A former Navy shipmate of mine shipped over in late 1967 when we came home from the Med. He took his shipping-over bonus and went out bought a new 1968 Camaro or GTO. He promptly goes out drinking and totals it.... you got it...no collision insurance! Fortunately, he wasn't banged up too bad. This notwithstanding, one of the smartest guys I met in the Navy, officers included. Went on to make the Navy a career and afaik now lives in Hawaii.

Lots of human road kill before seatbelts!!!, nevermind airbags.

Cars get less and less interesting with each passing year. For my tastes, cars suitable for daily driving peaked in the late 1990s. My plan is to keep my 1999 BMW as long as possible. I plan to supplement it with a late 1990s Subaru and my 1985 300D. Those three cars are going to carry me into old age. It's probably a stupid plan.

The most interesting cars were from the mid- to late-1960s, IMHO, but I would not want to drive one every day.

Those Bimmers are easily the most fun and enjoyable cars to drive. If I could convince my dad to switch his 740 out to me and get the E39 540 or M5 like he dreams, I'd be a happy camper My only issue is their beautiful handling is all sitting on that veeery finnicky suspension that costs a mint to replace.

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1987 560SEL (210,000 miles)

Ditto that. I live on a dirt road and it's starting to beat up my suspension a bit. That's one reason I need to get another late 1990's Impreza. I got a 1997 Impreza for the wife and put a Prodrive suspension kit on it. Prodrive was to Subaru what AMG is to Mercedes. That car loved dirt roads, just ate them up. Unfortunately, the Impreza got totaled when I tee-boned a lady who ran a stop sign in front of me.

the camaro came out in 7, I got one of each- droptops

For me the best cars for daily driving peaked in the late 70's and early 80's. I can think of some cars from the 60's that wouldn't be too bad as daily drivers. For example a /8 220D.

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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.

Japanese and German cars from the 90s (particularly early 90s) were incredible. Easy enough to work on with simple electronics, decent fuel efficiency and huge gobs of power and handling, very mod friendly. I'm thinking about the twin turbo rwd and awd beasts from japan mainly. 300zx, rx7, 3000gt, supra, etc. The new rockets are pretty sweet too, I've come to like my gti...only a matter of time until o get a reflash up to around 300hp/tq

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

Dammit, stupid tapatalk posted prematurely I meant to also add each era had it's great cars. From the 70s my hands down favorite would be the z's, even into the 80s. In the 1980s the rx7s were sweet and of course the 126, 124 And BMW 3 series were also incredible.

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

I grew up being able to discern the autos' make/type at NIGHTTIME by the headlight pattern and even the taillight patterns.

Now, I don't care if I can tell a Prius from a curb-side garbage can in full daylight. They're both made of plastic and are full of $h!t. Oh...wait...that's the baby's diaper in the garbage can.

Never mind...They both stink...one via the smell, the other by its styling. And the garbage can is the "classic."

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M. G. Burg
'10 - Dakota SXT - Daily Ride / ≈ 172.5K
.'76 - 450SLC - 107.024.12 / < .89.20 K
..'77 - 280E - 123.033.12 / > 128.20 K
...'67 - El Camino - 283ci / > 207.00 K
....'75 - Yamaha - 650XS / < 21.00 K
.....'87 - G20 Sportvan / > 206.00 K
......'85 - 4WINNS 160 I.O. / 140hp
.......'74 - Honda CT70 / Real 125
.
“I didn’t really say everything I said.”
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~ Yogi Berra ~

Either it was real or imagined. Long ago in my formative years the car was a real status symbol. Or considered one anyways. Today it is considered more a utility device than back then. Even by the younger generations.

Here are a couple of pictures for you to rekindle that early memory and I agree with you about the body style as being a beautiful Mercedes.





Regards,

280SE Guy

For me those two pic's say it all. There is nothing on the road today from this manufacturer that competes in terms of presence, let alone aesthetics.

- Peter.

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2021 Chevrolet Spark
Formerly...
2000 GMC Sonoma
1981 240D 4spd stick. 347000 miles. Deceased Feb 14 2021
2002 Kia Rio. Worst crap on four wheels
1981 240D 4spd stick. 389000 miles.
1984 123 200
1979 116 280S
1972 Cadillac Sedan DeVille
1971 108 280S

Yeah and before you guys go waxing all nostalgic about those '60's and '70's chunks of Detroit iron remember;

Ignition points which broke, burnt or slipped at the most inconvenient times.
Drum brakes on performance cars ,
20K miles on a set of plugs? Forget about it!
"Automatic" chokes which "automatically" decided WHEN they were going to work.
100K on an engine? What are you smoking? Yeah, yeah, I know, "My Uncle Harvey had a '52 Chevy which went a bajillion miles". One out of a 1000 cars, maybe.
10-12 mpg on most of those "performance" cars.
Carburetors, carburetors, carburetors. Did I mention carburetors?
"Quadra-floods", "Auto-light on fire's", "Thermo-burns", "Holey shyte, it's on fires".
Distributors precisely engineered to funnel any bit of moisture into the cap shorting it out, at 3:00 AM, in your girlfriend's parents' driveway after sneaking her home three hours after her curfew.

People tend to long for the "good old days" without looking at the bad parts. I sold my wife's ATV off to get the next year model because it had EFI. No more need to rejet whenever you change altitude. All my powertoys are fuel injected. Jetskis, ATV, motorcycle. If I could be switching over all my stuff to fuel injected, I would.

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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 it was delivered in America, it had seatbelts. Problem is, not many people used them in those days. Seatbelts were mandated in the US beginning model year 1966.

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2001 SLK 320 six speed manual
2014 Porsche Cayenne six speed manual

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