Business Traveller

Nothing in this world can ruin your day quite like driving into work, and having your 6 Month old Merc start to give trouble.

That’s how my day started yesterday. Jumped in the car, pulled out of the driveway, and everything was fine, but the moment I tried to speed up, I realised that my car was in a very bad way. She wouldn’t rev past 2,000, and her 0-60mph time was something like 15 minutes. It was the most depressing thing I’ve endured in ages!

After limping into the office, and parking, I looked up the number, and phoned merc. That was around the time that my day started to improve. Within half an hour, they had a technician at my office, to take a look at my car. After 10 minutes of looking at the car, he informed me that the car had entered ‘Limp Mode’, which was an indication that a sensor somewhere had picked up a problem. He arranged a courtesy car for me (An ‘M’ Class, same as my Merc, not some dodgy little thing), and took my car down to the workshop.

In the afternoon, I got a call from the workshop informing me the names of the people assigned to work on my car, and that they would be in touch shortly. However, if I had any questions, I should call David, who was the senior person looking at my car.

By 3PM my replacement car was delivered to my office.

This morning at 10:30am David phoned me to let me know that the problem that had caused my car to go into ‘Limp Mode’ was with an air volume sensor that was reading incorrectly. The sensor had been replaced, and the car had been thoroughly tested. It was currently being cleaned, and will be delivered to my office at 11:15 this morning.

With service like that, I think that Merc will have me as a customer for a very long time!

When I arrived back in the UK, I suddenly needed a new car. While over in the states, I drove a few SUV’s and it made life with the puppies a whole lot easier, so I went and test drove a few. In the end, the best one for me was the Mercedes ML320, and with the exception of the rubbish SatNav, I absolutely love the car.

About 3 weeks after buying it, I got a letter from Mercedes in the post, inviting me to a free Merc experience day for ML owners. Yesterday, I went out to the Wiltshire countryside to spend the day with Merc. Of course, the crappy SatNav couldn’t find the place, so it was lucky that they sent me a map with directions.

The day started with breakfast at an old English Manor house, which was converted into a small hotel in the 1980s. Set in 100 acres of woodland, the setting was fantastic. I was met at the door by a nice gentleman from Merc, who walked me through to the drawing room, and ensured that I was settled in with coffee and breakfast. Some people were late, probably because of the pea-soup fog that had settled over England. Once everybody had arrived, we were given a briefing, introduced to our instructors, and assigned to cars. Merc had laid on 1 car and instructor for every 2 people, which was a good ratio. The cars were either ML350 petrol cars with the offroading Pro-Pack fitted (Low Range gears, Diff Locks, and Air Suspension with adjustable height) or ML320 Deisels like mine, without the pro pack. My instructor was an ex-police advanced driver (In England, some police are specially trained as advanced drivers, who are issued high-performance cars, and are used whenever high-speed driving is required (eg. chasing other cars etc.)

First stop was the local race-course, where they had set up a number of activities around the circuit. Baring in mind that this is a 2.5 ton car, it was never going to be racing laps around the track. Rather, they had put together a set of things to teach the drivers how their cars will react in real-life situations. Leaving the pits, they had laid out a 40Mph emergency lane change with cones, then a maximum acceleration around a corner, then continuing the acceleration down the main straight, followed by emergency braking.  Next was ‘tractor avoidance’ which involved swerving suddenly around a set of cones, and straight back again (simulating avoiding something that runs out in the road in front of you, and then oncoming traffic forcing you straight back). Finally was targetted braking, and a slalom. The fog really enhanced the experience as cones suddenly loomed out of nowhere, and the instructors explained what the cars were doing as we were doing each of the activities. The thing that left me most impressed was how far these cars have come. Gone are the days of jerking on the steering wheel of a SUV,  and rolling over. The car turned out to be impossible to lose control over, although I have to admit that I did bump one or 2 cones when I pushed the car past it’s limits. I can’t ever imagine pushing the car that far in real life though, and the confidence it inspired in me has really enhanced my driving experience.

After tea and biscuits, we were then off to a mucky field in the Wiltshire countryside. With wet grass, slippery mud, plenty of standing water, and 40 degree slopes, I was sure that there would be a procession through the easy bits, but no, they realy got us to give the cars an offroad workout. When we got stuck, they told us what we were doing wrong, and we were encouraged to try again until we managed to get it right. The most difficult one was a steep downhill into a trough of 1/2 meter deep water, and then a 40 Degree muddy incline on the other side. You had to enter the water slowly to avoid drowning the engine, then accelerate up the other side, to try and build the momentum you need to get up the other side. Bizarrely the 320 Diesels without the low range gears and diff-locks were more successful than the 350 petrols with the specialist offroad kit. They explained that this was due to the extra torque that the diesel engines produce, giving the power to get out.

For me, the really valuable part of the off-road part was that I was always slightly scared of taking the Merc off-road at all. I always remember a friend buying an X5, and parking it on a dry field. While we were watching the polo, there was a little rain-shower, and at the end, he needed an old land-rover to pul him out of the field. I will now have the confidence in the Merc to know that it won’t happen to me.

From there, it was back to the manor house for a silver service lunch that was fantastic, and then a debriefing before going home.

The day was great fun, but more than that, it enhanced my Merc ownership experience no-end. Well done Merc, and thanks. I look forward to the next one, when I buy my next Merc!