"the car won't start" says my wife.

[s class]

I'm probably going to have to replace the pristine low-miles W202 C240 I recently bought my wife.

She had a parking lot incident, and went too deep into the bay, crunching the lower left corner of the front bumper on a concrete thingy.  She drove home, everything seemed OK.  A week later the weather was hot and she got stuck in traffic with the car overheating.  Turns out, the engine cooling fan speed control module is located just behind the damaged area of the bumper, and it was playing up since the parking lot incident.  But now the car is branded as unreliable - its "that car that overheats".  BTW I replaced the module in all of 15 minutes, at a parts cost of about $150, but its too late - apparently I make her drive crap old cars.   

[Tony66_au]

A family friend had the same issue  18 months ago and sick of the bitching he lashed out and bought his wife the car she wanted, a mid sized Holden Cruize in the colour she wanted and everything, Infact he let her do the deal and just signed the papers.

Smug woman had 5 months trouble free motoring and then the issues started, Small items and rattles turned to doors that wont open, AC that failed and musty smells, a Satnav that refused to work in English and the kicker being when the car refused to start after a brunch with the girls..........

Then to compound the issue Hubby refused to come get the thing started as he knew nothing about them and said so and lovingly called the dealership who sent a tow and gave her a courtesy car.

Hubbys reply to all the hysterics was to re-state that he was dead against it and just gave her what she nagged him to and washed his hands of the whole deal and even now she is quiet about the subject of cars.

I still smile thinking about this and remember her saying that it had the best new car warranty according to a peak motoring body/Auto club and my reply being that its all good and well getting stuff fixed for free if the breakdowns didn't inconvenience you so much and always happen at the worst possible moment lol

[s class]

Wifey wants a 'nippy little thing' ie a wheeliebin Hyundai or equivalent.  I just dont have that much mean-ness in me to let her have her way 

One trump card is that she survived a heavy accident in the previous car a couple of years back ('94 W202 C180) when a youngster in a tarted up Civic jumped a red light, and wifey admits that the W202 was to thank for her survival.  But I'm no longer allowed to use this incident to forward my case, because that would be reminding her that she has a lot of accidents (which she does.....).

[WrightSounds]

The reason I now own a delightful 116 is because of prior accidents involving my wife. #1, her fault, in a Mazda Protege. Totaled. Lost A LOT of money unfortunately since we had just dropped $1,400 into it a month prior to the accident, and we sold it for $200 to a junkyard since we got no insurance money, it being my wife's fault. #2, not her fault, in a Hyundai Station Wagon. Totaled. It was a fine car, meaning we didn't put any money into besides maintenance, but it was slow, sluggish, and had pretty bad fuel economy. We ended up getting a lot more for it than we thought we would. That's when I started looking for a car not made of plastic.

She IS coming around as of late. We went on vacation for a week and drove some family cars (a Buick and a Rav 4) which she wasn't too impressed with. While we were away I left our car in my neighbor's hands (he's a Benz owner, too). He was nice enough to pick us up at the airport when we returned and he drove our car. As he was pulling up, the 300SD gleaming in the fluorescent lights of the airport terminal, a smile on my face, my wife says, "look at that sweet Mercedes."

Yeah, it's OURS.

Oh that Video?

Here tis lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saV3hUUry-4

I told her about this video and she was cracking up. I've yet to find the perfect 10 minutes for her to watch it. I've seen it twice now 

[JasonP]

She IS coming around as of late. ... As he was pulling up, the 300SD gleaming in the fluorescent lights of the airport terminal, a smile on my face, my wife says, "look at that sweet Mercedes."

That'll do it.

[Hemersam]

My wife, bless her heart, will NOT drive either my '77 300D or '85 190D because they "start funny." That's right; that's exactly what she said, and what she meant was that "funny curlycue light" "scared her." There is no use trying to explain any of this to her; I just let her stay in her Camry where she's happy. I try not to be sexist, but geez! 56 years of this.
Hemersam

[WrightSounds]

My wife, bless her heart, will NOT drive either my '77 300D or '85 190D because they "start funny." That's right; that's exactly what she said, and what she meant was that "funny curlycue light" "scared her."

Yup. Heard that one, too 
She was embarrassed at the grocery store the other day because somebody was waiting for her parking spot and she couldn't jump right in and start it up immediately. What she doesn't know is this car is my first step in de-spazzing and slowing her down 

[Tony66_au]

My Ex just destroyed and abused anything I gave her that she didnt like and after the 3rd mysterious death I just bought her crappy cars, As the kids rarely travelled with her anyway preferring to go with me I kept safe clean cars with baby seats and a stack of kids tapes in the glovebox.

After she became an Ex she came to me asking me to find her a car which I refused on the grounds that it would givce her yet another thing to bitch about and suggested that she spend some of the hundreds of thousands she got from me and pick something herself.

She did, It ended in tears and I ignored it.

My current wife complains that we dont drive the Benz's enough lol and gets out and spanners along side me especially since the stroke and the meds muck me about a bit.

I have often wondered about the women in our lives and if they set out to be nasty about our hobbies or are just thoughtless. We do get attached to this stuff and as we work hard and generally do the right thing re sacrifice etc youd think the girls would cut us some slack with this stuff.

Dont get me wrong here, not all the girls are mercenary about this but the few that get all pouty/stampy about it are being unfair.

Its not often I start a conversation with the words "Listen here Woman" because I know that sooner or later I have to close my eyes to sleep but when I do the subject is deemed closed for a while....

