i have a great mechanic. sometimes, for certain mods[radios, cd jukeboxes, exotic tires, wheels, etc] i acquire them and furnish them to my mech.

but most of the time, for most parts i let him acquire them and bill me for them, along with his labor. i would never change the structure of this relationship.

i want this guy to be around. i've got six cars that i want to be impeccably maintained. and i want to be the most important customer he has. for instance, there was a day when i was planning to run my 560sec to corpus christi to see a customer. a 200mile run. on the way out of town, my engine started running rough as hell. i called my mechanic on the cell and he told me to come by. he had other cars ahead of me, but he dropped all to greet me and diagnose the problem.

though he had not seen the car for 10,000 miles, he had it figured out. and since when he last saw the car he knew that the problem would be arising in the future, he had put the necessary repair part on his shelf, tagged for my car. needless to say, within an hour i was on the road south.

more to the point, my mechanic knows that i am always driving my cars at 7/10+. under those situations, i don't want anything self-destructing. so, whenever my mechanic gets one of my cars, for whatever reason, there is a checklist for ancillary inspections. most important one is spare tire air. and gas in tank.

my indy has never turned a car over to me with an empty tank or a flat spare. benz dealer did it all the time.

mechanics like this need to be nurtured. it is penny wise and pound foolish to do things that jeopardize an excellent mechanic's survival.

my car's always get washed before they are returned[no charge]. and my mechanic takes my phone calls when he takes no others.

and when i challenged him to replace the passenger airbag with a glovebox on my 95 e320cab, he accomplished the objective in a fine fashion at a fair price. i just left him the car for six weeks so that he could do it leisurely.

i could go on. but the guy is a great mechanic. i want him to survive. because if he doesn't, i shall be compelled to divest myself of my collection of older benzes.

his survival depends on making a margin on parts, more than the dealer depends upon making a margin on parts.

what is funny is how the benz dealers sell him m-b parts. the local houston dealer, now autonation, cuts him no decent deal...they want him out of the business, they want his customers coming to them. but then there are the indy m-b dealers in central texas who give him a discount and free ups overnight.

so, i live in the houston region and my parts come from austin and san antonio.

and i pay less for parts than if he was acquiring them from the houston gangsters.

so it goes in the wonderful world of autos. and don't get me started on the local gmc dealer and his parts practices. worse than autonation if you can believe it.

a votre sante

albert
1979 6.9
1986 560sel
1987 560sec
1995 e320cab
1996 gmc yukon
1997 s500coupe