MB Spares Newsletter No.139
MB Spares 6.0 website launched.
On the 1st of November 1996 MB Spares launched Australia's first Mercedes-Benz dedicated internet page. This even predated Mercedes-Benz Australia who launched their page some six months later. Since then we have had five significant generations of our website, with the now superseded version being launched in August 2007. Here are some highlights from the new version:
- New look home page with scrolling banners and much easier navigation.
- Our New site also has a mobile friendly version which will launch automatically if you search for MB Spares using your mobile device.
- The selections for subscribers to notify of what cars you are interested in have been overhauled with over 10 different chassis versions being added. To modify your subscription details hover your mouse over the person icon in the top r/h corner of the site and then click edit my profile. You can select three different vehicles that you dream about owning and two that you are interested in hearing about parts specials for.
With some of our subscribers having filled in the subscription form over 8 years ago, we would urge you all to check over your subscription details.
- The major change is the addition of the "What's the difference" page. Anyone who has been to one of our Sausages and Spanners nights, or other Mercedes-Benz club events we have run, will have heard our theory that Mercedes-Benz do not make cars, they assemble them. This new page introduces you to the brands that Mercedes-Benz uses to supply parts for their cars. These are the same brands as what we stock at prices that are significantly better than the Mercedes-Benz authorised dealerships.
- Still no online store, and yes this is a highlight. In 2002 we launched MB Spares 2.0 which did include an online store, but took it down 6 months later. The reasons behind this are explained here. All the modern technology that allows us to offer you the most amazing online shopping experience does not help you interpret the correct parts for your vehicle. On an almost weekly basis we are contacted by people asking if we would be interested in buying parts they incorrectly ordered online. Or tracing down faults caused by incorrect parts fitted.
- Complete rewrite of the Mercedes-Benz clubs page. You will see that the Mercedes-Benz club of NSW details are missing. This hopefully will be resolved soon.
- The contact forms have been rewritten to include fields for VIN/chassis number, model and year.
- New look to the cars for sale pages. We now can display up to 10 pictures for each car.
- Many of the pages have survived from day one and had broken links in them and other information that has become inaccurate over time. These pages have been checked over and the mistakes corrected. No doubt we will have missed a few and are quite happy if anyone would like to point them out to us.
- We now have a site map and an easier to use search function. There is a great deal of information on our website and even we have trouble finding it at times, so hopefully this will assist everyone with using the site.
Cars for sale.
Fresh into stock are the following vehicles. The E240 and E320 have both come from the same owner and are genuine one owner low mileage cars. The used cars salesman's call of "one owner", "never damaged" and "never driven in the rain" have always amused us. It is very dangerous to make statements like this in the modern litigious world if you can't back them up. So we are very carefully about making such statements, however in this car we can 100% confirm the one owner status about these vehicles.
Peking to Paris entrant.
MB Spares is building one of the entrants in the 2016 Peking to Paris endurance rally and last month we took it on a small test drive. The aim was to drive to Camron Corner and back via Louth, Tilpa, White Cliffs and Tibooburra, but after reaching White Cliffs in poured rain and the roads were closed. We still managed to do a 2700km test drive over 5 days after detouring via Broken Hill to get home. Pictures of the build and the test drive can be found here. Scroll down for pictures of the test drive.
Cars for dismantling
C200K sports coupe, bad side damage
ML320 luxury, light front and rear damage, very good mechanicals
E240T, gearbox damaged, good engine
C240T, 460000kms! Good front panels
300SEL, been in a swamp
280E W114 sedan
Facebook summary.
As discussed in the previous newsletters with Facebook being so easy to update compared to typing a newsletter and with us having limited spare time we are doing a summary for the Newsletters readers of what has been going on our Facebook site. Click on the links to see the pictures.
- We are rebuilding a 4 speed full syncro ZF gearbox from a 1938 model Mercedes-Benz. Full syncro boxes were cutting edge technology in the 30's and it is a very interesting design.
- We are restoring the chassis for a 300d . Here is the steering box and the parts awaiting fitting.
- C200k Sports Coupe, with a very lucky owner.
- We tracked down so Australian Army spec G wagons.
- Diff pivot bush overhaul on a 280SE 4.5 (that's not a typo)
- The oddball job for the year is going to be this F100 Longbed truck that we did an mechanical restoration on.
- HID headlamp upgrade on a W123 300D
- Front suspension and brake overhaul for a W128 220SE coupe
- And finally we have the winner for worst brake disc wear we have ever seen.
So that's it for this Newsletter, be good, drive safely and look after your Benz.
John & Sandra Green.
