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  #16  
Old 05-20-2005, 08:55 PM
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Join Date: May 2001
Location: Michigan
Posts: 1,373
I had to take the financial REPAIR risks out of my life for awhile (5 daily drivers). The most I've spent now in five years of repairing these is $115 in one shot. Before I got into MB's, I couldn't ever predict when a stealership would nab me for $1000 or so. Now I'm in control.

You might ask, 'What if you blow an engine?'. I'd smile and say, I have one out back in a parts car that is waiting for a chance to prove itself. Total cost.....one weekend. I pay an average of $500 for a parts car. Then I take between $1500-2000 off it. Finally, I take it to the crusher.



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DAILY DRIVERS:
'84 300DT 298k (Aubrey's)
'99.5 Jetta TDI IV 251k (Julie's)
'97 Jetta TDI 127k (Amber's)
'97 Jetta TDI 186k (Matt's)
'96 Passat TDI 237k (Don's
'84 300D 211k Mint (Arne- Undergoing Greasecar Conversion)

SOLD:
'82 240D 229k (Matt's - Converted-300DT w/ 4 speed
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  #17  
Old 05-20-2005, 10:09 PM
Coming back from burnout
 
Join Date: Jun 1999
Location: in the Pacific Northwest
Posts: 2,274
Anyway in Heaven

we can do this for phun without having things like Work, Mid-Life Crises, Stress, Money, the Lawn to contend with
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  #18  
Old 05-20-2005, 10:14 PM
Hatterasguy's Avatar
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Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Milford, CT
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It's fun. I like working on and playing with old stuff. I also have always like MB's.

Its not just cars for me, boats to. I'd love to do what I am doing on my car but on a grander scale. Say 53ft Hat scale or maybe a Trumpy!
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  #19  
Old 05-20-2005, 10:53 PM
franklyspeaking's Avatar
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Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Moulton, Alabama
Posts: 396
The 123 diesels are the last of the all mechanical cars. It is the newest non-electronic car available. The 240D is the simplist of the 123's. That's why I bought it and have driven it for the past 10 years....and plan to drive it until either it or I die. I am quite sure that with this forum's help and a little work on my part, I can fix anything that goes wrong.
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  #20  
Old 05-21-2005, 11:05 AM
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 262
While we are on the subject when did fixing your own car become some kind of exotic hobby ? In my day, you could walk down the street on Saturday and see a guy painting his house, another guy working on his boat, someone else fixing his car, the next guy planting a garden etc. When did this kind of thing become unusual?

For me, I first noticed it about 15 years ago. I had to clear out a lot of old VW's and English sports cars I had accumulated, all projects. It astonished me that I could not sell a car for $500 that needed $1000 worth of work, when the finished car was worth $4000 to $5000. I actually had guys offer to buy a car for $5000 rather than $500 if I would do the repairs.

Times have changed. It seems the average guy today knows only 3 things. He knows whatever it is he does for a living, just barely well enough to get by. He knows everything about professional sport that you can learn by watching TV. And he knows how to play video games.
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  #21  
Old 05-21-2005, 11:10 AM
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Blue Point, NY
Posts: 25,396
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ganaraska

Times have changed. It seems the average guy today knows only 3 things. He knows whatever it is he does for a living, just barely well enough to get by. He knows everything about professional sport that you can learn by watching TV. And he knows how to play video games.
.............and, when such an individual pays huge sums of money to get vehicles, appliances, houses, etc. repaired/replaced, I wish somebody would explain to me how said individual pays for it all.

I simply don't understand it?
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  #22  
Old 05-21-2005, 11:20 AM
boneheaddoctor's Avatar
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Hells half acre (Great Falls, Virginia)
Posts: 16,007
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Carlton
.............and, when such an individual pays huge sums of money to get vehicles, appliances, houses, etc. repaired/replaced, I wish somebody would explain to me how said individual pays for it all.

I simply don't understand it?
They call that being heavily in debt..........................
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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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"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
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  #23  
Old 05-21-2005, 11:39 AM
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Location: Blue Point, NY
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Quote:
Originally Posted by boneheaddoctor
They call that being heavily in debt..........................
If that lifestyle causes a person to accumulate debt, then where does it stop?

Once they accumulate $50K on the credit cards, how do they continue the lifestyle??

