I have moved from the San Fernando Valley to the Sacramento area. You guys were great and referred me to Enrique, who was fantastic and did great work on my car.

Anyone out there know a good honest mechanic in the Sacramento/Roseville area? Thanks.

I have an awesome mechanic.


He is in Orangevale, but he is definitely worth the trip over to orangevale. The place is Ernies Mercedes, and his number is 916-989-4973. Tell him Justin with the G Wagon sent you over there!

Yes, I agree with Justin. In fact it was here that I found out about Ernie and I have been with Ernie ever since. He is smart, reasonabe, and honest. What more could you ask for?

Both my Mercedes are running perfect because of Ernie.

Agreed with Justin (W124.0909) and Troy (LUVLAW) this will be the place for me from now on.

Went there today for a "C" service on the W126 and within a couple of minutes of talking to him it was obvious he is VERY familiar with the subtle quirks and secrets of that model. He knows his knowledge.

I'd approach him with justifiable confidence my car would be well cared for by him.

I'm reviving this recent thread, as I too am looking for a mechanic in the Sacramento area. I'm more interested in the Roseville/Rocklin area, since I live up the hill in Auburn.

To date I've gone all the way to Tom Stephens (near Sac State) but I am not at all happy with his service (the many who praise him here notwithstanding). The two primary Benz places in town have closed, and the remaining import place, while nice, really prefers to work on BMWs.

Has anyone any experience with Bertini's or German Auto Service? Any other suggestions?

Thanks!

I'm reviving this recent thread, as I too am looking for a mechanic in the Sacramento area. I'm more interested in the Roseville/Rocklin area, since I live up the hill in Auburn.

To date I've gone all the way to Tom Stephens (near Sac State) but I am not at all happy with his service (the many who praise him here notwithstanding). The two primary Benz places in town have closed, and the remaining import place, while nice, really prefers to work on BMWs.

Has anyone any experience with Bertini's or German Auto Service? Any other suggestions?

Thanks!

Avoid Bertinis like the plague.... They do not do that great of work, and they overcharge like maniacs!


I had a problem at least once a month when I went to Bertinis.... Switched to Ernie, and all my problems went away... :)

Thanks for the information. Price is of course important, but work quality is much more so.

Any word on German Auto Service? They are *much* closer to me than Ernie.

Thanks for the information. Price is of course important, but work quality is much more so.

Any word on German Auto Service? They are *much* closer to me than Ernie.

Bertinis German Auto Service???


Terrible... Avoid like the plague.

Also, when Steve Bertini left Bertinis, and Glen bought the place, it seems as if the quality of labor was in a decline.....


Also, last time I checked, it was about $160 an hour for labor....

German Auto Service is a different garage than Bertini's. I don't know the history of the mechanics, so your references are lost on me.

FWIW, here's the link to German Auto:

http://www.german-auto-service.com/

Thanks Justin - I will give Ernie a call.

cool ..bunch of fella's from sac area

Thanks Justin - I will give Ernie a call.

Tell him Justin with the G Wagon sent you. He will laugh.

cool ..bunch of fella's from sac area

Hell yeah!



All the Sacramento folks hang out every weekend and tinker with out Mercs.

I would like to recommend Frank's Automotive at 5220 Folsom Blvd. in Sacramento; (916) 452-0917 (Frank Lettini). He is definitely a German car expert, and seems very interested in keeping the older cars on the road. On the recommendation of other Porsche owners, I started going to him years ago for maintenance on my 356B, and he has done great work on it over the years. All the Sacramento-area Porsche owners go to him, but he's really good with all German cars. Now that I have an '87 420SEL, he's doing a great job of maintaining that, too. He is extremely honest and reasonable in price. I can't recommend him highly enough.

Here's an example of Frank's "old-world" thoroughness: Years ago, I owned a Volvo that I took to Frank for service. At one point I had the front seats re-upholstered, and the upholstery shop loosened up the seat bolsters all the way and then forgot to tighten them back up again. I drove the car for several months, and realized that the seats felt a little uncomfortable, but didn't figure out why. Then I took the Volvo into Frank's for a 7,500 mile service. As soon as he sat down in the driver's seat, he exclaimed, "Your seat bolsters are totally loose!" and he got out and correctly adjusted the bolsters of both seats. That is just one example.

My son and his friends, who are trying to do their Mercedes on the cheap, have told me a lot of good things about Ernie in Orangevale, too. Post Script: I took my car to Ernie, and found his work to be quite satisfactory and reasonable to moderate in price.

I've been back to Ernie's again, with the W126, and he REALLY knows those.

