That's kind of how it works. MB basically said, '' Lizen you peple, ezer you zell exclusivly to us or ve von't deal vith you. No moore zeling to WD's or rezellers. ''
So, some OE companies went along with this because the market share was so small anyway for some older car parts. The Classic centres scooped up what's left and now ignition mods are $3,000.00 CDN for a 560 SEL. Not any better price in the States either. No one else makes them and they can't be fixed from what I'm told. It's either used or new. Simple things like pistons for some cars in some sizes are almost dried up in the reseller market. All this stuff has been subbed over to the Classic centres. MB dealers have to order from them and the discounts are less than on late model parts so you won't see any great pricing. All of this makes it harder for you your guy to get you certain parts at good prices. This only applies to certain parts at certain times but many things have gone up in price 3 or 4 times in the last year or two. I an effort to keep fast moving parts profitable, they moved some production to cheaper labour markets. I call this way of doing things, '' The race to bottom .'' So yeah, you can probably find the part but it might be close the full list price sometimes.
