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Silver Star Transmission: Save Money on a Better Transmission? You Bet.

“We sell value,” owner Don Close says when he describes his transmission-building company, Silver Star Transmission .  “We don’t try to sell the cheapest or the most expensive, we try to give the most bang for buck: the best value.”

Silver Star Transmission specializes in building beefed-up Mercedes transmissions--and this means Sprinters, expediting folks.  Mr. Close has made something of a career out of German engineering.  “Mercedes have been my whole life.  I’ve never worked on anything else.”

While Mercedes has been a common thread through Mr. Close’s career, that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been any movement.  Quite the contrary, in fact.  Don Close’s experience with Mercedes vehicles spans quite some time and way, way more than just their transmissions.  “I started working on Mercedes in 1970.  In 1976, I opened up a shop in Denver.  Soon after that, I moved to Oklahoma City. In 1977, I opened up a shop there and ran it until 1992.  At the time, the shop was largest independent Mercedes repair shop in the Oklahoma/Texas area.  

“A few years later, I built a nice little shop behind my house for several years.  Later, a friend of mine who ran a transmission shop sold me part of his company in Norman, OK when he retired about 12 years ago.  Norman is an hour drive from my house.  I got oriented for a year or so and then moved back to the shop behind my house.

“In a fairly short amount of time, we outgrew that facility, and now we’re in downtown Edmond, with a staff of about twelve.”

Their high-quality work has won them points within the trucking community, and it’s paid off.  Silver Star is often brought up in Internet forum threads, and that kind of word-of-mouth marketing pays off.  “When we get a phone call, we ask where they heard of us. A lot of times, they’d say, ‘We saw you on a forum.’  Mysprinter.com came up somewhat regularly.  Our largest account, FedEx Express, found us on a forum a little over a year ago.  Now, we’re a vendor partner.”

As it turns out, getting that account has only improved the quality of their output.  “When we got the FedEx account, we got inundated with about 10 a day.  We did an autopsy of these cores they were sending us and we found a pattern in how the transmissions were failing.  We beefed up that weak link that was causing them to fail prematurely.  We figured out fixes for them and they’re now working better than they otherwise would.”

Without getting too specific , Mr. Close notes that they “Changed some of the design, pressure settings on valve bodies,” and some other things that simply improved the quality of the transmissions they build.  

As proof that they’re building a better transmission, Mr. Close points out that FedEx recently informed him that Silver Star “Cut FedEx’s costs on transmissions on Sprinters in half last year.”  That’s the kind of value he’s talking about--and it’s not only price that figures into those costs--when you’re running with an improved transmission, the reasoning stands that that transmission will last longer, decreasing the frequency with which you’ll have to replace it.  

That’s not the only part design that they’ve improved upon.  “We also improved converter shudders,” he says, and they did so through some simple spring kit changes and valve improvements, among other things, that pleased their customers in a way that showed them they’d done it right: by not getting calls about it.  

“When we used to sell the converter shudder, we’d get 10 or 15 calls a week saying that there was something wrong with the part.  Finally, we figured out that it was a design problem.  Once we addressed the design problem, the phone calls went away.”

With the level of expertise Silver Star Transmission has with respect to Mercedes vehicles, they’re able to offer assistance to others in the form of diagnosis to ensure they actually need a transmission from Silver Star: “I get on the phone with dealerships and customers to help diagnose and make sure that they actually need a tranny.  There’s a lot more that can go wrong with a truck than just the transmission.”  

Even though things have been good for Silver Star Transmission , that doesn’t mean that the last two years have exactly been a walk in the economical park.  “We were like everyone else.  We were a small shop, servicing Mercedes all over, there were three or four of us.  We had good weeks and bad weeks.  It was really a test of management skills.  But if you cut quality, you’re killing the goose w/ the golden eggs, you know?  Because of the good work we were doing & the consistency with which we do it, that’s how we landed accounts like FedEx and their 4000 trucks.  

“Because of that, we’re consistently steady.  Now, we’re out searching for other fleet accounts; we’re growing in leaps and bounds.  We’ve added 2 new people in the last week.  But it all comes back to ‘We sell value.’

“When we landed FedEx, we were a very small shop.  Went from selling 21 a month to over triple that.  Overnight.  When they first started with us, we got so behind that we had to call them for help.  We were about two to three weeks behind.  It’s a situation they’ve dealt with before and were able to help us through the process.  Now we try to keep six, eight, 10 units on the shelf at all times.  There was excitement, fear, all rolled into one.  Scary and wonderful all at the same time.”

While they’re certainly not a certifiable giant in the industry, it’s quite possible that their ideas could get them there--and with the distinct possibility that they’ll send your transmission the day you order it, you’re looking at a can’t miss situation.  Add to that the fact that you’re paying several thousand less than you’d pay at your dealership--and for an improved transmission, and you’re talking about way, way more than just a simple value. 

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