The MBCA Sacramento section's First Sunday Drive today featured 18 different Mercedes Benzes today for a "canyon carving" cruise through the ups and downs and twisties today.

I took out my '91 560SEC out of hibernation for this event (I try to exercise it every week or two) and this old car, with almost 198k on its original transmission, (serviced at regularly mandated intervals from new) performed flawlessly.

All it took to handle the mountain driving (3+ hours of it) was paying attention to the tach and locking it into 3rd gear as necessary on the ups and downs and shifting the selector into D when the road straightened out.


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Though while traversing the Autobahn last June/July I did notice the little Fiats were wildly popular in Germany, France, Switzerland and Austria, even dealerships for them abounded. Many buyers preferred cabrio models.

The only reasons I can think of is fuel economy (benzene (gas) costs the equivalent of $9.00 a US gallon - and likely the selling price for the 500 is pretty cheap- I would guess.

Also the vehicle inspection programmes in Europe are mostly real draconian (in Germany chrome wheels are illegal!) and body damage and rust will get the car removed from the roads.

So very few vehicles are kept more than 4-5 years old, and are then replaced. This I suspect is why most - almost all - cars seen are new and cheap. And I mean that in the literal and perjorative sense.

Though the "Deutsche Schnellstrasse" is ruled by medium to large Audi, Mercedes Benz and BMW cars (A4, A6, C,E,S klasse, and 3,5 and 7 series. Few Porsches though.)

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1991 560 SEC AMG, 199k <---- 300 hp 10:1 ECE euro HV ...

1995 E 420, 170k "The Red Plum" (sold)

2015 BMW 535i xdrive awd Stage 1 DINAN, 6k, <----364 hp

1967 Mercury Cougar, 49k

2013 Jaguar XF, 20k <----340 hp Supercharged, All Wheel Drive (sold)