The car has just over 2000 km on it now, the last tank was relatively dismal at 7.9 L/100 km due to three hours of idling at the Canada/USA border on Nov 11.....plus lots of Vancouver urban driving.
I put the winter tires on steel rims today - Michelin Pilot Alpin PA2, in a V speed rating (good to 240 km/h, should be enough for a B 200 ). These handle FANTASTICALLY well, which is important to me due to the way I drive and the fact that it's rarely below freezing here.
I took the opportunity to clean up the hubs, which were starting to very lightly rust in a couple of spots, and I put a thin film of Never-Seize on them. The 5 spoke alloys the car came with look a lot better of course, but what the heck, some sacrificial wheels for bad roads is a good idea, I think. I have the plastic hubcaps for these, they don't look all that bad really. The five spoker alloys are made by Ronal, in Poland! Cool, huh?
Like Mike I don't like seeing rusty hubs. I have recently painted my hubs ( up to the point where the disc pad sweeps) with high temperature paint (disc pad paint good for up to 700 degrees). And of course applying a thin film of 'copperslip' between the wheel & hub.
There is nothing worse than looking through a nice set of alloys and seeing a rusty hub.
The Calipers on this B seem to have been coated with a sort of matt silver plating so I havn't touched those yet (my last Bs calipers looked quite shabby after about 6 months)
They will also get painted when they start looking 'old'
Excuse the mucky looking wheels they are due for a clean just took the photos to tie up with the post
I find the steering is somewhat too light and the car likes to wander a bit, according to road camber. I would have preferred more self-centering in the steering, and a firmer feel. It is Cadillac De Ville light when parking, but still too light on the highway. I guess I was used to the firm but assisted sterring in my 405, which was beautifully communicative and well weighted on the highway. It was one of the best handling cars of its time...
The fuel consumption seems to not be much affected by the snow tires, which is nice.
The pulse-wipe fiunction is nice but the button is a little too hard to push - the first detent (before the sprayer operates) should be less heavily sprung than it is.
The accelerator pedal spring is WAY too light. This is the opposite of my smart, where it is too heavy. So in the smart, I got a sore ankle after a few hours, and in the B 200 my lower leg muscle next to the shin gets a workout, holding the weight of my foot in the air! Fortunately both cars have cruise control!
Once again, my 405's accelerator pedal weighting was "just right". Maybe I just got used to it, because that car dod not have cruise
). These handle FANTASTICALLY well, which is important to me due to the way I drive and the fact that it's rarely below freezing here.
Linear Mode
