One of my colleagues was telling me today that they were at a meeting and came back and noticed that the front DRLs from their Mercedes C Class Estate were missing.
Apparently its in a housing that the whole lot just unclips out, thieves snipped the wires behind and the dealer is quoting something like £550 to replace......
Ouch!
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Don't you wish it was legal to connect a car to the mains.
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Ouch indeed! £550 for a few LED lights is daylight robbery...I can't believe there's a huge amount of labour involved is there?
Note to self - park nose-in to a wall in future :-)
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I can remember paying £2.50 at a motor factor for a sealed beam headlight for a Marina. Ok, not cutting edge technology but I never hit anything at night.
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>> I can remember paying £2.50 at a motor factor for a sealed beam headlight for
>> a Marina. Ok, not cutting edge technology but I never hit anything at night.
Only because it wouldn't go fast enough.
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>> Only because it wouldn't go fast enough.
>>
Try going downhill in a car with drum brakes fitted by Red Robbo.
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There's an implication that that stupid Luddite actually did a day's work.
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>> >> I can remember paying £2.50 at a motor factor for a sealed beam headlight
>> for
>> >> a Marina. Ok, not cutting edge technology but I never hit anything at night.
>>
>> Only because it wouldn't go fast enough.
>>
Or wouldn't start in the first place.
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"Or wouldn't start in the first place"
And yet.........here is a real confession for which I will probably never be forgiven upon this Forum.
Mate got a Marina TC as a works car in the early '70s. A few of us (youths at the time) went on a camping trip from Midlands to Yorks Dales in this Marina which, accustomed as we were at the time, to a variety of crappy cars, seemed like luxury motoring (compared to a Vauxhall Viva/Morris Minor or basic Mini!!).
One mate was so impressed with the Marina TC we went in he bought one and my Dad was looking for a new car at the time and I said " Marina seems good" and he bought one. As far as I remember, neither Marina gave any trouble for next few years. (Though rust may have been a problem after about 6 weeks!!)
Dad's was a rather fetching shade of Orangey Brown - and surely it can't have had just a 1300cc engine??? May have had - does ring a bell. (Though 1300cc in a Marina couldn't ring even the tiniest bell could it?)
P
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>>Mate got a Marina TC
Nothing much wrong with them that couldn't be sorted by a couple of cheap, easily available suspension mods. Faster acceleration than an MGB GT (same engine/gearbox in a lighter body).
I fancied one as a replacement for a Triumph Vitesse, but went down the Cortina GT route instead.
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>> Marina TC
>> Nothing much wrong with them that couldn't be sorted
bt you are a man after my own heart. I wish I'd done that with my father's low-mileage khaki Marina 1300 coupé. It would have been more fun and cheaper than what I actually did.
Mind you the silly old thing had allowed them to deliver an example with front drum brakes, and didn't notice for ages. But that could have been put right along with other low-cost tweaking.
I do a great deal of crying over spilt milk.
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My Marina TC coupe, in Tulip Black ( I think) followed on from my Clubman estate. I thought it was the bees knees at 19yo. Easy to work on, and never let me down, although in those days I used to change my cars every 6 months. Sometimes less.
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>> 1300cc in a Marina couldn't ring even the tiniest bell could it?)
In standard trim it wasn't a muscle car, but it wasn't without virtues. It would wind up to an easy 75 or so and was really very economical, 40mpg in a poor state of tune driven with a clumsy heavy foot. The A series engine was eminently tweakable and the 1800 engine and gearbox could easily be substituted... but why bother?
Suspension was the main problem, those awful Armstrong lever dampers. Telescopic substitutes were available. Few quid, bit of fine tuning, much improved jalopy.
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>> Suspension was the main problem, those awful Armstrong lever dampers. Telescopic substitutes were available. Few quid, bit of fine tuning, much improved jalopy.
>>
Crap, but a doddle to change taking an easy 15 minutes. I remember my cross ply tyres would screech at quite moderate speeds on even a gentle bend.
Valve clearances were another easy touch, two top bolts and the rocker cover came off without even having to move anything out of the way. I was horrified to discover the rocker cover on the Capri I replaced it with had a mind boggling number of bolts to undo, eleven if I remember right. How complicated can it get?
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That's assuming you can get a Mercedes dealer to talk to you and sell you something.
I sent a request for details of one of their cars from a Mercedes factory dealership in Stuttgart last Tuesday, I wrote to Mercedes HQ yesterday asking what the typical response time was as a BMW dealer managed to get back to me within two working hours of my request. I'm still waiting for a reply.
Times must be good for Mercedes-Benz.
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"Note to self - park nose-in to a wall in future :-) "
No, no, take my Dad's advice - "always back into parking space, in case the Germans come and you need to get out quickly" (Prob in an MB ;-) )
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Saw a report the other day where the front was stripped off a Corsa while it was in a railway station car park, and thieves taking the fronts off M versions of BMWs has been a problem for years. BMW X5 door mirrors are commonly stolen and they're £2k a pair to replace.
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This thread really says more about the stupid & greedy prices charged for spares by manufacturers than anything else........
I am still smarting from paying £141.80 plus VAT for an ABS sensor on the Accord........
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Its not just Mercs and BMs suffer...there was a run of stealing alloys from Toyota Avensises (or should that be Avensi?) here. The usual stunt was to take two and leave one side of the car on blocks so nobody would notice until it was too late to catch the culprits.
Apparently they were easy to sell on - Ireland is full of Toyotas and there were only one or two styles of wheel. It wasn't uncommon for multiple Avensi to be hit in the same car park to make up full sets of wheels either.
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Back in the late 90's, one of my colleagues had all four wheels, the bonnet, grille, headlamps, front bumper and both front wings stolen off his bog standard 1.6 litre Nissan Primera, in broad daylight, in the office car park which was directly across the street from the office building.
LWB white Transit pulls up on the kerb opposite, neatly between the car and the office window. This wasn't unusual as there were always couriers coming and going. Chap behind the wheel breaks out a newspaper and a flask, and sits there for 20 mins or so. Suddenly, he puts the paper down and drives away, revealing a stripped car on bricks. His accomplices had clearly emerged from the side door of the van, done their thing, loaded up, and jumped back in the van without anyone seeing a thing.
Police traced the van to the local traveller site, at which point they promptly lost all interest.
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My friend in Cumbria parked his X reg Land Rover 4 door in his field next to the house.
In the morning, all four doors, the bonnet and seats had gone.
They must have been ruddy silent doing the job 'cos there's no traffic or aircraft noise to cover them. Standard Land Rover green so interchangable with most others in the area.
Ted
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So over the next few nights he got back the parts needed.... and then the next person sorted themselves out.
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For anyone interested, got a reply from MB. The car I enquired after was crash damaged. I didn't know this from Autoscout24 but good of the dealer to tell me.
They still wanted 17k€ for a 5 year old car. Bit more than Cat D for insurance I suspect and it was advertised as a "Young Star" vehicle...with guarantee.
Same car two years newer can be had in the UK for less money. Anyone think the UK is still overcharged for cars?
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Secure your Mercedes!! - -
