OK, I realize that this post probably belongs in the Best Benz Shops thread, but I figured it would get more exposure here. I want everyone to know what a jewel Mr. MB Motors is, and what a great person its owner/operator, Enrique, is.

If you have been following some of my prior posts, you probably know that my daughter's 1989 300 TE was "possessed" by the coasting-stall. That is a condition exhibited by many W124 vehicles. The condition causes the car to stall as it is coasting to a stop. After the car stalls (or cuts out) it will start right back up. Until it stalls again. There are supposedly many causes for this problem. It seems to afflict only certain model years from the W124 series.

My former mechanic was not able to fix the condition. He simply kept throwing parts at it, but the car kept stalling. My prior posts detail all the "fixes" (that didn't work) that were attempted by my previous mechanic. Finally I got fed up and took it to another local mechanic. He too couldn't get the car to work right.

At this point I was ready to either perform an exorcism on the car, sell it, or drive it off a cliff to collect the insurance money.

Luckily I did neither of the above.

Instead, I decided to follow Paul's advice (as well as others here) and took the car to Mr. MB (and Enrique is truly Mr. MB). Right away we hit it off. I liked the way his shop looks, very clean and organized. Enrique was born in Spain and, like me, is fluent in Spanish. Although both of us are also fluent in English, we spoke in Spanish to each other--it is always nice to communicate in one's mother tongue. I also liked the way he took his time to explain things to me. He was, and is, always polite and generous with his time.

Anyhow, I left the car with him and I told him to take all the time in the world. Three weeks went by and then he called me to give me a progress report.

He told me that he wanted me to go to his shop so he could better explain to me what he had found out about my car. To me, that sounded like the family doctor calling you in to his office to tell you that your test results were back and things weren;t good. When I got to the shop we sat down and he the proceeded to explain to me all the different things he had tried and looked at while trying to diagnose the problem with my daughter's car.

His final conclusion was that the wiring harness was defective. He told me that he had spent the past three weeks testing different parts of the car and going through different scenarios trying to pinpoint the exact cause of the stalling. His final conclusion was that the wiring harness was defective. He said that he wanted to be sure that in fact it was the wiring harness because the wiring harness is a very expensive cure and he did not want to replace it until HE WAS SURE that was in fact the problem.

Then he told me that he had checked around and there were no wiring harnesses available in stock for my daughter's car. He said that a wiring harness would have to be ordered from Mercedes Benz in Germany. He must have seen the look of shock in my face because he then told me that if I trusted him with the car for a couple of more weeks, he would go through the wiring harness, wire by wire, and isolate the source of the fault.

Since there were no wiring harnessess to be had, and since ordering one would probably take a couple of weeks anyway, I gave him the go ahead.

Well, sure enough, Enrique was eventually able to isolate the problem to a couple of wires within the harness and he replaced them.

The car has not stalled again.

Now for the best part. A wiring harness would have cost $800 - $900 for the part, plus tax and labor.

Enrique had my car in the shop for over a month. He could have easily spent 15 - 20, or even more, hours of labor diagnosing the problem, test driving the car, etc. Instead, he charged me for only 5 hours of labor and a few parts that he put in. I had asked him to also do a front brake job. Total for all the work he did, including the brakes, was $750.00. Far less than the cost of one wiring harness!!!

I paid him $800.00 and I told him to take the extra $50.00 and buy his wife some nice roses.

We never discussed cost when I initially took the car to his shop, because I trusted him (based on all of YOUR experience) not to burn me. I offered to pay him more than the $750.00 and he refused. He said that to him the satisfaction of meeting a challenge and fixing a car for his customer means more than making money. He said that he has always had the same philosphy and it has always worked well for him.

Needless to say, I am now another one of Enrique's countless fans. He is a man who clearly enjoys what he is doing and he does it extremely well. He could probably retire tomorrow and live very comfortably, but people like him, who love what they do, cannot just restire. And that is a good thing for the rest of us who depend on him to keep our cars running.

