Whats the history of your gasoline Benz?

I saw the post titled"Whats the history of your diesel Benz?" and was about to post then i realized it was a diesel thread. so i thought we should do a Whats the history of your gasoline Benz?"
my 230TE was originallypurchased in germany by a weathy family here in san diego, the wife in the family was set againsed getting a diesel, said it was too smelly and noisy. so in 1985 there were no gas wagons in the US. they wanted a wagon since they had several young children, they went to germany and settled on a 1985 230TE. they had the car brought over and modified it to dot requirements.
they owned it for 10 years and took very good care of it the entire time they owned it. in 1995 they sold it to the shop where i work, we painted it to look like a mercedes service wagon, we used it for many years as a customer shuttle and parts retreival wagon. last year the shop decided to buy an ML320 for our shuttle. the owner was goung to scrap the car, he didn't want the headache of the emission problems every 2 years. i bought it for $500, i have had it repainted, and restored it to its pre european glory. the car has 275,000 miles and runs beautifully

[iwrock]

My 400E was purchased new by an older gentleman looking for a car that had a good balance of performance and comfort. So he settled on this 400E as it had the power of a V-8 and an interior that was actually quite comfortable. He was very proud of this car because he had owned it since new, and had all of the records on it. It was babied all of its life, however the PO wasnt afraid of testing the limits. He actually said he couldnt keep it under the posted speed limit. Well, he finally decided it was time to part with her, as she was getting old, and he was looking into a midlife crisis car. That is when we stepped in. He had her listed on autotrader, and the deal was quite a good one. She was for sale for around 5,000 dollars. Well, we made contact and found out he was quite the mercedes man, and he was on his way to buy an SL500, and he was going to trade in his 400E. Well, after some persuasion, we bought her with only 155,000 miles on the clock. We had acquired all of the recods, and the PO wasnt stingy. He had the motor rebuilt just a year before we had bought it to take care of a minute oil leak. He had the transmission replaced, as he complained it would partially slip the 3rd to 4th shift when cold. He babied that car, and I have all of the records to prove it.

Well, now she has 192,000 mile on the clock, and she still runs as well as the day she came home with us. The front seats are now a bit worn, as they are fianlly starting to show the 192,000 miles she has. And most importantly, she still has the power to show everybody whos boss. Oh yeah, she loves to teach those other German Cars whos boss. (well sometimes at least.)

[Frank X. Morris]

Howdy All,
Mine was an ambulance in the German army.