Refinance the house??
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  #24  
Old 05-21-2005, 11:44 AM
Coming back from burnout
 
Join Date: Jun 1999
Location: in the Pacific Northwest
Posts: 2,274
Average consumer debt is...

The personal credit card debt carried by the average American is $8,562 and the total interest paid in 2001 was $50 billion.... an average of $1000 in interest per consumer. The average consumer caries 8 cards and 20% of cards are maxed out.

Its tough times. We try to be frugal. I would like to pass something on to those after me...
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  #25  
Old 05-21-2005, 01:22 PM
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 262
"and, when such an individual pays huge sums of money to get vehicles, appliances, houses, etc. repaired/replaced, I wish somebody would explain to me how said individual pays for it all."

But they don't. When something breaks they pitch it out the window and buy a new one. In the case of cars and houses, that's when I step in and out of the goodness of my heart, buy their castoffs for 5 cents on the dollar.
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  #26  
Old 05-21-2005, 02:30 PM
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Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Holland, MI
Posts: 1,316
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Carlton
Once they accumulate $50K on the credit cards, how do they continue the lifestyle??
They used to declare Bankruptcy, and start all over again. There is a movement to make that path a lot more difficult...
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  #27  
Old 05-21-2005, 03:03 PM
Member since 2000
 
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Location: Flemington, NJ
Posts: 1,143
Ah yes, we are a frugal bunch!
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  #28  
Old 05-21-2005, 03:18 PM
Diesel forever
 
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Canada
Posts: 291
Why do I own/maintain a 240D?
After marriage separation 6 years ago, I needed something to make me feel good about life. I had always wanted a Benz, so found a rust-free local one that had not been winter driven, had been well maintained and looked great. Bought filters and other parts online, ordered the shop manuals, and have been doing most of my maintenance since. I drive it in Spring-Summer-Fall, and love it's AC in the summer. For me, the 240D/300D W123's are a fine example of the "Forever Car" that VW Bus guru Bob Hoover used to talk about (in his case, the venerable air-cooled VW Bus). A way to snub our noses at obscolescence-driven car market, while learning/using some good honest skills (which, as others have noted here, seem to be a rare commodity in car owners these days - about the most technical thing most people do to their cars is run the shopvac through it in the spring!). While not a perfect car, I find my 240D an extremely well-engineered car, the W123 being the last in a long line of Benz diesel automobiles going back to the 30's (the more recent diesel Benz's are just not the same). There have been a few times in the last 5 years where I have thought of selling it (came close once!). I have 3 vehicles (an old Corolla winter beater, and a Land-Rover truck), so the time required for maintaining them was getting to me, and the thought of having a 4-5 year old Air-Cooled Camry was appealing. All it takes is one drive in the Benz to make me realize that I cannot sell this car. It is just so much more of a car than an equivalent priced Japanese used car could ever hope to be. So basically, it's worth a lot more to me than what I could get for it on the market.
And yeah, I love the simplicity/reliability/durability of diesel. My Land-Rover is diesel too (another "forever car").
--Robert
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  #29  
Old 05-21-2005, 04:36 PM
mattdave
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reasons

I must be insane and they run no matter what breaks at least long enough to get home. There just great fun to drive, fix, and admire. They are extremely economical. There inexpensive and at the rate I crash them on the fire roads in the hills that is very important.
DHS
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  #30  
Old 05-21-2005, 08:32 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Geographically challenged on the S.W shores of Lake Michigan in S,E Wisconsin
Posts: 1,160
hobby? hobby?? HOBBY????

4800 bucks in cars and you call this a hobby?? (i know it ain't a lot but its my starting point)

bike riding is a hobby.

puttering in the garden is a hobby.

collecting stamps and comic books is a hobby.

collecting wvo and brewing biodiesel is a hobby.

working on cars, changing oil and filters, blowing off work for a tranny you don't need, obsessing over every squeak and imagined wrong noise from the acc is a deperately sick compulsion.

glad i don't have the acc.


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currently
[1981 300 td tdidi 165500 dark brown/palamino-Brownie-mine-3k miles of ownership
1983 240d 162+++ Anthricite grey w/ henna red interior and hella lights-wifes car-Red

the above two cars are for sale
and can be seen on the cars for sale thread here. pix also available.


240d-144+ Manilla Yellow w/ palmino interior-greasecar kit-Blondie-the college kids car

23" gt 21 speed still on original tires-still got the nubs
21" khs tandem
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