Newsletter No.114
Hello and welcome to latest Newsletter. This newsletter we have some interesting figures on cars sales, some great links for you and all the other usual articles as well as a pile of interesting vehicles for sale.
Hope you enjoy it, John & Sandra Green.
M.B Spares & Service workshop for sale…..part 2
First to all of you who sent me e-mails supporting my move on the grounds that health is worth more than wealth, and wishing me all the best for the future, a huge thank-you. It is true that you don't really understand how many friends you have and something like this happens.
So since the last Newsletter nothing exciting has happened, and I didn't really expect anything to happen quickly. Selling off a specialist workshop like this is a tricky undertaking as we need to find someone else with a good understanding of both the automotive industry and Mercedes-Benz.
So for now it is business as usual, still booking in cars and still fixing cars. Interestingly we seem to have a spike in business for our Spare parts department, not sure if that is a chance thing or somehow related.
And if you think you would like to own a Mercedes-Benz workshop please send me an e-mail.
Here is the summary again from the last Newsletter:
- Spare parts no change, business as usual.
- Workshop no change yet, but be advised it may be moving and have some new staff
- New restoration workshop coming sometime soon.
- Pre loved car sales to stay the same.
- No chance of me becoming a public servant.
Upcoming events.
Here is the current list of upcoming events. If you know of an event that would be of interest to our Newsletter readers please e-mail me with the details as you will see below it does not necessarily have to be an exclusively Mercedes-Benz related event.. The plan is not to put each clubs entire calendar on here, just the major events. Here are a few that I know are coming up:
2nd March 2008 The Mercedes-Benz club of Victoria are holding their Concours d'Elegance to be held in conjunction with the RACV Classic Showcase promoted by the AOMC at Flemington Racecourse. Discounted Concours entry fee when paid on or before February 4th. More details here and the entry forms here.
16th March 2008. Shannons Wheels Expo is one of two major annual events hosted by the Council of ACT Motor Clubs. Each March since 1982, hundreds of vehicle enthusiasts have participated in this trip down memory lane which is an official part of the Canberra Festival supported by Australian Capital Tourism It is held on the lawns of Old Parliament House, Canberra and this year is being hosted by EJ-EH Holden Club ACT. This event has traditionally been very well supported by the Mercedes-Benz club of the ACT with over 50 cars on display.
6th April 2008 MBCNSW "MBCNSW Show & Shine Day"
This event is an opportunity to display your Mercedes-Benz regardless of vintage or condition. If you have never displayed your pride and joy, this non-competitive event is for you. Come along and meet other enthusiasts of the marque, if you know someone that has a Mercedes and isn't a club member, get them to bring their car along. Registrars of various models will be on hand to answer technical questions and what to look for when purchasing a car.
You are invited to have lunch with fellow enthusiasts from 1:10pm at the Canada Bay Club, a collared shirt and enclosed shoes will fulfil the dress code for the club. So to all those club members and forum members, come along and put a name to a face and bring your car - this is not a Concours - it's simply a chance to meet and talk all things Mercedes-Benz. There will be a "lucky gate prize" available to those bringing along their car for display.
WHEN: 6th April 2008 From 10:00am till 1:00pm.
WHERE: Canada Bay Club, 4 William Street, Five Dock. Car park entered off Mackaness Close.
COST: $2.00 "lucky gate prize" entry per car.
ENQUIRIES TO: Mathew Kean W126/W202 Registrar 0434 005 650 mathew.mb@hotmail.com
LATEST INFO: http://www.mbcnsw.org.au/forum
18th - 22nd April 2008. As reported in Newsletter 109the next Biannual rally for the Mercedes-Benz clubs of Australia is being hosted by the Victorian club. Maybe you will have attended or seen our reports from the ACT Rally held in 2006 which was a great success. This rally also is shaping up to be an excellent time. Please have a look here for a general overview as supplied by the Victorian club. If you are interested in attending the rally application forms will be available from your local Mercedes-Benz club. A listing of their contact details can be found here.
Links of the month.
- Check this out for hours of fun. (please ignor the pictures on the left of screen) there are 29 pages of sadness here including a lot of Benz's. Some of the shots of cars in Iraq really make you wonder…
- Ok, so now that you are depressed from the last link have a look at this one.
- Here is a great page with info on various MB colour codes from the 70's and 80's. It is part of a huge website that some guy has done on his W123. It is all in German, but I am sure you will get the point. Don't forget that you can plug the URL into the Google translator to get a better idea of what it all about.
- Dirty computer screen?? Click here. If you work in an office leave it running when you go to lunch.
- And finally here is a great TV commercial I doubt we will see here in Australia….
What are we doing?
Has been awhile since I have summarised a week in our workshop and as several of you have commented that it is interesting to know what is going on here is some of what we are up to this week.
- I guess the most important one to discuss is that we are fitting a used engine to an A160 that broke its timing chain and destroyed the engine whilst driving back from Sydney a few weeks ago. The timing chain is turning out to be the weak link in these little cars. This is the first one we have seen, but we have heard of several others breaking. So the lesson is that if you have more than 100,000kms on you're a class it is time for a timing chain. If you check your service book you will see there is no service interval for these which is a pity.
