I suspect that quite a lot of the negative characters and their subsequent condemnation of the 500 and of course Fiat don't have a great deal of experience of other manufacturers. I'm fortunate that I haven't needed the services of a Fiat main dealer yet, I don't have high expectations
Anyway I hang around various MB forums, in particular G Wagen forums.
Now I'm not suggesting any MB is a competitor to the 500, certainly not the G Wagen which for those who don't know are one of the last virtually hand built cars and start at about £85k but I think thought I'd share a thread about a newish G Wagen:
Anybody with any useful suggestions, my newly acquired G wagon had a fault on the front drivers side indicator which turned out to be just a bad connection. Having cured this the vehicle is still showing a fault on the diagnostic panel for the front indicator and has completely disabled the vehicle it says brake distribution inoperative ABS and ESP inoperative and speed Tronic inoperative I cannot get the vehicle out of park so it is now stuck somewhere I don't want it to be stuck I have tried disconnecting the battery suggestions please ....
No I am hoping that Mercedes assistance can help tomorrow but if not, where is George? So bloody frustrating that a bloody indicator bulb issue can disable a car.
A reply:
Pre 1999, the wiring and connectors were all heavy-duty, with most connectors large and with silver-plated contacts. The wiring was also point-to-point, such that the indicator stalk was actually wired to the indicators. Today, the wiring is based on a fly-by-wire approach, operating on 2-wire, CANbus, linking distributed SAM modules that do the actual switching of current to devices. The wiring and connectors are super-flimsy, resembling what you might find in a cheap PC and the modules are located in damp places, like inside the doors. This eventually leads to problems and lots of error-codes. The system is supposed to reduce the amount of wires and copper and permits 'tricks' like flashing the fog-light when it thinks the actual indicator bulb may be burned-out
The engine, transmission and brakes, similarly operate on their own powertrain CANbus, and although its wiring and connectors are not really any better, it is a separate bus and should not be affected by any indicator faults...., unless perhaps it's related to the gateway module, which links all the busses together?
I have one G of each flavour and the one with all the electronics is definitely more trouble.
As for the P-lock, there should be a picture in the manual that shows if you press somewhere near the P marking on the shifter gate, using a pointed object like a pen, the lock can be released to move the lever.
He's had it towed to a MB Dealer:
Thank you for the handbook details, very useful. Local dealers have been worse than useless, didn't check battery at all just called me and announce it needs a new EPS module, £2000 plus fitting. No attempt to contact me and talk about the problems and other fault codes just,the fault code says EPS so that must be the problem . To cap it all they can't even be bothered to call back as promised after I asked them to do a battery drop test and let me know the result. In case anyone wants to avoid them Marshal Group trading as South Lakeland Mercedes.
So maybe we should count our blessings, at least if ours breaks you can push it
