Quote:
Originally Posted by Daka
Telekinetic, Snowy, Craven
I would certainly expect the dealer to have a WHEEL BEARING in stock for a common model CLK 320...(2004) and as far as changing the wheel, do you expect a 75 year old disabled vet (granted only 30%) to change a tire on the side on a busy highway in 97 degree heat....GET REAL that is WHY I PAY FOR AAA
So before you shoot off your mouths...get the facts.
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On the topic of facts, if I owned a vehicle that required peculiar spare tire installation procedures to prevent costly vehicular damage, like using special bolts other than those holding on the stock wheel, I'd be damn sure I communicated them to the 'AAA moron' about to change my tire. Why expect them to know something about your car that you apparently either did not know yourself or choose not to disclose to them?
This failure you experienced cannot occur on any American or Japanese vehicle, or (as far as I can ascertain with some quick googlery) anything other than certain years and models of Mercedes. Sorry you had to find out about that particular Mercedes quirk in this manner, but blaming the AAA guy is hardly fair. Requiring separate bolts for the spare seems ridiculous...why they didn't just weld sleeves to take up the extra distance onto the spare to make the arrangement failsafe is beyond me.
As far as the dealer not having parts, from my friend's experiences, Mercedes generally has loaner cars available, giving them time to order parts rather than stock every part for every model and year at every podunk dealership. The edgecase where a road-trippers to whom a loaner vehicle would be useless urgently needs a part is unpredictable, and to build a business model around it would seem financially unsound.
Anyways, that sounds like a terrible design feature that resulted in a miserable extended weekend...I hope your situation got resolved without too much additional hassle!