I am looking for a good shop to take my 95 C280 to in or close to the north side of the city. I have seen the name C&H Auto and wanted to know if anyone has had any recent experiences with them. My car has been seen my Mercedes three times and they can't seem to fix an overheating issue.

I have had good experience with Carlos at C&H. He's a really nice guy and and a very detail-oriented mechanic. I took my '73 280SE 4.5 to him to sort it out after I bought it. He did a nice job and the car runs great.

His shop is small and looks like garages used to look, cluttered. Carlos is an older man who apparently was a dealer service technician (maybe manager) a long time ago. I personally like this as I value the old-school mechanics that are more worried about diagnostic skill and proper repair than running a "polished" shop and staffing it with a bunch of new, inexpensive, techs who think diagnosis means reading the scan tool.

His shop rate is around 75.00/hour and he has been more than fair with me about pricing.

Hope this helps,

Michael

Thanks very much for the information about the shop, and about Carlos. I will give them a visit the next time the car needs to be serviced. I have had it with the dealer who doesn't seem to know anything about how to fix the car. Appreciate your help.

Just dropped off my 300/320 CE with Carlos yesterday. Car was garaged for over 2 years, and am getting it back on the road.

Carlos was a former tech (lead?) with Loeber on the Chicago north side. He has had his independent shops (now 2 locations) on Irving Park Rd, and I continue to recommend him. He has done work on several of my imports (Benz, Mazda Miata, Acura NSX), and is very knowledgeable and thorough.

One area I noticed is that the "dealer" techs are often no longer trained/equipped to deal with the older (e.g., pre-OBD-II) cars. Carlos specializes in these; he owns 3 older Benzes (SE, E, etc) and other vehicles (early 60s Mustang convertible). There are several older "project cars" he is working on fixes/restores on, both Mercedes and other marques.

In addition, he also stands by his work, even if it sometimes requires re-work. I had him do some AC service work awhile back, and this required a few re-works due to some un-detected valve leaks. He did not charge me for the additional parts/labor.

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I have no commercial or other affiliation with C&H, other than being a long-time satisfied customer. If you see him, tell him Manuel sent ya...

My experiences with C&H have not been cheap. He quoted me at a price higher than the dealer once... but I magically became eligible for a discount once I told him this.

I do believe he does do good work, and he is very personable. He arranged a ride to the El station for me when I dropped off my car... but still attempted to squeeze every dollar possible out of me despite my part-time employed full time undergraduate student status.

C & H is a class act, and one of the real good guys in the business. You won't find better in the Chicago area, I guarantee it.