A North Tyneside man crashed a Mercedes-Benz after his car burst into flames on the way home from a garage after repairs.
Kevin Bull, 51, had been looking for the perfect Mercedes E350 estate for the best part of a year, finally settling on a 2016 model that “ticked all his boxes” and came with a one-year warranty until March 16, 2024. However, just eight days after being delivered to his home in Wideopen from Stratford-upon-Avon through Mercedes-Benz’s approved used network, the check engine light came on.
The Mercedes breakdown service discovered the air intake snorkel and Kevin booked the car into the official dealer on Scotswood Road. After three days of repairs, Kevin was delighted to get his dream car back on April 13 – but it soon turned into a nightmare.
Despite a full Mercedes-Benz dealer service history and just 60,000 miles on the clock, the £17,109 car’s engine started smoking just after turning off the A1 onto Kingston Park Road. Moments after he got out of the driver’s seat, it burst into flames – two fire engines had to come and extinguish the blaze.
The charred shell of the car has since remained at Mercedes-Benz Newcastle and an inspection they carried out found that “there was no evidence to suggest that an inherent manufacturing defect or previous repair caused this incident.” Mercedes advised Kevin to go through the insurance to get his money back.
They also asked him to return the loaner car he had been given by July 3 and to arrange for the charred shell of his E-Class to be removed from the Scotswood Road site.
However, he has so far refused to go through with the insurance and is instead hoping to be able to return the car and get a refund through the Consumer Rights Act 2015. This means the buyer will be able to prove there was a fault with the car before, which Mercedes says is not the case case.
Kevin, who works for the NHS, told ChronicleLive that the whole situation has given him sleepless nights. He said: “I just want it to end, I’m sick of it.
“It’s been going on too long and I’ve had enough. There’s stuff to do every night and it seems to take up time and cause so much stress, you’ve gone to bed and you’re stressing at night thinking about what’s going on.” be the result?”
Whatever happens, Kevin says he won’t be getting another Mercedes-Benz. He added: “I’ve had BMWs for 20 years and never had any problems with them.
“I spent ages thinking about getting an E350 estate and it took me a year to find the right one, but now I couldn’t see myself getting another Mercedes.
Mercedes-Benz said in a statement: “We are very sorry to hear about Mr. Bull’s experience. We take any incident extremely seriously and are working with all relevant parties to review the circumstances.”
“There was no evidence from Mercedes-Benz UK’s inspection of the car to suggest that this incident was caused by an inherent manufacturing defect or a previous repair carried out by Mercedes-Benz of Newcastle. As such, Mr Bull was advised to contact his insurance company.” company.”
A spokesman for Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service said: “We can confirm that two of our crews attended a vehicle fire near the A1 in Newcastle on the afternoon of Saturday 13 April. The emergency call was received at 12.25pm ​​and the first crew attended the scene at Kingston Park Road in seven minutes.
“Our control team dispatched two appliances to the car fire due to the location of the vehicle in close proximity to the roundabout. This was to ensure the safety of our firefighters and all road users.
“Our crews left the scene at 1.28pm once the fire was safely extinguished.