My MB is yet to be ready for registration but if were on the road now I'd prolly be idling all over the place......My shut off isn't working properly. I shut my cars off at train croissings or other traffic stops that I antipate will be longer than 20-30 seconds...I don't have a stop watch or anything I just shut it off if it feels right....In the Winter I'm drivong a diesel and its not warm yet I will let it idle...In my experience we (gross generilization of Americans) will start to observe less idling as fuel prices rise.

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Rob M
Norwich, VT USA
1980 240D Euro delivery 4 speed manual silver/blue
~160K miles

He was POed because he didn't have a life, much less a truly decent ride like a Mercedes-Benz™. You looked like an easy target for his internalized bitterness and therefore, received his junk mail. At least he confronted you directly.

Around here, the bureaucracy has enabled loosers like that to have the state do their dirty work. The TNRCC has an on-line reporting form where anybody, regardless of IQ or mental capacity can anonymously report you for excessive exhaust smoke whether or not the vehicle is actually violating the law. I'm currently in the process of collecting an entire set of these letters, one for each of my diesels.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

Crap cars get 'nicked' here all the time; in fact, it's a gangmember's rite-of-passage to steal a car...the easier, the better.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

My dad called me laughing a few months saying that someone had reported the 300SD for smoking and he had received a letter. My 300D hardly smokes, but the 300SD will blind you under full acceleration, it rarely gets driven hard like mine. I think I'll visit that website, maybe report a few METRO buses while I'm at it.
-Joe

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

Joe,
I strongly recommend putting the shoe back on the foot it came from by reporting each and every state-owned vehicle that you can get the tag number from. Overloading that particular zero-accountability reporting system would be an elegant way 'fight back.'

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

Mercedes resentment is very common . If yours was another make he probably would have said nothing .

I got a letter from SCAQMD?...here in LA because my vacuum pump diaphragm had developed a hole in it and the engine oil was being sucked into the intake. It created enormous clouds of smoke after a freeway jaunt and has since been fixed of course, but it did keep tailgaters with their H-beams permanently on at bay.

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1974 240D 3.0L 4(M) - 250K -OM617.910 + 300D FW + Rajay turbo power!
1977 6.9 3(A) - 84k

As it turns out, that Sunoco station was right off an exit of I-95. It's cloudy here and I'm doing o.k.

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Anders

1995 E300
2015 VW TDI Sportwagen 15K
1977 240D (197K)
2002 Subaru Legacy L Wagon (115k) (Wife's)
Gone but not forgotten:
2005 Buick LeSabre
1998 C230
1984 300D
1983 240D
1981 300SD
1974 240D
1974 Fiat 124 Spider
1968 Triumph TR250

It's my firm belief that this guy just wanted to be an ass. He comes in shouting asking who owns the car, first asking a lady with her two young kids in a very rude way. If he had asked nicely, it may have been a different matter all together.. I was asked once before to turn my car off while idling by a nice person, I gladly complied.

Sounded like this guy had a chip on his shoulder and wanted to give his "junk mail" to me.. I wasn't going to take it from him and didn't. And I certainly WASN'T going to turn my car off for him under any circumstance short of the police. He can go take his aggression out on someone else.

I hear ya......I don't bend over for knuckleheads either.....You did the right thing by me.

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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

All I am hearing here is justifications for acting rude in return for someone acting rude.
Fighting road rage with road rage is part of what ills our society.
Why not try to put a different spin on it, change the interaction for the better?
If we want a thoughtful society, we need to be actors in making that happen...

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Think Alternative Energy!
300CD '80 (now gone but not forgotten...)

What am I supposed to say? "Yes kind sir, I'll go shut off my car now since you yelled at me!! Sorry to have upset you!!" (walking away with tail between legs)

The addition of a pair of M257 Smoke Grenade Dischargers would give diesel drivers the flexibility to obscure their license plate tags from the insidious swine who would report them to the STASI.

They should be a dealer installed option.

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Anders

1995 E300
2015 VW TDI Sportwagen 15K
1977 240D (197K)
2002 Subaru Legacy L Wagon (115k) (Wife's)
Gone but not forgotten:
2005 Buick LeSabre
1998 C230
1984 300D
1983 240D
1981 300SD
1974 240D
1974 Fiat 124 Spider
1968 Triumph TR250

I've heard diesels use about 1/6th the fuel that a comparable gas engine does while idling. However, emissions tests show that idling any engine produces disproportionally high levels of emissions.

I occasionally idle the diesel, but only in certain circumstances, like if it is incredibly cold out or something. Partly for the fuel/emissions reason, but partly for the theft reason. Idling cars get stolen all the time around here, locked doors or not.

I believe people have the right to request things of their fellow citizens, since we do live in a 'community' with shared space, shared roads, shared air, etc. However, it sounds like this guy was just being a jerk. Having the right to make a polite request of someone does not mean you have the right to be a holy warrior jerk-off.

peace,
sam

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"That f***in' biodiesel is makin' me hungry."

1982 300TD Astral Silver w/ 250k (BIO BNZ)
2001 Aprilia SR50 Corsa Red w/ 5.5k (>100 MPG)

I have been in similar situations and I just tell them " I am so very sorry... but my GIVE - A- DAM is broken today!

I would not say that to the 'man" though