France Ignores Court And Bans Mercedes Models - Tells 2700 New Owners Tough Luck

The dispute between the French government and German automaker Mercedes-Benz continues to widen, and turns ever uglier. The French environmental ministry recently moved to ban sales of some of the biggest-selling MB models because of their use of non-EU-approved A/C refrigerant, a gas which Mercedes says is actually safer than the approved gas in an accident. MB has now won a court case allowing them to sell cars while the gas is under investigation.

The German automotive governing body, the KBA, has confirmed MB’s claims and is conducting the further research needed. France has ignored the court ruling and now formalized the ban on the A-Class, B-Class and CLA-Class. Perhaps the ugliest part of the dispute, 2,704 French MB customers who have already bought their cars are now being blocked by their own government from registering their new cars.

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Yonder7 - 8/2/2013 5:21:05 PM

+1 Boost

Typical of French..but I recognize that still I like them...lol.

Amclaussen - 8/7/2013 4:00:01 PM

+1 Boost

We could (and SHOULD) like French, Italians, Britons, Japanese... All the world's people!

BUT...

Those Stupid, totalitarian, extremist, idiotic, dumb European "GREEN" POLITICIANS NEED to be HATED!!! They brought us really dumb measures in their Phanatical and Counterproductive quest for "ecology at any cost": for some examples of how-to-shoot-yourself-in-your-own-foot:

1)The Ban on Tin-Lead Electronic Solder( RoHS)... Bring Lead-free solder!!! which produces failures in critical solder in electronic components. Of course, these morons were terrified by the distant possibility of lead leaching directly into drinking water. A much more intelligent measure would be to ban lectronic garbage disposition (make it illegal instead of banning the solder!!!) this ghas caused a lot (and will continue to cause a lot more) failures, in turn CREATING MORE electronic garbage in the end. DUMB! (just ask yourself WHY the MILITARY, MEDICAL and SPACE industries DON'T use Lead-Free solder anymore... while citizens carry with it's problems.

2)Banning of incandescent lamps, to stupidly promote the use and subsidizing of Compact Fluorescent Lamps (that contain appreciable quantities of poisonous MERCURY !!!) GREEEAT! they have CREATED more pollution in their rampant search for a"greener" planet. The solution wolud be NOT TO BAN incandescents WITHOUT firstly assessing the true ecological problems of the CFL's, which BTW, have a lot of other problems...
3) The indiscriminate promotion and imposition of METRO BUSES which run on EXCLUSIVE LANES in cities, while reducing available lanes for automobile use, creating a lot more air pollution because the traffic becomes much more congested, only to transport a small portion of users while occupating a lot of public land...
CONGRATULATIONS "GREEN MORONS", you have created moreproblems than those you SUPPOSEDLY solved...

As an engineer with 34+ years in industrial process design, that happens to have a 3 year old child and desires a better planet for him, I cannot agree with those "green" dumb and stupid politicians that insist on Banning Everything in still dumber 'ecological' measures. My message to those politicians: "get out of government and go study some engineering first". Amclaussen.

Dr550 - 8/2/2013 6:24:28 PM

+2 Boost

"Tough Luck." Tell that to Citroen and Peugeot when they come begging for funds.

2ndbimmer - 8/3/2013 10:12:54 AM

+1 Boost

Thats why I eat freedom fries!!