Tell me you MB experience
04-23-2016, 10:29 PM
#1
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Tell me you MB experience
What i would like to know or hear if your willing to share, is what is your lets say emotional or physical experience you have when you climb behind the wheel of your MB.
I have been in the auto industry for a along time, ever since i could legally work basically, and over the years all the customer reports, reviews, specs all that stuff has just become white noise to me basically. In my line of work i also get to drive almost every kind of car you can think of (excluding the exotics and super cars etc.) and they pretty much are all just cars. Just plain and simple forms of transportation no matter how much leather or electronics they throw at them. (GM im looking at you, your caddys are a disgrace to the name)
Anyway I will you give you mine. My First MB was cool but kind of a let down, my second wasn't even cool. First was 72 220D gray market car with a 4speed manual. Really cool looking vintage Benz, but it had the performance of an aircraft carrier, to this date the slowest car i have driven. The second was a 300D turbo. Now this is not a cool looking car, and its not fast, not a handler. It took me a while to discover the MB goodness in it. It was crazy reliable, at over 500K the doors still shut with famous bank vault quality people talk about. It wasn't cool or flashy or fast but it was one seriously well built machine.
However i never got the feeling that i was anything more than that. It never felt special, it didn't have any personality. Great car but pretty much the definition of boring. (so sorry to all those that have those cars on here just my opinion)
Now to my current car a 01 C320, First i like the whole sport sedan concept, the e class is cool and all but i like the smaller nimbler car (as far as the s class on up ha ha i have no business owning one of those) I was still expecting to be let down when i drove it. I almost walked away from it when I shut the door and didn't hear that sound i was used to. Really glad i did not do that. This thing is pretty much what i envisioned MB brand to be
It does everything very well not great but better than most and better than some who claim to be race engineered and built for track days. I have to drive all kinds of new cars all the time in my job and it still amazes me that this little 15 year old Mercedes is better than i would say75% of the cars i have to mess with that are new or a year or two old. Better equipped as well.
I also love the fact that unless their car geeks or MB enthusiast no one really knows how old it is. I find it very funny when someone who is making payments on a focus or cruze or something like that tells me they wish they could afford a car like that. Ha Ha cracks me up, all they have to do is look in classifieds and my car in allot cases cost less than their down payment.
There is a feeling in this car though. I didn't get that form the 220 and 300 and although i haven't mentioned it yet the 190 i had as well. I had an SL for a very brief time. I just dont want to talk about that one.
In the others when you drove around no one gave you a second look. They didn't even see you. In this though even at 15 years old people see it, it grabs their attention for some reason. People you dont know will talk to you differently when see you get out of it than if your in a ford or something.
Even at 15 years this little car still commands the respect it had when it was new. Of course that all changes when an actual new MB shows up but its all good it should.
I love this thing ,its so much fun to drive and as silly as at it sounds especially being and automotive tech and knowing no matter who makes them they are all just a bunch parts waiting to fail, it makes me feel a little like i have accomplished something. Just makes me feel better about me in a weird little way and that is so rare in any car from any company these days.
Anyway sorry for the long post but i really would like to hear what others think and feel about their particular model.
I have been in the auto industry for a along time, ever since i could legally work basically, and over the years all the customer reports, reviews, specs all that stuff has just become white noise to me basically. In my line of work i also get to drive almost every kind of car you can think of (excluding the exotics and super cars etc.) and they pretty much are all just cars. Just plain and simple forms of transportation no matter how much leather or electronics they throw at them. (GM im looking at you, your caddys are a disgrace to the name)
Anyway I will you give you mine. My First MB was cool but kind of a let down, my second wasn't even cool. First was 72 220D gray market car with a 4speed manual. Really cool looking vintage Benz, but it had the performance of an aircraft carrier, to this date the slowest car i have driven. The second was a 300D turbo. Now this is not a cool looking car, and its not fast, not a handler. It took me a while to discover the MB goodness in it. It was crazy reliable, at over 500K the doors still shut with famous bank vault quality people talk about. It wasn't cool or flashy or fast but it was one seriously well built machine.
However i never got the feeling that i was anything more than that. It never felt special, it didn't have any personality. Great car but pretty much the definition of boring. (so sorry to all those that have those cars on here just my opinion)
Now to my current car a 01 C320, First i like the whole sport sedan concept, the e class is cool and all but i like the smaller nimbler car (as far as the s class on up ha ha i have no business owning one of those) I was still expecting to be let down when i drove it. I almost walked away from it when I shut the door and didn't hear that sound i was used to. Really glad i did not do that. This thing is pretty much what i envisioned MB brand to be
It does everything very well not great but better than most and better than some who claim to be race engineered and built for track days. I have to drive all kinds of new cars all the time in my job and it still amazes me that this little 15 year old Mercedes is better than i would say75% of the cars i have to mess with that are new or a year or two old. Better equipped as well.
I also love the fact that unless their car geeks or MB enthusiast no one really knows how old it is. I find it very funny when someone who is making payments on a focus or cruze or something like that tells me they wish they could afford a car like that. Ha Ha cracks me up, all they have to do is look in classifieds and my car in allot cases cost less than their down payment.
There is a feeling in this car though. I didn't get that form the 220 and 300 and although i haven't mentioned it yet the 190 i had as well. I had an SL for a very brief time. I just dont want to talk about that one.
In the others when you drove around no one gave you a second look. They didn't even see you. In this though even at 15 years old people see it, it grabs their attention for some reason. People you dont know will talk to you differently when see you get out of it than if your in a ford or something.
Even at 15 years this little car still commands the respect it had when it was new. Of course that all changes when an actual new MB shows up but its all good it should.
I love this thing ,its so much fun to drive and as silly as at it sounds especially being and automotive tech and knowing no matter who makes them they are all just a bunch parts waiting to fail, it makes me feel a little like i have accomplished something. Just makes me feel better about me in a weird little way and that is so rare in any car from any company these days.
Anyway sorry for the long post but i really would like to hear what others think and feel about their particular model.
