JKOlson

For service greater than 3 hours, the TDI warranty provided as a result of the dieselgate settlement provides for the cost or provision of a free loaner.

I need to take my 2014 Q5 TDI in tomorrow for service that I expect to be covered under the warranty. The dealer is notorious for not have loaners available. They told me they will not have one for me when I drop my car off in the morning.

Has this happened to any of you? How was it handled? Assuming full warranty coverage, I assume they would be obligated to reimburse my cost of a rental???

KevinGary

When my dealer does not have loaners they arrange for an Enterprise rental to be delivered to the dealership.

Avant4Adam

Be polite and firm and ask them to arrange for something. Supply chain issues during COVID made cars more valuable to sell than allocate to loaner fleets so all dealers are tight on loaners, hopefully that gets better.

Dudealicious

A few years ago, pre-pandemic, I was getting a diesel smell in the cabin. When I recirculated the air it went away which indicated there's an exhaust leak under the hood. I too was told there were no loaners available unlike the 4 years after I purchased the vehicle when I had my choice of loaner; A3, A4, Q5, Q7. You name it. Even for my annual oil change. They'd point to their line of parked loaners and ask me which one I wanted. I've yet to get a loaner for any dieselgate warranty work.
What they did instead was call me an Uber out of there. The Uber was on my dime getting back to the dealership. Thankfully the vehicle has been tip-top for quite a while now. Maybe it's because I'm getting my oil changed at an indy shop.

Avant4Adam

My dealer has always been great with loaners for any work, maybe I’m lucky Always best to schedule in advance as well I find, but they always have a loaner for me.

Norskie

I bought my SQ5 used from a Mercedes-Benz dealership. I only had to send the SQ5 back once for work (they messed up the anti-glare film on the windshield when they removed the sale stickers).

Not only did I get a 2019 E350 as a loaner for a few days, they dropped it off and picked up my SQ5. When they had finished the work they brought my SQ5 and picked up their E350. A few weeks later my license plate and holder were ready, someone drove to my house and handed it to me. It's over an hour each way, and no charge to me for neither the loaner nor delivery services.

I've never considered buying an MBZ based on what their vehicle lineup, but with that sort of service I almost want to (buying the SQ5 was an equally professional and respectful experience, vs. the antagonistic ones I get from the domestic brands).

SCarGuy

I’m sure somewhere in your documentation it has a subject to availability caveat.

superswiss

Did you make an appointment in advance and specified that you needed a loaner to make sure one gets reserved for you? Loaners are a finite resource and they do run out of them at times. I've never had an issue getting a loaner with Audi and now MBZ as long as I made the appointment in advance. If there were no loaners available for that date they would say so and I just rescheduled if I really needed one. I'd be surprised if your dealership didn't have a reservation system for the loaners, and obviously it's first come first serve.

My MBZ dealership now also offers Uber vouchers, and my wife's VW dealership complimentary Lyft rides, which I've used at times as I don't really depend on having a car, and they cover both ways. For the ride back to the dealership just have to call them first to arrange another ride/voucher.

Same experience with MBZ as the poster above. If I wanted to, they'd come pick up my car and leave me a loaner and then bring it back, but I always choose to drive it to the dealership myself. It's only a 20 minute drive. They gave me a new S Class last week while my C63 was getting its annual service. I wished they had AMG loaners for AMG owners, but at least they hooked me up, even though I found the S Class pretty terrible. Way too soft and aloof for me. Drives like the massive boat it is.

Norskie

In my case the loaner was from their used car inventory.