Mine was a 69 Jeep Commando. Paid $900 for it in 1972. Sometimes it wouldn't start so I had to park on an incline and pop the clutch (or have girlfriend give it a push ) Probably still worth $900 if I still had it

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BENZ THERE DONE THAThttp://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...c/progress.gif
15 VW Passat TDI
00 E420
98 E300 DT
97 E420 Donor Car - NEED PARTS? PM ME!
97 S500
97 E300D
86 Holden Jackaroo Turbo D
86 300SDL
(o\|/o)

My first car was a '75 Ford Maverick, bought new by my fiancee, metallic green with a lighter green fabric interior, auto, air, power steering (but no power brakes), AM only Philco (!) radio. After what seemed like centuries of riding buses and cadging rides from friends, I loved driving it and learning about it as I changed oil and coolant.

She kept the car when we separated, but I had seen it coming and bought a '65 Mercury Park Lane, the giant sedan with the reverse-slanting power rear window. Again, easy to work on. I drove it for 4 years until I got into a '74 Volvo 164, which was fun to drive until the fuel line broke one night and it burned up while I was driving it. (Yes, I got away.)

Then:
1984 Ford Escort 4-door. Had a breakdown or tire flat at least once a year for almost 7 years.
1989 Olds Cutlass Coupe. Smooth and quick, with a split bench seat and auto shift on the column. I liked it so much I replaced it with a . . .
1994 Olds Cutlass Coupe. Very much like the previous one, but with only 30,000 miles on it. I told people since it was so much like the '89, it was like remarrying your first wife, but she's lost a few pounds and picked up a few new tricks.
Then, Benzes:
A '77 450SL for a month; didn't like it for every day, so:
'84 280CE (W123 coupe). Lovely and tight, but the six was sort of underpowered at Denver's altitude, so:
'86 420SEL. Big grey beast and I were together for more than 5 years, until some idiot sideswiped it in its parking place, and I decided to total it and buy:
'97 C230. Gold with creme MB-Tex, smooth and quick and sturdy, with the best gas mileage I've gotten since the second Olds.

Ten cars in 28 years of driving. . . .

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-- Paul W. (The Benzadmiral)
('03 Buick Park Avenue, charcoal/cream)
Formerly:
'97 C230, smoke silver/parchment; '86 420SEL, anthracite/light grey; '84 280CE (W123), dark blue/palomino

Hello,
1.1975 Opel Manta A-sold,rock solid handling, fantastic styling by Chuck Jordan.
2.1959 Mercedes benz 190SL-sold to Japanese collector,muscle building controls.
3.1966 VW Type 3 Karmann Ghia-sold to above,shrunked German Corvair.
4.1977 Mercedes Benz 300D-sold,great car and still running.
5.1982 BMW 633Csi-sold, babe magnet.
6.1985 BMW 535i-sold, Q-car, very fast.
7.1966 VW Type 1 Karmann Ghia-sold,owned in US unrestored original with NO rust, a conversation piece.
8.1980 Mercedes Benz 500SL-current, aggressive performance and styling.
9.1976 Mercedes Benz 200-current, dependable but tatty around the edges.
Oh, and 1980 Volvo 264GL-sold.

That is a lot of German cars for one guy, I must have been a Prussian in another life
Have a good week

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Nachi11744

My first ride was a 1985 Jeep Cherokee... got it in 2000 when I was 16 for free seeing as how it was my mom's. It was alright...all blue vinyl interior (I'm talking everything.. seats, floor, not a spot of cloth in it), plus it had the oh so wonderful 2.8 V6 made by GM (Jeep didn't offer the 4.0 I6 until 1986 I believe). Sold it to a friend of mine with about 160,000 on the clock in 2001 for $1000, and that is when I got my '83 300D for $1750 with 195K. After a paint job and many parts later... I've got a beautiful car with 234,000 miles that I love driving, even here at UCF where "rice is nice". Most kids my age (20) just don't understand. Although there is a student here with a right-hand drive manual 300D I see every so often.

1969 VW bug bought for $250. It was rusted so bad you could check the tread without getting out of the car. I really avoided puddles with it. I worked for an adhesives company at the time and encapsulated it with expired industrial urethane. I had a friend who's wife seized the engine in a squareback and let me part it our, I must have taken $100,000 worth of piece parts out of it, including an entire headlight assembly I mounted on an angle iron on the back bumper as an auxiliary back-up light. Funny how nobody ever came up behind me with their high beams on in that car.

My first car was a 64 Valiant Signet 200 two door coupe. It had light blue carpet, lt.blue bucket seats, metalic lt.blue body and white vinyl roof. Powered with a 225 slant six coupled to a factory 4 speed with Hurst shifter. I believe it was the fore runner to the Baracuda. It was only 7 years old and needed a new engine. Got it for $50 and put a 170 slant six in it and then let my girlfriend test drive it right into a lamp pole!

