I Love Classic Cars

The 1980 was challenged in HP but it still had plenty of torque and they were heavy pigs. One night I wound it up to 220 Kph - about 140 MPH - it was not exactly a stable car at speed. I drove mine back and forth to Florida a few times with my Wife before we had children. I liked the look of it with the low profile hood and the integrated spoilers front and back but the built quality was horrible and the frame and everything else rusted away - maintenance was insane almost one hour for every hour driving and parts cost and quality sucked too and the dealership gave me trade prices for parts.... I was a long term owner of this car. I restored a 1954 Corvette, that project was a lot of fun and it was a show car - fewer than a handful of flaws in the entire car including it did not have the original jack or handle and the best aftermarket convertible top available but otherwise - a near perfect car. Your E350 is a nice car, my FIL had the E500 AMG convertible and I thought he should have not gone for the larger engine. He has since switched over to Audi's - first an A8 and now an S5. For fun he has a BMW 335i hardtop convertible that I just came back from Florida in and that was an amazing ride. My MIL has the new S class which she loves and I hate - the seats are horrible, they hurt not only my back but my FIL's when he drove it back from Florida and was complaining about his back side hurting. The BMW has superlative seats and that engine snarls angrily My Partner has the same car as you do in a light blue metallic for his Wife. He drives the C63 omg and that thing is a fast beast. When he wants to go nuts - he has a Cobra replica - the one built in South Africa with a Rousch 427 engine in it. My W124 remains king of the heap in terms of build quality and flat out durability. The first W124 to travel one million miles was a taxi in Portugal and that car was repurchased by Mercedes and is in their museum in Stuttgart. Loads of W124's have hit the million mile mark since then - the build quality of this particular model is legendary. When the W124 was built the engineers were totally in charge and the accountants had nothing to say except for the price of the car. The list price of my car when new was $74K CDN, the brand new 2016 E sedan costs less. So with all the extra features in the current car how is it that the price is lower now than it was then? What is missing from the current E with all it's additions that all these years later it is less expensive to purchase? No one wants or is willing to pay for the extreme durability that was built into the W124. Today no one keeps cars for a long time and so with competition Mercedes can not afford to add to the cost of the car when the customer is not willing to pay extra for it. Back in the day before Lexus etc, were in existence Mercedes built cars to last nearly for ever if maintained. So I maintain mine, drive it sparingly to not rack up a lot of miles needlessly and I enjoy the heck out of it from spring to fall. This way it will last - for ever even if I won't.

So with all this - I am convinced that Tesla has the right answer - and I think that for a long term every day driver that is exactly where I want to be taking out the Mercedes just for fun and the Cadillac for family road trips and functions. The great part of owning the two classics is that the cost of insurance is basically nearly free and they are cool cars to take out once in a while.

That is too funny about what you said about the Lincoln - we feel the same way about he Cadillac Sedan we have. In terms of the Corvette you must be tall because I found the Corvette to fit me like a glove - I am shorter than average height and I had the seat set almost all the way back in that car. It was not so much that I drove it as I wore it - that is how well I fit inside it. I actually found it to be very comfortable for hauls from Ontario to Florida an 1800 mile jaunt over two days. Even with the motor fresh - I found it blew out a quart of oil past the rings over say six hundred miles and that always aggravated me. I find that new Lincoln's have very high depreciation rates - and it is ideal to get one that is 2-3 years old so someone else takes the hit financially and you still get a good car. It is a lovely day outside and so the Mercedes is going out for a business meeting. Yesterday I took my Mother out in the Cadillac to go grocery shopping and that big trunk was perfect plus the car is very easy for her to get in and out of. I had to get educated on key systems for the Cadillac as I only have one set for it and just ordered a spare remote and the VATs ignition key after measuring the resister built in that key. The Mercedes is my second one - the first was rear ended a year and a half ago. The very next day I looked for a replacement for my 88 and purchased a 93 which was a near barn find car - one owner, not driven at all for nearly ten years in storage with insanely low miles on it. My mechanic called me in from the waiting room as he had the car on the hoist saying that I might want to see what it was that I purchased. I am thinking what is wrong with it? Then he starts smiling and says that it is like it just rolled off the assembly line that day. He asked how I found the car and where it came from - Tacoma WA so it had never seen salt a day in it's life and had been garaged. Then he asked what I paid for it and he told me that I had a great car. It really is in showroom condition and there are no other ones like it in Canada which is why I store it in the winter months in a heated garage with a car cover over it.

The every day car is a mini van which my kids hate - I don't care. When I want to drive one of the nice cars - they are there waiting for me all shiny and clean and ready to go.

Thanks, Truth be known the Corvette was a POS - everything was breaking ALL the time and though it went fast enough - the Mercedes goes faster in terms of high speed, though acceleration is a tiny bit slower and it NEVER breaks and the 3.2L inline six at 240 hp is a fantastic motor. The Cadillac - well it is as maneuverable as a truck, the steering geometry makes a U turn an impossibility. The Cadillac does three point turns - and is the same when parking it. As I said we inherited it from my Wife's Grandfather and it makes me feel like I was 17 and driving my late Father's cars which were large American V8 powered cars but not nearly as advanced as this Cadillac is. Oh for fun - I was able to fit the Cadillac with my Father's last set of licence plates - which we had saved for 32 years so it is a total family car coming from My Wife's Grandfather and having my Dad's plates on it. The Cadillac V8 has 32 valves and is quite snarly when you stomp on the pedal. In terms of engine package size it is also remarkable, very compact but working on it - is a challenge. Things that can be done on the Mercedes in one hour - take four hours on the Cadillac. We will keep and use both of them. We have a family trip to make to NYC in early December and the Cadillac is going to make this trip loaded with four people and a full trunk. A nice road trip which is perfect for that car. City use of the Cadillac for things like a drive to the yacht club or groceries is fun too. The Mercedes is however a whole lot more fun.

Gotta love a V8 engine. Nice post!