I was going to start a new thread that would be dedicated to celebrating interesting stories about or great encounters with those good folk who never sell the whole car, just a part at a time. Recalling nobby's penchant from way back for referring to the person behind the parts counter at the dealership as MPG (My Parts Guy) and how reasonable and friendly they were to him, I was going to title it "nobby's MPG thread" and thought myself clever at the confusion that the acronym in the title would cause. Then I remembered that this is BenzWorld and the 107 forum in particular so I figured that I'd better do a thread title search for "MPG" and guess whose thread popped up! :read:
I would encourage others to share their anecdotes here as well. Anyway, here's my story (regrettably not about the 107 but M-B just the same).
The W220 was throwing the coolant warning up every couple of days and after the third one, I went hunting during daylight hours to see what I could find. After driving the car for about a hour on several short trips, I got home and popped the hood (bonnet/UK) and was greeted by a steady drip from the hose that goes from beneath the expansion chamber to somewhere in the bottom of the radiator. I was expecting to have to replace the hose since it was dripping from beneath the chamber but as I was removing the chamber (ridiculously simple), the hose fell off with the plastic neck from the chamber still clamped inside.
Once, I got it out, it looked like this.
A new tank wasn't available from the local parts stores so I called M-B of Annapolis and after giving the nice man my VIN
, he told me that he did have it in stock and the price would be $31.98. I gave him my phone number to hold it and told him I'd be there in 30 minutes and beat feet. I didn't change out of my 'working on the car clothes' due to my rush so I walked into the posh M-B Service/Parts building (yes, it's miles away from the actual dealership where they SELL the cars) wearing baggy jeans, a greasy, ripped army field jacket from the 1970's and a heavily damaged, moth eaten wool sweater by Eddie Bauer®. People looked at me like I was homeless so I quickly grabbed a Snickers® ice cream bar from the complementary snack area, just to complete the effect. At the parts window, a different parts guy named Tom (take THAT Dave!) could find neither the part on hold nor me in the computer but he confirmed that there was one in stock. He asked me if I remembered what price the other guy had given me and I said, "$31 and change." He frowned and said, "It's ONE 31 and change." I was bummed and said, "Man, that's why I raced here to pick it up since the price was so affordable." but I was going to pay the price regardless.
That's when he said, "Hang on."
He tapped on the computer a bit and said, sotto voice, "I can give it to you for $68. How's that?"
"You da man!", I said. Then he knocked ten bucks off the gallon of M-B antifreeze! I also helped myself to a Twix® ice cream bar and a bottle of water. I wonder if my appearance made him take pity on me?
Anyhow, got back home, swapped the grommets on the bottom, hooked it all back up, filled it with 50/50 antifreeze/distilled water and let the big dog eat!