A distinguished older gentleman came to our yard sale this weekend in a Late 70's/early 80's Mercedes Diesel Sedan. (kinda like the photo, I didn't get the exact year) It looked showroom new. While not an exciting sports car, it had a great mix of classic lines and modern engineering and will probably still be running well after I am dead. He rocked a dark suit and tie on Saturday morning to go to a yard sale. Very suave, I am betting he doesn't always drink beer, but when he does...
There's one of these on the Gainesville, Fl CL. It's already been converted to bio-diesel operation. Bad? It's that almost ubitquitous (for the '70s) chocolate brown color. The Good? (depends on your point of view, I suppose) It has a 4 speed manual transmission
I don't know if the 2 door "coupe" model of these was available as a diesel, but I'd rather have the 2 door.
People say those Mercedes Benz cars are built like tanks, but I'd suggest tanks were built like these M-Bs.
My dad had one. It had a good ride, felt safe, but terribly slow. Slow to the point of dangerous. It did not return fantastic MPG, and the lack creature comforts really wore on me after a while. He replaced it with an Oldsmobile Intrigue, possibly the most boring car ever, but the Intrigue does knock down decent MPG (25-26 in mixed, mainly rural driving), has good power (Team 3800!) and is just as roomy and safe feeling. The keyless entry, power windows and locks, and modern HVAC are just the icing on the cake.
I would say they are neat as a novelty but I wouldnt want to commute in one, and I can get a lot more bang for my buck for a weekend car.
RossD wrote: People say those Mercedes Benz cars are built like tanks, but I'd suggest tanks were built like these M-Bs.
New cars aren't this strong. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqMEGA76HsE
In reply to 93gsxturbo:
The not-so-fantastic mpg has to be viewed in context of the other available engines though. Especially the sixes have a bit of a drinking problem...
I agree with them being slow - I wouldn't want one with a smaller engine than the fairly rare-ish 3L five pot.
The one I mentioned in G'ville is a 240....so must be quite slow.
I've been living without the "creature comforts" most take for granted, mostly 'cause I don't care to fix them. But I do have to admit, that in my order of preference, my next car will have cruise, maybe remote locking/unlocking, and power windows. My Dad's '02 Taurus has the remote trunk lid release, that's a nice (no longer really) extra, too.
Yeah, old Benzes are still a benchmark of class.
I remember a feature in Dwell (architecture magazine) years ago about a classy older gay couple and their amazing mid-century modern home. In the garage was an early-70's Mercedes (can't remember the model) that matched the class of the house.
Kenny_McCormic wrote:RossD wrote: People say those Mercedes Benz cars are built like tanks, but I'd suggest tanks were built like these M-Bs.New cars aren't this strong. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqMEGA76HsE
That was cool! The car has a problem with offset frontal collisions though; check out this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=rW1wGa9wAmw&feature=endscreen
They only show a couple quick shots of the offset frontal - the only one showing the bulk of it is the "edge detection" enhanced one so it's b&w line drawing but the car just folds up like an accordion.
You'll need to log in to post.
