I Love Classic Cars

I had a corvette, a 1980 model that honestly was not a very well made or reliable automobile, I kept it for far too long, about thirty years. When I went to a car show in town in January I looked at the new model and a sales lady asked if I was interested. I told her of my car which was a 25th birthday present to myself and she asked if it was time to buy another one? I smiled and told her I had graduated from Corvettes. I honestly am done with them. I don't have the patience for bad build quality.

I own a 23 year old Mercedes E class in pristine original condition as well as a Cadillac sedan that we inherited that is also a low milage car in excellent condition. Both are stored in inclement weather and off the road all winter long. The Cadillac is a perfect family long distance hauler on the highway, a large car, large trunk with a very soft ride and remarkable fuel economy considering that it has a V 8 engine. It however has limited build quality and is mechanically a bear to work on but as I use it sparingly these issues are minimal. I am returning the very few issues to factory condition slowly and I expect it to be in our family for many years to come. The Mercedes is the Bulletproof W124 with low miles on it and I have performance summer tires fitted to it, it is very much a drivers car in terms of handling and acceleration as well as high speed driving is superlative. The fuel economy is very good and it is a comfortable car as well but what it is renowned for is build quality and durability which no other Mercedes before or since has attained - this is the best built car they ever constructed - and I own one of the finest examples in existence, it makes mechanics cry when they see it.

When my daily driver is done, I hope to purchase a Tesla for every day use. I am a devotee of what they have achieved in terms of engineering and simplicity and I am convinced that this is the sort of car we should ALL be driving for regular use each day.

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pdqsailor1 · 61-69, M

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.