I thought I found a better shop for the Merc

[415s30]

So I talked to the owner of this shop, family owned for a long time and it's over the mountain from me in Mill Valley, but they won't work on cars older than 1995 now. But they will do the AC service. My beloved Swiss Garage closed when the owner retired, I could walk to that one in 20min, take Sylvie for a walk, well it's gone ...

So that leaves a place in San Rafael that is good but also really busy and I always feel like I'm in the way there, they have no space for a lot of extra vehicles in the area you would pick up and it's right at a crazy intersection. I think W123 is as old as they go there now.

Anyway the Acura is up in my rental garage and I have the Z at home until Monday. I went ahead to show my wife where to go and I was lucky to get a space out front, it was the school morning rush in the area. Everyone taking their kids to school in separate cars is a terrible idea in an area like this. I had to ride my bike, I can't claim to have trudged through snow banks back in my day though. Some crazy rain though in Honolulu.

The Defender 110 said EDC on a little plate riveted on it, you can see it under the right rear little window. Looks like a tarted up Defender like Hamster has, must be crazy expensive.

They do Japanese cars so I could take the Acura there, my friend's shop is in another town but I go to him for stuff that isn't urgent. It's a pretty cool shop, seems like they take everything, I saw an Audi with the whole front being torn off next to a Ford Taurus with a bumper sticker, "Happiness is driving my grandchildren etc.."

When I had to change out my backup battery I realized my wifi booster thingy looks like a robot panicking.

[Tripper]

@415s30

[RallyWrench]

@415s30 The increasing number of shops who won't touch pre-OBD cars is a problem. Even the guys in ours don't want to touch them, and while we don't tend to take new clients in with such cars, we work on a lot that we've been seeing for decades. I can wrench on this stuff forever, but for the most part, guys under 40 don't care and don't want to know.

[BritsnSwedes was MINIGTI]

@415s30 My MINI is at the local German car shop. Nice guys although they’re a little older as well so I worry that’s not going to be around for ever. It’s in good company at least:

That’s one unbelievably clean w123

[415s30]

@RallyWrench Yeah the place I can take it that's crazy is owned by a former Mercedes dealership mechanic and he is a nice guy. They will take it, maybe because I've been going there. I went to this place first when I moved to CA and didn't know about the other shop so they have me on record for ten years or so. There are parts you have to get used etc.. I have some fuel injection parts that are hard to get in reserve. There are still a lot of these on the road so I wonder sometimes...

[415s30]

@BritsnSwedes-was-MINIGTI There are some super clean ones out there, they will cost you closer to $20k sometimes. I would buy a wagon if I did it again and those are more. I'm not sure about the future, maybe one of those universal EV kits could work, not for long range but around the area driving for my wife and out to the beach etc.. which is all we do with it anyway. I would not drive it to Tahoe, I know it's reliable but I'm not going to.

[flatisflat]

@RallyWrench said in I thought I found a better shop for the Merc:

guys under 40 don't care and don't want to know.

This is kinda gross...

[AMGtech]

@flatisflat said in I thought I found a better shop for the Merc:

@RallyWrench said in I thought I found a better shop for the Merc:

guys under 40 don't care and don't want to know.

This is kinda gross...

That's flat rate. There's no time to learn stuff you'll only work on once per year. And old Mercedes are funky and complicated compared to pretty much everything else. Very steep learning curve, so it makes perfect sense that people don't want to learn them, even though it does suck for people who still drive them.

[flatisflat]

@AMGtech said in I thought I found a better shop for the Merc:

That's flat rate.

This is also gross.

[save_the_milanos]

@RallyWrench this is so much of why I never seriously pursued being a mechanic, no one was interested in hiring a 20 something whose experience and interest was almost all pre-1995. To be fair, my experience is minimal, but it’s hard to gain it when you have to self fund buying projects and parts due to no shop wanting to bring along a young classic mechanic. It’s for the best though, I’m not cut out for doing things the way shops do, I’m really more of the guy who works in the restoration shop of a car museum, I want every not and bolt polished and perfect before I put things back together.

