Noticing more new members and 116 owners on the Org lately

[George]

To be honest for me it's because I'm a cheap skate.

I inherited a 126 280se and was planning to get rid of it asap and to try and get another economy car.

The car has smiled at me in the mornings and has a glint in it's eye. I absorbed the smell and the driving experience and noticed the class of vehicle that is Benz and it's presence all over.

Combine that with availability of information and resources, reliability, willingness to DIY and you kind of change your mind. The manual has something to it that makes the motor less overwhelming and fascinating as an engineering platform or how it evolved. It's a more viable option to keep it and enjoy it since the local market is currently flushing them for cheap, meaning more spares etc. So the likelihood I think would lean towards a flood of mechanic/learning mechanic or tech head/owner phenomena. Something had to purge me to get one though, Not sure if I would have bought one out of my own but the incident might have altered me forever. I might get another Benz one day if I ever have the dough. I understand Jeremy Clarkson's reaction to Mercedes, it's just a quality thing.

My own Mazda 323's engine now looks like a lawn mower engine. It's also obvious what cars where made to last, the Mazda might last with it's engine but not the body work, interior etc. The mazda is a third of the benz's age and the benz just broke my idea of how long cars would/could last.

And the warning labels in the boot of the Benz is printed in Afrikaans(Home language). WTF??

[Tony66_au]

Has to be a mistake or a replacement boot lid George because South Afrikaanse cars are Right hand drive mate.

[Tony66_au]

Unless it was an Embassy car at some stage?

[Casey]

I've had the pleasure of meeting and buying a W116 from a fellow forum user, and it looks like that's going to be happening again in the near future.  It was lovely coming to this forum initially and meeting the great resource that jbrasile is when I had no idea where to get parts other than blowing wads of money at a dealership, and I've since been able to sell things to a couple forum members.  Never had that much real-life interaction based on a forum before, but it's nice that it establishes a certain level of trust between people.

Amazingly, although I've yet to see another W116 randomly on the road, there are forum members in my state, and the ones adjacent to it!  I quite enjoy all the diversity and various personalities here.  It's a great forum indeed.

[djetronicista]

I'm new to group, just like older cars in general live in CAL notice my car a 73 450 SEL gets as much or more attention than alot of the new Benzs out here.  Have owned for 4 years now.  :-