- We are doing a head service on a W112 300SE sedan. This is the rare alloy block with steel liners six cylinder engine from the 60's. Very difficult to work on as the top face of the block is not flat and all parts have to come from Germany.
- A full service on a beautiful 1974 450SEL. It is worth mentioning as many people forget that these early V8's do not have hydraulic tappets and need regular checking. If your V8 runs the older d-jetronic injection (up to mid 76) make sure you get them checked at least every 40000kms.
- Last week I fitted a new radiator to this 250SE coupe that we restored some time ago. When we restored it we had the radiator serviced, however recently it had started to run a little hotter. This puzzled us as all looked OK. So we pulled the radiator out to find that whilst it all looked solid the wavy cooling fins on the radiator had started to pull away from the tubes the water ran in, so there was no chance of heat transfer between them. So a new core was sourced and fitted to the original tanks. Now it runs perfect. We even put the correct warning stickers on the radiator this time…
- We have had quite a few W126's and W124's with transmission oil leaks lately, the most common fault seems to be that the oil pan is belt. They bend around where the six bolts go, and given that it is a rubber gasket it can cope with some distortion, but this week we had one that had at least a 3mm bend on one corner.
- And then there is the Smart car we serviced, not too sure about these as you have to suck the old oil out via the dipstick, there is no sump plug!
Car sales up 12%
Every wondered how many cars Mercedes-Benz sell?? Well here is part of a press release from a few weeks ago.
·Mercedes-Benz brand delivered 82,300 passenger cars in January, an increase of 12 percent
- Sales of Mercedes-Benz in Germany rise by 13 percent
- Deliveries of C-Class sedan and station wagon more than doubled in January
Stuttgart - The Mercedes-Benz Cars division delivered 90,400 vehicles to customers all over the world in January 2008 (January 2007: 77,700). Sales of the Mercedes-Benz, AMG, Maybach, and smart brands thus rose by 16 percent to set a new record.
The Mercedes-Benz brand alone delivered a record-breaking 82,300 passenger cars in January, an increase of 12 percent on the figure for January 2007 (73,500 vehicles).
The new Mercedes-Benz C-Class was particularly successful in January: in total, sales of the new sedan and station wagon doubled to 26,800 units compared to January 2007 (13,400 units).
Sales of A-Class and B-Class models also developed positively at the start of the year: in January Mercedes-Benz sold 17,000 units of these series worldwide, a three-percent increase on the total recorded in the same month last year (16,500 units) and the best result ever posted in this segment in the month of January.
Cars for sale.
Not a lot to say since the last newsletter, the low mileage S320 showed up and was a good as we had hoped, the pictures can be seen here. These are great value cars now, selling for the same price as what a god W126 was only a few years back. Also great values are the first of the W210 models with the V6. Check out this E320 for under $20k. We had a nice little C200 come in and be sold before we could list it, if fact we could have sold it twice as in the end we had two couples wanting to buy it….
So at the moment we have a great range of cars for sale. Don't forget Sandra's Viano 7 seat van, this has been our family transport for the last two years and is a great vehicle for a large active family. It has been a wonderful car, over Christmas we drove to Melbourne, across to Adelaide and back via the Hay plains averaging 9lts per 100kms for the trip including driving around Melbourne and Adelaide. Not bad for such a big car.
You can check out all the cars we have for sale here.
New cars into stock include:
Cars sold include:
C200 Elegance Sedan
Also in stock we have:
W114 long wheel base sedan project
Somebody concerned about my sanity sent me this
20 Ways To Maintain A Healthy Level Of Insanity*
1. At lunch time, sit in your parked car with sunglasses on and point a
hair dryer at passing cars to see if they slow down.
2. Page yourself over the intercom. Don't disguise your voice.
3. Every time someone asks you to do something, ask if they want fries with that.
4. Put your rubbish bin on your desk and label it "IN".
5. Put decaf in the coffee maker for 3 weeks. Once everyone has gotten over their caffeine addictions, switch to espresso.
6. In the memo field of all your cheques, write "For Smuggling Diamonds".
7. Finish all your sentences with "In Accordance With The Prophecy".
8. Don't use any punctuation.
9. As often as possible, skip rather than walk.
10. Order a diet water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.
11. Specify that your drive-through order is "To Go".
12. Sing along at the Opera.
13. Go to a Poetry Recital. And ask why the poems don't rhyme?
14. Put mosquito netting around your work area and play tropical sounds all day.
15. Five days in advance, tell your friends you can't attend their party because you're not in the mood.
16. Have your co-workers address you by your wrestling name, Rock Bottom.
17. When the money comes out of the ATM, scream "I Won! I Won!"
18. When leaving the Zoo, start running towards the parking lot, yelling "Run For Your Lives! They're loose!"
19. Tell your children over dinner, "due to the economy, we are going to have to let one of you go."
20. And the final way to keep a healthy level of Insanity .
· Send this email to someone to make them smile
· Its called ... therapy.
So that's it for another newsletter. Hope you liked what you saw. If you
have any ideas or want to contribute any articles, pictures or other
material please
e-mail me
here. Also, don't forget that you can check out the
old newsletters here
Thanks, John Green.
