We're teaming up with our friends at Innova to give away two Innova 1000 Bluetooth OBD2 Wireless Scanners to two lucky MBWorld members! Perfect for entry-level DIYers, the Innova 1000 gives you clear answers and guidance in a simple plug-n-play solution. Want a chance to win one? It’s simple — just share a piece of your car’s story with us.

To participate, reply to this thread with a photo of your car and your favorite memory about it. Whether it's a read trip, a big milestone, or a funny story, we want to hear it! All Mercedes models are eligible. But act fast, the entry period ends on March 2!


You can learn more about the Innova and browse their full range of products at Innova.com. Full contest rules can be found in the PDF attached below. Good luck and we look forward to hearing about your car!

 

Several months ago (right after the hurricane hit NC), I found a 2005 CL65 AMG for sale in Raleigh NC.... Craigslist listing, minimal info, old pics. Talked to the guy a couple separate times, booked a one-way flight from Texas to NC to grab it about 5 days later. Mentioned it to a friend as an impromptu roadtrip, and he flew out with me! We met a bunch of friends on the way back, fixed the AC (no freon, the seller didn't think it was broken), bought a wireless speaker from best buy, since the trunk electronics were fried from water intrusion. The car was kind of a basket case, it had been parked outside for God knows how long. Still has what looks like mold spots on the alcantara headliner. On the to-do list.

I think we made it a 4-5 day trip, hit several interesting stops along the way... The Pyramid Bass Pro shops, Nashville, went across some kind of foggy mountain range. Very scenic. Had to avoid parts of NC for obvious reasons.

The car had 10 year old tires and the front ABC was broken, I don't think the PO had ever experienced the ABC on the car functional, lol. Ended up being a dead hydraulic actuator valve... All of the valves had been visibly beaten on with a hammer. Three ABC lines leaking, none blew thankfully.



Car museum in TN... Forgot the name. It was near Nashville, iirc.

 

So, Sheriff Grady Judd (he thinks he is the new Joe Arpaio). Well, he did not think that he had to follow the rules and was not making needed payments on a toy that they did not need to begin with. So, a man dressed in a green shirt walks into an airport and repossesses an item that the Sheriff did not feel the need to pay for....(see, dont pay your bills, banks take their stuff).

Flying away, you can see the E63 just under us.....

 

lol! Thank you for sharing your story!

 

Road trip must have been a lot of fun!

I like the light blue color. Thanks for sharing your story!

 

I love the story of your road trip. It’s such a timeless piece of Americana. I almost wish Route66 was still in it’s heyday, I would have loved road tripping that from Chicago to the Pacific.
I Did get a chance to do a pretty awesome road trip from Wichita to Vegas. Some highlights were Dodge City, meteor crater, and the Boulder(aka Hoover) Dam. Took the whole fam damnily. Not quite a Wallyworld road trip, but close.

For OM&HC, is that you in the passenger seat of the helicopter? N911GJ show to be the registration number for an R66. I don’t think the helicopter you were in was an R66. I think it was a Hughes 500 or some derivative.
Can you expound, please?

 

Yes, I am filming in the helicopter. How it went down - Grady Judd (the GJ in N911GJ) had purchased a new helicopter. The one in the prior video is this helicopter (N911GJ) - https://www.theledger.com/story/news...r/27055837007/

The Sheriff went out and got a new one, they stopped making payments on this one. They were seemingly trying to sell it to another law enforcement agency (https://www.helihub.com/2022/12/08/p...le-helicopter/) - none bid on it. Payments were not made on it. The bank sold the debt to a friend of mine who got the thing for a song.

 

Very COOL
You should start a helicopter repo show, if you haven't already

 

Yes. That is a MD 530F if I am not mistaken. Beautiful helicopter. High performance for high/hot/heavy operations including external loads. Great work getting a ride in that whip.
The article says it’s a 500E.

 

@MB2timer See, the trick in life is not to have to buy toys...have friends who have them. I have taken my E63's down the run way more than once for top speed runs (friend owns that airport, another friend also has his own -personal- airstrip (hangers, helicopters, jet....).

But, we need to go down to Miami and get a ride in another friends boat.....I guess it does 190....

One local friend...


Another local friend (lets us fly it)

 

I might be cheating a bit as strictly speaking this is not really a memory about my Mercedes, but there is a link ;- )

In 1992, When I was 21, I had to go into the army as the draft was still in force in the Netherlands.

They stationed me with the Airforce on a base in Germany, which was part of an (old) NATO defence line against the Russians.

Now, back then I loved the big, boxy American cars and because I was a “NATO soldier” it meant I could have NATO plates on my car,
and this had 2 major advantages: no tax on gasoline and no Dutch road tax (which you pay annually on weight & engine size and is rather expensive even for a normal car)

So as a sort of “now or never” moment I bought a 1978 Chevrolet Impala.

It didn’t have the original engine anymore but a corvette’s, though this did not make the car particularly fast; In fact, it was a bit of a piece of sh*t…
but it was MY wonderful piece of sh*t!

And very economical at 1 litre on 6kms (yes you read that right) plus 1 litre of oil on 200kms (car never leaked though lol)

In the summer of 1994 me and a friend drove it down to the south of France, to visit my brother who was living there at the time.

And there, at some point, I decided to taker some pictures of my pride and joy.

I eventually sold the car and moved on to something more sensible (late 80s Opel Ascona lol), but the pictures stayed on my wall for a long time after that.

In 2001 I moved to France myself, to join my brother who had meantime returned there to start a business.

I’ve been here for 24 years now and have owned 5 MB’s, and for the longest time I had this idea to take pictures of them in the exact same spot as my Chevrolet.

I finally got round to it last Month!

So I present to you: my very first car and my latest Mercedes.

Now I love my Mercedes, but look at that hot Impala.....; Doesn't it just scream: “Drive me big boy” ?

 

That 1 picture of the impala looks like the exhaust is falling off. I drove an old Lincoln that I owned until the exhaust fell off. I got a great run for my money on that one.

 

you got a good eye!
in fact, i backed up into a little slope that hit the exhaust
that's why we were parked there while waiting for the garage to open

in 1999 i bought a 1969 Caddillac coupe deville
now that car i truly loved and still gutted that i had to sell it when i moved to France
(it did 1 litre on 3km LOL)

 

Congratulations to our two winners, JustTXn and Egonvdv, and thank you to all who entered!

 

Whoohoo, i never win anything

Seems after all these years, the impala still takes care of me :-)

Thanks so much Innova & @IB Jason / MB World