Charlie's Official Update Thread

[charliekuney]

The 600SEL has been sold. The beige coupe I sold blew up. The green sedan I sold was t-boned. The Geo Metro has been quite the interesting daily driver. It has made me realize, though, that no matter how simple a machine may be it will still have problems.

[Dr_Snooz]

Nice job!

[2ndGenGuy]

Wow dude. You went from a 600SEL to a Metro. I gotta give you some huge credit on that one.

[charliekuney]

Any suggestions on where I can weigh my car? It has been fully gutted down to just the dash and front seats and I want to know how much it weighs with me in it. Garbage transfer station?

[Dr_Snooz]

Any self-serve wrecking yard should have a scale. You can also hit the truck scales on the interstate.

[charliekuney]

Every truck scale in Washington is closed, I swear. I'll call WSP and DoE and a couple junkyards. Thanks!

[charliekuney]

Just to remind you folks of my suffering! What do y'all think about the 8.0L V10 Ram from the 90's?

[Dr_Snooz]

Good lord! Is this a stolen/recovered kinda thing or are you hypermiling now? I guess not if you're thinking about 8L V10s. LOL. It must be punishingly loud inside that Metro now.

[MessyHonda]

HA! so you sold the benz. i figured after you posted the MPG. now to a metro. my co worker has one and it gets great MPG but it has like 49 squirrel power

[charliekuney]

Good lord! Is this a stolen/recovered kinda thing or are you hypermiling now? I guess not if you're thinking about 8L V10s. LOL. It must be punishingly loud inside that Metro now.

Hypermiling king! It is definitely louder than the Mercedes was - by a long shot - but it's surprisingly quieter than I thought it would be. Removing the carpet and headliner added more noise than any of the interior paneling or the two (COUNT THEM, TWO) squares of sound damping behind rear speakers (or where they would be in the "upscale" models).

HA! so you sold the benz. i figured after you posted the MPG. now to a metro. my co worker has one and it gets great MPG but it has like 49 squirrel power

Fuel economy isn't what killed her; fuel-injection system did. After owning a (once, I know) $130k German tank and then a $6k Japanese shopping cart... LUXURY > ALL !!! I don't give two sh*ts about reliability and fuel economy anymore. I had my midlife crisis at age twenty. I want a luxury car for the rest of my life.

[MessyHonda]

i know the feeling. My other co worker has the 2013 civic Si coupe and i got to drive it in the rain. that limited slip and power was fun but new cars feel like plastic to me.

[charliekuney]

Blew the head gasket in the Metro. I think God is subliminally telling me that I should never own a vehicle.

[Dr_Snooz]

[charliekuney]

Damn, sold a gutted Metro with a blown head gasket for $600! Now time to get a 1987 Mercedes-Benz 300E!

[Dr_Snooz]

You may be bipolar if.....

[charliekuney]

The only reason I set my mind on that 300E is because it's only $600 and it's owned by an older German gentleman. It's either that or a $2,200 1993 300SL.

[charliekuney]

Woot! 1998 S320 long-wheelbase!

[Dr_Snooz]

Good grief Charlie. I see you need some remedial education. That car has 228 HP in a 4500 lb. car. You can buy a Civic with more horsepower at 1/4 the weight and it won't have a 40' turning circle. They claim 0-60 in 8.5 seconds, but I'd only believe that if they strapped a jado rocket to the top of it. Get an E-class with a big engine (not an E190!). It will get 20 MPG, won't make you lose bowel control when you take it in for repairs and will take your breath away when you put the hammer down. And you'll still be able to pick up chicks.

[charliekuney]

Remedial education? How about this: 40' turning circle? The W140 S-Class pioneered Mercedes' Servotronic steering. It has a smaller turning circle than the W124 and W210 E-Class models. Barely any larger than my Metro. I can still flip a bitch on my two-lane street. 20mpg? Try 25mpg from the newer S320's with the 5-speed automatic. 190E is not an E-Class, it was the predecessor to the C-Class. You people forget that even a 4500lb Benz puts 228bhp to the ground as well as any American or Japanese car with 350hp+. I might not beat an SI or WRX to 60mph ("streetlight hoppers") but at highway speed they don't stand a chance. I'm not looking for a fast car; I wanted something comfortable with better gas mileage than the V12. Thanks for your input.

/remedialeducation4DrSnooz

[Dr_Snooz]

Get over yourself. According to Edmunds.com that car has a turning circle of 41' (1998 Mercedes-Benz S-Class S320 LWB Sedan 3.2L 6-cyl. 5-speed Automatic Features and Specs), which puts it in the same class as my long bed crew cab. The turning circle for a 1994 (W124) E-class coupe is 36' (1994 Mercedes-Benz E-Class E320 Coupe 3.2L 6-cyl. 4-speed Automatic Features and Specs). For the 1998 W210, it's 37.1' (1998 Mercedes-Benz E-Class E300TD Sedan 3.0L 6-cyl. Turbodiesel 5-speed Automatic Features and Specs). So I don't know where you're getting your info, but it might not be accurate. Again, Edmunds puts the gas mileage at 15/22 (1998 Mercedes-Benz S-Class Sedan Review | Edmunds.com) for your S320. Yet that's missing the point. I said you'd get 20 MPG with a top of the line E-class, not the S320. And of course, "highway speed" tends to be in excess of 60 MPH, thus no longer being a 0-60 time. That whaling vessel does have a top speed of 150 or so, so of course it's going to be faster at speeds where the rice rockets wind out. It's just that they are going to be a long, long way ahead of you before you start gaining on them.

If you like the car, rock on. It just seems to me you're getting everything bad about German cars (ponderous handling, overly complicated, way too expensive), without any of the good (power!!!). Congrats on the new ride. Post pics when you can.

[charliekuney]

I get your points man, but in my experience turning around on my street a dozen times per day, it is much tighter in the S-Class. I don't even come close to the fence across the street. In my 400E I had to go slow to make sure I wouldn't hit it and sometimes I would have to back up. I don't get why you're still hounding the performance of the S320 when I clearly stated that I wasn't looking for a high-performance sedan - I learned my lesson with the V12 - and the 3.2L with the 5-speed gets 25mpg and better on the highway (at 60mph). I'm using a chart to record my fuel economy, not the gauge on the cluster that wanders between 15mpg and 40mpg.

Listen, I got the car because I wanted something safe. I need something with a road presence. I was tired of getting pushed around in the Metro. This car is safe, the newest I've ever owned, cheap to insure and not so terrible on gas (compared to 14mpg highway for the 1992 V12).

[Dr_Snooz]

If you like it, that's all that matters. I do think the 3.2 will be loads more reliable than the V12. Have fun and post pics for us.

[charliekuney]

Lo and behold, a first-generation Lexus GX with a roof rack full of camping gear came flying around a corner and since the early GX's were top-heavy and prone to rollovers and leaning into corners came around and went into the lean and all of the stuff from the roof came crashing down onto my car. Tool box, cooler full of food, miscellaneous camping gear. It did over $9,600 in damage to the FRONT of my car. Just the front. My insurance totaled the car out for cosmetic damage but it still runs and drives fine. Sometime between now and Friday they will show up with a tow truck and a check for anywhere between $3,500 and $10,500. I hope I get enough to get another Mercedes. I want a 1999 S500 or a 2000-2002 CL500.

[Dr_Snooz]

Picsssssssssssssssss!!!!

You have the most extraordinary luck with cars, my friend. Better luck with your next.

Are you okay?

[charliekuney]

You will be extremely disappointed to see what $10k worth of damage looks like on an S-Class...