E300 ugarph
 

You have had good responses, but I will chime in too. My indi does synthetic oil change, filter, fuel filter (and prefilter and oring) change for $200. Most recently I had that stuff done, plus replacement of the MAS and a full inspecttion. I thought this was steep at $684.49, but not as bad as yours. I just bought an extraction pump and can't wait to start doing my own oil changes again.

ugarph,

I second Rick Miley's experience with dealers. I do what I can in terms of maintenance, without buying expensive, once-in-a-car's lifetime special tools. I take the car to the dealership for items requiring such tools or, requiring a special skill/experience I do not have. With my older cars, I can get a lot of virtual experience from this site and will do more myself, but with the 1998 E300D TurboDiesel, I am waiting for the warranty to expire before taking on jobs beyond routine maintenance.

I recently had a fuel line leak, which required the intake manifold to be taken off to gain access to remove and replace the affected tubing. I found out the "soft" fuel lines are not part of the Starmark extended warranty, but also have a good enough relationship with the service manager that they managed to find warranty work that needed to be done, with the intake manifold off, and only charged me for the non-warranty work materials and 30 minutes of labor. I have had a number of other experiences with this dealership that have balanced out to make me feel like I am not misplacing trust in them. And they know me well enough to know I don't get shy about standing up for myself if I feel I am not getting the service they are capable of providing.

I am also a MBCA member and get a 20% discount on parts and labor there. Including Delvac 1. So I buy it from the dealership, along with my filters which they routinely offer for 25% off the MB list price to anyone. I am not about to blindly buy all my parts there, and routinely use Fastlane when they have better pricing after considering how shipping and sales tax will work out.

But the point is, it is worth building a trusting relationship with the dealerhip's parts, service and sales departments. Over time, if you treat them like humans they will show you they are willing to work for you. Good luck, Jim

If you are looking for value in terms of car repair you will be hard pressed to find it at an MB service center. If you can afford such prices then by all means go for it. Rick is correct, in many instances a long term relationship is valuable but in my experience the service managers in these dealerships do not remain long enough to establish the sort of relationship Rick refers to. I would rather build a relationship with a good local independant if one is readily available. IMHO the A and B service routine is not very inclusive and thus can be very misleading.

The Service advisors at my local dealership specialize in wolfing down donuts. They have a very limited knowledge of the cars from my experience.