I work at a company that supplies chassis components primarily for Ford, GM, and Chrysler. A few people at work give me a little heat for driving ‘non-domestic’ cars, but most think that it is cool. When I drive my 1985 300D everyone knows that I am at work because it is by far the oldest car in the lot by age and style. I am constantly stared at on the road. You see I live near Defiance, Ohio where GM has the world’s larges cast iron foundry. This territory is big on ‘big three’ cars. There are imports, but they are few, therefore a W123 really stands out, bigtime.

Once in a while if I drive my wife’s 1999 E300 EVERYONE REALLY knows that I am at work and anyone outside at the smoking shack stares at me when I come in.

One of my co-works is from the U.K. and he thinks that I am all right since I drive European cars. He says that it is my job to show everyone else how good European cars are. I am not 100% convinced on that because he has a 1989 Jaguar XJ12 and I am not too impressed with some of it quality and engineering.