After Market Parts?

[Rod]

My 420 has only been serviced by a MB dealer in the past but now that I'm retired, I have to watch my money and try to do things myself. I do enjoy fixing things, from gas stringtrimmers, lawn tractors, freezers, and anything that I can take apart. Now I need to start tinkering with my 14 year old MB 420 SEL. It's been the best car we've ever had. It has cost less to service at a MB dealer, and less to operate over the years, than any car I've ever owned. It really is a well built car.

Has anyone had any problems with Mercedes aftermarket parts?
I need to save money, but if the quality isn't there, neither is the savings.

Thanks to all

[420benz]

ROD: I am also retired and i also have an 89 420 sel.I find that the price of o.e.m parts on this forum[ Fastlane] are the best i have found anywhere. I have replaced many parts purchased from Phil at Fastlane and it didn't put me in the poor house yet.

[haasman]

Rod

I agree with 420 benz. If there ever is a problem they are very good people and will talk with you.

Buy with confidence,

Haasman

[csnow]

Many of the aftermarket parts are exactly the same as the parts from the factory, minus the logo. Sometimes there were several OEMs providing parts, all meeting the same specs. These days, manufacturers put these things out for agressive bidding, and may change suppliers from one day to the next. "Just in time" inventory, and all that...

Even genuine MB parts can easily be found outside the MBUSA Dealer supply channel at steep discounts. In fact, the parts supply channel for German cars would appear to be far 'leakier' than that for Japanese or US cars. Not totally sure why this is the case, but I like it.
For this reason, I have found that Toyota parts (for example) can be more expensive to obtain than MB or BMW parts. Toyota must rule their supply channel with an iron fist.

I've learned to dread these words: "Sorry, that is a 'dealer-only' item"

[G-Benz]

For some cost-prohibitive items, many of us shop at the "boneyards".

This is especially beneficial when in the need of body trim, much of which is difficult to find in aftermarket sources. And the dealership will charge a premium for those parts, if they even still have it.

[Thomaspin]

I do.

Take a look here for an example.

I pick my parts up at the local distributor in South San Francisco. My web vendor is 3,000 miles away. I pay no delivery cost. 99% of the time they have the part in stock so I can start a job with the confidence of knowing I can complete it with a new part if something breaks (which it does, from time to time, on my 1983 300SD!).

Oh! yes, I almost forgot. I usually park next to the Mercedes Benz of San Francisco parts truck which is picking its parts up at the same time.

[DougLL]

Just an FYI: I just came back from taking the factory tour in Sindelfingen, near Stuttgart. Part of the tour was going through the huge metal stamping plants for the sheet metal. The tour operator said that when the dies have stamped their life quota, then they sell the dies to aftermarket companies, so you may be getting sheet metal from actual Mercedes dies, it may just not as perfect as the original. By the way, the tour was great, (the Porsche tour was even better).....doug