A Mercedes Guy

The transmission in your car fails, what do you do?

If you own a new car, with a warranty, you curse the car and the people that built it and then you call your dealership and make an appointment. Pick up a loaner then wait while they investigate and hopefully honour the warranty and fix the car. Your cost is probably zero and you just have to deal with the hassle of the impersonal dealership experience.

But what do you do if own a $1600 20 year old Mercedes and the transmission fails? Well first you ask a mechanic and he'll say "Oooh Mercedes? That's complicated shit, most people wouldn't touch it, call a transmission shop and see." So you call the transmission shop up the street. "Mercedes? No we don't do those, call the Mercedes specialist." So you call the Mercedes specialist shop that seems to work on every older Mercedes in the city. They're busy when you call, lots of broken old Mercedeses. They rudely tell you that they won't have time to look at the car till next week but if it's a problem with the transmission it will need to be rebuilt and they charge $5000. You cry and start thinking which is your favorite car donation charity program; the Cars for retarded kids or Cars for kids with bad kidneys.

Then while lamenting about your predicament at a soirée, one of the other patrons tells you about his Iranian Mechanic who's brother is also a Mechanic who works on Mercedeses for cheap. You call him, a guy with a thick accent picks up. "Transmission? No I don't do it, awful job, call this transmission shop, they do Mercedes." Your heart sinks, when the Mercedes guy doesn't want to do the repair you know it's bad. Reluctantly you call this transmission shop, they're free and are willing to look at the car. The shop is empty when you arrive and everyone looks really desperate for work. They drive the car around the block and come out scratching their heads. The estimate is between $2000 and $4000 depending on what they find when they open it. They're not sure because they mainly do Fords. Cars for Kidney Kids it is, the money from the scarp metal goes to pay for a part of a dialysis machine.

But before you can call, another party and a friend of a friend tells you about a guy he knows that owns a Mercedes and works on the transmissions. A day later you have the number. He's polite. You tell him the problem and he knows right away. You talk on the phone for a bit about how great Mercedeses are. He's got a '72 with collector plates and he's done over 30 transmission rebuilds. The estimate he gives is reasonable. He's got a small workshop on the edge of town and he likes taking the things apart and putting them back together, he likes how they were made and engineered. The car is gone for a week and when it comes back it works like it's supposed to. When I pick up the car we chat about about cars in general and he doesn't get bored and start talking about some TV show. I've found my Mercedes guy.