While I was in his shop, "visitng" my daughter's car, I saw people from ALL over the city bring their cars to him. Not many mechanics can make the same claim.

One final story. After I picked up the car I went to put gas in it (now, talk about a major rip off!!!). As I looked aorund, I found a crumpled $20 bill behind the driver's seat. I knew the money was not there before I took the car to him, because I had just cleaned the car's interior and there was no money there (I would have taken it). So I figured that the money belonged to Enrique and that it had fallen out of his pocket while he test drove the car.

I drove back to the shop and handed him the $20. He looked at me and smiled and told me that is one of the reaons why he does not "burn" people, so that in turn people do not burn him. It is all about Karma and what goes around comes around.

I think it is fair to predict that Enrique has a lot of good Karma coming his way!!!

__________________
Current Benzes

1989 300TE "Alice"
1990 300CE "Sam Spade"
1991 300CE "Beowulf" RIP (06.1991 - 10.10.2007)
1998 E320 "Orson"
2002 C320 Wagon "Molly Fox"

Res non semper sunt quae esse videntur

My Gallery

Not in this weather!

Enrique is the best. I am the one who initially turn him on to paul and the rest. he has been my families mb mechanic for over 15 years.

He never ceases to amaze me with his good work, good prices, and his honesty.

I can;t even tell you how many times I have called him with a question about seomthing my car was doing and for him to say bring it by and let me take a look. last time I had a CE light on and took the car in, he found a bad hose on the air pump, replaced it and sent me on my way no charge. all in all he had the car for probably 20 minutes before he found the problem.

A little thing you may not have known, the mb dealers in the area, send him cars when they can;t figure out the problem, because they know he will.

Alon

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'92 300CE - Sold
2004 C240 - 744 - C7 Wheels - Android Radio
2002 C320 - 816 - Sport Wagon

The second mechanic (the one who put in a new OVP to "fix" the problem) suggested that I take it to the dealer and throw myself at their mercy.

Perhaps I should have done that, and the dealer would have sent me directly to Enrique.

Alon, Enrique speaks fondly of your father. And thanks for bringing Enrique to our attention.

BTW, he changed the plugs in my daughter's car. I checked the bill, and he did not charge for the plugs. When I told him about it, he said it was no charge. He just hoped the car would run OK for her. He told me to told my duaghter not to give up on Benzes (we had been ready to trade in the 300TE for a Honda or something like that!!! )

__________________
Current Benzes

1989 300TE "Alice"
1990 300CE "Sam Spade"
1991 300CE "Beowulf" RIP (06.1991 - 10.10.2007)
1998 E320 "Orson"
2002 C320 Wagon "Molly Fox"

Res non semper sunt quae esse videntur

My Gallery

Not in this weather!

Virtually every time I've taken my SD to him, either while explaining the list of items on the bill (or, a couple of weeks ago, in a phone call a couple of days later just to let me know he hadn't forgotten one requested item not on the bill), he'll remember one or two things he did and say "I didn't charge you for that", and wave his hand dismissively.

I posted in the other thread about his actions last summer, where a friend's cousin-in-law I referred to him called him because her 300D broke down in Pasadena. She couldn't afford to tow it to him, and was calling for a referral out there. Instead he came to her house in Pasadena after closing the shop for the evening (a 25 mile trip one way) and diagnosed a faulty fuel pump. The next evening, he drove back again after closing the shop and replaced the pump, then would only accept payment for the part, not the labor. I mentioned it later, and he said "she's in college, she can't afford much, I like to be good to people when it helps them out". I've never met a mechanic (or many people) like Enrique, and unfortunately I doubt I ever will.

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81 300SD
08 MDX Tech
93 525i

05 F650GS

Wish I lived close enough to have his services bestowed upon my fleet!

If more poeple were like Enrique (not just tech saavy either), we'd have a better world to live in!

(Care Bears opening theme plays about now with people holding hands in an endless chain against a sunrise backdrop...)

