix also.

 

[termite]

IMHO the problem w/ this argument is that it all depends on suffering a catastrophic failure w/in the extended warranty period and then having it fixed by the dealer. airmatic struts are now available from other sources at about 1/3 the cost of the dealer []MERCEDES-BENZ Air Suspension Parts - R-Class 2006-2010 (W251 chassis) making the cost of the repair much much less. when i bought my R500 it was still under warranty for about 5k miles. there was not an extended warranty available that was even remotely reasonably priced. MB wanted over $3k for one year of coverage. of course, i did not buy the warranty and a year later have had no warranty repair issues [knock on wood several times]. if you pocketed the money that you would have spent on the extended warranty and took your R to a qualified indy, you would have been way ahead by over $1500...

 

[supernsx]

When buying a pre owned MB vehicle, it is a good idea to not buy a vehicle with Airmatic suspension, they will all fail as the vehicle gets old, very pricey to fix also.

The rear suspension of all R-class is on Airmatic strut....

IMHO the problem w/ this argument is that it all depends on suffering a catastrophic failure w/in the extended warranty period and then having it fixed by the dealer. airmatic struts are now available from other sources at about 1/3 the cost of the dealer ...

Not disagreeing with you and it is really depended on how much you pay and the terms of your extended warranty. I paid less than $3K for my 5yrs/75K miles warranty about one year ago. I have already submitted claims over $3.8K.

#1 reason that I skipped the Caynenne Turbo and bought the R500 instead was because the ability to buy a reasonable priced extended warranty. I am planning to drive the R500 for two more years and without warranty can be very expensive especially my R has a lot of electronic gadgets.

 

[alvin18]

The rear suspension of all R-class is on Airmatic strut....



Not disagreeing with you and it is really depended on how much you pay and the terms of your extended warranty. I paid less than $3K for my 5yrs/75K miles warranty about one year ago. I have already submitted claims over $3.8K.

#1 reason that I skipped the Caynenne Turbo and bought the R500 instead was because the ability to buy a reasonable priced extended warranty. I am planning to drive the R500 for two more years and without warranty can be very expensive especially my R has a lot of electronic gadgets.

The standard suspension R has rear airbags for self leveling, still uses regular shocks for dampening. Vehicles with airmatic have a different setup.

The other benefit of Xwar people don't think of is, when something fails on your vehicle, you will not know if you will have the money to fix it or how your financial standing is at the time. With a xwar, assuming it is covered, it will help a lot. Being an autoshop owner, I know very few people have saved money in a special account for car repairs. People have to borrow, charge it, or cut something else out to fix their cars.

 

[tabocat]

My S500 and R-Class both have airmatic and I'm really lucky I never had any major problems with the suspension. However, my business partner was not too lucky when his SL500 had problems with the front passenger side airmatic shock. You can buy them off ebay for $500.00 if you can find a good deal. I driven cars with airmatic and regular coil-over springs and I find the airmatic suspension to be a lot more comfortable. Also, why did you change your side mirrors?

 

[smxnyc]

I whole heartily agree that you MUST get an extended warranty unless you like to spend a lot of money on repairs and labor. I purchased my MB extended warranty for 3/75K for 4200 including tax before my warranty expired....I already had an idea that a 2006 R class would have issues, especially the first model year......recently, I have already had the R back to MB for repairs for 1K. Regardless, if you look at it - it will save you money, trust me something will need to be replaced or fixed. I noticed that the rear left suspension is sagging and and there are micro cracks on my headlights with has got some kind of haze inside. I will take the car in for service and have MB fix it under warranty....Do yourself a favor buy the extended warranty...

 

[supernsx]

Also, why did you change your side mirrors?

My power side mirrors make some 'clicking" noise when it closes. I checked the site and many owners broke theirs too.

 

[alvin18]

I have not worked with an extended warranty that covers trim or cosmetics items, just wanted to put that out there. Sooo many x-war companies like to use the term bumper to bumper coverage "just like the new car warranty", this statement is very misleading and not true. X-war is a good option, but for most of us who have purchased a pre owned 2006 R350/R500, most things have been updated under warranty, I got a copy of my vehicles VMI-it had 4 pages of repairs. So far since I had it, I had the rear main seal replaced under the CPO, this is a very normal leak in MB products.