is your diesel your main/only transpo or is it a "hobby" car--

[Carrameow]

The stress is off and I have a new 04 Toyota Corolla albeit my wife and kid have first dibs on it.
For the first time if I dont have a repair finished I can sleep all night and even wait until the weekend.
WHAT ARE YOUR SITUATIONS?

My personal experience was for a while I was running three cars, one with 170K; another at close to 400K and another at 230?K as my sole transportation.
Invariably one was in repair, another running great and another running conditionally. Other times, one was running conditionally and two were in repair.
On rarer days, three were running great.
I had a monster commute which occupied one car. That left whatever else was running for my kid and wife.
That made a hobby into a job. I was a motorpool mechanic not someone doing this for fun.
Invariably repairs got rushed and got made at funny times, like 1 am on a weeknite after I came home and took a nap. Mistakes didnt show up on a casual testdrive--they showed up on the Turnpike at 5 am on the way to work. Missing Tools showed up in funny places like the engine compartment
The killer was the last several months. My wife took the 91 Volvo into Manhattan and the catalytic got plugged. I had to spirit the car out of town at 2 am before it got impounded.

I will have to say this; the W123 300D is an indestructible, tough and forgiving car that is still my favorite and the one I put all my time into despite having a showcar 87 300D. Its saved me in incredible situations and still doesnt lose a drop of oil and runs smoothly despite mistakes I've made.

[pawoSD]

Everywhere I go is in my trusty '82 300SD. Its my only car to use personally....my dad switches around between the van and his '83. I have been driving mine over a year as a daily driver (all over the place) and it has never once let me down, not even in the worst of winter when I had to drive up my street (a hill) in amost 18" of snow.

[rwthomas1]

Look at my signature. I'm a true believer. Only been stranded once in 5yrs and that was the Jetta. Bad starter, wife couldn't get it started so I "rescued" her, rolled and bump started it and all was well. The only gasoline powered stuff I own is lawn equipment and model boats. It takes a lot of attention to preventive maintenence to keep 3 vehicles, 2 of which have over 200K, running perfectly. Its not difficult or particularly time consuming but I do make sure issues are addressed long before they become problems. RT

[DslBnz]

My mom had an '83 300TD(maroon/palomino tex) since '87. Sold it in '97. Not once EVER did she have anything stick her on the road. AC never failed either. Car was basically perfect all the time. She put on about 80K miles in 10 years. My God, what we took for granted. I couldn't understand why everyone was so impressed that my parents drove Mercedes. Their reaction looked similar to as if I were a multi-millionaire and themselves impressed with my wealth of assets. Those were the days.

[Carrameow]

I would like to post a picture of my 300D 85 W123.
I am starting to restore it vice just maintain it and drive it.
I am very proud of how I didnt give up on the engine after I accidentally plugged the breather hose and ran it to 1 quart of oil after a rushed 11pm repair. After that it sounded like it had a carcked exhaust manifold.
Everyone told me the car was toast.
I stuck a new Ip on it last month and have been tuning and tweaking and have optimized my timing after adjsuting it five times and even have been adjusting and even rotating my injectors every few days and have done the Lubro Moly thing.
TODAY I got my reward when a dealer mechanic said it sounded like a NEW ENGINE

[Hit Man X]

I drive my 300D about 4 days a week now that I own it. The other few days I drive my other other vehicles. Pair of trucks and a car.

[kmaysob]

i drive mine every day.to and from school,work,and anywhere else

[The Warden]

My 300D is my daily driver. She has her share of issues, to the point where I'm very seriously considering saving up the $$ to replace her with a 126 300SD. But, even given that, this car has never left me on the side of the road. I've had a few issues that I had to jury-rig on the road, and once had to take her out of service for a full month (and now that the truck's done, I may need to do so again to catch up on missed maintenance!), but she's never not done anything I've asked of her (which, with my commute and free time {or total lack thereof}, is quite a bit)...hands-down, the best vehicle I've ever owned. I just hope the 126 chassis follows in the 123's footsteps

[oilslick]

My '84 190D and my '85 300SD are daily drivers. My '82 300SD is a stress relieving project, no tags or insurance or else it would be a daily driver. My '79 300SD is a long-term project. It will be sometime before I have it on the road.

Kevin

[BrierS]

Six registered vehicles in the yard with three drivers. My '87 300TD is the one I head for most of the time. It took the place of my '77 VW bus (Type 2). I am still working on the '84 and it is not yet to a point I want to drive it much. The newer vehicles . . . if I have to. Acutually, I even like to hop on th Kubota (all-wheel drive) for the short drives from the house to the barn (shop). It is a diesel and I guess I have become addicted to the diesel smell.

I have been asked many times why the hoods are up on the MBs so often. People must think they are broken all of the time. They don't understand it is satisfying to sometimes just gaze under the hood and wipe some fuel, dirt or dust. Sick bunch we can become.

[rs899]

My wife can only drive automatics (so far) and her 300D had been the only one of those we had. I always feel pressure to make sure that one is up to snuff and when it needed work I had to give it priority. We just bought a W116 300SD that will serve as backup and take that pressure off. It probably wasn't anything like Carrameow's , though. I never lost any sleep over it because my wife stays at home with our 4 year old. But then the little one would miss out on pre-school and ballet...

[vwbuge]

I made the mistake of driving my SD everyday in the summer. I left my '91 Subaru sit all summer and now the SD is going into storage for the winter and I have to get the Subaru back into shape.

[oldnavy]

The 240D is my sort of daily driver. I may drive it one day, then not drive it for 2 or 3 days as I'm retired. The wife's Jetta TDI is driven daily by her and we usually take it on the out of town trips.

At the current rate of mileage being put on the Jetta (20k miles per year), it will pass the '83 240D in about 6 more years. The 240 just rolled over 150k miles last week.

[braverichard]

Mine isn't really just a hobby. I have a fleet of cars driven just by myself and occasionally by my girlfriend who lives with me. But I drive about 700 miles a week doing consultations with businesses. About 400 of those miles end up on my '84 300SD. The other 300 typically end up on the BMW. So I guess my 300SD is my daily driver. I bought it for that purpose anyway. Still haven't sold the Avalon though. :p

[boxscar]

i often wondered the same thing.. if others drove their cars everyday. i drive my 78 300D 65 miles roundtrip everyday. my son drives a 91 Jetta 80 miles everyday. we have a Toyota pickup for backup... seldom used.[/FONT]