the first car I bought was a 72 toyota celica st I had to fill the oil every 30 miles, and check the gas, because the gas tank rusted out the fuel level sender...
I was given a vw beetle for graduating HS... loved that car until Hurricane Hugo dropped a barn on it...
my driver's test was in my big brother's 74 nova with a near race level engine and a 4 speed... I can't believe I passed the test... SOOOOO many problems on that drive!

My 240D IS my first car :)

I can see where a new young driver would not feel comfortable in heavy city traffic driving a "slow off the line" car, but like others said it doesn't take long to get in the "groove" and be able to zip around like the other cars, well except for if it's a 240 auto maybe.

You guys must all be pretty young, my first car was a 1964 Plymouth Barracuda that I bought for $125 around 1974. After the pushbutton tranny went out I sold it for $50. It's prolly worth a bit more now if it still exists.

Zippy-ness went out the window 2 weeks after I graduated high school when my best friend passed away behind the wheel of a Mitsubishi Eclipse. Part of the reason my dad handed the SD down to me. Before that I drove the Toyota Tercel in my sig... I still drive and love the Tercel, but lest face it, its a tin can. Then again they tell me new cars are safer.

First car was a used blue 1983 VW Jetta non Turbo Diesel Mk1. Bought in 1992. I took it to college back in 1993 and it died with a blown head gasket in 1994 in Kansas near Lawrence. At the time I was in college with a new wife and baby working close to full time and taking 20 credit hour semesters. (I thought I was superman in those days!) I had it towed to my wife at the time's employer who had a storage cave warehouse down by the Missouri River. I tried to replace the head gasket but could not get it to start. Due to lack of money and lack of time I gave it away to an auto-broker just to get it towed away. I have regretted every day doing that. I found close match to it recently here but wife says no more cars till I do something with all these Mercedes lol.

Originally Posted by rs899
My first car was a 1969 Austin America
.

Doktor Bert

You grew up faster than I...
My second car was a 68 MGB. I came close to buying a nice 504 much later- wish I had.

my first car was a Ford Tempo, with those awesome spongy foam covered wheels.

Had one of those too, same year. Nice car, but no where near the W123.

First car was a 1950 Chevy panel truck. Bought it for $50.

Still in high school so yes it's my first car

And might I say, the ladies like the Benz a lot (ask for rides just for the car, but I pretend it's for me :cool: )

Some people ask how much it costs, I simply reply "35" and their mouth drops because they think it costs 35,000 when it was really 3500 haha (don't want to tell them they're so cheap that so the idiots at my school don't buy them and wreck them, that would be a shame)

Driving a N/A diesel as a first car can be... Entertaining to say the least but I've grown used to it (but my father says: "it's the perfect car for everybody; for both the present and future, safe, built to last with maintenance, looks good, good mpg, can run on whatever burns when oil runs out and it's impossible to do any real form of speeding"

My first diesel was a 1984 Chevy Chevette 4 door with an Isuzu 4 cylinder. Bought it brand spankin' new in 1984. Drove it 200,000 miles and only changed the oil. It was not my first car. My first car, however, was a Plymouth Fury III for $50 bucks. Drove it about 6 months before it collasped. I got my stereo out of it and my battery and off to the yard but that was 1982 and those good old days are gone forever.

How do you like the 4-speed in the SD? Did you guys install it -- if you did, how did you have to modify it?

The vehicles I have owned are:

1995 Geo Prizm:
Great car. Had about 80K and no problems other than some peeling paint on the hood from sitting under a pine tree too long. Perfect old lady - drive to church on Sunday car. Only 10 years old when I bought it for $1700. Tin can, though. Low speed front end crash and it was totaled. Could still be driving it today if I didn't crash it.

1996 Chrysler Cirrus:
The car was not taken care of in its lifetime and by the time I traded it in, it was running on like 4 out of 6 cylinders. It smoked worse than my 300SD any day. I had this car for less than a year.

2003 Nissan Sentra:
Bought it three years old with something like 35K on it. Purchased from the dealer for about $13,000 out the door with financing. Nice little car, peppy off the line, mine was loaded with tons of non-factory options. I believe the car was owned by the wife of someone related to the Boston Red Sox. Gave it to my mom when her car "died." Went up north to visit her and fixed her old car by cleaning the contacts on the coolant fan relay. None of the 3 mechanics and dealer could find out why the car was over heating. They suggested a head gasket. She has two cars now.

1991 F250 7.3IDI:
Great truck. Very reliable. I have done lots of PM on it and many many upgrades. It is a joy to work on and very simple. The Banks Sidewinder really brings out some hidden power behind that 7.3 engine. If I need to tow yo' momma's single wide, this is the truck I use. LOL

1983 300SD:
My current baby aside from the F250. I have been driving this car daily for a year now and I have not been stranded or felt uncomfortable driving it anywhere I need to go. The car is still going through a restoration process. When I bought the car for $850, it needed every typical 30 year old MB maintenance issue addressed and then some. Most major mechanical issues have been resolved. The car was in absolute pizz poor condition inside and out. The reason I bought the car is because battery was almost dead and it still started. Imagine a car with a battery so weak it can barely turn the engine over and the car starts. That tells me good compression for a Diesel. So far, I have made a great choice with this car. It may have looked like crap but it ran well. That's what I was looking for since I didn't have a small car anymore.

in the past week, i've outrun 2 econoboxes in the stoplight drags-for-lane-choice. the turbo and a few injection pump adjustments go a long way for acceleration. people always assume my land_yacht will be slow.

if he can learn the timing on the turbo lag, he can anticipate situations and floor it beforehand for the windup and lunge. :shrug:

i was done with gasoline after catching on fire while trying to start a old v8. FIRE BAD!

Here in the US, yes. Second diesel was an '81 300TD, but we sold it in 2005 in favor of a '90 300TE, which my mom still drives (285k miles!).

My first car overseas was an '89 Mitsubishi Lancer (here known as Mirage or Colt), poverty model. Last I heard, it was still running in one of the provinces in the Philippines, after my dad sold it in 2004.

I love the 4 speed! Wanted it for a long time before I finally got it all togehter. It was quite the project. I documented it in this thread.
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/276987-installing-new-engine-manual-transmission-my-sd.html

Sorry some of the pictures are broken, I recently found them on a back up, I need to get them hosted.