Peter Vanderveer (Vanderveer Motors) in Norwood, MA is excellent. While his shop is modest (looks like a barn) he is very knowledgeable about both diesel and gas MBs of all vintages. He is willing to take the time to discuss and explain problems and solutions so that customers understand them, and if a part can be reliably repaired, he will repair it rather than hit you up for a new replacement. I have seen him disassemble and repair heater valves, window switches, etc, when new parts were unavailable or very expensive. When you get your car back after repairs, it "stays fixed"; you don't have to go back three times before the problem is corrected. He is not cheap, but he's less costly than an MB dealer and much better than the vast majority of them. Try him if you're in the Boston area.

Do you have the number?

Scott

any other good ones near Boston?

Not Clair in Somerville, that's for sure! I have been there 3 times and each experience was worse than the last. :-(

Has anybody tried Chambers, or Viti?

Carmine (owner) is very knowlegable on MB cars and does excellent work. Most importantly he has treated me extremely fairly and has always provided me with proper estimates and delivered the car repaired on time and on budget as promised.

I have been servicing my 91 420sel at his shop for two years and plan to continue to do so. The shop is located across from Fenway Park under Boston Beer Works on Brookline ave.


If you have any questions please let me know.


Cheers,

Christian

Originally posted by cmerhy
Carmine (owner) is very knowlegable on MB cars and does excellent work. Most importantly he has treated me extremely fairly and has always provided me with proper estimates and delivered the car repaired on time and on budget as promised.

I have been servicing my 91 420sel at his shop for two years and plan to continue to do so. The shop is located across from Fenway Park under Boston Beer Works on Brookline ave.


If you have any questions please let me know.


Cheers,

Christian

Yeah, European Car Doctors?

I went there to replace my alternator. They work fast, that's for sure...

But, the prices are quite high IMO. However, he is willing to install parts that you buy yourself... so that's cool. He told me that as long as it's a new part it's cool with him.

I like the fact that the shop is a walking distance away from where I live... :D

I wanna add another shop to the list,
I've gone to Euro Car Doctors, and I like it.
I have also gone to Motorsports, Ltd. However I have never had anything done there.

The other one is Koko's Garage and Son on Mt. Auburn St. Cambridge, MA..

The guy is definitely a diesel guy. I was looking for something else in Watertown when I came across his shop. It was closed when I saw it. However, I told him that my car shakes a lot. So he looked at it, adjusted the rack damper, replaced the air filter, Diesel Purge'd it, and fixed a rattling air filter. The car ran a lot better. I do not know which one fixed it... I am not going to complain either :)

In the end I ended up paying just a little more than if I were to buy the air filter and diesel purge by myself. In fact Diesel Purge is cheaper from him than from an online store (not Fastlane...) :rolleyes: so much for online shopping...

I have been to Koko's garage three times:
The first time he did a major tune up (flex disc, front shock, transmission service, rear brakes). This work was ok, except that he did not tighten the nut securing the front shock resulting in a suspension noise.
On the second time, my level regulation was not working properly. Ed was exchanging the regulation valve for 660$ without fixing the problem. I did exchange the tandem pump later myself which cured the problem.
The next time the engine cut off in the middle of the run. It took Ed 5 hrs to figure out that it was the distributor cap and rotor as well as the overload protection relais. I understand these are standard problems. Then he charged another two hours to replace those parts. The bill was 760$.
Based on these experiences I would not recommend this shop. I'd rather go to Benz Den who did a good job on my car so far.
Bruno