I have some idea of where it happened. I can do a slow drive by to get the exact location if my insurance covers it.
Possible bent rim(s)
Thanks to the wonderful NJ highways and their ever responsive road repair crew (sarcastic font inserted), I think I might have bent either one or both front rims. I have a set of winter tires mounted to a separate set of rims for winter driving. Earlier this week while driving to work the driver front wheel ran over a pothole covered by standing water. It was around 6:30 AM so it was still dark outside and I was going around 70 mph. It made a pretty loud thud and I cringed. Then a few miles later the same thing happened to the passenger side front wheel. So now when I'm driving a lower speeds (~40 mph) I can feel a wiggling or shimmy of the front wheels. At the time I didn't know exactly what was causing that but knew the potholes had everything to do with it. So I called the dealer yesterday and they said the rim or rims are probably bent. I have an appointment to bring the car in Monday morning to get it checked out. If the rims are bent they can have someone come and fix it. I explained to the service tech that I have a set of winter tires and aftermarket rims on and he said that's no problem. I hope that's the case and not something more serious. I purchased wheel protection from the dealer when I bought the car. I wonder if that covers aftermarket rims. I doubt it but it doesn't hurt to ask when I show up.
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Well, not insurance but around here the state or county or the town will pay for damages if the pothole was reported and not fixed within a certain amount of time.insurance covers pot hole damage? since when lol
Update. A couple of hours after I dropped of my car at Open Road Mercedes in Bridgewater, NJ to look into the wobbling and shaking of the car when driving at certain speeds I get a call from the service advisor, Ted. I suspect the problem was from the two potholes I hit on the highway and I probably bent a rim or two. The front driver side rim has an obvious bend that the valet pointed out right away. So Ted tells me that after inspection they found that 3 out of the 4 rims were bent (1 front, 2 rears). He said the rim protection plan I purchased can cover these rims but the plan only covers 1 set of rims. Because I got a set of winter tires mounted to aftermarket rims, it is the aftermarket rims that are bent. The OEM MB AMG rims are sitting in my garage with summer tires on them. So he says I can either have them cover the bent rims which they will fix free of charge under the plan but these will be the only rims the protection plan will cover from now on. So that leaves the more expensive MB rims uncovered. As recommended by Ted I said I will pay for the repairs of the bent aftermarket rims at around $100 each and keep the MB rims ($600 each) protected under the protection plan. So a few hours go by I get a call back from Ted and in a nutshell he said he spoke with the service manager and she said that they will have my rims repaired free of charge as a good will gesture. They said since I just got the car and it was brand new and they can tell that I didn’t put many miles on it yet and the tires/rims are even newer that Open Road Mercedes decided to use their insurance to have the rims repaired. Since they originally promised me that I’ll get my car back the same day (tomorrow) I didn’t bother getting a loaner car as I have another car at home that I can use. Since they had to do all the arrangements with getting it fix for free and stuff and since there are 3 rims to fix that they won’t be able to get it done until this morning so they offered me a loaner car to use in the mean time. I told them that I didn’t need a loaner as I have another car and I also told them that I really appreciate what they’re doing. I didn’t get my car back yet but I expect to sometime this morning but I’m going to jump the gun a bit and say so far I am very impressed with Open Road Mercedes. They went above and beyond all expectations and I can tell already that they truly value their customers. I’m a new customer to Open Road and to MB and so far they’ve given me no reason why I should buy my next car from anyone else. It seems as if the service department works with the sales department in their decision making in that the dealership as a whole understands that not just a good sales experience but also good service experience will bring customers back. So by the service department going out of their way to do this for me will make me come back to buy another car from them which also helps the sales department. This may sound obvious to you but it’s not with all dealerships. The place where I bought my Accord (Planet Honda in Union, NJ) is a classic example of lack of connection with other departments of the same dealership. I won’t go into long boring details but basically the service department didn’t honor their free set of tires program by using lame excuses so because of that I’ve stopped going to them for service (except for recalls) and I will never buy another car from that dealership ever again. Because they wouldn’t shell out of few bucks for a set of tires they’ve lost sales and service of 2 cars I’ve purchased since that incident. Anyway, I’ll follow up with the outcome after I pick up my car.
Got my car back, all fixed and free of charge. The timing couldn't have been more perfect as we're getting a dumping of snow as I write this. Very psyched.
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