Yeah, this is an MB forum but.. I'll be getting one when I can.
Anyhow - I was at a notoriously looong light the other day in my 'yota diesel. I saw this enviro-freak who'd @$#ched me out at my apt complex about having an old, poorly-tuned vehicle wasting gas and polluting our world. He also tells me how horrible the exhaust smells and how noisy my baby is when she cranks (which she is) up. "Oh, really", I think to myself... mwhahaha!

He pulls up beside me and his 'roommate' is driving. His escallade. Sigh. My truck emits a white puff on startup (fuel), burns less than 1/4th qt of oil in 5000 miles, has 140K on the ticker and gets something like 41mpg in town, 35 on highway. Mostly this is because you can stick it in OD at 40mph in town whereas 65-70 on DFW highways requires some serious RPM's.

Anyhow - so here he is in his 15mpg maybe-with-a-favorable-wind rig, yacking on his cell phone, UNSEATBELTED, windows down, music blaring (yeah - guess the other guy on the cell was enjoying that too)...

My pipe right under his window. I turn up my idle speed adjust screw. Noise level goes up by a factor of 3 from a gentle purr to 'noisy generator' levels. Next thing you know, windows are going up, middle fingers are comming out, the light changes and I'm laughing my bu77 off.

Was that -entirely- too rude. Darn I hope so. I considered using the last of my fiberglass to fiberglass over his door handle but that'd just be wrong.

Damn liberal tree hugging environmentalcases! They never practice what they preach.. They are too busy telling the rest of us how to live. They do it out of their own guilt of wastefulness and seething envy. Ignore them.. Too bad politicians don't always ignore the idiots......... It would be a better world....

I conserve more than any Tree hugger I know just out of plain frugality and for excercize reasons I ride my bike to work. I never throw anything away that can either be fixed or re-used. I am a true conservationist because I practice and I never preach. I teach by example. The only thing they do is make trouble, get in your face, vandalize and break laws to try and further their so called movement.... Indy

the additives present in "new" gas cars that seems so nasty in the few minutes after they start up, 'specially on cold mornings. Another gripe is LOUD sound systems, though I am somewhat mollified by the knowledge that those spending time in such an environment are likely to sustain internal injuries.

Don't understand the thinking behind any "utility vehicle" that isn't a bare-bones Suburban or an old Land Rover / Cruiser. The Escalade and Navigator are particular affronts to good taste and restraint.

I disagree with the premise that an Escalade is a likely car to be driven by a "tree-hugging" liberal. I am not even certain that a truly compasssionate conservative would drive one.

The most likely liberal vehicles would be Volvo wagons, Toyota Priuses, Honda Insights, perhaps even a Ford Focus or VW bug.

A libertarian would be likely to drive a 67 Dodge Power Wagon with a winch on the front, painted with four colors of primer and "Gloryhole Mining: Tonapah, Nevada" stencilled on the door.

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Semibodacious Transmogrifications a Specialty

1990 300D 2.5 Turbo sedan 171K (Rudolf)
1985 300D Turbo TD Wagon 219K (Remuda)

"Time flies like and arrow, yet fruit flies like a banana"
---Marx (Groucho)

People who drive Escalades, Navigators, and Land Rovers are not very likely to drive them off road, they drive em to be seen. Now, when I go up to the country sometimes, I'll see my cousins drive up in their expensive SUVs down the dirt roads, or as one of them did, instead of driving the Navigator, they brought a 280SE W126 uo there, (I guess the MB can handle a little dirt better than the glorified Expedition with extra bells and whistles!), but I doubt they'll drive them through the shallow creeks and up the rocky red clay hills. Thats for the real trucks, GMCs and Chevys!
-Joe

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'81 MB 300SD, '82 MB 300D Turbo (sold/RIP), '04 Lincoln Town Car Ultimate

Sooner or later every car falls apart, ours does it later!
-German Narrator in a MB Promotion Film about the then brand new W123.

LOL. Bite me, I drive a Volvo wagon. J/K about the biting...

I do own one. Kid (16) drives it. Liberal? No, conservative. V. conservative, libertarian more than anything.

Kill this thread.

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Never a dull moment at Berry Hill Farm.

This thread started out good but it is starting to stink of the old OD.

Now on to another good smoke story.

I park in a parking garage at school, I am usually on the 2nd floor. Anyway my SDL skips like an sob sometimes when I start here up and smokes like a 2 stroke Detroit when it does this. Today as I am trying to pull out of my spot some stupid girl is so affraid that someone else will get it she pull's right up to me so I can't get out. But here windows were down So I fired up the money pit and it started to skip like crazy! The people outside must have thought the parking garage was on fire! But the girl in her Honda drove away real fast, and I probably killed any bugs that were around.

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2016 Corvette Stingray 2LT
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

Probably instilled a fear of old mercedes cars in her too.

Louis.

I've been driving my dad's truck a bit more lately just hauling little stuff around and such, it has a lot of power. When I got into my MB it felt really slow, but then I thought to myself if my car burned anywhere near that much fuel it'd be fast to. But just to be fair to the truck, there aren't many fullsize 4x4 trucks that get 20mpg on average and have touched 22mpg! Maybe if it had a diesel in it I'd even consider buying it.

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Jeff M.
Mercedes W123 DIY pages are now located here.
1983 / 1984 300D Sold
2000 CLK430 Cabriolet ~58k Sold
2005 Avalanche 4x4 ~66k

You were nice on 'em IMHO.

I know people who will go out of their way to get the exhaust pipe aimed right at the window of a car with a driver like that, skip a gear in upshifting, and put the pedal to the floor. Fills the car up nicely with diesel exhaust Granted, this is reserved for scumbags, but still...

I've got a 1-ton Ford diesel 4x4 (with a hitch cover that reads "Remove to tow Chevy") that begs to differ with that statement

At least you didn't say anything bad about Dodge. I'm still searching for a Dodge Cummins. I'm not a big fan of the Pherd Powerjoke but at least you avoided that motor so I guess it is alright. Nice reciever plug btw, I bet the Cheby owners like that.

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Jeff M.
Mercedes W123 DIY pages are now located here.
1983 / 1984 300D Sold
2000 CLK430 Cabriolet ~58k Sold
2005 Avalanche 4x4 ~66k

benzoboy,

Applying your reasoning to my experience.....

MB owners are a bunch of silver haired, silver star polishing, suit wearing latte 1/2 caffe/mocha deeelight drinking, wall street journal readin'....people

Well maybe not all, but the one in the shiney white wagon that I pulled out of a ditch a couple of Winters ago was....

Rob M
'94 toyota landcruiser - too afraid to monitor fuel consumption
'01 VW TDI - low 40's with roor rack and canoe
'67 landrover - mileage? hell that things in a million pieces, its going nowhere

Wow that sounds just like me, other than the silver hair, the suit, the caffe/mocha, and the wall street journal.

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Jeff M.
Mercedes W123 DIY pages are now located here.
1983 / 1984 300D Sold
2000 CLK430 Cabriolet ~58k Sold
2005 Avalanche 4x4 ~66k

I believe was the "old" VW beetle. Engineers, professional men, lawyers and others valued them for their simplicity and reliability. "Housewives" or other family members valued them as "second cars". Kids in high school and college dressed them up with stickers and weird paint jobs. Beetles could just as well be owned by well-to-do households who valued utility and value in a vehicle over ostentation, or by schoolteachers and others who wanted quality but didn't have a lot of money to spend. It was also seen as a "friendly" car.

Don't believe there's been a car since that presented so broad a variety of "status cues," and which could stand (or not stand) for such a wide variety of personal tastes and values.