I think the problem with the Houston shop is a general snotty attitude to paying customers. I ran into the same thing decades ago when remodeling my house. I would try to buy electrical, plumbing, and lumber from shops that catered to "professional" tradesmen near my in-town Atlanta house and was ignored at the counter. One guy even told me they would sell me lumber but only gave decent prices to their regulars with accounts. I drove farther to buy from the then-new Home Depot, and within a few years all the snotty places were out of business.

Same deal with auto repair. I learned in my 20's it was easier and less stressful to do it myself. A Brake-O once put a new drum on a hub that spun a bearing (ruined), charged me $600 and said "you can swap the hub yourself". I called an Aamco asking the price to rebuild a transmission I pulled and they said they didn't have anyone who rebuilds transmissions (imagine what they do for high prices).

I suggest the OP rebuild the front end himself. You can buy a cheap spring compressor at Harbor Freight, just use a backup chain thru the coils as you compress it (like I did). Since then, I bought a better inside-the-coils spring compressor. The lower ball joints are tricky, but many posts w/ photos on here.

There is a wonderful movie out titled "Vantage Point"; it is how I see the Classic Vintage Mercedes Benz issue (I refuse to call them "old Mercedes"). One older gentlemen, a genuine GERMAN mechanic who came here to the states from GERMANY, recently informed me that pre 1990 Mercedes are rising in value, i.e., seen as a collectible. He feels that ultimately they will take their place along pre-WWII Mercedes Benz automobiles, many which have sold at auction well north of one million $$$$$$.

So, what does all this mean? It means if you hand down a W123 in good to great shape to your grand children or great grand children, they just might have an opportunity to sell it at auction for a great deal of $$$$$$. Just a thought.

As far as I'm concerned, the shops who refuse to turn a wrench on Vintage Classic Mercedes Benz automobiles are jerk offs and if you post the name and location of of their shop on OD, I'll be sure and place them on my "Do not contact" and "Do not refer anyone with car issues" list.

I dont know compared to what...... like a pre 85 american car ( i could do a head replacement on a GM inline or V8 blindfolded.). Nobody i know wants to tackle a 616 617 head gasket job, most all wont attempt a timing chain job/oil chain job. then theres the $200 minimum tool for doing almost whatever---coilspring compressor for front end work......

If someone has not mentioned it there is another problem with older Cars. If the repairs are done and a Customer decides not to pay the Mechanic has to get a Lean on the Car and try to sell it.

That means that means every time a Potentiel Buyer shows up the the Mechanic has to take time off from Repairs or dealing with Paying Customers with the small chance that someone might buy it.

As Long as the Car is not sold it also takes up space in the Garage or Parking lot.

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84 300D, 82 Volvo 244Gl Diesel

Husky's fast cure to non-payment woes........

The answer to this dilemma is simple; if a mechanic feels there may be risk of non-payment upon completion of repairs, he merely requires a deposit of 50% (or more, if the car owner is considered "high risk"). Nothing wrong with pulling a credit report on the owner, if warranted. Just ask the owner to sign a document giving the mechanic permission to pull a credit report. quick, fast done.

NOTE: This advice is worth exactly what you paid for it.

That's ok, any grease monkey can do a head replacement on detroit's "drive it 100,000 miles then trade it in on another" fad of the month automobiles. It takes a real automotive engineer to perform surgery on Germany's finest.

Mercedes Benz
Porsche
Volkswagen
Audi
Heidelburg printing presses
Steinway Pianos
Siemens Automotive
Siemens Medical

The list goes on; none of the aforementioned entities make any representation that their products are "inexpensive", "cheap", "cheap to maintain" or anything remotely resembling "cheap junk". Precision engineering from Germany has always been priced in the upper strata.

That's the market, some want cheap, some want less expensive, some want good, and some want GREAT (regardless of price).

I'd rather they take ten minutes to look it up than rush and place the lift arms incorrectly causing irreparable damage to my benz.

Secondary issue; the other day I was speaking with a current C class Mercedes owner who prior to owning a C class, owned a 420SEL. They spoke glowingly about the tank like qualities of the 420SEL, wood trim interior, etc., but then went on to describe their C class Mercedes as a "Plastic Car".

Good fuel mileage though........

Bench building auto transmissions one at a time is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. From 60's to 90's a trans was more or less interchangable across models. Now trans are becoming specific to model years, option codes or even build date making it more difficult to have a trans on the shelf ready to go.

A large trans shop can book the car, call a central location have a pre rebuilt trans shipped overnight, R and R the trans turning the car around in one day Vs 3 days or a week. It is difficult to have a customer leave the car for a day let alone a week.

There is also the complexity of "Is the post rebuild problem on the trans side or car side? Dyno testing rebuilt trans reduces in the field expensive diagnostic time.

