Help! I cant get my electric roof down!

terry1956 said:
Braysaway.don't get personal with me, I don't like it. And I will not put up with it. There is a fault with the mp in the charging system that is leaving people unable to even close the sliding door or start the engine to charge the batteries. It looks like the zig unit being used is poor quality and destroying the batteries. On a van that relays so heavily on electricity to have a fault in that system is a worry.you stated I talk rubbish. Know just facts. Mercedes drop in price like stones, well this statement is backed up by checking the European used market. Mercedes dealership are not that great when things go wrong, backed up by my having to take a new Mercedes back to the dealer after the engine ripped itself to bits in Switzerland and having to take mb to court to get my money back. The poor chap above gets his new toy, and already its broken,what checks did mb carry out on the van before sending it out. If I do purchase a mp, it will be with my eyes wide open and hopefully armed with facts, not wearing rose tinted specs, or full of "Ho look at me, I can make a list of crap I take with me in my first camper" bs. So deal with the facts, good and bad, and we will all get on.
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That is an extremely rude and disrespectful post ‘Terry’

If the Marco Polo is such a poorly built expensive vehicle with multiple faults then why are you wasting your time posting here?
 
terry1956 said:
Braysaway.don't get personal with me, I don't like it. And I will not put up with it. There is a fault with the mp in the charging system that is leaving people unable to even close the sliding door or start the engine to charge the batteries. It looks like the zig unit being used is poor quality and destroying the batteries. On a van that relays so heavily on electricity to have a fault in that system is a worry.you stated I talk rubbish. Know just facts. Mercedes drop in price like stones, well this statement is backed up by checking the European used market. Mercedes dealership are not that great when things go wrong, backed up by my having to take a new Mercedes back to the dealer after the engine ripped itself to bits in Switzerland and having to take mb to court to get my money back. The poor chap above gets his new toy, and already its broken,what checks did mb carry out on the van before sending it out. If I do purchase a mp, it will be with my eyes wide open and hopefully armed with facts, not wearing rose tinted specs, or full of "Ho look at me, I can make a list of crap I take with me in my first camper" bs. So deal with the facts, good and bad, and we will all get on.
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Terry/Michael
You are a better man then I am! if I had to take a Marque to court after experiancing an engine failure to recover my money I wouldn't be looking to buy another vehicle from them again. Especially after you acknowledge poor service from the dealers in the past too.....

On another note, I seem to remember someone putting some information together on residual values in Spain, and them being similar to the VW Cali.
 
hi anyideas. Not only did I have a Mercedes give out on me after the stop start snapped the cam belt and then cooked the warning sensor leaving me on the motorway in a mass of oil and smoke, but Mercedes breakdown service was next to useless and in the end I had to call the AA to get back myself the car and two pug dogs back to the UK. the dealership tried all sorts to get me to keep the car but once that happens you just cant trust the car again. so to the law I went and with the help of honest john from the newspaper got my money back and a bit more. so yes I do worry about the Mercedes, as I found out later thanks to honest john that mercedes knew about the fault on the engine all the time as it was for sale in the USA for a long time and there had been a number of blown engines and they did nothing to correct it.
But I just don,t like the inside of the VW, and I am not in love with the drive. As a long time motor homer who after just selling up my holiday home in france and now free again to travel I am looking for a one make van, not a 3rd party made in the shed job. and there is only vw and now Mercedes.
as to resale values. at the moment there are around 70 California's for sale on the main vw site and prices are starting to just slip. from reading on forums the main reasons are the green issue and the ban the diesel talk. then the extra road fund tax, and also talk of newer models next year. but the prices will keep stronger in the UK due to the very strong VW following, and the fact that a VW build California will always be worth more then a 3rd party VW build of which their are many. if you take a look at Mercedes. in Germany there is a 250d 2016 marco polo with 6000km for sale with lots of good options for 47,000 euros, that's over a 12,000 euro drop in less then a year. try to find a vw that drops that fast. there are a few others in Germany but I am not very good at reading german numbers. there is know way that Mercedes will break into the uk campervan market to beat vw, their timing is all wrong,and so is their marketing, and lets be fair the dealerships are not up to speed at all. the buyers they do get are going to be new to campervans in general and more then likely older. and very few people purchase high tech motors after they run out of warranty as they cost to much when they go wrong. so why am I still looking, well as stated I don't really like the vw, I am older and I don't really need to care about resale value, but I do care about being stuck miles from a good german or English pub due to the van not closing the side door due to some made in Italy cheapo part. so I will see what the next few months sees. and that's why I don't really care for all the rose tinted crap that most of the vw forum is full of. michael
 
Oh boy!

