Um, my wife helps me with that!

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14 E250 Bluetec 4Matic "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 154k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 172k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver, 142k mi, wastegate conversion

19 Honda CR-V EX 61k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife

Just to prove to you gentlemen that it's not entirely easy money....

So this guy picks up the 87 300D today....I give him a bill of sale and the title from the previous owner. I never registered the car, so to register he needs proof of my ownership in the form of proof that I paid the tax. I told him that I mailed the check a few days ago, and to wait to register the car until the tax check clears. But he tries to register anyway and the DMV turns him away. So now he's upset and thinks I'm some sort of scammer, that I never paid the tax....threatening me that if I don't pay the tax in person by NOON TOMORROW he's going to file a small claims court claim against me for the tax (about $215). I finally "talked him off the ledge" and he's going to give it till early next week....at which time if the check has NOT cleared I will go in IN PERSON and pay the tax AGAIN and then get REIMBURSED after the fact for paying twice.

Thanks for letting me vent....

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14 E250 Bluetec 4Matic "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 154k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 172k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver, 142k mi, wastegate conversion

19 Honda CR-V EX 61k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife

Justice enough for you, Tyler?

Sixto
87 300D^2

Yeah, I have a problem parting with these cars myself. I'd never make any money.

My brother keeps telling me I need a newer car with payments. He says, sell all those old cars and buy a new one.

Bah! Pft. Who needs payments and computers to worry about?

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Codifex
1981 240D ChinaBlue (Got her running with a donor engine.)
1983 300DTurbo w/sunroof.
1984 300TD manual sunroof. (Electrical Gremlins)

You could sell me a 190 5-speed partster at the moment or maybe a completely different model MB next time the wife pisses me off? I find dragging home old cars returns the favor to her.

Shertex - you know I was only teasing. Buy low sell high; stocks, cars, or whatever.

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You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime you just might find you get what you need.

Have you figured out how many $/hour you're making on these old cars? Might be better not to know, it tends to make that greeters job at Walmart look lucrative...

I think I'm doing pretty well....and certainly having a lot more fun than being a Walmart greeter.

For example, on the most recent one....87 300D that a guy sold to me rather than send it to the crusher (I was the only one who called on it so HE called ME back!). He drove it to me and I bought it for $420. Had fun with it for a couple of weeks, drove it around as my daily driver; changed oil, ATF, all filters, and shutoff valve, and washed and vacuumed it. So maybe $100 or so in fluids/parts. Paid $214 in tax. Then sold it to first guy who looked at it for $1750 (my asking price). My first time to do a shutoff valve, so took me longer than it would take you guys. But let's say, altogether, I put in a full day's work. And I netted $1000.

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14 E250 Bluetec 4Matic "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 154k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 172k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver, 142k mi, wastegate conversion

19 Honda CR-V EX 61k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife

What I'm curious about is how you manage to drive it during your vetting and repair process?

Here in NY, you'd need a registration and proper insurance. To get that, you must tender the old title and apply for a new title...........a 12 week process. The total cost with the sales tax is well over $500. even for a cheap vehicle.

The only other option is a dealers license with dealer plates, which carry a whole group of expensive requirements.

He does what he has to do. We have to promote the small business man in these hard times, not question how he gets around things. When I start looking for the 190D with a stick or the 220D standard I will hit up Shertex!

Yeah, well all that's for people who do things by the book.

If you are a curbstoner, who cares about insurance anyways(), after all the car is still in the name the poor sap who sold it to the flipper.

Then, when things go wrong, they ***** like a little girl about it. Shame on them.

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"I was a dirty bird, Carol's not grungey - she's *****in" John Milner....American Graffiti

With my carrier in RI, it's covered under my existing insurance for eleven days EVEN WITHOUT ADDING THE CAR TO THE POLICY. Also in RI, a car does not have to be REGISTERED in order to be INSURED. So, I can figure out a lot in eleven days. Then it sits in my driveway for as long as it needs to while I work on this and that. When it comes time to market it, I put up my ad and as soon as someone wants to test drive it, I add it to our policy. So the car is NEVER driven uninsured.

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14 E250 Bluetec 4Matic "Sinclair", Palladium Silver on Black, 154k miles
06 E320 CDI "Rutherford", Black on Tan, 172k mi, Stage 1 tune, tuned TCU
91 300D "Otis", Smoke Silver, 142k mi, wastegate conversion

19 Honda CR-V EX 61k mi
Fourteen other MB's owned and sold
1961 Very Tolerant Wife

It's in the name of the poor sap in the DMV records only. The sap has a proper bill of sale and, presumably, the sap took his plates with him, so the curbstoner is driving it with illegal plates.

It's all good if you have no assets but a person that stands to lose quite a bit cannot go this route.

How do you drive it legally without a registration? You'd need to use plates from another vehicle.

I never found a good way around this and am very hesitant to do it.

In some states plates stay with the car. So it is registered and has valid plates, though not yet to the new owner. Of course, this is legal and accepted during a defined grace period.

Texas used to keep the plate with the car. Now it's optional, though plates still go with motorcycles, trailers, etc. I believe this recent change in the law is intended to force more people to promptly register cars they purchase private party. You can print a temporary (5 day, I think) tag from the state DMV website.

What you can get away with appears to vary widely from state to state.

Ditto for Canadian provinces. When I lived in Ontario my insurer would put a 'rider' note on my policy anytime I went to buy a car out of town, to let me drive or trailer it back (with extra allowance for driving it around while work was done) with coverage, even if it was not yet transferred to my name and wasn't inspected. You used to be able to get seven-day transit stickers easily, not anymore now I think they only issue for 24 or 48 hrs.

Here in La belle province du Quebec, no insurer will touch you until the car is in your name AND has passed the provincial inspection (assuming it comes from outside Quebec). This is a huge PITA for shopping from afar.

I highly doubt any jurisdiction allows you to slap the plates from one car onto another. I used to do stuff like that ten or fifteen years ago, when I had a real fleet -- hell I drove one car with no plates whatsoever for a week and got away with it -- but I've become way more conservative about that stuff in my old age

If Shertex hasn't confirmed the penalties for plate misuse, it might be a good idea. Here it's $300 and they tow the car to the impound, which means I think another $75 to spring it (and only by bringing a tow truck, obviously).

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Mac
2002 e320 4matic estate│1985 300d│1980 300td
Previous: 1979 & 1982 & 1983 300sd │ 1982 240d

“Let's take a drive into the middle of nowhere with a packet of Marlboro lights and talk about our lives.” ― Joseph Heller, Catch-22