What was your earliest memory of a Mercedes Benz?
 

My earliest memory of a Mercedes was back around 1968 when my dad brought home an off-white fintail 190D for the weekend that was one of the company cars where he worked. He told me proudly that it was a diesel. It was a very nice car but I recall that it was very slow. He had a chance to buy the car a little later but he decided on a '67 Chevy that was for sale at the time.

Funny you should mention that.

I was standing in front of the SDL yesterday, looking at the intact drivers side headlight and wiper. It suddenly hit me that I'd done this before, but I was a lot shorter at the time. And I swear I remember those aluminum wheels. I e-mailed father about it, and he did confirm my haveing gone with him a time or two to MB dealships when I was very young. Interisting stuff...

First day of kindergarten. I didn't want to go. I clung to the rear center armrest of my grandfather's W108 280S. I used to sit on the center armrest for a better view. Honestly, I thought it was a high seat for kids. Ahh, the days before child seats and seat belt laws...

Sixto
95 S420
87 300SDL

Sometime around 1953 or 1954 I saw a big black MB that was suppose to be Hitler's. :D Then local man bought a MB and my dad thought it was the worst thing someone could do, buy non US made car. :rolleyes:

About 1971 in the back seat of my dad's '58 Ponton.... he sold it in '73 and bought a Ford Country Squire station wagon ... with the fake wood down the sides....

In high school in the late 50's I had a friend who's Mom had a cream colored 220S sedan with the vaca-matic clutch. It was activated any time you moved the steering column mounted shifter handle. So, he enjoyed revving the engine up a bit and then letting go of the shifter handle that had been placed in first gear. As you might guess this would chirp the rear tires quite nicely. This would be repeated on up thru the gears, getting the same response in second and third. Not sure it would or could do this in fourth, but it sure was a pretty car and a very smooth running machine.

My earliest memory of a "diesel" Benz was daBenz. I thought daBenz was loud, small, slow, and rode stiffer than the American cars of the 60's, especially my father's Chryslers. But those Benz doors and trunk just clicked shut. Today daBenz is loud, heavy, slow, and rides as stiff as the modern cars. And those doors and trunk still just click shut. Amazing when I think of it.

I remember the wheels too
 

Like wolf_walker I remember seeing Mercedes-Benz wheels as a kid. Except the ones I remember are the bundts. I recall seeing them more than once, as lots of MB's use/used them. I remember that I thought they looked sturdy and strong, but I thought they were the ugliest things. I now have bundts and I like them. Go figure. :D :rolleyes: :D

James Bond, early 70's...

In the mid 80's when I was in elementary school in Czechoslovakia. One evening we were coming home from our cottage and we were already in the streets of Prague and suddenly my mom said something like "oh my God, hurry close the ventilation, it's a diesel!" If I remember correctly it was a W123 diesel in front of us and I thought that car was cool and I didn't think it smelled bad at all (I was one of those who actually liked the smell of bus exhaust). Then the maintenance guy in our apartment complex bought himself a W123, though it might have been a gasser, but nevertheless an impressive car, I thought.

After that I gradually stopped paying attention to Mercedes, but in the spring of 2001 while looking for a used car on Ebay, my obsession with Mercedes was suddenly resurrected when I saw a W123 diesel, but this time the obsession seems permanent.:D

the one my dad has when it was my aunts. i was about 3 and i remember my parents laughing at me when i was mimicing (i think thats how its spelled) the clatter of the diesel engine

my first mercedes memory....i was 5 years old and my grandfather had just bought a beautiful 85 300SD....i was in love with the car...whenever we would go to church i would always want to ride with him and sit on the armrest in the back seat....i remember the smell, it had a distinctive smell inside the car that was soo nice....i can remember telling my grandfather that i wanted a car just like it when i grew up...

flash forward 19 years....now that car is mine, and i love it even more now than i did then...it runs just like it did in 85, maybe better...STILL has that wonderful smell that people always comment on and ask what kind of air freshener i use...i just grin, and thinking of that smell takes me back to the days of sitting on the back armrest....now that says something about a car...if both youre first ever memory and youre latest one are of the same car, that is something special...to me it is,anyway......this car will never be for sale, for any price....and maybe one day my kid will be sitting on the rear armrest asking me if he/she can have it when they grow up....

Jr and Sr year of High School. 1983-4

Rich kids parents would pick up them up after school in the 300SD's. I thought they were, and still are awesome cars.

That inspired me to by my first 240, then the SD and now the SDL.

