Hi everyone -
i have a 2006 clk350 / 55k miles / beach car use on long island. my convertible top is no longer working properly - took it to a shop and they said I needed to replace the hydraulic cylinders (at $1,800 per cylinder), and also need new hydraulic rims. the labor price quoted was 4,500, so it's close to 9k to fix it. if i want a replacement top, it's another 3,500. doesn't seem worth it, right? i think the resale value is about that amount. i've operated the top manually - it's a pain but it's doable. does anyone know someone who can tell me if this quote sounds accurate? anything else I can do as an easier/cheaper fix? i love the car and probably can drive it for another 10 years.....

 

As you've noticed, the car is outside of the shop repair practicality window. You are just new to the concept. It is in the homeowner repair window of ownership like the cars in Cuba. In the USA, the Mercedes just hit that window a little earlier than some cars. Back in the day, all the soft tops were manual anyway. We forget that we can live without total luxury. Or, should be cheap to fix yourself because the parts are really cheap used. You just have to take it slow and specialize yourself. Of course, this top mechanism is a hard mechanism for a newbie to start out on as you'll be learning the computer at the same time. Amazon sells the live code reader for limit switch troubleshooting for $200 or so. There are a lot of youtube videos. mbWorld has a lot of clues. Pick up parts on EBay or car-parts.com or at junk yards in person. The pump itself only goes for $180 on EBay. Many kids learn all this early in life at age 16 or so with their first car at a time when they can't afford labor by others. It is actually enjoyable once you start having small successes. It is perhaps your last chance to be a kid again. Most hydraulic cylinders can be serviced by a hydraulic cylinder shop for $90 or so and they are available used, once you remove them. More commonly in your position, the owner will trade in his car to a used car dealer for another used model that is a few years younger that hasn't hit the wall on shop repair affordability yet. The tops are $1231 for the safety top. Professional but Craigslist level auto upholstery guys charge $900 for top installation. You probably won't get a water leak. They can be stapled on yourself. The air stapler is $35 at Amazon. There are way lower cost top skins available on EBay and Amazon if you are feeling lucky. The German cloth top skin is thinner and $200 more. The soft top option was about $8000. Figure on getting 5 years of sunlight exposure to a top skin, which is $400/year. It's the long term cost of soft top ownership unless you sew.