Luddite rant-

saw this add-
http://www.infinitiusa.com/m/key_features.html?b=2&i=1&intcmp=Key_Features.M.Home.T1.

Im sorry, but what the heck happened to maintaining the correct lane position and checking over your shoulder before changing lanes? Is this something thats not taught now in drivers ed? Now I can buy this car with a device that helps me remember that I am indeed hurtling along in a 3500 lb vehicle instead of flipping through my I-pod picking my nose while making a phone call.

I never thought Id say this but "when I was that age" . What has happened to driver training? we have so many ways and means now that promote absolutely appalling driver training. 90% of the people I know can't parallel park, which is an atrocity. My young cousin told me that it wasn't even on the drivers test! not even backing in! she just had to demonstrate she could pull forward into a parking space!

My father used to pick the worse days of the year, heavy snow or rain, and take me out driving. This way I leaned how to drive properly, and how to recover the car in a skid. His favorite winter stunt was that we would travel down an icy sloped parking lot near the house with a big flat at the bottom, and he would suddenly yank the wheel, then say, "you have just been sideswiped, recover control! theres a cliff ahead!" Then he would scream to simulate high stress accident conditions. "Oh my god, we are gonna DIE!!" We "died" many many times. death was getting to the end of the lot and stopping in the gravel. I got better, but I don't think I saved us that many times.

Scary for a 15 year old kid, but now I think that was incredibly useful training. We practiced all types of driving scenarios in all weather and conditions. It was not good enough for him that I know how to parallel park, I had to know how to parallel park a manual transmission vehicle on a slope in the snow.

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This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

Because if you have a good lawyer, you can make all poor judgments someone else's fault. ( i.e "someone else" with deep pockets)

Not disparaging ALL lawyers, or ALL civil suits. But, as a class, they have contributed to the " its not my fault" mentality so prevalent in today's society.

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags

Because it is a gimmick that will help sell their automobiles.

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2009 ML320 Bluetec
1985 300CD
1981 300TD

Past Mercedes
1979 300TD
1982 300TD
2000 E320 4Matic Wagon
1998 E430
1984 300SD
1980 300SD

I believe in your rant. Driver Training in most of the country is very poor, just basics to pass the driving examine. To answer the second part of your question: When you cannot eliminate a hazard by training you have to engineer the risk out. This is usualy not the best soloution but - this is the age we live in. Have you ever noticed all the safety stickers on a new ladder?

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BENZ THERE DONE THAThttp://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...c/progress.gif
15 VW Passat TDI
00 E420
98 E300 DT
97 E420 Donor Car - NEED PARTS? PM ME!
97 S500
97 E300D
86 Holden Jackaroo Turbo D
86 300SDL
(o\|/o)

Simple answer is ~ ban low performance drivers, not high performance cars !!!
You muck up ~ you walk!!!

With regard to ladders, down here before you can climb a ladder in a government owned building, you must have a ladder license!! Its a 5 hour course to get it!!

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Grumpy Old Diesel Owners Club group

I no longer question authority, I annoy authority. More effect, less effort....

1967 230-6 auto parts car. rust bucket.
1980 300D now parts car 800k miles
1984 300D 500k miles
1987 250td 160k miles English import
2001 jeep turbo diesel 130k miles
1998 jeep tdi ~ followed me home. Needs a turbo.
1968 Ford F750 truck. 6-354 diesel conversion.
Other toys ~J.D.,Cat & GM ~ mainly earth moving

It's just an extension of the general prevailing philosophy, in the guise of a safety innovation, that no one is responsible for their own actions...

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-Evan


Benz Fleet:
1968 UNIMOG 404.114
1998 E300
2008 E63


Non-Benz Fleet:
1992 Aerostar
1993 MR2
2000 F250

Nope. Not really true. You can have the world's best lawyer but if you have 12 people like me, you can blame all you want but you don't get far. So, it is the 12 morons on the jury that is to blame. When someone wins an award, it sets a president for the next case. Now, I know the "price" of the action. So I come to you and say "If we go to court, chances are I would win $1,000,000. You will also have spent probably $100K. Tell you what. I'll settle for $500K and everybody is happy.".

Think about it this way. If the lawyer found that time after time, he wasn't getting anywhere with his "blame others" line, do you think he will take the case? Why? On a contingency basis, 100% of $0 is still $0. I blame the people. Why? Because they think of 2 things. "It could happen to me so I best set the framework" and "It's free money. Nobody is hurt".

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

When you go to a mindfawk and he tells you "Everyone hates you because you are an azzhole.", what would you do? Go to another mindfawk and buy a more pleasing opinion. So he tells you "People hate you because of your behavior. You are that way because you Dad and Mom fawked you up. So, it is not really your fault.". When you hear this, you pay him more to buy another opinion from him and so on and so forth. Everybody is happy. You blame your azzhole parents, society, etc, etc, keep paying him to "fix" you, he writes the check for a boat payment, the economy keeps going on and everybody wins.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

if we had to pay the same amount of money that the Germans have to pay to even get their license we'd have more drivers that actually pay attention and drive well.

I check my mirrors, look left/right, check blind spots, signal when changing lanes and or direction, etc but others on the road do not. It pisses me off when I am traveling in my lane and I want to change lanes to exit or pass and the ass clown decides to come into my lane without signaling after I had checked. or not using signals when changing direction. Seriously people they put these things in cars for a reason.

With all due respect, there is no way in the world you would ever end up on such a jury. You would be dismissed from the pool. They like the idiots who watch daytime TV, and "Law and Order". So they let someone off because there is no DNA evidence.....

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags

That only works if it goes to trial. Which usualy it doesn't.
Insurance companies will gladly pay someone off then go through an expensive trial.

Danny

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1984 300SD Turbo Diesel 150,000 miles

OBK member #23

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(")_(") signature to help him gain world domination

You are absolutely right. Why go thru trial when the presidence has already been set? As I said, I know that the morons will probably give you $1 million dollars so if offered a chance at a half million settlement WITHOUT the expense of hiring a defense lawyer, why not? Going to trial means I could spend say $1.2 million vs half a million without any effort. Easier to pay you off than risk the loss. This way, I cite the previous awards and warn you that it could lead to a huge loss so you don't fight it even if you are right. Future lawyer just latch on to that and use it. Why re-invent the wheel when you can just use the wheel. That is all the lawyers are doing.

So, what started that whole thing? 12 morons.

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01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke
99 E300 Turbodiesel
91 Vette with 383 motor
05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI
06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red
03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow
04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler
11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow

If Mercedes-Benz had this as an option (and they do have a similar option, though it won't guide you back into your lane), I think people here would probably be calling it things like "another great German safety innovation" instead of chiding it.

Jus' sayin'...

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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.

I was watching an add the other day for a Ford and when you need to park you just hit a button and let go of the wheel, take your feet off the peddles and the car does the rest. When I was a kid learning to drive my dad took me to the corporation yard for where he worked and it was full of trucks and heave equipment. He had me back in and out and around all this stuff and said if I scratched the car I had to pay for it. He always said that if I couldn't back out of a problem like getting to the end of a road that didn't have room to turn around I better be able to back out.

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1983 300SD
200000miles

I have to wonder. If someone with that parking feature hits another car while parking... Will they try to blame the manufacturer?

I learned all the tight parking and maneuvering techniques in much the same way, Phil.
Did it all in the family tank: Ford LTD Country Squire Wagon.
When it came time for the driving test down at the DMV though, I took my brothers VW Rabbit.
They had the parallel parking cones far enough apart to put 3 of those Rabbits in.

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1980 300D - Veggie Burner !