Well, long story... I ended up going to both Mr. MB in Tarzana (on Reseda blvd) and Boulevard Auto Repair in Van Nuys.

FYI, the inspected car was a 2002 e320 wagon with ~91.5k miles.

It was an interesting comparison. I went to Blvd. first on Friday, because they said they could get it done during my lunch break. Pedro helped me out, and he was great. He was meticulous, and seemed to go over every inch of the car with a check list. The only thing he missed that I had to point out was that the passenger seat didn't move all the way aft. But then few people under 6' tall would notice that, eh? I'm 6'7" and require the seats to move ALL the way to the back stops. He also built up a quote for every item that was of concern to him. He also hooked up the car to the diagnostic computer and ran a full diagnostic & gave me a copy of the print out with all the error codes & code explanations. I also got a copy of the 28-point check list he used as he went over the car.

Blvd. charged me $110 for an hour of inspection, but Pedro actually spent nearly 2 hours going over the car, so a good value IMO.

One of the issues was dead pixels in the clock and the outside temp LCDs. Pedro pointed these out, (I had noticed them) but he wasn't sure what it would cost to fix them as he'd never done this particular job and I didn't have time for him to research it. He also said that one valve cover was leaking, but that it wasn't that bad & so I didn't have him quote me a price.

Well, we decided we wanted to include both of those items in our justified discounted offer to the seller, & I was interested in meeting Enrique at Mr. MB anyway, & he has Saturday morning hours & said it would only be 45 minutes & $60 to do the inspection, so I decided to do have another inspection. We were really serious about buying this car, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to have it looked at by more than one expert.

What a completely different (but still good) experience Enrique was. He and Carlos definitely are great guys, and definitely come across as "old sage" experts with these cars. Their inspection was much less structured than Pedro's. No checklist, they just looked the car over, and pointed things out to me as they saw them. Enrique also took the car for a drive around the block with me, which Pedro didn't do. Also, Carlos tightened up a loose cat.converter bracket which Pedro pointed out but didn't bother to fix. Also, Carlos removed one of the plastic engine under-covers to get a better look at things (which Pedro did not remove) and found the missing cap for the washer fluid, which had been missing for a couple months I think (car had been stored in the garage while on sale).

Neither Enrique nor Carlos ran a full diagnostic scan. In fact, even after driving the car with me, Enrique had missed the #1 problem, that the SRS light was lit on the dashboard. When I pointed this out, he went and got a hand-held code reader and read the code for the SRS (control module was out, as Pedro had determined). He didn't seem to look for any other codes, even though Pedro's print-out showed several minor ones ("under voltage errors" that he said would go away once cleared), and one other major one with the CD player.

After they were done, there was no report, no check list, no repair quote. When I asked how much it would cost to do various repairs, Enrique just gave me off the cuff guesses. For example, to fix the SRS, he said I should allow "at least $1000, could be more, maybe a little less."

Pedro quoted me $620 for the control module, and $110 for labor.

Overall, both mechanics (should I say all three, since Carlos helped Enrique) were very good, and offered different value. Had I to choose just one for an inspection, I think I'd recommend Pedro at Boulevard over Enrique. However, if I were to buy this car, I'd probably take it to Enrique for more stuff than I would Pedro. Enrique came across as having more knowledge of these cars than Pedro, but Pedro came across as being more throrough... if he didn't know something he'd find it out.

Kind of a toss-up. Enrique seems to charge less for labor ($60 for 45 minutes = $80/hour) although Pedro spent twice the time he charged for. Enrique spent about an hour total, charged for 45 minutes, Pedro spent 2 hours, charged for one.

HTH...