I'm going to reseal both of my valve-cover breathers this weekend. Thursday night I pulled the engine cover and inspected the parts I would need to remove. All the rubber breather hoses (crankcase ventilation) were "hardened" from prolonged heat exposure and I was afraid they might split during disassembly/reassembly and then I'd be in a bad place. Checking Pelican Parts & FCP Euro the soonest I could get the parts is Tuesday. I logged onto the webpage for Mercedes-Benz of Birmingham, my local dealer, just expecting to get the phone# for the parts dept. As it was about 5AM they were not open yet but I saw ON THEIR SITE a button that simply said "ORDER PARTS". So I'm thinking, huh, maybe you don't have to talk to the parts guy anymore. I looked up my parts numbers and the price wasn't that bad. When it came to submitting my order the only way to receive them was to have them mailed to me, which stated no expected delivery date. Again, not a viable option, but I thought, OK, at least I know the dealership parts prices are not outrageous, so when they open I'll call and make sure they have these parts in stock. They did, so happy day I went to pick them up from the parts counter today (Friday) during lunch. When I got my total at the dealership parts counter I was a bit surprised. It turns out that when entering an online order through the dealership's webpage you are actually dealing with MBUSA, not the local dealership. Nowhere was that fact ever mentioned. Your parts would arrive from one or more of the six Parts Distribution Centers (PDC's) MBUSA has located throughout the U.S.A.
Grapevine, TX DFW Parts Distribution Center (PDC)
Vance, AL
Jacksonville, FL
Robbinsville, NJ
Carol Stream, IL
Fontana, CA

In the data below you will see the difference in prices. So, when placing an order at your local MB dealership parts counter be sure to ask what an item costs!!!

Mercedes-Benz OE parts prices (Crankcase Ventilation Hoses & Breather Hose Connector):

Internet Internet Dealership
MB List..Actual....Parts-Counter
Price.....Price......Price
$14.50 $11.14 $26.97 A1120180182 Hose - Mercedes-Benz (112-018-01-82)
$ 9.00 $ 6.91 $16.74 A1120180282 Hose - Mercedes-Benz (112-018-02-82)
$14.00 $10.50 $25.42 A1120180382 Hose - Mercedes-Benz (112-018-03-82)
$15.00 $11.26 $27.28 A1120180482 Vent Hose - Mercedes-Benz (112-018-04-82)
$ 7.00 $ 5.38 $15.12 A1120180209 Connector - Mercedes-Benz (112-018-02-09)

 

It's simple. The local MB dealership usually has a very high overhead operating expense that the MB supply chain doesn't get involved with. If you have had good experience with Pelican and FCP Euro stay with them. Also, I know FCP warrantees the parts they sell. Another advantage is these suppliers offer both MB and alternative brand parts which the MB direct does not offer. I have used alternative part supplier parts many times with good success. Many times these suppliers manufacture the same part for MB. Items such as hoses are replacement items that can be can be supplied by non-MB resources.

 

My post was mostly meant to be a warning that the "ORDER PARTS" button on your local MB dealership's webpage has nothing to do with that local dealership, including showing the price of parts at the local dealership. Instead, the "ORDER PARTS" button links to the MBUSA supply chain. This is all very sneaky and not at all clearly explained since, after all, you are on the webpage of your local MB dealership.

 

Depends, Ive order from various Benz dealerships online from different state. If you search you'll notice the prices vary from dealer site to site. Some put on a 30% markup and others sell at cost whatever the MBUSA supply chain has them listed. I know the dealers in GA mark there stuff up by 30% so when I needed something special like say a intercooler for my blower. I found it for about $650 in VA but my dealer marked it up on there site to 850. Its obviously who I went with.

 

Those who have replied seem to be completely missing the point of my post, so I'll try again.
https://parts.mbbhm.com/oem-parts/me...ose-1120180182
Look at that webpage. What does it say in the top-left corner? And the price for the part says $11.14. But when you show up at the Birmingham MB dealership they say, "Yeah, that's not us, that's for the MBUSA Parts Distribution Center." (And I remind you, the parts counter I was standing at had just charged me $26.97 for the item without ever once discussing prices.) Heck, the price 'hokus-pokus' on 1 item was over 100% ($7.00 became $15.12).
I really doubt that my local MB dealership is the only one doing this.

 

Prices for parts at a dealership are: the actual cost of the part to the dealership, employee price, mechanic price, list price, out of state customer price, whatever they charge local regular consumers etc.

Mercedes Benz has nothing to do with your local dealership when it comes to the price they were charging you. I have bought from several Mercedes dealership websites and they are always the ones processing my order and ship my order. (they never drop ship it is always from the actual dealership) FCP Euro, Pelican Parts, Autohaus AZ will drop ship parts from different distributors.

The prices on your dealership website are for internet customers out of state, that is usually how it works when it comes to dealership websites that sell parts online. They usually have a disclaimer for that on the site or it won't let you order if you are in state.

The parts counter could have charged you the list price but that is not what they charge customers like you that walk to the counter. My local Mercedes dealership will sell me parts at the actual list price but a few years back they were marking up everything way above the list price. All 3 local Chrysler dealerships give me different prices where one charges twice as much as the other two.

In my experience, you can sometimes ask the parts counter if they will sell you the part at the list price and sometimes they have that discretion and sometimes they don't or simply refuse to.

I miss oediscountparts.com, they were a dealership that sold Chrysler and Mercedes parts with free shipping above $50 but they were sold and the new owner didn't continue to sell parts.

 

I love FCP Euro, great place to get OEM Mercedes parts for a great price.