“That list just didn’t make a lot of sense to me . . .”
But none of us in cyberspace are looking at the car
Why are you so sure that it’s all unnecessary, when the rest of us may not be?
Is it possible you’re automatically NOT giving the shop ANY benefit of the doubt?
I found that list to be somewhat well itemized. It would have been helpful to break down parts and labor, versus lumping everything together. But most people don’t even give us numbers. I only find the list to be somewhat superficial.
I agree that somebody standing in front of the car will be able to form a better judgement than we can
I’m usually the one accused of being very negative on this website
Unfortunately, I think you’re the guilty one this time
The prices the mechanic is quoting seem pretty reasonable for MB repair. If the rust issues can be addressed for a dollar amount you are willing to spend, and you like the car, go for it. I wouldn’t expect there to be much in the way of pay back dollar-wise however. You’re unlikely to get enough from a future sale to recoup your investment. If you decide to go ahead, you’d be spending the money to fix it up simply b/c you like the car and want to put it back on the road.
I do suggest you keep on good terms with this mechanic though. Seems like very fair pricing.
Want to sell that AMG ? I know a guy who would buy it If you lived nearby I would give you a free assessment and let you know whats what. No big deal… I cannot imagine that vehicle being a proverbial rust bucket to the point where the fasteners would be giving this kind of trouble… I mean if it still looks nice methinks the fasteners would be the last things to go… but it does depend where the vehicle spent its life. Upstate NY, Vermont, Boston or CT now those states are KILLER on vehicles…absolutely the Mike Tyson of an area for a vehicle…rust wise. Ive almost been brought to tears seeing the damage that can occur in those areas…it affects me deeply… LOL
Oh NOOooo @db4690 you didnt say NYC did you? Oh Jeezoo… Well depends…that vehicle should have been pampered IMHO…but we all know how that goes right? Some people dont believe in the “never seen snow or rain” vehicle owners. Some guys who love a particular machine have it stored in their garage…and it doesnt go out in inclement weather…then we have the other end of the spectrum… The guy who buys a brand new pickup and drives it straight to the construction site to have 1/2 a ton of chopped steel dropped into the brand new shiny painted pickup bed…no respect…then again…its their vehicle. Ive known several gents do just that with a new pickup… People are as different as Snowflakes…you never know what you will get.
If this MB lived in the rust belt of the east…then all bets are off concerning rust speculation. If you get loaded up with road salt and never try to wash it off…or never wash the car ever…then the cancer is present…and spreading. Whats that old yarn? “Rust never sleeps” ? Its true…it doesnt.
Who can say now…this is one of those where we need to see it…but if it came from those Mike Tyson states I mentioned? It is likely that this thing is in Stage 2 or worse of cancer. Sad
I thought the repair list was laid out well, priced fairly, and I’m not surprised at any of that needing repair on a 19 year old car from the Rust Belt.
One of my favorite YouTube guys is in NY and deals with rust on a regular basis. He must be on a pretty even keel psychologically…
I would have to agree @ok4450. True…that list was laid out well and didn’t seem over priced. Handle the important things and skip the expensive A/C replacement…for the time being.
We cannot really weigh in on this one…since rust needs to be seen in person. Rust is a sad story…it has reduced many a magnificent machine to dust…and will continue to do so with malice. I hate rust.
About the photo ok posted above, shouldn’t it be possible for auto design engineers to prevent rust in the wheel well area by designing that area to be rust-proof or at least much more rust resistant? You’d think you could coat that entire area with something that would simply prevent water from the road getting to the metal. It’s possible to prevent water from getting to the metal on the top part of the car, so why not the wheel wells? It might not even be a lifetime of the car thing, you’d have to replace the treatment every 5-10 years.
Now and then a car here in OK will end up rusted to oblivion in a short time but it’s very rare and when it does occur it’s usually because the vehicle (often a truck) is spending all of its time out in the muck of mud roads, fields, and oil leases. Salt is not used much here.
George, they could do things to aid in rust prevetion but as Honda Blackbird stated; that would affect sales; especially in the Rust Belt.
It might also add 50 bucks to the manufacturing cost. As long as the vehicle doesn’t rot out in the warranty period the car makers don’t give a crap about it.
They COULD stamp parts out of stainless steel much like a DeLorean and it would last forever but that also causes the old manufacturing cost and sales quota things to surface again.
I often wonder…if real people, mechanics, handy persons designed a truck with these things in mind…what we could come up with.
There is so much planned obsolescence in vehicles that coupled with bean counters etc…we get basically “Good Enough” all the time. Of course this would be horrific to new car sales…but…just wondering. Then again if we made something to last 500K…the owner would most likely be so sick of the thing that they would run it off a cliff or something. Its a conundrum for sure…
George, I would argue that they already do. Rust of the magnitude illustrated in the photo is pretty rare on most cars made in the last ten years. Manufacturers have really come a long way in designing out rust opportunities. The roads are full of ten year old cars without even a hint of rust.
This is true…things have improved quite a ways… Take my friends GM cars where all the factory paint literally FELL off…exposing a dark grey primer looking surface…it wasnt primer it was the Zinc coating I believe… it never rusted either. Always blew my mind that one.
There was a period when aqueous-based paints were initially mandated when some manufacturers didn’t have the processes figured out. They knew the mandate was coming for years, but ignored it until it became law. For these manufacturers, paint peeled off like the sheets of a writing pad. Sometimes it peeled like sunburned skin. Eventually those manufacturers that procrastinated got the hang of the new paint processes, but not until a whole lot of customers suffered. The gray that you saw was primer. Zinc in primers had become verboten by that time. Electrodeposition of zinc (galvanization) remains acceptable, because it prevents aeration of the heavy metal, but it can no longer be sprayed.
Oh…thats interesting… It WAS primer after all? I thought I was looking at the galvanizing (couldnt pull Galvanizing out of my head) dip they put cars through… Cool. You sure are right @“the same mountainbike” about the way that paint peeled… like it wanted nothing to do with being on the car. Sheets, Wrinkles, blobs…you name it…it wanted OFF of the car body.
Galvanized auto body steel has been the rule for about 30 years. That’s how the auto manufacturers were able to offer 10 year body perforation guarantees. It also made aluminum bodies more attractive because of the higher costs associated with galvanizing.
I was thinking maybe there’s some kind of rubber-asphalt stick-on tape-like material a motivated diy’er could glue to cover the wheel well area, so salt-water splashing from the road would just hit that stuff and drip off, never touching the metal. There’s stuff like that for houses, for example when installing a window as part of the flashing they apply a sort of stick-on layer of a black asphalt tape, maybe 8 inches wide. There’s a similar type of material for low slope roofs, like in valleys, no nails, it just sticks right to the wood underneath, totally waterproof and won’t blow off in a 60 mph windstorm. If it works for windows and roofs, why not something similar for car’s wheel wells?
If you lived nearby I would give you a free assessment and let you know whats what. No big deal… I cannot imagine that vehicle being a proverbial rust bucket to the point where the fasteners would be giving this kind of trouble… I mean if it still looks nice methinks the fasteners would be the last things to go… but it does depend where the vehicle spent its life. Upstate NY, Vermont, Boston or CT now those states are KILLER on vehicles…absolutely the Mike Tyson of an area for a vehicle…rust wise. Ive almost been brought to tears seeing the damage that can occur in those areas…it affects me deeply… LOL