My daily commuter is an Independent Fabrication Club Racer, a steel-framed bicycle. Geometry is designed for light touring, so it's very comfortable. My ride takes me through several neighborhood parks, taking around 30 to 35 minutes to cover seven miles each way.

Road trips are in the 1998 Toyota 4Runner Limited. Versatile, roomy, go-anywhere workhorse, or the wife's sled, a 2011 M-B E350 Estate wagon, which we have owned for a year now. Our first luxury car and we're spoiled. She runs it around a lot on business; I enjoy weekend trips, since we travel together to ride bikes. It has ground clearance issues. Ha!

I retired the 72 220D back in March. I'm moving out to BFN and my daily commute is going from ~50 miles/day to ~130 miles/day, so I knew I needed something more comfortable. I picked up an 05 E320 CDI that's been a great car. I've put 20k miles on it since getting it, and I wish I had gotten one long ago.

My commute is virtually all interstate, so I get great economy: the feel-goodometer in the dash has shown as high as 46 mpg some days. In practice, I find the actual economy to be about 4mpg less than the dash says...even so, I'm still happy with it. The most miles I've gotten out of a tank is 705 at 35.89 mpg. I track my economy religiously. I'm still in a transition from the old commute to the new, so this is a mix of both. Once I'm fully changed over I'll be excited to see how much better the fuel economy gets.

I also love the ease of maintenance. Oil changes every 7000 miles, I just did new brake pads all around about two months ago, and I'll be changing the tranny filter either this or next weekend--I have another oil change and the front flex coupling (I already changed the rear, just for preventative maintenance reasons) up this weekend. It's all a piece of cake.

CONS:
That darn SBC system. It hasn't given any issues, but I know it's a only a matter of time. Depending on the shape/mileage of the car when that happens, I'll probably just get a new pump if I can put it in myself.

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1963 Ford Falcon Convertible
1972 220D 4-speed
1986 190D 2.5 5-speed
1999 300D

W201 190E

Positives:- Hmmm - not sure really - it is a kind of a nice example of the type. Fast enough for me. Nice interior. Quite simple to work on.

Negatives: Not really the car's fault but Dutch road tax is a *****, so it is expensive to have for the (small) distances I drive. There's usually something up with the CIS! It is too small for me - I just fit inside with my head against the head liner. Has a manual gearbox which pisses me off (Oh for an automatic!)...

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

Showing your age are we? It's not as much fun "rowing" through traffic as it used to be?

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“Whatever story you're telling, it will be more interesting if, at the end you add, "and then everything burst into flames.”
― Brian P. Cleary, You Oughta Know By Now

Howdy All,
08 Jeep Wrangler 4 door unlimited. It's my dog hauler. Short trips I can get 5 in it. Long trips 3. Con: Gas mileage.

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Frank X. Morris
17 Kia Niro
08 Jeep Wrangler 4 door unlimited

2016 Toyota Tundra
Pros: It pulls my camper, and accommodates all of my homeowner projects with ease(There are lots of them). It's a crew cab, so the kids fit in the back. It is a full time V8, no cylinder deactivation that the others have, so much more reliable. Less expensive than similarly equipped competitors.

Cons: Rough ride, basic interior finishes compared to others, horrible MPG (14 if I'm lucky).

Primary Car: 2007 ML320 CDI

Likes:

~It looks like a generic 2000s Kia/Hyundai SUV so it flies under the radar

~Torque! It's not a complete slouch when you nail the loud pedal, and makes cool turbo noises!

~4-Matic so it can deal with somewhat rough terrain and snow

~Comfy and quiet. Loves to cruise @75 with no fuss.

~Returns halfway decent fuel mileage if you drive it gently.

~OM642 is butter smooth!

Dislikes:

~Sirius sounds pretty terrible - sounds super compressed. Friend with a similar era Toyota also equipped with sat radio sounds MILES better.

~Feels cheap (feels nice compared to a Honda, but feels cheap compared to an 90s MB)

~It looks like a generic 2000s Kia/Hyundai SUV especially since it's silver... So it's just blah to look at

~Modern diesel, so it doesn't sound "broken" at idle or make tractor noises.

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-Justin

91 560 SEC AMG - other dogs dd
01 Honda S2000 - dogs dd
07 MB ML320 CDI - dd
16 Lexus IS250 - wifes dd

it's automatic.

I'm lucky in that I live in a mostly rust free area so I can only own 30 + year old vehicles .

Since September I've been driving my 1982 240D W/ slushbox tranny, 360,000 miles and a worn out engine and tranny .

It gets 27 MPG in town and 30 ~ 32 on the open road ~ I just came back from three weeks driving 'round The Navajo Nation and loving it .

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-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

I've always thought having to change gear is a really stupid part of driving - why bother when technology can do it for you? It is a monstrous pain in the arse...

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1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

My first car was a Ford Mustang II equipped with an insanely underpowered 2.3 liter four. It was so bereft of torque that suburban matrons in Toyota Corollas would unknowingly leave me for dead when the light turned green. It's only salvation was that it was equipped with a very decent 4-speed gearbox, making it reasonably fun to drive.

" Mike D Showing your age are we? It's not as much fun "rowing" through traffic as it used to be?" .

Sometimes it's not really possible any more .

I'm crippled now so no more fun with clutch pedals .

On the other hand, driving a slushbox at speed in the twisty bits taught/allows me to be a better driver....

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-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

Agreed.

- 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

I’m up to 3 daily drivers as of a few days ago and plan to rotate between them. Currently my 400e is broken but it’s the most fun to drive unless the road conditions suck. I’ll get it back on the road before too long. No real down side to this one except I’d love to put HD headlights in it.

The other 2 are the ML and the R. The R will be used mostly for longer road trips and to move cargo that’s too big for the ML and too small for the trailer. The R is nothing short of awesome as a hiway car.

I use the ML for everything else. It has no real down side and is delightful for trips to and from the mountains, which I do weekly or more often, and also delightful for any other use, including pulling a big trailer. At some point I’ll get a MP3 adapter for the MLs hifi.

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Toyota is a leader only because their drivers block everyone behind them. Oh what a feeling.

My 1990 300SE is my personal daily driver now, love it. I'm not to much worried about the crapy mileage it's giving me. Don't drive it to much, but that could change; it's hard to get me out of the car and I'm starting to take longer detours when driving home...Driving a bigger Mercedes is something special.

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1979 Black on Black, 300CD (sold), 1990 Black 300SE, Silver 1989 Volvo 780, 1988 300CE (vanished by the hands of a girlfriend), 1992 300CE (Rescue).

Daily driver is my rusty 93 Miata.

Pros:

• It's a Miata. Always make me smile when I drive it.
• It has a trailer hitch and a roll bar, making it immensely useful for hauling stuff.

Cons:

• A series of loose heat shields combined with the Thrush muffler the previous owner stuck on it make for a buzzy run up through the gears.
• Never makes it high enough on the 'must do' project list to deal with ^^^

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1961 220b: first project car - sold.
2000 CLK 430: first modern Benz - sold.
2001 CLK 55: OMG the torque!!! - sold
1972 280SE 4.5: Baby Gustav
1991 300TE 4Matic: Gretel the Snow Bunny - sold
1978 300SD: Katz the Free Man - given away
1980 Redhead: Darling Wife