br1anstorm
Active Member
There's one famous advert about "probably the best beer....", and another about "refreshing the parts that others don't reach...".
Both of these apply to Merparts (Paul and Steff Mazzoni) in Port Glasgow. I have just had an outstandingly good experience with them, and it's only right that I should share it.
I have a 1990 560 SEC (left-hand drive Euro-spec.... it's a long story) and I live in the north of Scotland. Last week I happened to take a 4-day trip down around the Scottish Borders in the SEC, which had been garaged all winter. The car ran OK on the main road, but I noticed it wasn't 100%. Lumpy idling, and not pulling as smoothly as usual. As I had no tools, and we were near Edinburgh, I called in at Deutsch Marque to see if they could do a "quick and dirty" check of the simple things (distributor, plugs, etc). They were very helpful (made no charge) but could find no obvious fault, and suggested it needed more in-depth diagnostics.
I rang Merparts and described the symptoms to Stefano. He suggested that if I could drop in the next day they would check it out. So I found my way to Port Glasgow. Paul hooked it up to their equipment, and they homed in on the problem straight away (having pretty well figured it out from the phone call). Basically the end-caps on the plug-leads had deteriorated to the extent that 5 of the 8 cylinders weren't getting good spark for long enough to deliver decent combustion. Showed up clear as day on their Bosch test equipment (which is of similar vintage to the car...). It says something for MB engineering that the car had managed to run despite this problem!
It took Paul about an hour to fit replacement end-caps - they had just enough in stock - to the 5 leads, and a bit more time to test drive and check that nothing else was amiss. He was quite happy to have me peer over his shoulder in the workshop while he worked and assessed everything. That kind of willingness to share and explain is rare - and a sign of real competence, skill and trust.
The car was transformed (I suspect that the ignition had been very gradually getting worse perhaps over the past year or so...). The cost was extremely reasonable: proper parts, fair labour charge, and they did it all pretty well on the spot, which was very kind given that I was facing a 300-mile trip back up north.
The key point is that these guys are serious professionals. They know the cars - new models too, not just older ones - very well, can spot issues that most other places would not be aware of, and they clearly care deeply about doing a decent job. Such service nowadays is hard to find, and people like the Mazzonis deserve support. From now on I shall think nothing of making a 600-mile round trip to Merparts any time my Merc needs attention. I'll just give them sensible advance notice and fix a proper appointment in future!
Both of these apply to Merparts (Paul and Steff Mazzoni) in Port Glasgow. I have just had an outstandingly good experience with them, and it's only right that I should share it.
I have a 1990 560 SEC (left-hand drive Euro-spec.... it's a long story) and I live in the north of Scotland. Last week I happened to take a 4-day trip down around the Scottish Borders in the SEC, which had been garaged all winter. The car ran OK on the main road, but I noticed it wasn't 100%. Lumpy idling, and not pulling as smoothly as usual. As I had no tools, and we were near Edinburgh, I called in at Deutsch Marque to see if they could do a "quick and dirty" check of the simple things (distributor, plugs, etc). They were very helpful (made no charge) but could find no obvious fault, and suggested it needed more in-depth diagnostics.
I rang Merparts and described the symptoms to Stefano. He suggested that if I could drop in the next day they would check it out. So I found my way to Port Glasgow. Paul hooked it up to their equipment, and they homed in on the problem straight away (having pretty well figured it out from the phone call). Basically the end-caps on the plug-leads had deteriorated to the extent that 5 of the 8 cylinders weren't getting good spark for long enough to deliver decent combustion. Showed up clear as day on their Bosch test equipment (which is of similar vintage to the car...). It says something for MB engineering that the car had managed to run despite this problem!
It took Paul about an hour to fit replacement end-caps - they had just enough in stock - to the 5 leads, and a bit more time to test drive and check that nothing else was amiss. He was quite happy to have me peer over his shoulder in the workshop while he worked and assessed everything. That kind of willingness to share and explain is rare - and a sign of real competence, skill and trust.
The car was transformed (I suspect that the ignition had been very gradually getting worse perhaps over the past year or so...). The cost was extremely reasonable: proper parts, fair labour charge, and they did it all pretty well on the spot, which was very kind given that I was facing a 300-mile trip back up north.
The key point is that these guys are serious professionals. They know the cars - new models too, not just older ones - very well, can spot issues that most other places would not be aware of, and they clearly care deeply about doing a decent job. Such service nowadays is hard to find, and people like the Mazzonis deserve support. From now on I shall think nothing of making a 600-mile round trip to Merparts any time my Merc needs attention. I'll just give them sensible advance notice and fix a proper appointment in future!