__________________
2009 ML350 (106K) - Family vehicle
2001 CLK430 Cabriolet (80K) - Wife's car
2005 BMW 645CI (138K) - My daily driver
2016 Mustang (32K) - Daughter's car

And don't you even think about trying to lure him to Dallas....

(Darth Vader's theme playing as I look menacingly at G-Benz)


But seriously, I agree with you. If there were more people like him, the world would be a far, far better place.

__________________
Current Benzes

1989 300TE "Alice"
1990 300CE "Sam Spade"
1991 300CE "Beowulf" RIP (06.1991 - 10.10.2007)
1998 E320 "Orson"
2002 C320 Wagon "Molly Fox"

Res non semper sunt quae esse videntur

My Gallery

Not in this weather!

Dittos to all the above.

Enrique has kept my MIL's 1974 280 gasser runnning like a champ when no one else (especially Hank's on Ventura Blvd, a true bunch of hacks) could.

HE ROCKS!!

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Nate Stanley
(Currently Benzless)
1985 F-250 6.9l 170K
2009 SCION XB 36.5K
2003 LS430 78K
2012 Kubota B 2320

You know their are a lot of MB's in the CT, NY, NJ area... I could help him find a nice shop...

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Fortunately, his daughter lives in LA and so does his son, a golf pro at a local course, he won't be moving. The big concern is to make sure he doesn't retire any time soon.

__________________
81 300SD
08 MDX Tech
93 525i

05 F650GS

Mechanics who actually fix cars are members of a rare breed.

Would be nice to get him here to DC....but around here the lure of the "Dark Side" is strong...........being ground zero for politicians of the left leaning persuasion.

I have one general mechanic that meets this guys description......honest and decent fellow....but he isn't a Benz guy.....

__________________
Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
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Section 609 MVAC Certified
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"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Thanks for telling this story!

__________________
...Tracy

'00 ML320 "Casper"
'92 400E "Stella"

My flabber is truly gasted!

I'm sitting here reading this thread (4 p.m. central Time) and pondering whether or not to jump in with MHO and the receptionist buzzes me to see if I wish to take a call from "an Enrique guy in Los Angeles"...

He called ME on HIS DIME to see how I was doing on refurbishing the 280SE he helped me with several weeks ago (if you haven't seen the recent additions to the thread "As before, Mr MB in Tarzana" in the Good MB Shops forum, go there and see my story). He is also going to go up the street to Reseda and check out HMI's upholstery kits and let me know if their stuff is any good (I need to redo the back seat entirely).

Why did I bold type "HIS DIME"?

I'm in Houston.

Kevin

Kevin, while I was at his shop, Enrique mentioned a guy from Texas that he had recently helped with a car that he (the guy from Texas) had recently purchased.

And as generous as he is with his time and expertise, there are people who still try to take advantage of Enrique.

There was a woman, a new customer, who dropped her car for an oil change. Instead of waiting for the oil service (which would h ave taken less than an hour), she went ahead and rented a car. The next day, when she returned to pick up her car she stuck Enrique with the car rental bill.

Some people have some nerve!!!

__________________
Current Benzes

1989 300TE "Alice"
1990 300CE "Sam Spade"
1991 300CE "Beowulf" RIP (06.1991 - 10.10.2007)
1998 E320 "Orson"
2002 C320 Wagon "Molly Fox"

Res non semper sunt quae esse videntur

My Gallery

Not in this weather!

Thats bs. I can;t believe someone would rent a car and try to stick it to the mechanic, when he was doing a service that they brought it in for. thats like going to jiffy lube and rather than waiting the 30 minutes, renting a car and saying here pay for my rental.

I would straight up tell her renting a car was your choice, I didn't agree to paying for the rental.

If I take my car in and it needs to be there for a few days and I rent a car, I am the one responsible for paying for it, not my mechanic.

Alon

__________________
'92 300CE - Sold
2004 C240 - 744 - C7 Wheels - Android Radio
2002 C320 - 816 - Sport Wagon