I'd like to share with other Benz enthusiasts and car owners my experience with dealing with a "low cost" Benz Work Shop. In this story or what we can say "tragedy", the shop involved is called Manhattan Motors Service in Amang Rodriguez Ave, Pasig.

I came back last year to the Philippines after living for 21 years abroad. I had a 190E 2.3-16 Benz that I left un-attended for 5 years in my garage.
The nearest shop to my house is Manhattan Motors. I spent a fortune restoring the car to running condition with the help of Manhattan Motors. From that time, I noticed that the main method of diagnosis of ill-equipped shops like Manhattan is called "trial and error" or "replace whatever" until it is fixed. You end up replacing even good parts since the shop has no way of really zeroing in on the problem. No diagnostic equipment like a scanner or in case the car is computer scanned thru other workshops, a sore lack of understanding of how the car sub-systems work prevent them from finding the root causes of the problems.

But I still stuck it out with this workshop since I met new friends there who share the same passion for Benzes and I made it a point to make them work on mechanical problems only. I also did my own diagnosis and just told the mechanics there what needs to be done.

I've seen funny situations there where they accept non-Benz cars like a BMW and it's the first time the mechanics have seen such a car. They spend hours figuring out how to remove the rear shock absorbers. And yet come to think of it, the customer/owner of the BMW thinks this shop can deal with his car's problems

I got so friendly with the people/mechanics/owner/owner's son that it came to a point I never asked how much a repair would cost.

Case in point, I got my W124 Benz have a paint wash-over plus some cosmetic repairs on clips and bumpers. Guess how much I got charged for the basic wash-over? 45k Pesos. It's a plain hilamos. I was told new clips were installed on my body cladding. I was about to pull it out since they told me it was all done, but l noticed the cladding was still raised and ill-fitting as before. I got it pulled out and I saw old clips and not new ones were used. Total bill for the wash-over including clips, rubber stuff for the trunk seal ballooned to 57K pesos. Well... lesson learned... ask for an estimate always and never trust a shop even if they have become your friends.

The worse thing to happen with me was, I have a Porsche Boxster and I brought my car in this shop for a washover too and installation of a body kit - hardtop, new bumpers and sideskirts. The car was brought in at around 5pm to their shop. I handed over the keys to the son of the owner. I leave and assume that all's well.

Late than night that same day, I got a visit from the workshop owner's son and a friend who told me my car's engine had an engine fire and burned the car's wiring, a few hoses, sensors and air filter system. First thing I asked was, how did that happen? Answer I got was... they used my car after I left it there. This happened October last year. I was promised by the shop owner's son that they will get it fixed. Come December, my expensive car is still lying there and not in running condition and no attempts were made to get it fixed by the owner's son. I decided to get it fixed myself and got a Porsche Mechanic to get the engine running. It was my money tied up in the car and I can't have it sitting there in perpetuity. Total cost to get the engine running was 140k pesos! Painting the car was then completed in March this year. I then presented my repair bill to the shop and they present me the car painting bill. The car painting bill totalled over 80k pesos. Mind you, I even bought and paid for the paint itself (17k pesos). Imagine, repainting (hilamos/washover) costs something like 97k pesos for a small car like a Boxster.

I asked the workshop owner to offset their bill against the car repair costs which resulted from the engine fire when his son used my car. They won't agree. I was told it was normal practice for their shop to use customers' cars that's brought in their shop and I can't blame them for the engine fire that happened. I was told it's an accident. I was even at one time given the excuse that it was taken for a "test drive". hehe... a car brought for re-painting requires a test drive???? hmmmm... we're talking trash at that point. I was also told that the owner's son is my friend and they feel it's justified he use my car without my knowledge after I turned it over to their shop for re-painting.

To end the long story or tragedy, it's now April and my car still sits there. The engine runs but the car's whole instrument cluster is not working. The painting and fitting of the body kit is all done as well. But the shop won't take responsibility for the engine fire and shoulder the costs of the repair done and still "to be" done on the car.

Such a sad experience that started with a passion for Benzes and cars of character.