Arthur Rizzo motors closes after 60 years

I’ve been taking my 450SLC and 250SE to Arthur Rizzo motors for service for over 10 years.    Unfortunately for me, Harry, the owner of Rizzo’s has decided to retire and the workshop has closed.   Every time I would call by the workshop, located under the train line to the harbour bridge, there would be an interesting Mercedes there – Pagoda’s, 6.3s, and even an exotic like 300SL from time to time.

People shy away from old cars because they worry about getting ripped off with service – but taking your car to Harry at Rizzos meant that driving an old Benz daily wasn’t a problem.  Your car was kept reliable, and he made sure he did what was needed at a reasonable rate.

The workshop was named for, and presumably started by Arthur Rizzo, who was a well known racing driver who later started a Mercedes workshop and even did things like some of the earliest conversions of 300SLs to right hand drive.

The closing of Rizzo’s echos a concern that many in the old car hobby have and that I share – will there be enough younger guys who really get to know these old cars and can run a business maintaining them to keep these cars on the road as the older mechanics retire?  I sure hope so.

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