Prior to that, my uncle had given my Mom an old 220 as form of repayment for a loan. The car ran great, but he never found the title so we gave it back. :(

When I was about 4 and I lived in Poland my neighbor had a 240D (creme colored). I remember always saying how loud the car was. Now, 18 years later I own the same color (identical car) here in America. When I did go back to Poland last year my neighbor STILL has the same car. :eek: :eek:

first memory
 

I can recall as a seven-year-old, asking for a model car that had shift-gears. One of the Christmas gifts that year was a German-made cast metal Mercedes sedan which had a speed control and programmable steering. I marveled at the car, took it apart right away, to see how it was put together. It was kept as a favorite toy until it disappeared in the closet, years later. I forgot about it until the first of three Mercedes came into my possession a couple years ago. My brother brought that toy car to me a few weeks after wards. He had been keeping it for some unknown reason. It was just as I last remembered it, as a child. (That was over fifty years ago.) The model car now sits as a display piece on a shelf of the entertainment center.

if both youre first ever memory and youre latest one are of the same car, that is som
 

Don't you just love a good story! My first diesel experience was in 1976 while driving a Corolla and making a trip to the dealer. I was a Jr. in college and saw a '63 190D fintail on the Toyota dealer's used lot. It was red with column-mount four speed and I loved it. They let me drive it alone and I had never driven a diesel before. The smell of the exhaust and that of the interior combined to create a memorable scent. The verticle gauges, column shift and who-cares-how-long-it-takes-to-reach-30 mph attitude it gave you was addictive. I guess that's why I bought the 240D manual shift I have today. If I could locate a solid fintail diesel it would be in the driveway.

300 something
 

it was about 5th grade about 1985 my friends parents had ..it must have been a 300 something diesel it had a turbo and it was cream colored i just remember that riding in it i felt like someone special :)

My first memory of a Benz is the commercial from the early 80's or late 70's maybe with the old man driving the million miler across the desert.

My earliest memory of a Mercedes was back somewhere between the years 1981-1983. I was ages 5-7 during those years. I remember my aunts 1974 Mercedes 240D automatic sedan, which is a car that made it back into the family in 1999. :eek: I remember smelling the diesel and me and my cousin riding in the back and thinking it was funny that she was driving S L O W, but we did not know that a 240D was a slow car back then. :D It was like brand new, because my uncle bought it for her new and kept it in perfect order. They sold it I think in about 1985. In 1999, I saw an ad for a 74 240D for $100! I had to go look. Body was still excellent (so I thought), but the interior was very dirty (originally white/black, but was all black when I bought), engine had a bad knock, due to the owner accidentally leaving the oil cap off and driving with NO oil and destroying the engine. After I bought it, my grandpa went back with me to haul it home and he knew the man. He recognized the car as my uncles old car and the man told my grandpa that he bought it from his son in 1985, before my uncle moved to North Carolina. Small world. Anyway- the car had set on FOUR flats, on a soggy somewhat swampland bottom for years and you know what happened. After I got it home- I noticed the floors (ALL of them) had huge rust holes, a well as the trunk, but the rest of the body was perfect. I decided it was not worth a new engine and replacement of floor pans, as well as the electrical glitches in the taillamps, so I sold it to a girl (who said she was going to restore it) for $75. I did keep the original white color-keyed wheel covers. I guess they was worth the $25.00 difference I lost. :D

The first time I saw a Mercedes and wanted to have one was in '87 at the Ducumenta, Kassel Germany. The Documenta is one of the most important modern Art exhibitions in the world. When I entered a part of the exhibition, sponsored by Mercedes Benz, there was a beautiful "anthracite" 500SEC at display. They put it in the middle of this huge hall like a piece of art, brilliant! :eek:

first memory?. hmm. my dad bringing home a 1975 200 back in 81. I was in grade 1 at that time and that car stayed with us until i was in 2nd year college, wherein we sold it to get a 123 sedan. Now that sedan is long gone and i have my wagon with me. :D

My first memory of my car is from around 1988 or 89, when it was my mom's car. I remember being a small child, in my baby seat, sitting between my brother who had the little reading light on in the back reading a book, and my sister who was sitting on the other side. It was night time, and my dad was driving and my mom was in the front seat, coming back from San Antonio, TX. I also remember riding around in the back seat around town while my mom ran errands, and I enjoyed hearing the engine roar back then whenever she accelerated hard. I guess that's why I like it today.
-Joe

First 300SL
 

First Benz that sticks in my mind was in 1955 when I was 8 years old. Ronny Burns (George & Gracie's son) took me from Los Angeles to San Francisco in his brand new silver 300SL Gullwing. Wow! :D

My earliest Mercedes memory was in the mid 80's. I was about 4 and my grandfather had a 1983 240D. Chocolate brown, Palomino interior. Being more of a visual type of person, I dont remember any specific trips, but just the gleam of the light bouncing off of the chrome lining the rear door windows, and back into the interior as I would ride in the back seat looking out the window. It seemed so serene to me. I also remember my grandfathers hat, which he would always put on the back shelf once he got in the car. At the time my mom drove a VW Jetta and my father had an Audi 5000. My granfathers car always seemed so secure in comparison.

Owning a w123 now, brings me back to childood. When i find myself in the back seat of my car, cleaning, or riding there, I always find myself gazing out that window, just as I did when i was a little boy.

My first memory (well I don't actually remember this, but I got it on tape :) ) of riding in a benz is when my dad drove me and my mom home from the hospital after I was born. 17 years later I inherited that very same car!

Kind of funny, he drove my moms toyota taking her there. Didn't want to ruin his interior in case of an accident :D

My uncle owed my mom some money and gave her a 1972? 220D that had been sitting for awhile.

The interior was mint. The car ran like a clock and everything worked. This was in 1979 or so.

I went to high school with a bunch of rich kids in Newark, some of them got picked up in SD's and SDL's and I have loved the look of that car since.

Funny thing that now, 20 years later I am probably driving those rich kids parents cars.....

I think I'm going backwards, not forwards....LOL

LOL .. older Mercedes drivers whom I come in contact with in parking lots etc. usually comment on my young age, and my old car with positive remarks. Now that the older w123's are becoming more and more popular with my generation, I guess you could say alot of us are moving backwards! And thats 100% better than moving forwards, figuratively speaking, and literally (I could be in a SCION or somthing) I'll still proudly be behind the wheel of my Merc when all those other young whipper-snappers are on their 3rd or 4th rice-burners or whatever it is thats "cool" nowadays!

WOW, reading this post really makes me feel like im moving backwards! LOL
All I can say is that I thank my grandfather and his 240D with the subliminal 3-pointed star addiction they fed me when I was little. It has grown into a monster. And its GREAT.

WOW, did this bring me back!! My earliest memory comes from when I was about 4 or so in the early 50's. I lived in NYC then and was out with my mom on Broadway or 5th or whatever. She used to go down to Manhattan a lot with me and my sister (we actually lived in the projects in Brooklyn). We were in front of some hotel when this HUGE BLACK car pulled up and the longest legged, prettiest, wealthiest woman I've ever seen got out of the car when the chauffer opened the door. To the best of my memory, the car had to be an Adenauer, still to me the most elegant MB ever built. That car, that sensing of unbridaled privilege and wealth never really left my memory and influenced my attraction to "different" types of cars my whole life. I never went through the muscle car phase in my youth. While some of my friends were driving around in 6000 HP GTOs, Z28's and 6-Pack hemis, I drove and old slow 180D ponton and and even stranger car, a Peugeot 403. Yeah, it was this big black Adenauer that made me always want nice old MBs.

hello,
My dad's 170DS was the only car we had for a long time, so it is the earliest memory of a Benz for me. We still have the car.......it still works...................OM636 engine has to be the toughest piece of mechanical engineering ever.
Have a good week

Fintail!
 

Growing up in New Orleans' French Quarter in the '60s, I recall seeing what I now know was a Fintail parked on a street near my house. It was greyish-blue, with tan leather seats (with those little "ventilation" holes, remember?). No idea which model it was.

During my car model phase, I built the only 2 Benzes I ever saw back then in kit form. The first was a Ponton sedan, molded in black, with chrome for the wheel caps and big headstone-shaped grille. The other was an AMT 1/25 scale kit of the 300SL Gullwing, which -- unaware of the car's racing ancestry -- I painted metallic red and with racing decals and bare black wheels. (Since then, Tamiya came out with a kit of the 500SEC. I'd love one, but it's hard to find.)

After that, to me, Benzes were "just" the cars villains in James Bond movies drove. Sometime during the '70s, though, DBAG undertook to change their image with Americans, and by the end of that decade, MBs were glamourpusses. I still knew nothing about the various models ("What's a 300SD?") until I bought my first Benz in 1997.