Im surprised how popular Mercs are in the states, especially 190's.

I would have thought they would seem rather small and underpowered in comparison to the usual 4,5 and 6 litre cars that are associated with the USA.

Here a 2.0 litre car, which my 190e is, is considered an average size engine, with most cars having smaller engines than that.

More of a comemnt than a question, but would be interesting to get any views.

thanks.

Matt:

There seem to be less and less of the older v8s all the time (aside from the SUV/PU/Van craze. These beast boxes, along with 2 liter Asian cars, seem to make up the the majority of the traffic in So California. A nice throaty road runner or GTO exhaust note will turn heads to find the source. Lots of flatulent bumble bees have replaced the growls of 40 years ago. Excluding SUVs and Pick ups, the majority of the cars in my neighborhood are 2+ liter Asian 4 cylinders, with a selection of domestic and import v6 engines. 2 real nice 56 Chevys, one a Nomad wagon, a 32 Ford chromed street rod, and a nice 67 GTO pretty much round out the selection. There are about 6 Mercs (124 and 190s) within 3 blocks, and one very sad bimmer - but over hear the older bimmers always seem pretty used up.

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John

2003 Firemist Red/grey leather SL 500
2015 Palladium Silver/black mbtex GLK 350
1987 Smoke Silver/burgundy mbtex 300E Sportline (SOLD)

Click to see 87 300E

Looks like the demise of the big engined car is happening all over now.

Its such a shame, drive round a typical street in the 1970's and you would be surrounded by 3.0 litre Ford Granada's and 3.5 litre Rover SD1's...

now its all 1.0 litre Nissan Micras and 1.4 litre Vauxhall Corsa's.

boo hiss boo hiss!!!!

im gonna have to get in touch with Doc Brown, and see how he's getting on with that time machine!

I wouldn't say there is a demise of big engined cars in the US. For instance, the smallest engine you can get in a 3 series is the 2.5...that is a powerful hot rod in europe with their little 1.6s. The Mercedes, the smallest engine in a CLK is 320 here....BIG engine in europe! They run around with CLK200s. When I tell my uncle in Germany that my sister has a 180HP Jetta, I get the response "What? What do you need all that power for??" On top of that, we run around with 8 liter plus pickups like there is no tomorrow, 350 Camaros and Corvettes are the norm, and maybe such is the case with Asian cars in southern california, but here in Midwestern suburbia, literally one Tahoe, Expedition, Escalade, Suburban etc after the other. In Texas for example, I have heard that there are more registered trucks than cars.

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'86 420SE Euro
904 Midnight Blue, Gray Velour
Dad bought it new, now I own it.

"A Mercedes-Benz is like a fine wine, it only gets better with age."

Agreed. I said excluding SUVs and PUs (light trucks), which make up a very large portion of the traffic in SoCal. Next most frequent seem to be smaller Asian cars. Also, to someone my age, a small engine was a 283 'Mouse Motor' Chevy v8, a large engine was a Chrysler Hemi

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John

2003 Firemist Red/grey leather SL 500
2015 Palladium Silver/black mbtex GLK 350
1987 Smoke Silver/burgundy mbtex 300E Sportline (SOLD)

Click to see 87 300E

And to me a small engine is a 1.3 OHV ford Escort and a large one is a 2.7 24v Ford Scorpio.......life is so unfair.....you wouldnt believe what i would give for one drive in a Plymouth Valaint!!!!!!

A proper american car, with a V8 and a column change auto box........oh we can dream!!!!!

Could the engine size differences be related to fuel costs? When I lived in Italy (90-92) gasoline was about $5.00/gallon. At the same time it was $1.20 or so here. What is the current price in Europe and Great Britian? (per litre, I'll do the currency conversion)

The United States of America (we) uses an amazingly disproportionate amount of the world's oil reserve. We are oil gluts!

I think the events of Sept. 11 will eventually change our perceptions and values of the worlds oil resources. But it will be too late!

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1982 240D 313,000 (4 speed)
1984 300CD 172,483
1985 German Shepherd Dog -Lacey- R.I.P.11/04/05

Hood Stars, Wrist Crowns and Obsession Dobs

At the moment, Petrol (gas) has various prices.

4**** (4star) is about 78.9 a litre
SULS (Super Unleaded Low Sulphur(High Octane)) 78.9 a litre
ULS (Unleaded Low Sulphur) 74.8 a Litre

About 2 months ago, Unleaded was about 70.4 a litre

in 1993 when i passed my driving test it was 54.9 a litre

when my Dad was king of the road in his 1970 Ford Zephyr 2.0 V4 Column change Auto it was about 2'6 a gallon......makes you sick dosent it!!!!!