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Why do High School kids recognize and love the C63??
I've only had my C63 for 1-1/2months, but have already seen that there are 2 kinds of people who recognize and love the C63.
One groups is the obvious, expected one: car enthusiast hotrodders who recognize the car because they make it their concern to know about every reasonably "hot" car, and because they love big V8s in relatively small cars.
The other group is a surprise to me: It's high school kids!
Even more intriguing, it's BOTH guys and gals.
Even more intriguing yet, these are NOT kids in a well-off neighborhood, used to seeing Dad and Mom's costly rides. My wife and I live in a "retirement" town of just 14,000 people (parksville, BC, Canada), where the average age is truly about 65 years old (fact from Statistics Canada), where the most expensive restaurants in town have dinner menu items in the $25 to $30 range, where you go to the nearby "big city" of 125,000 people to buy stuff beyond the basics, and where the vast majority of high school kids live in 3-bedroom homes or apartments with not-new Chevys, Kias, and Chrysler Minivans parked in front.
Yet every single time, almost without exception, when a group of high schoolers, male or female, happens to walk by when I am at a stop sign or light, they point to my C63, and usually also give me a big "thumbs up".
Now we know that a C63 from any distance past a few feet looks pretty much like a normal C class Mercedes:
Only kids looking for AMG emblems or fenders somewhat wider than typical, OR kids already familiar with the fact that a C63 exists and what it looks like, would likely notice that the car is anything special. It's no Camaro, Challenger, or Ferrari, or Corvette in terms of either body shape or obvious "hot car" accoutrements.
The automotive press keeps telling us that today's young people don't appreciate cars the way we do, and that most young people view a car as an "appliance", not as a toy that can be justified to a spouse as "transportation" while the REAL purpose is V8 torque and the fun it brings.
But if my experience is typical for C63 owners, the automotive press might be missing something.
I find this also particularly interesting because I've owned a lot of previous vehicles that did not attract anywhere near this kind of attention, and that list of prior vehicles includes a supercharged Chevy SSR retro hardtop convertible pickup, several Mustang GTs (whose price tags would be a much better match for young peoples' financial abilities), and even 4 Corvettes (although 2 of the Corvettes, both C4 convertibles, got at least closer to the attention level the C63 gets).
So what gives here? How do these kids (both guys and gals, remember) even KNOW that a C63 exists, if they are not "car nuts" who read car mags and visit car forums, like we do? Does the younger generation REALLY view cars as "appliances"? Do we have a "car resurgence" growing in high school? Or?
It's you Jim. People just love you. Frankly, I can't get enough of you. Please just keep giving us more wonderful Jim every day. You brighten my life.
Aw Blkrokt, you are SO nice with your ongoing compliments. And, yes, looking at some of your posts about me, some people might even conclude you are OBSESSED with me! It's embarrassing. I'm blushing.
I'm having trouble seeing these as the explanation.
Jim G
The C63 has a long hood, which gives the car an intimidating profile. When I park my car next to my girlfriend's Jetta, my hood seems to take up half her car.
The exhaust is a lot louder from the outside than the driver perceives.
Like I said, I doubt many kids, other than those that like cars, know what a C63 actually is. However, the Mercedes badge on the front is enough to get attention.
Oh God no! Get off that slippery slope! And NEVER say that in front of my wife. She would say "Don't feed THAT dog. He's bad enough without any reinforcement".
Compared to other car makes, Mercedes cars are the least modded. When some kid sees the C63, they see the low profile wheels, aggressive body style, and hear the exhaust note. They see the badge and it all comes together. Hero status!
But I am not detecting any problem that warrants the expense for the kit ($550) and the labor to install it properly (Not allowed to do car work in our condo garage).
- it would give my aftermarket warranty company an excuse to deny claims
- I have the P30/31 package, so the power increase would be zero or small
- I am suspicious that the altered transmission shift behaviors in a tune could be harmful (I have no proof of that - just concerned that the more dramatic shifts COULD be harmful, and the current shifting behavior, up and down, is fine for my needs, and i am seeing complaints on this forum from owners with tunes about their tranny performance)
When I get older I definitely hope I'm a total gangster like Jim who doesnt give a flying f...
Woah!! How'd I get such "street cred"?? I've always thought of myself as just an engineering nerd!
Of course . . .
I DID spend 7+ years as a consultant to The U.S. Postal Service, where rebels and rule breakers are born and nourished (The USPS had 18 unions within its almost 1 million workers at the time I did contract work there).
I DID legally own a 100% functional Uzi Mini when I lived in The U.S. (Canada doesn't tolerate that sort of personal self defence weapon) . . .
And, in Wyoming, where "open carry" was perfectly legal at the time, my buddies and I, in a competition sport called "Cowboy Action Shooting", had lunch one day at The Irma Hotel in Cody (built by Buffalo Bill - really), each of us wearing our full competition "Old West" clothing outfit, wearing two sixguns, and carrying both a lever action rifle and a 12 gauge double barrelled shotgun, and the Japanese tourists went absolutely nuts taking photos and asking us if we "did this all the time" . . .
But NotABaller, it was all in fun. nerd, not gangster.
Jim G
Last edited by JimGnitecki; 05-16-2017 at 10:04 PM.
Compared to other car makes, Mercedes cars are the least modded. When some kid sees the C63, they see the low profile wheels, aggressive body style, and hear the exhaust note. They see the badge and it all comes together. Hero status!
So you think it might be the subtlety of a C63 that is the key? could be!
In the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous. In Parksville, BC, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories.
In the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous. In Parksville, BC, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories.
First thing that came to mind
That's a terrible thing to say even in humor. Sexual predators, especially pedophiles, are the lowest of the low.
05-16-2017, 06:03 PM
Sexual predators, especially pedophiles, are the lowest of the low.