As a repeat and loyal customer, he now knows me and the car.

This last time, for a routine service, on a walkaround with the car up on the rack, he found a bad crush washer on the fuel pump leaking gasoline, and fixed it for nothing.

It was causing poor gas mileage, not to mention leaking gas onto the floor of the garage at night, and could have possibly caused a fire, a holocaust.

AND HE FOUND IT AND FIXED IT!!!!

No way I would have ever noticed that.


Ernie is the BEST!!!

Absolutely worth the trip down the hill from the Ndevada City/Grass Valley area for me.

Highest recommendation.

In the Placerville/Shingle Springs area, if you don't want to take your car all the way to Ernie in Orangevale, Rob at Foothill Auto Service, 3381-B Durock Rd., Cameron Park is quite good. (530) 672-2209. They have fixed my 420SEL when it was really messed up. They figured out everything that was wrong with it and got it running well, and they have a good bedside manner.

I recently had an issue with my wife's car where her timing chain snapped! It was horrible and I didn't know what to do. The good thing is that it snapped during the startup not while it was running so I figure that there is little possibility that it did extensive damage in the engine. So....back to Ernie

I called Ernie and told him my entire situation and he told me that I would need a new engine. I was shocked becuase i told him that it happened when I was starting the car, but he would not budge. He refused to even look at the car first to make sure I needed a new engine because he said that it would be 7-10 hours of labor. So I asked him when I could have him install a new engine since I didn't want to do it myself after having put the current engine in and he told me it would be the middle of August! WTF?

So....long story short I ended up going to Silver Star Motors on Fair Oaks in Carmichael and those guys are AWESOME!!! They fixed the car no problem and didn't give me any grief about the engine being "ruined". All they had to do is replace a guide rail, the upper pan and the timing chain and I have been driving the car around for the last week with absolutely no problems! I also told them that when I bled the clutch it felt kind of squishy and they re-bled it for free for me! Needless to say that I will be taking my brand new AC compressor, expansion valve and AC drier to them next week to have them do the work.

I highly recommend Silver Star Motors. The owner's name is Frank and when I pulled up they had at least 5 W123s as well as several W126s and W107s so they are experienced with the older models.

I have been using Ernie now for several years.

I do not know of a more honest man or mechanic.

I do not doubt what you say, but there must be more to the story.

I would recommend Ernie to anybody.

Just a guess here, but something tells me you two did not get along on the phone conversation or something.

I don't know if you are the guy, but I had a conversation with Ernie a little bit ago and he talked about some guy....

Anyway, I hope it was just a misunderstanding, and by the way, I used to work in the medical field and people always called me on the phone wanting to diagnose their problem on the phone, asking a million questions, and sometimes after about a thousand of these calls you get a little irritated.

Now, as an attorney, nothing has changed. I can now usually tell on the phone when I talk to someone if its going to be a long day, and well, sometimes you just will tell those people something they don't want to hear just so they will go away.

Now, I am not saying this was the situation.

What I am saying, to reiterate, is that Ernie is, in my opinion a great mechanic, with a great philosophy and work ethic, and again, extremely honest, to a fault.

My opinion is based on everyone I have personally talked to who have been to Ernie's, and talking to Ernie on many, many occasions.

He is more than generous with his time.

Example: I bought my SL600, it has a strange electrical gremlin (turned out to need a new computer) that Ernie could not diagnose because he did not have the proprietary mercedes real-time diagnostic software and I didn't want to drive to San Jose where I bought it if I could avoid it.

Anyway after 4 hours and replacing some sensors that his diagnostic software fault codes indicated(simpler diagnostic tool than only MB dealers have) he could not diagnose the problem (steering angle sensor, I think)

Anyway, these 600 computers are obviously complicated, talk to JWROCK.

Charge: ZERO

I don't know of ANY mechanic who will not charge for diagnostic time when they look at your car for the 1st time.

Note, I had never been to him before, and he did that for free!

Again, he is honest and trustworthy to a fault.

I know some people will take advantage of his generosity, but that is who he is.

Trust me, if he wasn't as described, I would not waste my time writing this.

Ernie is the best, Ernie is the man.

Your experience does not seem to coincide with the Ernie I know, or have ever heard of anyone having a problem with him before EXCEPT those situations as described supra.

There you go.

That is my opinion, for what it's worth.

Let's see, that 30 minutes billable (time to read previous posts, and compose this post, proof read, etc, etc. Ha! Just kidding)

Yes, there are some good attorneys out there, I just have never met any yet!

Let me know if you know of any! Ha! Ha!

Cheers!