Needed 4 seats as have 3 kids (I can run them all to school if I work from home - shame can't get all 5 of the family in - but then that's what the Galaxy 7 seater is for!
I don't do a lot of miles but when I go to work (35-45 mins) I like to sit in something that feels comfortable and looks just as good on the inside as the out.
No need for 4 doors and want something sporty (mid life crisis? 38 years?) so why not treat myself.
Had a Ford Cougar - lovely to look at insde & out but when at 110k miles things started to go wrong I knew I needed to upgrade.
THought of convertible - why not? It doesn't rain that much in Scotland and spoke to a car friend who had a cab and swore by them.
Considered Volvo C70, but then realised that for a few £ more I could get first class build of Merc (also volvo looked ugly inside and wyellowing plastic)
Loved my toys so waited for avantgarde, 73k miles, full MB history, immaculate both inside & out (including reprayed bumper cos the guy who sold it said it had too many stone chips), AMG alloys,cruise, leather, the usual, wanted control steering wheel too (the std square one I think is too ugly) all for £8600 ($17k) - books at £10k so I got a bargain.
Only had it a week and have already cleaned and protected the hood (black came up good as new!), Mer waxed the whole car (love that beading!), new AMG grille, DVD/SD player being installed next week.
What I didn't bargain for is famed durability from writers to this website - I like this!
Love the looks you get from people (esp when I have my 3 kids in the car and the roof down)
And the final reason - inherited some money from my late mum 12 months ago. She saved all her life to retire and go round the world, then got divorced by my dad and had 2 brain tumours and died by 61.
So, you're a long time dead - let's have as much fun while we're on this planet!
needed a car to seat our family of 6 in October. wanted a fuel efficient car. also wanted a safe car. decided the R320CDI was the best car out there for our needs.
I originally had a 2000 ML55 (For Sale BTW...contact me) but got rid of it to a family member for a Audi S4 which was a lot faster but just as expensive to maintain. Dumped the Audi and decide to go a whole new direction, as I am sick of making oil companies obscenely rich while normal people struggle to fill up their tanks. I just bought a 1 owner 84 300SD and plan on putting in a Elsbett kit, 30 years of vegetable oil conversion work in Germany in the next few weeks. The specific reasons I picked a 126 chassis is because:
1) They are (IMHO) the last of the "true" M-B's. Not to say that the newest models aren't really nice and they do have incredibly cool features, but as far as being Bulletproof the early 80's car have them trumped.
2) The OM617 engine is, as stated above, Bulletproof. I mean 1,000,000 miles!!!!
Because I realized that they invented, and continue to produce the best (in most any aspect) automobiles in the world. Period.
Beforehand, I was mostly infatuated with the Chrysler brand, and still enjoy many of their vehicles (mostly pre-1970) but then I looked at a Mercedes-Benz.
And, after owning a W202, and now a W140... driving ANYTHING else feels strange, and you can really tell the lacking of good quality, craftsmanship, appearance, and the biggest thing I would call "ergonomics."
Have you been in other vehicles, and while driving you thought "WTF? why did they make it this way." It's happened many-a-time for me, especially considering I drive a different car every week since I travel on business (every week) And wow, some things i've come across, it's like WTF? Nobody knows how to design a car properly?
Although, I'll probably hand it to BMW/Audi/VW and a select few other brands, some do know how to build vehicles correctly, Mercedes does the finest job, and has been doing it longer than anybody else.
I chose "other" because I bought the 280ce for it's build quality. I'd never had the money to buy a new car and I was sick of the old american cars I'd always had that were built so poorly.
I bought my first and only Mercedes Benz in 2002 and never looked back. I got tired of American iron and decided to join the rest of the family. Its a fun car to drive and I don't mind working on it.
_______________________ autopartswarehouse blog
Location: Alabama Gulf Coast--formerly Charlottesville, VA
Posts: 152
My first MB was a 1971 280 SEL 4.5 that I bought in 1981 with 100k on the clock. I drove it 4 years and 44k miles and sold it for what I paid. It was a great car and it parted traffic like a blue light bar. I fiddled with various substitutes until 1997 when I bought a '94 E-class. It was a great dead-stone reliable vehicle for over 100k miles. I traded it in 2004 for a Lexus GS 300. This year, I bought my '04 S430. I go other places and find good, well-made cars, but I always come back to Mercedes. I have said that my "dream car" is an Audi A8L, but after driving the S-class, I'm not sure what Audi can offer that will trump the big Benz. My car is a Base 430, but it is as fully equipped as I want. I'm averaging 22 mpg in mixed driving, except when I stiffen up the suspension and find a road where I can let the big dog eat. It's deceptively fast, drives smaller than its size, and offers all the comfort the driver and passengers could ask. Never mind the the unmistakable presence of the flagship of the line still grants the driver exception from the limitations of the drivers of lesser cars. Around here, C-class models are as common as Camrys, and various flavors of CLKs are everywhere, but you don't see an S-class in every parking space, so there is something to be said for that. My wife has an '04 Lexus LS 430, and the undeniable Lexus reliability notwithstanding, it's not the same as my S-class. Maybe the most telling thing is you never hear anyone say "It's almost as good as a Lexus" or any other car--the comment is "It's almost as good as a Mercedes." That says it all.
__________________ "It's not ignorance that causes the problems in the world; it's knowing so many things that aren't so."--Will Rogers
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