They performed the state inspection on my 97 mercedes e420 in February of this year (2024), brought it in for an oil change last week (7/23/24) and was told it was UNSAFE TO DRIVE because of a rotted right front lower control arm. So, according to Mike L on the front desk; the winter weather and salt air rotted that part in 5 MONTHS. What winter? And less than 6,000 additional miles. From passing inspection with no mention of a possible problem in February, to being UNSAFE TO DRIVE in 5 months. Needless to say, either they didn't actually perform a state safety inspection or they have no business being licensed to perform them, as they don't know what they're doing! BEWARE.
Sorry for the delay in responding to your concern but I wanted to get the proper paperwork and speak with everyone involved so I could respond intelligently. First off, sorry for this to happen and I have no issue on setting up an appointment with you to put the vehicle on the lift to show you the information that was explained to you. YES you are correct, we did do a RI State Inspection in Feb of 2024 and YES you are correct we informed you that on your last visit there was some "unsafe" issues with the ball joint. We are to inform a client if a safety issue is something that could put you in harms way while driving prior to you leaving the dealership, as I'm sure you would want to be aware of. It looks like the ball joint anchor weld to the arm is where the seperation is happening to make the vehicle unsafe to drive. This isn't typical or a normal issue with a Mercedes what could've happened from the time of the Inspection Sticker and the additional 6,000 miles, approximately, that you put on it, a strong impact could've caused this to make the vehicle unsafe. With the roads in RI, there could be a pot hole that was hit and unavoidable but again, if you'd like to come in so we can show this concern to you, please contact our General Manager, Brian S Farrington and we can all view it at your earliest convenience.
- International Motor Group