Geez, what is it about these cars!?!? I just got a beat up old 300D (a 1975 model) to drive as a winter car (my first RUNNING diesel, or MB for that matter! Some of you may recall that I picked up a 220D project car last month that's still a work in progress). The thing was covered in mossy fungus (inside the rear window, all over the tailights, rear deck lid, etc...), the back seat was home to about ten ears of corn, and the trunk houses a pair of mice. Still, with very little preparation, she started after sitting next to a corn field for a couple years untouched.

Anyway, I pulled into the closest Amoco I could find to fuel up, and a trucker pulled up to the pump next to mine. "That old girl still running?" he asked. After a brief and VERY pleasant conversation about the nature of diesel engines, this fellow proceeded to warn me that it was going to get "down to freezing" the same evening, and insisted that I take what was left of his fuel treatment (some kind of very expensive trucker stuff that he swears by). What a nice guy! So I thanked him, and headed home (with enough anti-gel stuff to last me another four or five tanks of fuel!).

I got home, and after tinkering for a while with the "new car," I just sat there in the driver's seat, trying to quantify the "magic" qualities that these cars seem to possess. It struck me, when I finally got out of the car, that the easiest way to justify MB ownership to any if the "nay sayers" is to simply let them shut any of an old MB's doors. There is a solid feel to these cars, even those 25+ years old, that is unparalelled even in brand new American and Japanese cars. In fact, I don't recall ANY other make of car feeling quite like a MB in build quality.

This old 300D, and my 220D project, for that matter, are amazing in this regard. As rusty as these cars are, the doors still close with a solid "clunk!"

Amazing... magic!

Chris
cscmc1@eiu.edu