The first one was a '29 Model 'A' Ford business coupe. Was barely running, but fairly complete. Drove it home to Cincy from Lawrenceburg, Ind with only four inches of play in the steering wheel. Three speed on the floor, all straight cut gears, no synchro, spark lever & hand throttle on the tree, accelerator button and starter button on the floor. No turn signals, only one tail light, no radio, but had a manifold heater. Top leaked as was all cloth and wood above the belt line. Rebuilt it mechanically in the afternoons and evenings of the next two years while going to high school. Then drove it to college for four years. Initial cost was $125.00 and had less than $450 in it when the driving started. Those were the days. Still have it, but has not run in many years. Had really wanted my Grandmother's '33 Chrysler 6 cyl sed, but it got sold when I was only nine, so this had to do.

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1961 190Db retired
1968 220D/8 325,000
1983 300D 164,150

First car, 1965 Pontiac Bonneville. Paid $150 for it. It was the car I "learned" how to drive in. Had it a couple of years, and mistakenly allowed my Dad to talk me into trading it in for a 1981 Mazda B2000. That big thirsty V8, floaty suspension, and full power steering that you could steer with your pinky finger. That was one hell of a ride.

'79 Pontiac Trans Am 6.6. I think I paid $1000 for it. That was in 1987.

It died in an engine fire 4 years later.

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'84 300CD Turbo 132k (Anthracite Grey) - WVO - My daily driver - Recently named coo-coo-coupe by my daughter.
'84 300D Turbo 240k (Anthracite Grey) - Garage Queen
'83 300D Turbo 220k (Orient Red) - WVO - Wifes daily driver

I'm not a certified mechanic, but I did stay at a HolidayInn Express last night.

'80 300SD: Originally purchased by my parents in '90 with 150k miles for around $3500. I eventually payed $3k to my parents for the car in '98/'99 when I was 16. I drove it mainly to highschool and on some trips. By this time it had wellover 220k miles. When I graduated in '01 it had wellover 300k miles and I ended up selling it that summer. The underbody suffered from rust do to past winters and the dealership wouldn't inspect it the next year, because of some suspension components. I sold it for around $1k and it was shipped to Florida. I imagine the engine is fitted into something as the underbody was the only bad thing about the car. After that car I flirted with some Chrysler products from the late 80's, mainly a Turbo Daytona and a Turbo LeBaron Conv't. To which never amounted to anything, other than a "creme puff" 190E from New Jersey.

'62 Ford Galaxie 500 Country Sedan wagon. 352 Big block with 3 spd auto. Nine passenger seating. No air. No power anything. Huge steering wheel as manual steering on that boat was a chore. Learn to parallel park in that thing and you can park anything anywhere. Had been folks' car. They gave it to me. Got it as senior in HS when right upper "A" arm broke loose from its front pivot and became a real trip to drive. (think eratic chanber changes of +20 degrees to -20 degrees as you drive from it flopping around) Folks were afraid of it after that. I got another A arm from a junk yard for $10, put it on and eye-balled the camber settings. Drove it for awhile till the transmission gave out. Seems all those years of my mother turning around by our house (pull up, throw in reverse, back up around corner, put in drive and pull up to house, all without using the brake!) broke the mounting point for the reverse band in the transmission. Drove it for two months without reverse. Try driving anything for two days with out reverse! Sold it and began a string of cars now 36 cars long. What a ride!
One more thing. It had a generator with an out of round armature. My sister and I could have it out to replace the brushes in five minutes flat. And we did every two weeks.

First car I drove was a 1984 Audi 5000s...

My first car came after college - a 7 year old hand me down 62 Olds Starfire with a monster 394? ci engine. Four buckets, center shift chrome console extending from the dash to the rear window. I remember paying 16.9 cents a gallon for high test leaded. My first real job after college was $2.75 an hour, so it took an hour and half on the job to pay for a tank of gas at 8 mpg.

Two years later, my first car that I purchased was a 24 mpg VW Bug. Got me hooked on economy and German engineering ( real at that time, not marketed like today) . That car took me skiing every winter weekend for a few years.

'69 AMX. 390 inch motor with headers and an Offenhauser intake manifold. Borg Warner T-10A 4-speed with a Hurst comp+ shifter. Koni "sport setting" shocks and big fat rear sway bar to match the one in front. It was born with crappy Goodyear polyglass tires, but ran best on Goodrich Comp T/As. Nice tires. Ran many an autocross with it and even won a few. A drunk old lady blew it off the road after 100,000 miles.

Now, I see them on eBay for three times what I paid new.

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Norm in NJ
Next oil change at 230,000miles

Always wanted one and they were always out of my reach for a good one.

Same as an Austin Healy 3000...............always out of reach.

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Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
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Section 609 MVAC Certified
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"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche