Several Mercedes dealerships have adopted this policy, nothing over 15 years old, including my local one. Talked about it in the BenzWorld W220 forum:
https://www.benzworld.org/threads/m...cars-over-15-years-old.3111928/#post-18527035
Their experience mirrors what I said in this thread:
https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/fancy-cars-with-no-gas-in-them.378737/#post-6773440
Someone of little means buys an older S class (or any older MB, really) - brings it in, gets a 4 figure repair estimate, can’t pay it, then either throws a public tantrum over the cost, and/or abandons the car. At one point Mercedes Benz of Virginia Beach had over 90 abandoned cars on their lot. They had people yell, scream, and throw things at the service writers.
They couldn’t get other work done because half their lot was filled with cars that people refused to get fixed and refused to come get. Many of them had been towed in, so, they would have had to be towed away. Owners just walked, leaving the car there. So, the dealership goes through the process to get a lien, take possession, and auction the car. That’s a 90 day, or more, process.
A difficult situation for the dealer, and they saw a huge increase in both bad outcomes over the past couple of years. So, they implemented the 15 year policy.
Further, MB really cut back on parts support for older cars, over the past two or three years. It used to be that you could get any part for any Mercedes ever built. They quietly stopped that during Covid, so, not only are repairs expensive, but repairs with genuine parts might not be possible due to corporate support. Without genuine parts for a car, the dealership can’t repair it, at least, not according to their usual protocols.
For me, and my two MBs that are past the cutoff age, Mercedes Benz of Virginia Beach will actually work on them. I had a nice chat, one on one, with the service manager. Good guy. The source of my numbers and anecdotes above. He realized that I’m not the kind of guy to walk away from my car, and I don’t represent the risk of abandonment, or bad behavior, to which they have been subjected.
If you’re looking for a simple root cause - look at the behavior of your fellow car owners. The dealers themselves are caught in the middle between dwindling factory support for older cars and customers with older cars who behave badly. Naturally, nobody on BITOG would complain about the cost of dealer service…
But, shockingly, there are some people who act badly, by out or by abandoning their car.