North Carolina

[Chris Haney]

I know there are a few but who is the best?

[Dan Stadt]

Moving to Duke in a couple of months and interested in any good MB shops or parts places in the Durham, NC area. Or any list members who are trying to keep their old desiels on the road.
Thanks,

[rmasteller]

Maybe you should contact this guy:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showthread.php?threadid=11549

[Redflash]

Chris,
I have used Renaissance Auto Care, Inc. for the last three and a half years with good success. They have been honest, kept me informed of what needs to be done, have reasonable prices, experienced technicians, and try hard to please. They have two locations in this area; one in Cary, NC close to my home, and one in Raleigh just north of the 440 Beltline between Atlantic and Capital Blvd.

A local independent MB "dealer", which does not have a service department of its own uses them for their service needs. That dealer is Madsen Motors and I have friends who have purchased used MB's from them and all are satisfied customers. My own experience with Madsen, although not on your topic, has been good. The owner spent about thirty minutes with me when I stopped by to ask about "Leatherique" products. Leatherique lists Madsen as a "seller" of their products, but that is not the case. They detail all the cars they sell and do use those leather care products. He looked at my car and showed me the Leatherique products and told me about his experience with them. All very positive by the way. I doubt he would use a shop to service the cars he sells if they were not competent.

The Raleigh Renaissance shop helped me locate a replacement engine for my 300 SDL. They removed the old one, installed the newer one, and sealed the transmission as well during this evolution. Still running strong over two year's later.

BTW, before I settled on Renaissance for this work, I went to another popular and recommended shop. While most of these shops don't seem to do Mercedes exclusively any longer, this other one advertised service for European cars. I saw mostly Mercedes, Porsche's and BMW's there, but they did not seem real interested in helping me out, nor did they return my calls at all. I have been happy with Renaissance, so I will leave it at that.

I only have the Renaissance number and address for the Cary location, but they are in the phone book and the Cary shop can give you the other number. They are located at: 1100 W.Chatham St.in Cary and the number is: 919-461-0700.

I also have a good recommendation for a body shop if you ever need one. They do alignments and other associated tire, wheel and steering related jobs as well. They recently did a four-wheel alignment on my 500 SEL, and rotated/balanced the wheels too.

I hope this helps you in your search for a local service shop.

Scotty Bates

I live about 45 minutes from Charlotte, North Carolina and I just purchased a 1994 E320 Wagon.

Thanks in advance.

Jack Wiles

[nellotare]

While visiting friends in Fayetteville, NC for 4th of July celebrations.. my MB "ran out" of transmission fluid.. driving rainstorm forced me to park the car in a hotel lot overnight and wait til July 5th to take it to the following shop. I had heard about this shop, talked to them on the phone a few months ago.. they were highly recommended as being knowledgeable, dilligent, and above all ..Honest! They lived up to their reputation... fixed a leak by replacing hose (COOLER LINE - near radiator that was old and leaked the fluid) and putting new fluid in. Charged me $37 for part, fluid and labor. They don't take credit cards! I had no checks with me.. was told to just mail them the check when I got home (80 miles away).

MEADE'S AUTOMOTIVE GALLERY
MERCEDES-BENZ
since 1985
1350 TOM STARLING RD.
FAYETTEVILLE, NC 28306

MEMBER MERCEDES-BENZ CLUB OF AMERICA

PH: 910/ 483-4118

R.D. MEADE & SONS
KEVIN and DANNY


So, if you're ever in the area and need good, honest MB mechanic, give them a call. Please take cash, I cannot promise that they would trust every customer to mail a check to them from far away.. but they really helped me out of a jam. Their location is not far off of I-95 if you happen to be traveling in these here parts.

[Dan Stadt]

I don't know which way you are from Charlotte. There is Junior Gunter in Rock Hill, S.C. just over the border. You can't get any more Southern and German than that. I can't remember the name of his shop, but he watched out for my daughter and her old MB while she was in college there. I've been very pleased with his knowledge and attitude.
Good Luck,
Dan

[Blitzkrieg]

nt

[grey560]

Does anyone know of a good mechanic in or around Goldsboro or Wilson,NC? I've had bad luck in finding any MB mechanics anywhere East of Raleigh. There is one local mechanic in La Grange who came highly recommended but who turned out to be a complete hack/theif. Anyway, if anyone knows of any good MB Mechanics in or around Goldsboro within about 40 miles please let me know. Thanks in advance for any advice and have a Happy New Year!!! Thanks F Grey

[c43amg]

In Charlotte, we are blessed with a good dealer, Beck Imports, where I have consistently had good warranty and maintenance service, and an excellent independent:

Charlotte Star Service, 4225 Monroe Road, tel 704-332-4111
owner is Earle Whitton

I have always had good service with Beck Imports up until recently. They gave me an estimate of $700 parts and labor for a job, and then neglected to tell me any further price changes until I got the bill, which said $2500. Stay away from Blake Bridges. He's an idiot, in my opinion. They offered to knock $500 off the job, but that still wasn't enough. They finally offered to charge me only for the oil change, and put my old parts back in. I accepted. When I got the bill for THAT, they charged me $120 for greasing the differential. <sigh> Bait and switch. I don't have the money to deal with these guys so I took it to Auto Verks - who specialize in older mercedes. I'll let you know how that works out.

Auto Verks was AWESOME! The two guys I dealt with in there REALLY know their stuff and did a super job on my car, stayed late to make absolutely sure everything was perfect, and I couldn't be more thrilled. They diagnosed 2 problems with my car that Beck Imports failed to tell me about (a fuel line leak, and some switch on the vacuum system) , and still came in under $700 for the whole job. 2 new rear axles, a new fuel line and a new switch. These guys were fabulous. If you want to deal with someone who absolutely loves your car and will do a meticulous job, I highly recommend them!

[Peyton300TD]

Precision Autowerks
Stan Hall
919.876.1150

we have 3 old mercedes and 1 BMW we take to him. he is a mercedes and BMW specialist and an amazing, honest mechanic. we love him and have used him for about 10 years.

Cheers

ERic STarr

[79 300CD]

Hi Eric,
Peyton really looks good. I can tell you have really babied her. I was looking for a good shop for my 79 300CD. Her name is Ethel. I live about 2 hrs east of Raleigh in Ahoskie. There are not many diesels around here. My car is running pretty good, but I was wondering about where to take it if there was a problem. My car only has 94,000 original miles on it and I bought it from a little old lady named Ethel. I am in Raleigh several times a year visiting friends and I do plan to stop by the shop that you mentioned. By the way, what are your other benzes, and where are you located in the Raleigh area.

[rickmoore49]

I can second the recommendation for Stan Hall and Precision Autowerks. I met stan over 15 years ago when I needed someone who knew how to keep the twin 2-barrels on my 1973 3.0s E-3. Stan kept the carbs humming and made many economical repairs to the car over 8-9 years.

When I spotted a local, original owner, all records '88 260E, I took it to Stan for pre-inspection. He spotted everything I ended up doing to it for the first 18 months after buying the car. Perfect example of his approach - all the electric windows were out. Stan told me the price for replacement motors but before ordering he throroughly went over the service records for the car. He spotted a replaced voltage regulator just prior to noting the complaint about the window motors. He deduced that the bad regulator allowed excess current to the motors and damaged the brushes. Instead of ordering new motors and installing them, he removed the original motors, opened each of them up, cleaned the brushes, reassembled and reinstalled. Saved me over 50% of the cost and the window motors have been working great for the past 4+ years.

You won't regret taking your car to Stan.

Rick in Raleigh