MERCEDES-BENZ CLC SPORTS COUPE: Questions and answers

Mercedes-Benz CLC Sports coupe 2009

Hi, would you say that the info I give below is major fault on Mercedes-Benz’s part? I have a 2009 CLC 200 Kompressor which I have had for 20 months now. It has about 25,000 miles on the clock. About 8 months after I bought the car I noticed that it was making a loud noise when driving over 60mph but I assumed that it was the balancing or the tyres. As I only drive in town I don’t often drive at high speeds so I didn’t notice the problem that often. A few days ago the car was struggling to drive over 40mph without shaking badly and then changing into reverse and drive was making a loud clunking sound. The car is still in warranty so I called Mercedes and they came to collect it straight away. The engineer that came said that the drive shaft at the rear of the car had no bolts on it whatsoever and it was being held together by a rubber thing (sorry not very experienced). He said that he has never come across something like this before and neither had the guy that recovered the car. He said that the drive shaft would have come off at the back and swung out, which I am guessing could of caused a serious accident. Although they are going to fix the car, do I have any grounds to ask for compensation as that day I was driving on the M25 with my son and was finding really difficult to control the car. I would not like to imagine what would of happened to me if I had continued my journey.