Dubya

Well I can suggest one place that you may want to avoid based on my experience. Sometime last March my Mercedes 500ML developed a coolant leak. Assuming it was the plastic reservoir I visited Car City and it was replaced. Once it was home there was still leaking so I went back for an assessment. I was told that the water pump was weak and not performing as it should -- that was replaced. Still no change so I took it back again to be told after assessment that the seal was spit on one of the blocks. Needless to say I was shocked to see the motor torn apart and strewn in various areas around and in the vehicle. I was determined to have it repaired so I paid in advance for the work to be done. It is now May and the gasket was still on order and we needed to leave to return to Canada. The car stayed there until late October when we returned. We picked up the car and drove about 1 km before the check coolant warning light came on. (Over the period it is clear the battery had not been disconnected as I had asked so it was replaced by someone else ,, obviously , within the next week.) Returned the car for a day and picked it up having been told the thermostat was not opening properly but it was all fixed now. No coolant leak but what did appear was an oil leak that seemed minimal so I let it go. We drove into Guadalajara one day and at the toll booth on the return the check engine light came on. Once home I added 2 liters of oil and returned to Car City. They were going to make an assessment and let me know the cost. I said no they are not, they are going to fix it because it was on them. A day later I had two calls saying the leak was fixed but the car was immovable because the power steering pump needed replacement. The reason for this was that there is a loose ball joint that wasn`t replaced and this caused stress on the pump. (Oh really) I went to see it and once again everything was apart so that it was pretty clear the leak was`t repaired. I made it clear that there was now chance that they would be repairing the pump and ball joint even though I was offered a discounted price of $ 11,000 pesos. Later that day I took over a friend who is a shade tree mechanic and he and he assured me there was nothing wrong with the pump. Because it `wasn`t driveable I told them I would arrange to have it towed into Guadalajara. Well you may have guessed it by now but I did drive it home with no steering problem but you may also have guessed that the oil is still leaking. I am sure this is a one off experience so I won`t discourage you from