Let me start by saying that I'm truly disappointed in Mercedes-Benz as a luxury brand and in my mind their reputation has been severely tarnished from several poor interactions and experiences. I have always dreamed of driving a Mercedes and owned several cars in the past hoping that one day I'd have a sleek new top of the line Mercedes. During the pandemic I got my chance. There was an opportunity for me to get a new hybrid GLA 250e which is the top tier of the GLA series. This car retails at over £46,000 and Mercedes claim on their website that it can run up to 37 miles in electric mode. I thought this would be a great car for the short trip every-day local driving that I do which is mainly 20-30mph and usually about 1-3 miles per trip. After about 3 months I noticed that the battery capacity was quickly degrading and had lost nearly 30% of it's original charge. After 9 months of driving the car the capacity is down to 17 miles on a full charge. At this point the battery has lost more than 50% of it's capacity and it has been less than a year since I received the car. It's obvious that something is seriously wrong with the car. With 17 miles of electric range this has become of limited use and it is also becoming more expensive to run on electricity than it is on petrol. I want to clarify that when the battery is fully charged there's only 17 miles maximum to drive in electric mode. Using anything like climate control or other features will reduce this and in reality the miles that you can cover are lower. I'm not sure that I can get anywhere close to 17 miles of actual driving done in electric mode. I'll also point out that I'm fanatical about charging and I always make sure to charge when the battery goes below 30%. I use the car's Battery Level mode which conserves the battery while driving whenever it gets low and I'm on the road.I've taken the car in for service three times to address the battery capacity problem. The first time I brought the car to the dealer for service I got a call late in the afternoon to say they hadn't even looked at it and it would require additional time. I had to pick up the car and bring it in for a second appointment weeks later.The second time I brought the car in for service I was told it would also require a second day before they could look at despite booking more than 2 weeks ahead of time. I'm unclear about what was done but the car was returned with a much higher charge - around 34 miles, which I was quite pleased with. I was hopeful, but fearful that it would not last long. The third time I brought the car in I went to a different dealership - Croydon which I was hoping to receive a better level of service from. Immediately at the point of drop off I was disappointed to learn that the car would not be looked at until the next day despite booking a mont in advance. Sure enough, I got a text the next afternoon which said the vehicle was ready to be picked up. I went back to the dealer first thing the next morning. When I asked what had been done I was told that there were no faults and the car was absolutely fine. I asked how this was determined and I was shown a diagnostic report which listed the battery sensor as one of the tests with a check mark. Well great I thought, sounds like it's been fixed. Sadly that was not the case. I asked what the charge capacity returned to while it was being serviced and the service attendant could not tell me. He could only repeat that the test shows there is no fault, so there's no problem. I asked to see the vehicle in anticipation that it was charging to a much higher point.I was horrified to see that the battery was left at 2%, which means that the dealer did not even try to address the issue. It was never even charged at all and not even returned to me in a charged state. This means the car sat for 3 days with no charge in the battery which I'm certain has caused even more damage. The manager at the dealer suggested that I leave the car another day for them to charge and had a lame excuse about only having 2 chargers which were in use. Clearly a lie as I walked by both charging points which were vacant and not in use. I'm writing this review to warn other potential buyers about the battery issue that I'm having with the GLA 250e as well as the poor handling by service technicians and customer support which seems to be prevalent across multiple dealerships/service centres. Mercedes can be on the look out for a formal complaint. This car doesn't do what it is supposed to and I've been completely taken advantage of as a consumer with no recourse. You can be sure I will be fighting this to the highest possible level. This is just not what anyone would expect from a luxury brand and it's truly been a let down.
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