[save_the_milanos]

@AMGtech see if I was a mechanic I wouldn’t be in it for the money, it’d be for the cool factor of getting to work on weird old and rare things. I like novelty not doing the same thing over and over. Fortunately I’m also not in a position to need to maximize income from a job, but even still I’ve never found a shop that will let me essentially apprentice on the old stuff and ignore the boring new stuff.

[RallyWrench]

@save_the_milanos Do you, uh, want to move to California?

[fintail]

@415s30 Now imagine having one 20 or more years older. I've developed anxiety about finding places that'll take the fintail. When I moved here I found a place, but sadly their old car specialist passed away, and they stopped taking old MBs. Another place used to do old foreign cars, but changed ownership, who then kicked out the old cars. I've now found a place that will at least consider working on the car, but on a case by case basis. There are a couple other "classic" places that are focused on US cars, but might be OK as I am just looking for routine items, not a FI pump rebuild or something. Those not in leading metro areas are going to have a harder and harder time.

[save_the_milanos]

@RallyWrench Always love California. What part? Seriously already trying to move west by the fall

[415s30]

@fintail I think I'm ok for now, Darren who owns the place is in his 50's so not retired yet. I think the Bay Area is fine for older ones but they probably charge more.

[RallyWrench]

@save_the_milanos San Luis Obispo, specifically.

[AMGtech]

@save_the_milanos unfortunately 99.9% of mechanics are not in a position where they can afford not to maximize income

[fintail]

@415s30 You're lucky being both in CA and large population area, there will probably always be something. Even in Seattle it wouldn't be impossible - but taking the car on a 600+ mile round trip for maintenance would be tough to live with. There's also a local dealer, but I am fearful due to labor rates and the age of the car vs techs. I suspect modern MB dealers don't have many 50+ in the service ranks.

[save_the_milanos]

@RallyWrench nice! Not sure if I can swing that budget wise, but if there’s a serious-ish opportunity we’ll look into making it work

[save_the_milanos]

@AMGtech totally understood, that’s true in almost all jobs, unfortunately. It’s just very sad that we don’t have enough of a safety net to let many people develop skills they’re passionate about even if they don’t pay well at first.

[RallyWrench]

@save_the_milanos I'd love to present you with one, I'm currently working on starting my own operation to service old cars that I actually like, since local options are almost nil. Newer cars are my bread and butter now, and there's no joy in them.

[sony1492]

@RallyWrench Insurance is not fond of classic cars either, premiums are at least 50-70% more depending on what you do. On the autobody side most Insurance companies won't bother insuring a company that touches older cars regularly, too much liability. (This based on the fact I've been trying to secure Insurance for the past week it's not been straightforward. They are very specific about what gets worked on)

[415s30]

@sony1492 I was thinking of switching my insurance for the Z to Haggerty but I can only do that car because it lives in an enclosed garage. They won't accept covered carports etc.. I have all my vehicles with State Farm and they seem to be the best I could find with older cars. My wife drives the Mercedes around here locally and we take it out to the beach etc.. for family outings, Sylvie doesn't mind that car, she hates the Z.

[save_the_milanos]

@sony1492 interesting… I I’ve never had trouble with insuring my pre-1990 cars, years ago I just called geico and said “I bought an Alfa Romeo Milano, what’s it gonna cost to insure?” At the time I had no other car or insurance, ended up paying like $50-75 a month. Since then I just log in and add another whenever I buy one, to the tune of maybe an extra $100 per year per car. No questions asked about the status of the cars, where I keep them, if they run, etc. Just “is this car for business, commuting or personal use?” And “how many miles a year do you drive it?” (Most of my cars don’t even have working odometers. So I can answer anything I want, yet I still consistently over-estimate mileage)

[415s30]

@save_the_milanos Yeah I have State Farm for my vehicles. I haven't had any issues, in fact my Z got a bump from someone and it bent a support piece in the back so I got to have insurance restore the back of the car, then I paid for the rest.