Thankd for the kind comments everyone.

GBenz, I took your Hyundai comment as a joke, but a few years ago I was in Pittsburgh and had to rent a car to go to State College and then down through West Virginia, and then up to Cincinnatti and turn in the car there. All they had was a mid size Hyundai. I begged them for something else but that was it.

I begrudgingly got in the car for this long distance run and was VERY pleasantly surprised. I actually grew attached to the car before turning it in 1,000 miles or so later. Out of curiosity I raised the hood when I got fuel and was pleasantly surprised there as well. There was room to work on the engine and it appeared that a timing belt job would not be difficult at all.

MB's are still fabulous, but the practicality of driving the new ones has gone away. Not only due to the electronic nightmare of my '01 C Class, but also the constant work that I have had to do on my 124. If they all were as trouble free as my old manual everything 240D, I would never even dreamed of driving anything else.

In response to your original post Larry,,,, I have been saying it forever,,,, always pull the wiper off to replace the windshield ! Have seen those slam bangers do it without and as you said, there can be consequences.
In reference to you giving up the Benzes,,,, this question has been on my mind for quite awhile. How long do I keep putting money into the cars ? I guess until it reaches the point where it is cheaper to drive a newer one, or until I can't work on them any more. Just returned from a trip in the TE,,, see OD,,, and completely fell in love with the car again. A pure joy for 12 hour 700 mile days, even for this old bod, and only saw one other TE the whole trip. I still enjoy the uniqueness of the marque, and will just continue to plow ahead I guess. I don't have near the miles you do on the E, so my view may change as the miles add up. Thanks for all your imput though,,, you are a true pro.

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95 SL500 Smoke Silver, Parchment 64K
07 E350 4matic Station Wagon White 34K
02 E320 4Matic Silver/grey 80K
05 F150 Silver 44K

Yes Pete, on a long drive there is NOTHING that can beat a Benz. I took my 124 on vacation last October. I went into the New Mexico Mountains and back about 2,000 miles driving or so and I understood at that time why I had put so much work into it.

you helped me out here in Boston with my 1994 wagon - probably thanks in part to you I still have that car, despite timing chain cover leak, motor mounts, waterpump, head gasket, wiring harness, fuel pump, nitrogen accumulators, transmission, and assorted other astronomical repair bills over the last three years amounting to more than I paid for the car itself. But as you say, when it runs, it is beautiful! Hope I don't keep following your example and give up on it - it only has 120k.

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Chip Johnson

Larry,

Thanks for your contribution over the years.

While I am no fan of Ford in general, there are only 2 cars ever built in Detroit that I would even consider owning -- and they're both Ford products:
1) the new Mustang (with a manual tranny)
2) the Lincoln LS (with manual tranny).

I believe the solid rear axle suspension on the Mustang is borrowed from Volvo's technology (that Volvo incidentally stopped using in 1995). Not exactly state of the art, but a giant step up from the Mustang's old "pickup truck" suspension, and profoundly durable. When Ford introduced it on the Mustang, it was considered a huge improvement.

Keep in touch.

Jeff Pierce

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Jeff Pierce

Current Vehicles:
'92 Mercedes 190E/2.3 (247K miles/my daily driver)
'93 Volvo 940 Turbo Wagon (263K miles/a family truckster with spunk)
'99 Kawasaki Concours
Gravely 8120
Previous Vehicles:
'85 Jeep CJ-7 w/ Fisher plow (226K miles)'93 Volvo 940 Turbo Wagon
'53 Willys-Overland Pickup
'85 Honda 750F Interceptor
'93 Nissan Quest
'89 Toyota Camry Wagon
'89 Dodge Raider
'81 Honda CB 750F Super Sport
'88 Toyota Celica
'95 Toyota Tacoma
'74 Honda CB 550F

I assume that by "truck suspension" you mean parallel leaf springs. Those have been gone from the Mustang since the Fox bodied cars hit the streets in 1979.

There was talk of an IRS for the S197 ('05 to present) Mustang, but they elected to hold down costs. As solid rear axle cars go, the setup on the Mustangs of the last 17 or so years is about as good as they get.

As far as this coming from Volvo, the hot rodders were doing a four bar link in the fifties. Maybe Volvo got it from the hot rodders.

Have a great day,