And I live in interesting times for a while lol

[Beastie]

My girlfriend drives a brand new Hyundai... Elantra? Or maybe it's an Accent. I'm surprised I've forgotten. Genuinely forgotten, not just for comedic effect.

She doesn't like old cars. She pretty much just sees them all as "used cars" and to her, used is synonymous with "soiled". She thinks most used cars are 'skeevy'. I think to her, a car that someone else has used is about as appealing as a tampon that someone else has used...

Plus, she likes all of the stuff that new cars have, such as safety and reliability and a warranty and an A-pillar that obstructs vision. Wait a minute... Safety, dependability, security... yeah, those tend to be the things women go for I guess. We men tend to prefer things that are beautiful and complicated and which leave us in financial ruin.

In fairness, most of my male friends aren't much better at understanding my choice of vehicle. Just last week one of them asked me "do you think you'll ever get a regular car?" 

One of my friends likes my new Mercedes, but he keeps going on about how he'd lower it and drop in a gen three if he were me. What does he know? He rides a florescent green motorcycle! Well he will ride it again, soon, after losing his license last year for drunk driving. 

[djenka018]

. . .

In fairness, most of my male friends aren't much better at understanding my choice of vehicle. Just last week one of them asked me "do you think you'll ever get a regular car?" 

One of my friends likes my new Mercedes, but he keeps going on about how he'd lower it and drop in a gen three if he were me. What does he know? He rides a florescent green motorcycle! Well he will ride it again, soon, after losing his license last year for drunk driving. 

Most of the people cannot comprehend what it takes to have a well presentable classic.

Consumerism vs. quality.
There is a false feeling of technological advancement in NEW or modernised items hence the unstoppable demand for "new" rather than "better".

How do you explain someone that W116, a 32-42 year old car is safer than NEW Holden Barina (Daewoo Kalos-Chevrolet Aveo) and that if $10000 is spent on a carefully selected W116 the car would offer 10000 fold more reliability, luxury and WOULD LOOK NEWER ?
I know... they'll ask about consumption but all it takes is to convert it to LPG.

[Kjhall65]

I can't complain, the lovely wife doesn't get my obsession but is happy to accept it and even looks out for stuff on line for me.

Interestingly enough, when we replaced the W202 after 12 years and 210k of trouble free motoring (it was a manual and she can't drive a manual) she wanted a small hatch because it was easy to park.  We got a 1 series BMW.  Now 95% of the time she drives my ML280 and I get the BMW.  What's with that???

She doesn't get the obsession apparently but always wants to drive the Merc all the time.

[Tony66_au]

Its because Mercs are contagious.....

I'm surprised that WHO hasnt issued a biohazard warning about old Mercedes, I see it like this though...

Early on in my driving life I was subjected to English luxury cars which oozed character in buckets not unlike the vital fluids they also oozed lol

So quirky engineering and oddball brilliance were ingrained in my Psyche at an early age as a passenger, and then as my Dad was brutal on cars and a tightarse when it came to servicing we collected previous family cars in the backyard all the way back to the first 2 I remember being a Zephyr Zodiac wagon and a 2 tone pink and white Morris Major, then a Mk X Jag etc etc etc and id go play in the cars when Dad wasnt looking which eventually moved on to trying to start them years after they had officially died from neglect or being cooked.

And quickly the differences became apparent between the English and domestic engineering and the English domestic "Engineering", cars built in wooden sheds by serious men in grey coats and my love of well built cars started.

And Mercedes is my Crystal Meth because it encompasses Engineering, Safety, Performance, Art in design and driving pleasure all rolled into a sub 5k car, and they are family friendly!

Id also like to add that they dont ooze vital fluids but recent experience makes a mockery of this lol

So as a rule they dont leak.

[djenka018]

. . .


So as a rule they [Mercedes] dont leak.

You sure?

I'm yet to see one that does not have a leak or leak developing.
But I'm told that the leaks were designed and calculated in for longevity and reliability.

[Kjhall65]

And Mercedes is my Crystal Meth because it encompasses Engineering, Safety, Performance, Art in design and driving pleasure all rolled into a sub 5k car, and they are family friendly

I couldn't agree more Tony.  This is the reason for my passion also.

Mine started very early when dad bought the W115 when I was about six. We had a bad accident four years later when a Torana came round a blind corner sliding on the wrong side of the road and hit us head on. We all opened the doors and walked away. Both in the Torana were badly injured with the girl in the passenger seat putting her head through the windscreen.  I will never forget her face with blood pouring out of it and toughened glass embedded in it as the ambos pulled her from the wreck.

I love the safety, the engineering and the driving experience.  I've been driving them since I was 20.
Ken

[JasonP]

Engineering, Safety, Performance, Art in design and driving pleasure ... cars built in wooden sheds by serious men in grey coats

Yep. It's not a coincidence that Apple was first built in a garage. Not that I am a fan of Apple (I own none of their products), but I am a fan of good engineering. I am a fan of quality.

"We have artists with no engineering knowledge and engineers with no artistic knowledge and both with no spiritual sense of gravity at all, and the result is not just bad, it is ghastly." -- paraphrased, for my own purposes, from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Maybe all this internet and social media distraction/shallowness will blow over, and the next generation will return to what is True and Good in product design and engineering, bypassing Wall Street with their quarterly profits and built-in obsolescence. Fancy CAD graphics with purple and orange lines in a 3D illustration is not good engineering; 250,000 miles and still running is.

http://www.youtube.com/v/0V_knjGr-ww