I thought it was too much trouble at first, but since I always get great advice here, I pulled the front seat seats and turned them upside down and
knocked on the bottom. Sure enough, even after an initial careful vacuuming I got
a nice little pile of tiny chards. Wouldn't have killed anyone, but might have
hurt somebody. While doing this task several neighbors showed up.
The incendent did bring up a spirited discussion with all my neighbors about whether one should lock one's car whilst out walking on the beach or hiking. I would think it to be a no brainer, of course lock the car.
A couple folks said nope don't lock it, then no one breaks a window hunting
for valuables. Just leave everything at home if you are going hiking for a couple hours, and leave the car unlocked. At first that struck me as reaallly
dumb, but it does make a great deal of sense. What do most of you guys do?

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85 300TD FED-Daily
84 300SD-Wife's
86 XJS-Sunday
66 GMC-Work- Given to my stepson
83 BMW Airhead- Given to my stepson

You know when I use to go to the beach and hike....I had my dodge dart, we would lock all our wallets, phones and clothes in the trunk...I would hide the keys under the back seat....lock the doors and leave my wing window unlocked.....I did this many many times and never had an issue....I figured our stuff is safer in the car then sitting on the beach....I have done this in the Mercedes too....but I unscrew the lock...so people can't visually tell the door is unlocked....this was when the central locking system wasn't working...

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Yesterday while walking through the pick n pull I got four lock knobs from a BMW and replaced the ones on my 124 to make it harder for someone to help themselves.

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This car had a history, now it has a future.

Learn more about my Benz here.

CA and several other states have a legal provision allowing for tinted front windows with a dermatologist's perscription, including 5% limo tint. Perscription is very easy to get. Just keep it in the glove box.

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CENSORED due to not family friendly words

After the central locking failed on the 300D I just stopped locking it. I frequently left my vehicles unlocked before that and only had the one incident. I just never leave anything in view. When I worked at a dealership, we didn't lock the customers' cars, on the logic that any thieves would take what they wanted and locking the doors would just add a broken window to the damage.

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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.

One thing I did for security and to keep the car cool was to make sunshades for all of the windows that will attach easily as soon as I can get some suction cups to attach to them

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Current: 1975 450SEL, 83 300D, 88 Yugo GVX, 90 300D OM603 swap, 91 F150 4.6 4v swap, 93 190E Sportline LE 3.0L M104 swap, 93 190E Sportline LE Megasquirt, 03 Sprinter, 06 E500 4Matic wagon.

My '84 Euro TD has what I've seen referred to as 'factory tint' on all the windows, including a tinted band at the top of the windsheild.
It's pretty dark, but so far no harrassment from law enforcment. However a friend got ticketed for tint on his '89 Buick that wasn't quite so dark as mine.

By the way, my Euro TD already has the 'tamper-proof' lock-buttons.
I think they're factory too.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW

Those are the ones that pretty much disappear into the door card, correct? I had this style on my euro....I absolutely hated them when my central /locking system died...I had to always carry a pair of needle noise pliers to get the back ones up....it was great fun when they worked though and I could lock my friends in the back seat

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Mine don't need a needle-nose.
I just reach past the front seats and pull the rear-door handles to unlock and open.
I disconnected the vacuum because the leak got to where I dad to lock the doors BEFORE I could shut off the engine!
It's still a pain because with the inoperative vacuum-pods connected, the rear locks relock every time I shut the back doors - unless I give those hard-to-grab buttons a good tug while the doors are open to make sure they're fully unlocked.
The Euro buttons don't unscrew. To install a set of the US knobs, I need to change their actuator rods too.

Happy Motoring, Mark

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DrDKW