Plea to stick to facts about the MP from UK owners please. Opinions are fine. Hearsay evidence accepted if source is quoted. Slagging off forum members probably not so helpful.

Btw, anyone have any clue where MP are on demand/delivery dates? Still no news on my order. I'm close to trying to get some inside info from a friend of a friend of a friend!
 
Will, I'm with you mostly but there is some helpful stuff here so will stick with it and hope people settle down o_O
 
Nick Pye said:
I think it was Braysaway. And the fact that to close the roof requires the ignition, but not the engine on, and two successive presses of the down arrow on the control panel. I disconnected the mains power a day or so ago and will see if the charge has been retained and the roof goes up as well as down later!
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Roof not lowering is a nightmare. I'm pleased it's gone right for you. I think you will find that low voltage also affects the functioning of the fridge and the auxiliary heater, if you have one fitted. The fridge normally will not function with voltage below 10.8 on the Cali so probably the same with MP.
 
I am totally unknowledgeable about batteries but have had caravans with a leisure battery for 11 years. It is advised by manufacturers that the internal charger is really only for day to day use but the battery should be given a good charge from an external charger regularly to keep it in good condition.
I use a ctek charger which I can use at home or away on electric hookup and am only on my second battery in all that time and it is still working fine.
I hope this helps.
 
Oh boy!

Plea to stick to facts about the MP from UK owners please. Opinions are fine. Hearsay evidence accepted if source is quoted. Slagging off forum members probably not so helpful.
I did give the source, and to say keep it to UK members only is plain silly when there is a mine of information on Germany forums. I could give you a complete list of 100,s of postings, some good, some bad. but unless you can read Germany as I can, they will not be much help to you. But information is there. whats the point in suppressing information ??????????. unless all you want to talk about is knifes and forks.
 
Can I just remind everyone that this forum was created to be a friendly, helpful, supportive place for new Marco Polo owners to come for advice and share their experience. We won't accept personal attacks between members and such posts will be removed.
 
Totally agree.

This should be a forum for those looking to share their experiance (both good and bad) of the MP first hand from purchasing to owning.

Not for those who are pretenders and look to
 
Well, I wholeheartedly agree with removing the negative personal comments but I don’t think we should dismiss the second-hand pool of knowledge and experience related to the MP that there must be on the continent and in those other forums. There are many more MP owners in mainland Europe and there must be useful information there, if we can tap into it properly, that could be very useful to us here.

The language barrier is an issue though. I might just have a dig around and see if I can get anywhere with online translation, although I think I might be setting myself up for a fall. I wonder if the confusion over the auxilliary water heater is down to a German - English tranlation of the name since it heats engine coolant not water or if it’s just sloppy marketing from MB.
 
Roy C said:
In the troubleshooting section on the roof lack of charge for the auxiliary battery can prevent the roof operating. Did you check the level of charge on the display of the central control panel? If voltage drops below 10.5v then some functions are switched off, including the pop up roof operation, until recharged to 12.5v or more.
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If the leisure battery falls below approx 10.8v then the onboard battery charger will not come on (and you will not get the mains hook-up symbol in control screen) In this case you would need to run the engine for the alternator charge the auxiliary battery.
 
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Spec was submitted to Germany today, dealer got their allocation yesterday.

Just waiting to hear back if there are any delays on what I have requested. It's a public holiday in Germany today so should hopefully have a build date tomorrow.
 
Roy C said:
There is a specific process as per the user guide but assuming you are following this then there is a button for emergency operation in the cupboard under the gas cooker behind the sidewall on the left-hand side.
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I love people like you. How the hell did you find out about that button ? I just located it out of interest
 
Mike S said:
I love people like you. How the hell did you find out about that button ? I just located it out of interest
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HaHa! Too much time spent reading online forums about both the Cali and the Marco Polo. Knew there was one in the VW from reading the Cali owners forum and I looked it up in the manual to see if there was one in the MP - not entirely sure why. Useful here but not so much when I talk about it at parties :Headbang:
 
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