The right hand giveth, and the left hand taketh away... the used market was messed up, but on the other hand you could go to picknpull and actually find a W123 or three. Right now there is ONE W123 at the combined total of four major junkyards here in Portland. Although I suppose it is better that they not go to the crusher.

Kurt

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- '79 240D - engine swap complete! Engine broken in! 28-31 mpg! Lovin' the ride!
- '86 190D (W201-126) - 2.5 NA engine, 5 speed, cloth interior, manual climate controls, 33-34 mpg (sold to forum member).

Congratulations on the opening of your new shop! MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!!!! That said, all of us vintage benz owners now find us facing a growing concern; ready availability of quality parts from BOTH the dealer and third party vendors.

I recently spoke with a rep from peach parts and he said if you are ordering ANYTHING for a W123 to order EXTRAS because parts for W123 "are dropping like flies".

Fellow forum members, this is NOT a good trend; we need to take our message to Stuutgart and MBUSA in New Jersey to let the powers that be know that WE NEED AND WANT PARTS availability for ALL vintage (pre 1992) Mercedes Benz automobiles. MB used to stock most any part for cars dating back to 1927. Not anymore; this trend needs to change!

While I'm airing my concerns, one other. At my local dealership there is only one old timer in the parts department who knows pre-1992 Mercedes Benz models. The newbies KNOW VERY LITTLE. Most of the time, I ask to be transferred to the old timer because he knows and understands parts on vintage MB.

Perhaps the dealership should create a vintage MB parts department??

Right on Huskyman. I myself will have a WorldPac account. Ive had one before when I ran a tiny shop out of my home shop. Now that Im opening a decent shop in town, Ill for sure need that account reopened.
Anytime Ive ordered W123 parts, I always have doubled or tripled my order on small parts and kept them for myself. Working on customers cars, Ive used up my stash almost all gone. The last W123 I worked on was a furniture store owner in Wichita. Used up my last GP fuse, Idle knob, fuel filters, and motor mount shocks.

Tyler has voiced this very concern to me, many parts dropping off the face of the earth as far as availabilty for W123's. Total unobtanium. Kinda sad.

But they want you to buy a new Mercedes, not keep your old one going. This is the reason for the growing trends. There used to be pride in keeping a nice car on the road. Now the general consensus is, Why the f$%^ do you still have that car???, scrap that sh!& dude.... its yesterdays tired old junk with recirculating ball steering, old fashioned wheel bearings, and no airbags for accidents."

Ive heard that soooo many times anymore. "Dave, why do you have an old 1979 Harley Davidson Shovelhead? go get a new ElectraGlide, stop dinking with that old crap"

Sad Sad Sad.....

Kudos to Rolls Royce however.
Ive been fixing up my old 1976 Silver Shadow, and through Flying Spares, or any dealer.... Any and ALL parts are still available, clear back to the 1920's
These are cars that are considered "Heirloom". You dont liquidate, or scrap a Rolls, you hand it down through the generations, keeping it going for decades

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2011 Mercedes ML350

2002 Cadillac Deville

1976 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow

Gotta tell you, I have a particular soft spot for Rolls Royce. Enough so that I NEVER refer to them as "Rollers" - that's fingernails on the blackboard for me. They are not "cars" - "automobiles" or possibly "Motor Cars".

I'll hand you a RR anecdote that I think you might enjoy.

As many here know, I'm retired from the EPA National Vehicle and Fuels Emissions Lab (NVFEL) in Ann Arbor, MI. A sampling of every car to be sold in the US passes thru the lab, in recent years to assure that their lab (where most of the testing is done) correlates with the EPA lab. Around 1980 or so we had a current Rolls Royce in for testing and was accompanied, as usual, by an English gentleman who looked like an English guy in a movie (tweed jacket, umbrella, etc.). Nice guy. I noticed that the motor car was equipped with a Delcotron alternator and some other US-sourced parts which he said were installed dockside to avoid shipping 2 ways to and from Crewe.

When I pressed him as to why they had US parts he said, "Well, in England we don't actually BELIEVE in electricity." Pronounce the quote with your best British accent. I love that!

Dan

U.S. Saginaw steering gear box, U.S. GM TH400 transmission, U.S. alternator on newer ones than mine, U.S. GM A6 compressor for A/C, U.S. power steering pump. Lots of U.S. parts on older Rolls'

But the electrics, Lucas....oh my goodness, never seen that name stamped in so many places in my life....LOL. But, after almost 40 years, ALL of the HVAC actuators STILL work!! Try that on a newer car!!!

