I'm in the city (Atlanta). That makes MBS and autowerks too far for me. I've had experience with 3 in-town, pricier, kinds of shops. All are fine, I guess. But I use a hole-in-the-wall 2-man shop for my 123 that's fantastic. It's called Jozef's... in Decatur (not real close to me, but near enough to my workplace). The guys don't have all the fancy equipment, but they fix problems. They figure them and fix them. And after seeing all the Buckhead service people putting on an attitude, it's great to see honest hard work - no service mgr protecting the techs from your tough questions. These guys are it. Greg rebuilt his (family car) '80 300D engine last year. They recommend workaround (costfree) solutions twice as often as they recommend (costly) procedures.
I'd like to get the 124 there, but it's my wife's car and I would have a tough time managing service drop-offs... so I need more convenience for 124... still looking.