I'm still around :)

[Markz116]

Hello fellow W116ers. Nice to be back after a while of not visiting the forums often. I love this place and everybody here

Let's see.. Where did I leave off..

Oh. Well I graduated eighth grade. Yay me. But sadly my uncle still has not even hinted at what he's going to do with his 450SE

He and his wife currently have their house for sale so they can move down to Florida and retire. I do hope the car goes to some caring new owners if not me.

Meanwhile, my pride and joy, my dear old car, the 1990 Infiniti M30, is still up and running. No new mechanical problems, nothing slowing it down aside from the still leaking valve cover gaskets. Since my sister has been away at college for the past few months, nobody drove it, so wear-and-tear have been kept down. Now that she's home for the summer, though, they're both happy; my sis has that sort of emotional attachment to the M30 even though she and my other sister pretty much hate the car's guts, and the M30 itself is always sort of "happier" when she's driving

Anyway, back on track. This year, my family once again plans to go on another famous, 7,000+ road trip around the USA - only this time, it will be around the USA literally. For those that are familiar with the country, here is a ROUGH outline of where we're headed:

We will be starting from our home in New Jersey and driving up to New York. From there, we'll be headed in the Michigan direction, then far up to the Northern border of the States where we'll trail around on the states bordering Canada. We'll hit Washington state then (here's the best part) head south along the West Coast, or the back of California and THEN (an even BETTER part), we'll tour the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center in Irvine, California

Afterwards, we'll continue down to the Southern border of the States, into Texas, swoop down into Florida to see some relatives, then back up the East Coast through the Carolinas and home to New Jersey again.

If you have any comments regarding the reliability of our dear old 8-year old 2000 Honda Odyssey, feel free to post them. It's got 150,000+ miles on it already, which is currently 5,000 more than our 18-year old 1990 Infiniti M30. We might be renting a generation 3 Odyssey, however, so as to keep our current one from wearing so much over the 9-10,000 mile journey to the point of the transmission (which is already whining very loud) blowing.

I do have a question though.. Who here, as a part of the W116 Enthusiasts Group, resides in the US? I would greatly like to meet members of the group, other enthusiasts. For someone like me who is absolutely addicted to cars, it would be my dream to cruise the United States visiting the famous members of W116.org. I'm already set to have a California meet with a few people from F31Club.com, and that in itself is one half of my dream!

Please PM me if you have anything to say about the roadtrip and a possible meet. My father has checked out the F31Club meet and deemed it "safe" (as a father of a 14-year old lol) for me to attend the California meet if possible, so I hope he would be so kind as to let me meet some of the other enthusiasts here, if possible. Hell, I'd even ask all of you for your autographs

Thank you for your time,

Mark J.

[Mforcer]

Thanks for the update We are always a little concerned when one of us goes away for a while but there is something about these cars that will not let you go. You may take an interest in something different but nothing can replace a W116!

This forum does have plenty of US members and I hope some of them will drop in to say hi. Let us know when you are visiting the land of Oz. There are a few of us here that will be most happy to say hi

[Papalangi]

I am about 3 miles due south of the runway at Seatac airport.  About halfway between Seattle and Tacoma.

We did a clockwise trip part way around the US when we bought the 450SEL.  Started in Dallas, headed west on 40 then up through California, Oregon and Washington.

In 3 and a half days.  In a car we'd never seen.  With a 1 year old.  Had a great time, wished we could have gone slower but had to be at work day after we got home.

Michael

[Markz116]

Sorry to bump an old topic.

Well, the trip was a success. The Odyssey performed without the slightest of mechanical problems, but we did manage to run right over two semi-truck tires lying blatantly in the middle of the road. The first impact tore off one of the O2 sensors on the undercarriage of the car, the second did heavy damage to the front bumper mounts, pushing the whole thing back about a half inch, but the bumper itself was okay. In the end, we pulled about 9,600 miles. Not the 10,000 we were hoping we'd hit, but close enough.

Anyway, I'm still around, trolling my favorite Mercedes-Benz forum here. No, I still haven't gotten word on what's up with my uncle's '76 450SE, but I'm still praying that when they retire it goes to a  good home. Like me. haha.

Just stopping by to say hi.

[nathan]

heh Mark,
glad to hear the trip was a safe one.
did you get to visit the classic centre after all that?
and did you calculate what your fuel consumption was, i imagine it would have been reasonable if you were crusing at freeway speeds most of the time!

[Markz116]

Yes, we did visit the Classic Centre but it was closed at the time so we could only see the few models they had in the garage area and by the front desk. There was one 300SD from I think 1980 with only 243 miles on it (if I remember correctly), and a 6.9 whose mileage I don't remember. I found it odd, though, that the 6.9 was missing the 450SEL badge on the left side of the trunk. Ah and there was also an R107 SL too. Even an early 1940s Ford Model T-esque Benz was there.

In the garage area where there were two rows of Benzes parked on lifts with cars parked under them on both sides of the garage. I'm sorry, but I don't think I uploaded the pictures of the Classic Centre to the photo album, and don't have them on this computer. They're on my sister's laptop, which is with her 100 miles away at college I will try to copy them off of her laptop the next time she visits home.

Overall, visiting the Classic Centre was amazing. My jaw literally dropped when I saw the cars. I even got a chance to hug the 6.9 around the left C-pillar
But then the woman at the desk told me to get off...

This is the road trip photo albumI set up for a majority of the trip:
http://markz.myphotoalbum.com/albums.php?page=1

The album is not complete all the way up to the last few stops of the trip, but it covers some of our bigger stops all the way up to our final trip destination, Seattle, Washington.

I had a roadtrip blog running as well, but towards the last few days of vacation, I wasn't able to keep up with the postings because I developed a serious fever and all I could really do was just sit in the passenger seat and sleep

Along the way, the Odyssey was subjected to two accidents WHILE on the highway going 80 MPH, the tire incidents. You can read about both on the blog. Luckily, the impacts were not hard enough to send the Odyssey into a crazy rampage across the road and we all made it out alive haha.

Blog:
http://2008-around-america.blogspot.com/

Photo Album:
http://markz.myphotoalbum.com/albums.php?page=1

We calculated the mileage every single time we stopped for gas, starting from the morning we set off from home to the very last stop on our way back. With the fully-loaded Odyssey traveling a consistent 80-85 MPH almost every day for about 15 to even 20 hours (non-stop), we averaged between 23-25 MPG. I was surprised, even though we were always on the highway, because with all of us and our cargo in it, the Odyssey weighed about 6000 lbs. Engine and transmission worked flawlessly though, and neither of them complained for the whole trip. The rear air suspension worked great as well.

[oscar]

Hi Mark, just perusing some of your photos and I forgot how much that unused white 6.9 was.  $175,000 with 229m on the clock.  I was amused to see there was no warranty  but personally I reckon they should keep it.  They should send it on a world tour along with similar museum pieces visiting various concours along the way.  Same as art collections or ancient relics do tours to various museums around the world.

[Markz116]

Ah yes, that's the price. Unlike my parents, I was completely unsurprised by how much the sticker read!

I too think they should keep it. My one dream is to some day go for a ride in a 6.9. Then own one

[Markz116]

Ah here's the specific link to the start of the Classic Center pictures:

http://markz.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album03

for those of you who haven't yet seen them.

The white 1979 450SEL 6.9 had 229 miles on it and was on sale for $175,000 USD. Unrestored!