A Rolls never breaks down, they " Fail to proceed"

You never raise the "bonnet" of a Rolls in public because it is "Lewd and Unsightly

A Rolls does not simply drive, it "makes progress"

and lastly, if you have to ask the price of a new one, you cant afford it.

LOL. crazy talk

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2011 Mercedes ML350

2002 Cadillac Deville

1976 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow

Ahh Sir Lucas, the Prince of Darkness...had a neighbor with an old early 80s Jaguar he picked up from his BIL and was constantly chasing electrical issues.

On the MB parts issue, I am quite sure someone in the MBUSA office (which BTW is no longer in NJ, they relocated this year to the north suburbs of Atlanta) took a look at the costs of keeping those older parts around and said 'no more' to that.

We are seeing the same thing happen at my company, they will drop support on older controller and drive parts and expect the customer to just buy a new modern replacement to the 20 year old one. Well the new one is completely incompatible with their existing system so massive engineering and programming effort needs to occur to get them back up and running.

I had that happen to my 10 year old electric stove the other day. I have a combo Jenn Air gas cooktop and dual electric convection ovens in a standard 30" wide free standing stove. The convector element shorted out the other day (sounded like a cherry bomb in the oven) which took out the relay in the controller board. Convector element was about $200 and still available in stock. Controller board was $500 with a week lead time. I got to looking at the board and found the relays were actually made by one of the big electronics giants. A little searching and I was able to locate the relay online. So I was able to save the relay board with about an hour of my time with a soldering iron, luckily none of the tracks were burnt, just the relay itself was fried.

I think that will become more and more common as these cars get older. Except we will be making parts with 3D printers.

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The OM 642/722.9 powered family
Still going strong
2014 ML350 Bluetec (wife's DD)
2013 E350 Bluetec (my DD)

both my kids cars went to junkyard in 2023
2008 ML320 CDI (Older son’s DD) fatal transmission failure, water soaked/fried rear SAM, numerous other issues, just too far gone to save (165k miles)
2008 E320 Bluetec (Younger son's DD) injector failed open and diluted oil with diesel, spun main bearings (240k miles)

1998 E300DT sold to TimFreeh
1987 300TD sold to vstech

In reference to Mercedes Benz's attitude towards the vintage crowd, another poster said it best. Without support from the mothership (support in this case means PARTS and SERVICE!!!!), their product begins to lose considerable value.

The fact that there are 50 year old Mercedes still out on the roads is quite a statement as to the durability and reliability of MB. In otherwords, 50 year old++ cars still being driven daily is ANY advertising agencie's dream come true!

Now, if you start drying up the parts and service supply, the cars begin to end up in the local scrap pile. This does NOTHING to support and promote the brand. The very act of pulling parts and service has turned MB into nothing more than another five year automobile. Buy today, plan on trading it off in five years. Their status as "elite" and "prestigious" begins to fade as they become nothing more than a Ford or a Chevrolet........

Buy today, expect to trade it in tomorrow.........

By the way, next time I'm at the stealership, I'm having a sit down meeting with the head of MB sales to air my concerns. I'd encourage other MB owners to do the same. The answer is real simple; they need to start a vintage parts program similar to the classic center in Irvine, California. Simply place a vintage parts counter staffed by knowledgeable MB classic personnel in each and every MB dealership worldwide..... Then set up special wholesale pricing for independent repair facilities. Easy.

Auto parts makers will make any part that sells, when demand starts to tail off they stop making them because there is too much a risk they will end up with a bunch of parts that don't sell.

Show us how serious you are about wanting parts by picking a specific part and bankrolling having it made. Should be easy money no?



What parts do you buy at the local dealership?

MB has that now, it is called " The Classic Center " have you used their services? If not, why not?



I bet you don't have the ba--s to call them a stealership to their face while you tell them to offer better parts counter support for 25 + year old cars.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HuskyMan I'd encourage other MB owners to do the same. The answer is real simple; they need to start a vintage parts program similar to the classic center in Irvine, California. Simply place a vintage parts counter staffed by knowledgeable MB classic personnel in each and every MB dealership worldwide..... Then set up special wholesale pricing for independent repair facilities. Easy.

If there was enough demand, MB would be doing this however there apparently isn't.

Are you willing to invest $ at your local dealership to get things rolling for a cut of the profits? Something even better, take a job at the local dealer and offer parts support exclusively for 25+ year old cars, the catch is you will be on straight commission and limited to selling parts for 25+ year old cars.