I was 18 in 1998 and purchased my 1st a creampuff 1990 300sel champane on champane interior, and like you I always was teased i was driving my daddys car or grandpas car.. but the real case was is I worked my ass off to get the car, I was ripped off from the stealer, lets just say with interest the car cost me 42000 dollars young and stupid and signed with a 22 percent interest plust over paid for the car by 5k but I bought it right from the mercedes benz lot, anyway sad store I had nothing but problems with the engine which i later found out that this was common problem with the 300sel and I brought it back to the dealer and they said it was fine, make a long story short I ended up taking a huge loss after 4 years of ownership. Next Mercedes 2002 w140 1996 ooooh the next level. with 18 inch amg mono's white on dark tan interior.. 2006 w140 has seen better days starting to fall apart seems like everything is breaking on it need to upgrade to a 99 s500 low miles........