Attached is a photo of my 1978 300SD wearing its original license plate. Who can identify this mystery plate????

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Did you just pass my 740 at 200 kmh in a 300SD?????

1978 300SD 'Phil' - 1,315,853 Miles And Counting - 1, 317,885 as of 12/27/2012 - 1,333,000 as of 05/10/2013, 1,337,850 as of July 15, 2013, 1,339,000 as of August 13, 2013



100,000 miles since June 2005 Overhaul - Sold January 25th, 2014 After 1,344,246 Miles & 20 Years of Ownership

Looks like it says U.S.A., see a bit of photo wizardry attached

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

Very peculiar. It appears to have a license tab attached, which suggests it's not an exempt plate. That would seem to rule out government agencies.

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1981 Mercedes 300TD, 1994 Honda Civic Del Sol
http://mefi.us/images/fuelly/smallsig-us/67195.pnghttp://mefi.us/images/fuelly/smallsig-us/103885.png

It does in fact say 'USA.' It does in fact have an expiration decal too....

__________________
Did you just pass my 740 at 200 kmh in a 300SD?????

1978 300SD 'Phil' - 1,315,853 Miles And Counting - 1, 317,885 as of 12/27/2012 - 1,333,000 as of 05/10/2013, 1,337,850 as of July 15, 2013, 1,339,000 as of August 13, 2013



100,000 miles since June 2005 Overhaul - Sold January 25th, 2014 After 1,344,246 Miles & 20 Years of Ownership

That's a plate for US forces in Germany. It looks like the 1974-1983 vintage which matches your car. The tag is the month and the expiration year in super tiny print.

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-Evan


Benz Fleet:
1968 UNIMOG 404.114
1998 E300
2008 E63


Non-Benz Fleet:
1992 Aerostar
1993 MR2
2000 F250

Kar-Tec is correct.

The car was bought in Germany by a service member and driven there for 2 years. The plates expired in 1980.

The car was converted to U.S. Spec when imported. They even changed the bumpers and disabled the rear fog light!!!!!

How did you know????

__________________
Did you just pass my 740 at 200 kmh in a 300SD?????

1978 300SD 'Phil' - 1,315,853 Miles And Counting - 1, 317,885 as of 12/27/2012 - 1,333,000 as of 05/10/2013, 1,337,850 as of July 15, 2013, 1,339,000 as of August 13, 2013



100,000 miles since June 2005 Overhaul - Sold January 25th, 2014 After 1,344,246 Miles & 20 Years of Ownership

I wish I could claim to know it off the top of my head but I'm a pretty good internet researcher...

http://www.worldlicenseplates.com/jpglps/FO_US_Germany_GI2.jpg

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-Evan


Benz Fleet:
1968 UNIMOG 404.114
1998 E300
2008 E63


Non-Benz Fleet:
1992 Aerostar
1993 MR2
2000 F250

BAM...Kartek

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1981 300TD "The Green Lantern"
1980 300TD
1983 300D Euro "China Cat"

I just happened to see the exact same car, minus whitewalls in Reno today. The plate read 78 MBZ. Member here?

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 400,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 22,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.

(before joining the Army) There was an office building my neighbor worked in and there was a box full of those green plated - never issued. We threw them out with some scrap metal, shoulda kept them. But I do have an "HK" - 'Heeres Kommando' and an "AD" - 'American Driver' or 'Amerikaner (in) Deutschland.'

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1987 300D (230,000 mi on a #14 head-watching the temp gauge and keeping the ghost in the machine)
Raleigh NC - Home of deep fried sushi!

So I wonder what the 'NW' prefix means????

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Did you just pass my 740 at 200 kmh in a 300SD?????

1978 300SD 'Phil' - 1,315,853 Miles And Counting - 1, 317,885 as of 12/27/2012 - 1,333,000 as of 05/10/2013, 1,337,850 as of July 15, 2013, 1,339,000 as of August 13, 2013



100,000 miles since June 2005 Overhaul - Sold January 25th, 2014 After 1,344,246 Miles & 20 Years of Ownership

It was a Euro-spec 300SD?

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Stop paying for animal enslavement, cruelty, and slaughter. Save your health and the planet. Go vegan! I did 18 years ago. https://challenge22.com/

DON'T MESS WITH MY MERCEDES!


1967 W110 Universal Wagon, Euro, Turbo Diesel, Tail Fins, 4 Speed Manual Column Shift, A/C
1980 W116 300SD Turbo Diesel, DB479 Walnut Brown, Sunroof, Highly Optioned, 350,000+ Miles

"disabled the rear fog light!!!!!" Sheeesh!
Did they confiscate the trunk-triangle too?

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

Mercedes couldn't sell the cars with the trunk triangles in the USA because they weren't regulation size!

__________________
Stop paying for animal enslavement, cruelty, and slaughter. Save your health and the planet. Go vegan! I did 18 years ago. https://challenge22.com/

DON'T MESS WITH MY MERCEDES!


1967 W110 Universal Wagon, Euro, Turbo Diesel, Tail Fins, 4 Speed Manual Column Shift, A/C
1980 W116 300SD Turbo Diesel, DB479 Walnut Brown, Sunroof, Highly Optioned, 350,000+ Miles

Someone on this forum claimed that anything not on the DOT list wasn't allowed.
Unfortunately, the only MB trunk-triangle I had, got sold with my Euro-delivery 240D, to a neigbor. If I'd known that the car would eventually be stolen and torched, I would've hung on to it (along with a few other items)
My '84 Euro TD did come with a German folding triangle in a plastic case. And many years ago, I found a similar pair of cased German folding triangles in someone's curbside trash. Today, I carry them in my 240Ds. Too bad if they're not 'regulation-size'!

On a similar note, apparently the flash-to-pass headlight feature must hve been illegal here, as my '60 Fintail has the switch built into the turn-signal, but the wiring and relay aren't there.

Locally, here in Virgnia, Euro-headlights used to be prohibited by state safety inspection regulations. Many years ago, my Dad purchaed a Euro 250SE. A PO had installed the 'legal' US stacked sealed-beam headlights, but the first time we got the car inspected, the inspector made us remove the factory foglights, citing some rule prohibiting more than 4 headllights on a car!
However, I reinstalled them when my parents moved to Virginia Beach, and Dad never had any inspection issues there!

Many '50s imports, such as the VW Beetle and Morris Minor, used to have 'semaphore' turn-signal flags that would pop out from the door-posts. I would occasionally ask the owner of one of these cars why these items were broken-off or missing and was told that inspectors insisted the 'semaphores' had to be 'removed' to pass inspection.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW