Hey Tangent I always honked and waved when I had my NB TDI. People with Gasser NB's would not wave back at anyone, if you got a wave it was a TDI driver. I still do even when driving the wife's Jetta.

There are several people here in town driving MB's and they (guy's) all look the 240 over real hard. Had local MD leave a note under the wiper bade with phone # if I would be interest in selling my car. He drive's an E 55 AMG, and was dumb struck when I said I would not swap even for his AMG. Told him I wanted a reliable car to drive, and that hunk of Chrysler tin he was driving would be in the junk yard long before my 240D. :p He started laughing and said he didn't figure the AMG would last past 125k miles before being ready for bone yard. His wife drive's a 190 and he has a older 280 SL from the 70's.

Myself I would like to have a new Dodge Magum, with the 3.2L MB CDI under the hood. The Magnum is a E320 wagon with Chrysler body and motor's. Way the wife is talking, I guess we will be trading in the VW for a Jeep Liberty with the 2.5L turbodiesel this fall or early spring. :p

Today I had 6 large bags of lava rock, myself and the wife in the car and could not tell any difference in power or handling. After second load I was done for the day, the Benz however was still chomping at the bit to go. While out in the country earlier in the morning going to get farm fresh watermelon and cantalope I let rip, and saw 76 MPH on the speedo with the a/c blowing ice cold air out the vent's the whole time.

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'10 Chrysler T&C Stow-N-Go White. Grandpa's ride.

'13 Chrysler 200 Touring Candy Red. Grandma's ride.

Age and cunning will always over come youth and vigor.

I sometimes wave at other 300TD's and usually get a wave back if it's a younger person (for whatever reason, older people either don't notice or don't care ). But with the number of 123's and 126's around here we'd all be waving and honking at each other a hundred times a day if we tried to be that friendly .

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'81 300TD Wagon 355k (Miss Diesel)
'83 300SD 180k
'84 500SEL 190k (Parting it out)

I was driving my 86 Grand National to work one morning....cruising in that high speed lane on Southbound I-35 near Pflugerville when this dufus in his Land Rover climbed right up my tailpipe.

Now I'm about 3 car lengths behind the person in front of me and there is a wall of cars to my right. When I finally get to a place where I can move over, after having dufus on my tail for about 1.5 miles, I signal and move right....wasn't fast enough for the dufus though, he nearly clipped my left rear in accelerating around me, even though it was wall to wall traffic just 30 foot ahead.

So, I saluted him as he passed me....

OOps......wrong dufus to salute....he pulled in front of me and slammed on the brakes...I was able to stop without hitting him, but nearly took it in the rear from someone else. I moved into the right hand lane and made the decision to let dufus drive on, but he wasn't done. He tried to sideswipe me, but I had a huge shoulder to move to....other cars started blowing their horns at him.....I wrote down his license number at 55 mph. Finally the idiot was in front of me again and we were coming up on my exit....which I took without signalling....but he cut right across and took it too.

He slowed down and I moved into the right lane of the access road. It was still packed with commuters, so I couldn't get away from the dufus....he rolls his passenger window down about half way and throws something at my car. Well, this was the good thing, because it missed my car but it took out his passenger window.

Using side streets I lost the dufus, but got to work and made a call to the cops to let them find him. I told them they would know they had the right dufus because he no longer had a passenger window. I also had a relative that worked for the Ft. Worth PD run his plate and provide me his address. Thankfully, I read a book about winning friends and influencing people....it kept me from doing what I was thinking about doing.

I hope it cost the idiot $500 to have that window replaced.

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1998 W202 C230 - The money pit of late.
1984 W126 300SD (356,800 miles) Gone to the wrenchapart
1984 W123 300D Gone to the wrenchapart
1972 W108 280SE 3.5 (sold but not forgotten)
1986 Buick Grand National 3.8l Turbo (86k miles)
1966 Glassic Model 'A' Replica http://www.glassicannex.org

http://banners.wunderground.com/weat...Round_Rock.gif

thats why i keep a long piece of all thread in my passenger floor and a 12" piece with a nut washers and anther nut on it in the center consol. i would have ruined his car.

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have no worries.....President Obama swears "If you like your gun, you can keep it

on the way home from work"about 3:00am" this guy pulled up next to me acting like he wanted to race "me in now dead escort him in ricer honda" in winterpark fl "upper class part" i smile and shake my head and contiue to drive. he paces me for a while then gets in frount of me at my turn
the light turns green and he sits , so i honk and he sits so i try to go around , he turns cuting me off then gets ahead of me , at this point i'm a little peved some i punch it and get aound him then he gets on my butt , now i'm getting a little scared
i'm almost home and i know i should have tried to drive and fined a cop but i wasn't thinking that clear all i could think was to find a wepon when i got home and he followed me all the way there i got out ran for my breaker bar and yell to my mom to call the cops
the guy gets out tells his buddy to " get the gat "gun" " and i stand there not knowing what to do mom walks out thith the phone in her hand and the guy starts to wal twords his car i run in back of it try to read the plate he doesn't take of for a second or two when he does i ask mom if she called the cops she said NO and when i go in side i'm so frazzeled that i can't remember the plate#

i did nothing to get me folled to begin with the best i can figuer is it was some teen that thought i didn't belong in winterpark

thats probley the scarriest thing that has ever happend to me

jason

Following people home or throwing stuff at a car would get you shot here in MO, everyone has right to carry gun in car. Of course this has kind of been an unwritten law for years here in the back woods of Southern MO. Even as a kid growing up here most all the boys carried guns in the trunk and were always going hunting or target shooting.

I sometimes carry pistol in car and shotgun in trunk, but I also go for drives in the wood's. Word of warning here, never fire .357 magnum inside the car or truck. Always stick it out a window, or you will be having problems hearing for the next week or two. It does however give the guy you tried to pass, but won't let your little truck & boat pass, the sudden urge to get out of the way.

Couple of the oddest things you have to deal with around here is people driving down the street within a foot or two of the curb, then swinging out into oncomming lane when they come to a parked car. The other is people driving left of center and forcing on coming traffic over to curb area. They are learning however that an old 123 MB doesn't move over for Avalon's or Crown Vic's. I have had two people strike parked cars when they realize I'm not giving up my half of the street, it must be the big grin on my face as they approach. On one of those occasions a city police car was behind me and stopped for the accident. She smacked a local lawyer's STS with her Malaboo:p , I stopped for that one. I stayed and watched as he helped the young woman out of the car, then wrote her a ticket for the accident. I bet the laywer got band new STS out of the deal.

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'10 Chrysler T&C Stow-N-Go White. Grandpa's ride.

'13 Chrysler 200 Touring Candy Red. Grandma's ride.

Age and cunning will always over come youth and vigor.

I look at people driving most new Mercedes and feel sorry for them! :p

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Alan Hamm
'87 300SDL 277K Miles
'89 560 SL 68K Miles

I don't feel sorry for them, I think they're suckers!

Recently my daughter and I went to Atlanta Classic Cars (a huge MB dealership) to have her 84 300D mileage validated for the high mileage badge. We went to the service/parts dept. and the young agent did not know what we were talking about. He shuffled us off to a guy that was more interested in the Solitaire card game on his computer. I think he was a salesman but he was old enough to have heard of the high mileage badge. Almost w/o taking his eyes off the card game, he filled out the required section of the MB, USA form and signed it. He showed no interest in the car and didn't bother to look at the odometer. He didn't even get up from his seat and introduce himself. So I just handed him a second form for my 85 SD and he signed it w/o looking up. On the way home my daughter stated that she had expected better treatment, after all, weren't we promoting the MB brand by obtaining the badge?

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Bruce

73 220D (never left Germany)
81 300D (totaled)
84 300D (Purchased '03, sold '17)
85 300SD (purchased 10/01/03)

I feel even worse about BMWs in general ...

but I've also met a fair share of annoying MB drivers too...

I remember when I went to get my high mileage form signed, the service advisor (i brought it in for oil change) was like "i'll take care of it" and he was nice enough to put everything in an addressed envelope and everything? - this is from a dealer that deals with those SL600s

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2008 BMW 335i Coupe

My buddy and I play a little game with the commuters that like to do the ol' bob-n-weave through traffic. In heavy traffic we drive side by side or slightly staggered when we see the idiots coming up behind us. Commuicating via cellphone we box them in and hold them there as long as we can. Since even if they passed us they wouldn't get more than 30 yards we don't feel to bad about it. The most fun is waiting for some moron to try and use the breakdown lane to pass. With two trucks you can pretty effectively shut them out. Really pisses them off. I am quite happy to have contributed to their high blood pressure, heart disease and and early grave. Good riddance. Since we are in full-size work trucks with large bumpers we don't really care what they try to do. RT

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When all else fails, vote from the rooftops!
84' Mercedes Benz 300D Anthracite/black, 171K
03' Volkswagen Jetta TDI blue/black, 93K
93' Chevrolet C2500HD ExCab 6.5TD, Two-tone blue, 252K

The hardest thing about driving the Los Angeles freeway system is staying in your lane while reloading.

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You can get farther with a smile and a gun than you can with just a smile.

1984 300D
1985 300CD
1980 300SD
1993 SL500

I experienced a similar situation while driving on 80 through Cali, except it was a late model 740i BMW. Everytime
we hit the corners, homeboy's car wallowed like an old Country Squire with a loaded rear...looked as
though it was about to throw itself off the road. ****** priceless. Was also stomping him pretty well uphill, in the
65-100mph range. He'd eventually begin to catch up on the straights, then we'd hit another twisty...wash,
rinse, repeat. Nice day for the '84 123 turbo (which is an excellent "real world" driving machine on higher
speed, twisty interstates, if you don't mind wringing her a little).

That man you described has a mental problem. Trying to sideswipe and cutting you off. I'm not saying it was your fault, but that's why I don't give the salute (while driving at least). I don't need mess from any crazy folk. I'm already crazy myself.

And to Bruce Bonds and your ATL MB dealership experience, thats too bad. We've been getting small parts and Redline additives from Star Motors on Katy Road here in Houston for years, and compared to the Greenbriar MB dealership on the Southwest Freeway near the old Compaq center, this dealership's parts department gives good service. They're friendly (in the parts department at least), knowledgeable (they ALL know exactly what a high-mileage badge is), and the guy who waits on me sometimes has a W123 300DT, so we talk about our old Benzes and what problems we had and how we fixed them. Too bad some MB parts departments have to be so "above bourgeois".
-Joe

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

Wow, I would have thought a 740 BMW would dust a Mercedes Diesel. Especially in handling high speed curves.

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Alan Hamm
'87 300SDL 277K Miles
'89 560 SL 68K Miles