Old Mercedes Wagon

[Haseeb]

Picked up this nice old wagon. Notice a pattern here? I am beginning to circle back towards BMW's (slowly and surely I march to my impeding doom). I am in love with the rear facing wagon seats here, put one of my buddies back there while I was driving, and it was like talking to someone in a different room I had a diesel 300TD a year or two ago, quite cool and astonishingly slow, so the gasoline engine in this one is a nice surprise with its brisk pace

 

[bluecoupe30!]

Very nice Haseeb. Where do you house all of these cars? I owned a very nice 300 Diesel wagon, back in the day. Loved that car. Cream/yellow, giant Euro headlights, Centra mag wheels. had a propensity to burn out glow plug number 1. Always had to carry a spare. Confounded me and mechanics. Finally wrote to a magazine, remember those? specifically Road and Track, their "Technical Correspondence" section. They actually did select my inquiry for investigation, and consulted with their local MB specialist who suggested a fix. Of course this fix required special tool only available in Bavaria or some such location, but the tool was located and my local specialist, Hans, performed the operation, and the glow plug burnout was history. Such a tank!

 

[Nicad]

Long time ago, 1980 as I remember, I had a summer job in Belgium, living with a Flemish family. They had a brochure for one of those wagons in the washroom. Great reading material. Aways liked the looks of that design. Beauty !

 

[Belgiumbarry]

i'm Flemish... what town/village were you ?

 

[Nicad]

i'm Flemish... what town/village were you ?

I was in Diepenbeek, worked at the Ford factory in Genk on the pressline making Taunus parts. Spent some time in Hasselt and Maastrict on weekends. The last name of my fantastic hosts is Celis. What a family.
Also bought myself a 1974 or so Suzuki GT380 and rode it to London and Amsterdam on weekends, and then down to Croatia when my job ended. Summer of my Life, loved every minute of it other than working in a press shop that was rewiring my brain.!!

 

[bluecoupe30!]

Hmmm....interesting Bob. Pieces of the puzzle coming together.

 

[Belgiumbarry]

thanks Bob for the story....sadly that factory was closed on 18 December 2014....a disaster for the region there , all lost their work and there was not much alternative.
I live in Oost Vlaanderen , more near the coast .
Coincidence, around 1974 i had a Suzuki 500GT , among some other bikes.... i bought in 1977 a second hand Porsche 911 for 2000 € ! ( 80.000 Belgian francs at that time) . I see now asking prices for those build years at 60k to 100k € .... crazy.

 

[Nicad]

So Haseeb, have you been selling a lot of the cars that you have acquired in the last few years or stockpiling them? What's next on your wish list?

 

[Nicad]

thanks Bob for the story....sadly that factory was closed on 18 December 2014....a disaster for the region there , all lost their work and there was not much alternative.
I live in Oost Vlaanderen , more near the coast .
Coincidence, around 1974 i had a Suzuki 500GT , among some other bikes.... i bought in 1977 a second hand Porsche 911 for 2000 € ! ( 80.000 Belgian francs at that time) . I see now asking prices for those build years at 60k to 100k € .... crazy.

I remember when I passed through Munich that summer they had an outdoor public used car market you could stroll through. I also saw Porsche 911s (of unknown condition) for crazy low prices.

 

[Haseeb]

So Haseeb, have you been selling a lot of the cars that you have acquired in the last few years or stockpiling them? What's next on your wish list?

Now that is a good question The usual routine is I pretty much just sell them after a few months (on average) of enjoyment. I am not really sure why I do this, I do hope I one day find a car I like enough to keep, but maybe for me variety is the spice of life. Next on the list was an NA Miata, which I already picked up (post coming soon!). Quite a few on the wishlist, Toyota Land Cruiser (MUST be from the 80s), older Supra. I would like to try my hand at a Bavaria again, but anything 80s BMW would suffice. I am getting quite keen on rejoining BMW gang. Perhaps a Ford Maverick if one pops up, or similar era F150. If I could stockpile I would! But my mechanical knowledge wouldn't be able to keep up with that many cars at once haha!

 

[Haseeb]

Very nice Haseeb. Where do you house all of these cars? I owned a very nice 300 Diesel wagon, back in the day. Loved that car. Cream/yellow, giant Euro headlights, Centra mag wheels. had a propensity to burn out glow plug number 1. Always had to carry a spare. Confounded me and mechanics. Finally wrote to a magazine, remember those? specifically Road and Track, their "Technical Correspondence" section. They actually did select my inquiry for investigation, and consulted with their local MB specialist who suggested a fix. Of course this fix required special tool only available in Bavaria or some such location, but the tool was located and my local specialist, Hans, performed the operation, and the glow plug burnout was history. Such a tank!

I miss magazines pretty frequently! I house these cars with my parents, the most I ever had at once was 5 and then drove them (and in turn, me) a bit nutty lmao. But thank you for sharing your 300TD story, would have loved to have seen it! by the way, how often did that glow plug burn out? (just curious )

 

[bluecoupe30!]

I miss magazines pretty frequently! I house these cars with my parents, the most I ever had at once was 5 and then drove them (and in turn, me) a bit nutty lmao. But thank you for sharing your 300TD story, would have loved to have seen it! by the way, how often did that glow plug burn out? (just curious )

That glow plug was fine around town, short trips, but if I drove for over an hour on the freeway, say on a vacation, if you know what I mean, I could park but not be able to start again, until I popped in my backup glow plug. A fix was imperative, and lucky to get such expert diagnosis. Your parents seem very understanding.

 

[Nicad]

You must be good at selling cars to deal with that many transactions. Overall have you sold for more than you paid?

 

[Haseeb]

You must be good at selling cars to deal with that many transactions. Overall have you sold for more than you paid?

Aww thank you! My parents say the same thing, they believe I am an excellent salesman. I think I actually am pretty good at it, and that does stem from a genuine interest in the cars. If there isn't any passion behind it, it becomes hard to sell anything in my opinion. I am well into the green overall (biggest blunder for me was the bavaria, I didn't know back then what I know now)

 

[Nicad]

Good stuff. I sold a car for a friend while he was out of the country once ...it was a real nightmare as it was a salvage title Golf GTI I helped him buy a few years before. The Knobs I had to deal with!! OTOH I have sold some of my own cars and it went splendidly well. I find if you write a 100% honest ad with photos of any problems and price it realistically you do OK. The main thing is weeding out the time wasters. I sold two boats this summer and that approach worked pretty well. I'm thinking of selling my Miata this Spring and buying a Porsche Cayman. Might see if I can get the Miata on BAT. (10th anniversary model 99' with 30K)