Arguably the most influential auto manufacturer in the world, Mercedes-Benz are always a joy to service. Mercedes have many ‘firsts’ in their history including the honor of the first automobile! Although often considered a rival of its smaller Bavarian brother BMW, here in the US the rivalry is less pronounced and we feel safe having a love for both.
Mercedes’ ‘The Best or Nothing’ moto is one we try to adopt in all aspects of our business.
Among Mercedes-Benz’s innovations are considerable safety innovations. I am often recommending the brand to my more safety-conscious clients who understand that safety can be priceless.
Like many of the premium brands we service, there are lots of little things to know about servicing Mercedes-Benz. Experience with these special requirements can really make the difference between successful service and unintended (sometimes serious) vehicle damage. Mercedes’ Active Brake Assist, for example, requires the brake system to be put into a service mode using the factory diagnostic computer (STAR Diagnostic system) before any brake disassembly is attempted. Failure to follow this will result in the brakes activating during the service. This will destroy brake components and likely injure the service technician!
Modern Mercedes technologies rely on computer controls and electronics; often we find Mercedes to be the most computerized vehicles in our service bays. Mercedes’ SAMs (signal acquisition modules) have been part of their technologies since the 1990s and have lead the industry with the paradigm of distributed computing and network technologies in vehicles. I remember a very frustrated client bringing me a hat full of light bulbs for his Mercedes, exasperated that despite many efforts he could not get his taillights to function correctly. Little did he know that the car, with its rear SAM, was dynamically remapping functions of the bulbs in the tail lamp assemblies to best use the functioning bulbs and compensate for the bad ones. You could virtually hear the client’s jaw hit the floor when I showed him in my STAR system how I had to activate individual bulbs through the computer network to test them and then clear fault codes to get his taillights back to normal… Welcome to Mercedes-Benz!
Mercedes are truly leading the industry with driving assist and self-driving technologies. Active Steering Assist, Active Body Control, Active Lane, Distronic, Magic Body Control, etc, are all amazing and likely life-changing technologies. One of the catches though is that the vehicle’s reliance on the integrity of its suspension has increased dramatically. There is no room for bad suspension components, imprecise alignments, or poorly balanced and mismatched tires. Mercedes have partnered extensively with Beissbarth to offer the world’s best alignments and we’re proud to be the first independent shop in the US to offer our clients the precision of Beissbarth’s touchless alignment system. Your Mercedes needs our undercarriage services and your local dealership does not offer this level of service yet.
Of course, we have your basics well covered too: A Service / B Service / Ignition services, belts, tune ups, etc, etc. If it’s on your Mercedes we are ready to service it.