I started wrenching on Mercedes when my dad brought home a red 58 190SL when I was about 11. I fell in love w/ that car working on it w/him and have never forgiven him for trading it for a 123 diesel wagon (and I would be much more sucessful now if I had driven that car to highschool and been that cool). At 13 I bought a busted-a** 68 Mustang (bullet proof straight 6..was very good to me)(sold almost two yrs ago now...I miss it) and at 15 I bought a (my first) '79 123 d-wagon ("beast"). Funny story about that car...I gave it to my sister @ about 200k mi and she drove it for a few years until the tranny dropped reverse and we sold it for about $1500. Two or three years after that I was looking for another diesel wagon and driving through another state, about 400 miles from home, and stopped at a MB indy dealer and saw a nice looking d-wagon. I sat in it and had one of those crazy deja-vu experiences, my head literally spinning because it smelled just my old wagon. I got out and looked at the rear...there was the bumper sticker that I had put on it nearly 6yrs earlier; it was MY car!! They had painted it a slightly lighter blue, fixed reverse, and only put about 3k mi on it....and were asking what I sold it for. Being the bastard that I am I talked the guy down to $1000 and drove her home. After several more blissful yrs (well...except for the time that, when cleaning under the rugs, I found that the only thing holding the drivers seat in was the rubber undercoating....) I sold her for nearly three times what I paid for her, to a guy starting a biodiesel company w/ just over 325k mi on her. I love that car... wow that turned into a rambling story...lol...
-Matt-