Funny, I am reading the posts and just had an experience today at the local Rusnak parts department for my 123. I am on record with those guys, since I own a few MB and also have Jaguars and Audis, which the noble Rusnak serves.
I always get nice treatment, since I treat the guys nice also. Today, I walked in the parts department in a tank top, jeans-shorts and sandals and frankly, I do not give a hoot what people think. I run my business from my home and when it's time for business, it's time for the suit. When the job is done, I am in jeans. My life.
As previous posters, yes, I can afford a brand new car of theirs, any of them, but learnt the lesson when I changed my life in the early 90's losing a high profile VP job and was stuck with a MB lease -tough. A year later, I made double the money I did, the lease was returned and all cars are paid for in CASH. Parts I try to get at www.************************, fortunately, they are a short drive away plus, in Los Angeles we do have an abundance of mechanic's talents to circumvent the Dealer