If anyone can believe this, but I had someone call my car a "Hitler car". I was down in Richmond VA visiting my folks, when I saw someone pull up in a classic 1960's Mustang. I nodded and smiled at his nice car. When he saw me climb into my car, he actually shook his head in disbelief and said "I can't see how you can be proud to drive a Hitler car", then he walked into the store.

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1999 MB SL500 (110,000 mi)
2004 Volvo V70 2.5T (220,000 mi)
2014 Tesla Model S 85 (136,000 mi)
MBCA member

...a person driving a Ford would accuse you of driving a "Hitler car."

Henry Ford was a well known anti-Semite. In the years before WW II he wrote, extensively, about the "Jewish problem." In fact, Hitler himself was a big fan of Henry Ford's writings. Ford was sued by a Jewish group, for his writings, and he was forced to settle out of court.

A Benz is no more a Hitler car than a Mitsubishi is a Hirohito car.

People can be so incredibly ignorant!

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Current Benzes

1989 300TE "Alice"
1990 300CE "Sam Spade"
1991 300CE "Beowulf" RIP (06.1991 - 10.10.2007)
1998 E320 "Orson"
2002 C320 Wagon "Molly Fox"

Res non semper sunt quae esse videntur

My Gallery

Not in this weather!

Rick, people are just plain idiots. He would probably take that Mustang over a Porsche. END OF STORY.

Rick,

I wonder which chapter of the autoworkers union this guy belonged to?

I hope no one thinks that I am implying that everyone in the autoworkers union thinks this way. Like any other organization there are all different types of people.

Have a great day,

I am not letting it bother me. I just couldn't believe someone around my age, 34, would actually hold such views. It's obviously learned. If I wanted to get into it with him, I would tell him that I had another "Hitler car", a VW Passat. Actually if anything a VW has closer ties to Hitler than a Benz. Hitler wanted a "people's car", that the common German could afford during the hard economic times Germany was in at the time. I am not in any way praising him, but he is the one responsible for VW at first. MB actually built the first prototype of the Beetle, which was designed by Dr. Porsche.
I wonder what that guy thinks about Ford, GM and especially Chrysler, sending UAW jobs out to Mexico and Canada. Camaro/Firebirds are made in Canada. PT Cruisers and Neons are made in Mexico. Also, I believe Ford Windstars are made in Canada as well.

__________________
1999 MB SL500 (110,000 mi)
2004 Volvo V70 2.5T (220,000 mi)
2014 Tesla Model S 85 (136,000 mi)
MBCA member

You are wasting you time even thinking about it. Some people are just plain ignorant and they do they do, what they do because misery loves company. Erase it from the memory banks and think of a good come back like " yea very good,, it's German do you know where that is? or Yea it's made in Germany where unlike the US they only drink 1 beer over lunch and GM has keggers" or better yet " go back to your trailer!"

time but please don't think that all the people that live in this part of the US are like that. The wife calls them "Springer people". I have lived all over the US and the world and you run into narrow minded people no matter where you go.
I have attached a pic of my 8 year old photographer and I am doing everything I can to bring him along to learn how to work on these machines. He will be good at whatever he does in life.

http://12.96.14.5/~engatwork/laborday4.jpg

Picture was taken at our "tree farm" in south Ga.

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Jim

Even if you drive a typical "hitler car" like this 170:

[img]http://communities.msn.nl/_Secure/0LgAvGrAOU0G3y9ijqQUV54QFJrvAE2KxoqfmtD1lDsJa8Ssg8mMjr5zL0l1XSjZEzjj**QGVvVE/170-front1.JPG[/img]

I cannot see how anyone can affiliate a classic car like that with WWII...

The autobahn was a creation of Hitler as well...It makes you wonder how that Ford driver travels around...must be on the road 66 like freeways.

greetingz,

__________________
1990 300SL-24
1993 C250D with a minor 600+k kilometer
www.MBenzNL.com(the Netherlands)

engatwork,

What a great background for a pic of your eight year old. I say this 'cause for an eight year old, he's "tall as a Georgia Pine".

Everyone,

I'm dieing to tell about seeing the real Hitler's car, at least that was the claim, when I was just about as old as the featured photographer in engatwork's attached photograph.