As for your last comment, are you saying that Aamco intentionally increases their operating costs to keep consumer prices high? If so, that makes no sense. Are you ready to open your own trans shop at reduced prices?

You have no idea what you are talking about.

Detroit cars are far more complex and last longer than they did in the 60's. Do I need to remind you about the mid 90's Mercedes bio degradable wiring insulation? MB refuses to acknowledge there is an issue but still sells engine harnesses for these aged cars.

Calling auto mechanics / technicians "grease monkeys" is one of the things that drives talent out of the business, to your own peril. What will you do when you need a competent tech?
I closed my auto repair shop in 97 to work for a major consumer electronics manufacturer as a equipment tech. They made a big deal about preemployement testing, in reality it was far easier of a job ( and paid much better ) than running an auto repair shop.

I now work for a manufacturer of utility distribution equipment as a manufacturing engineer / fix anything guy. We have 20 or so CNC machines, other electronic controlled equipment ranging from simple to complex and lots of basic machinery. I fix all of it from changing motor bearings to component level electronic board repair, though I do push the simple stuff to the maint dept. This is _still_ easier and pays 2X than working day to day in a auto shop.

Also don't think that German automatically = high quality. At work I've got two German made material storage towers ( 24 ft long drawers and an elevator that retrieves them from a 25 ft tall rack ) It has chewed through 3 control computers in the past 10 years at $ 6,000 each, the cost to run a drawer out of the system ends up to be $ 1.00 per!

The other tower bricked the controller ( it runs Win CE ) after 2 years, the board mounted CMOS battery failed. The official repair is to replace the controller with a "rebuilt" unit for $ 4,500. A 3 cell battery holder, AA batteries and 1 hour later it is running again. So much for German attention to detail.


The German band saw was apparently designed by the British as it leaks coolant everywhere when running due to poor comprehension that "liquid assumes the shape of it's container " .





You and the C class owner are comparing two price points that are light years apart. My soon to be Moms 97 C280 isn't as detailed as my 97 SL320. MSRP on the C was ~ $ 30,000 ? where the SL was ~ $ 80,000 , expecting a C to be as good as a car costing nearly 3X is unrealistic.

Whatever.

my friend that works at a local dealer of mercedes bmw and i forget the third, are kind of going the same way. he said they had someone bring in a old SD on a flatbed, they wheeled it into a bay and it sat there for a couple days and they called the owner and told him to arrange pickup they wanted it out of the shop....

to me money is money, if it was the owner of the dealership and people want to come and spend there money and one day they may want to buy a new car no problem

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"NEW" 1984 300D TD needs some love

The tranny is question was a 1965 Chrysler 727, the same basic design from 1960 to ~1990 and almost identical internally as the Torqueflite in my 96 FWD minivan. I don't think any competent transmission shop would be unable to bench-build a common transmission. I question shops that hold people's cars hostage, sitting for weeks while they pick their nose and makeup charges. Since then, I rebuilt 2 transmission myself, which proved fairly easy and the kits were <$100 each. Otherwise, there are retired guys who advertise on craigslist and rebuild trannys in their garage for $500. I would trust them before some of these big-name shops. I don't whine, I just walk and do it myself.

I think most of the fear/attitude towards modern vehicles comes from the aged population that don't even like using the computer they (might) have in their house for general use. So computers "intruding" into their car scares them off from owning or working on one. I am a computer person by trade, so working on a high tech car doesn't really bother me. I am even considering obtaining an actual MB diagnostic system/laptop like the dealer has to work on our cars...would be pretty cool.

In comparing my bro's W210 to his W123, yes it is more complex, but basic maintenance is way easier, and it has been just as reliable if not more reliable than his 300D was....he's crossing 150k with no problems. His 300D had 221k when we got it, and we retired it at 259k. It was reliable but had its share of MAJOR repairs. (suspension, brakes, etc) and just about nothing worked on it other than the defrost button, lights, and drivers window/sunroof. His W210 is 12+ years old and ALL electronics/accessories work perfectly fine still. It also has nearly 100 more horsepower, and yet gets about 15% greater fuel economy overall, especially highway. The M112 motor is a strong competitor IMHO to the 617 for title of "great engine". Both are excellent, the M112 is far more sophisticated.

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-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

This is getting to be the norm, as joosepi said - younger techs lack the methodogical flow pattern to detect a problem - they simply want to read a screen and replace what its saying.

e.g. it takes a little learning experience to drip time a mercedes diesel, for them timing usually means aligning a chain or belt.

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2012 BMW X5 (Beef + Granite suspension model)

1995 E300D - The original humming machine (consumed by Flood 2017)
2000 E320 - The evolution (consumed by flood 2017)