Mercedes Benz Autobody
Mercedes-Benz has the corporate aim to always improve and the proof is at the company’s new Port Melbourne Autobody centre.
This is, as one body shop owner described it, “a once in a lifetime facility” and they are not wrong. If ever there was a magic pudding for body shop owners this is it.
Everything is here at Mercedes-Benz Autobody, Port Melbourne. It has the finest equipment that does the job for the German auto maker and the best tradesmen.
The German car maker’s head of retail operations in Australia, Chris Muir, explains that at this factory-owned shop your Mercedes-Benz will get the finest care: a car restored after treatment by the best in the business and supported by spares and equipment that makes that battered vehicle new again.
AP&P were daunted by this experience. Not because of the size and weight of the brand but because there are so many other fine shops that the team felt were at a disadvantage by comparison.
Because of that you might ask isn’t it a bit unfair to give an award to such a largely supported (by the manufacturer) body shop? The team debated this long and hard, but our final decision came down to the fact that excellence needs to be rewarded and there needs to be someone showing just how excellent a shop can be, even if you have large resources to invest.
There is no avoiding the fact that this is one of or probably the finest new shop that the awards panel has ever encountered. Vic Fenech, Mercedes Benz Autobody branch manager, is its technically savvy ambassador. While on annual leave he met with the awards team to do the inspection and spent over an hour conducting a tour of the facility with us. It could have taken longer had we had the time.
The new Mercedes-Benz Autobody was born out of two body shops, Mercedes-Benz Melbourne in South Melbourne and Worrells in Prahran, both owned by Mercedes-Benz.
The decision was made to build a principal body shop in Port Melbourne. The company leased 6000 square meters and built the 3200 square meter repair facility. In 2007 the Mercedes-Benz dealer development team and in-house architect team worked with workshop staff to optimise the new facility’s design in line with requirements. In July 2008 the site turned into reality, officially opening and operational in August 2008.
The building itself is unique with a retro plate concrete floor that won’t stain, peel or tyre squeal and is not slippery when wet. It has two major recycling units, one for each wash bay. All dirty water is recycled and topped up from the 35,000 litre underground tank which has water captured from the roof.
There is a hazchem room built from Hebel bricks which contains any hazardous or flammable liquids and has a four hour fire rating. There are fire chiefs and fire wardens as well as OH&S officers.
All the Lowbake ovens are drive-through and there is an aluminium repair facility. The auto repairer has direct contact with parts provision worldwide and order parts direct.
The Port Melbourne facility presently turns out 50 cars per week with work carried out by nine painters, 10 panel beater, three assemblers, five in the office and one in parts. Fenech has been in the automotive industry for 37 years starting out as motor mechanic.
His Mercedes-Benz experience started in 1983 and he has owned or managed a panel shop for the last 32 years. Now that he is the branch manager at Port Melbourne, he says the experience “is a privilege”.