I was with my parents traveling into Oklahoma to visit relatives. I do believe that I was eight. Just as we crossed the Red River there was a temporary looking sign indicating that Hitler's car was on display.

We stopped and it cost some outrageous (at the time) amount of money to climb the steps and walk around the car. It was something like fifty cents. The car was big, and had glass that was about an inch thick. There was a bullet star in one of these windows. It was an awesome thing for a small town Texan kid of the fifties to see. I believe that it was the second Mercedes I ever was near in my life. The first was something like a 220 that our neighbor brought back from Germany after a vacation. My Dad made fun of it, not to the guys face, but I thought it was the neatest car I'd ever seen.

Anyway, as we drove away from "Hitlers car" my Mom said it probably wasn't even Hitler's anyway, it probably just belonged to some gangster. My Dad fought in World War II and anything to do with Hitler or a Swastika was as dirty as the "F" word to my parents, so maybe she just didn't want to admit that it was Hitlers car. It sure made me wide eyed while I was walking around it.

Have a great day,

you should have told the rustang driver this joke If you mow your grass and find a crustang up on blocks you might be a redneck.

Ford For Only Retarded Drivers
For Old Redneck Drunks
First On Recall Day
F***in Owner Really Dumb
Found Overturned Rusted Dented

F*&%*) Over Rebuilt Dodge

Found On Road Dead

Fix Or Replace Daily


The list goes on and on but equating the biggest A*&%%& in the history of mankind with a car is as ignorant as it get's. My grandfather fought in WWII and Korea and it's safe to say he does not really like my Toyota's to much. But with the exception of Canada (john) who's butt haven't we kicked? I mean a grudge is one thing but sometimes ya just gotta let it go.

If you really owned "a Hitler car" you would have an amazing and beautiful example of Mercedes-Benz craftsmanship. Unfortunately, the GI's that captured them at the end of the war destroyed just about all of them.

www.koleso5.chance.ru/en/06_68-70e.htm

www.mercedes-veterans.com/ksection/aktion_p.htm

Daimler Benz delivered a fully armored type 770KW150II with a 7.7 liter 394 hp eight cylinder supercharged engine that was good to 112 mph just in time for Dolph's birthday in 1939. Can you imagine driving around in this unit?:



And Jim, that's a good lookin' boy you got there. I assume the kid leanin' on him is your son...

__________________

Scott Longston
Northern California Wine Country...
"Turbos whistle, grapes wine..."

Scott,

Thanks for the research. It seems that none of "Hitler's" cars survived the war. It's pretty easy to understand what would lead the American GI's to destroy anything to do with Hitler.

The one I saw as a child must have been one of these limousines, but not necessarily Hitler's. I don't remember alot about the car, but I certainly do remember the thick glass.

I guess my Mom was right when she said it was just some gangsters car. Of course, if it had actually been Hitler's car, that statement would still have been true, just a gangster's car.

Have a great day,

That is some good/interesting reading concerning the history of the Mercedes line and yes that is my youngest son who is also my technical photographer . I try to involve him in my diy'er projects - whether it is taking the photos or turning the wrenches.

Now a question - were the late 20's early 30's Mercedes any comparison to the Packards and Duseys of the day as far as reputation and speed? My son has a Matchbox car of a 1926 or '27 SSK - big convertable - and I was wondering if they held a candle to the Packards and Dusey's back then.

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Jim

I think I saw Hitler's Limo at the Imperial Auto Museum in Las Vegas. They claimed it to be the real deal, complete with flaggs, suit, and cap.

A few of the SS's cars do in fact exist. Some, are still hidden. At first, the owners of these cars had a hard time selling them, now, 60 years later, some collectors are interested in them for their rarity and historical part. The fact that so few survive is the key.

Its sad that Mercedes has to bare most of the Nazi grunt. Like my family always says, "Hitler might have been crazy, but he was no dummy..." (for driving a Mercedes.)

Mercedes was the premere German car at the time, no doubt. Save for maybe a Maybach, Horshe, or Wanderer, Mercedes was the car to arrive in.

And yes, when Supercharged they could rival a Duesenburg.