I love to see older, semi-special cars that have been kept up and remain in daily use. This morning on the way to work outside DC a lady in her thirties passed me in a nicely kept W123 300, in one of those brownish '80s shades, and with the added nice, modest touch of wheel covers vs the usual alloys. The car wasn't shiny, but it wasn't dirty or dinged-up either. Obviously the second or third car of a "professional" family who still practice the bluestocking economy of buying the best and making it last. In the "old money" shabby-genteel neighborhood of Baltimore where I grew up, you could still find '30s and '40s Buicks and Packards in regular use up until the '60s. A neighborhood garage just last summer yielded a 12 cylinder '34 Packard Victoria, bought for transportation for $60 just before WWII, and laid up in 1959.

IMHO, the W123 diesels are the last "permanent" cars we'll ever see...overengineered, overbuilt, still good looking, and durable as cathedrals. With all the faux glamor of today's expensive cars, it was wonderful to see a vehicle that bespeaks modesty, refinement, conservative quality, and taste.