[s-cars] Trip report

[Lee Levitt]

Remind me to buy a car from an enthusiast, not a lady who doesn't know how
to service a car properly.

</bitch mode>

I sold my '02 A6 a couple of weeks ago and picked up a '93 Mercedes 300E
2.5L turbodiesel. 178K on the odometer. It's a nice car. It *does* have
heated seats...the PO said so, but the shop that did the inspection report
said otherwise. And I think it has an antislip differential (ASD). It also
has a couple of good sized door dings and a crinkle in the rf fender, all of
which *may* be removable by a good dentwizard. Anybody know of a good dent
guy in the Boston area?

Tires are shot, failed inspection today because they're so bad...and to
think I cruised 700 miles on them averaging 80...

Good solid car overall. *Really* soft, I was surprised how soft the
suspension is. Runs pretty good, seems to have good power. I averaged 34 mpg
from Raleigh to Boston, running at about 75-80 the whole way!

CD changer is screwed -- it goes silent every so often and then comes
back...but it still reads the cd and track on the radio. The radio is a
Becker (MB exclusive) but the damn changer is the exact same changer that's
in my C4 A6!

One of the stop lights is out, and it's not the bulb. The PO had one of the
taillight consoles replaced a couple of weeks ago...looks like the other one
shit the bed. $100. Ouch.

When I got in the car in Raleigh, I plugged in my CB, my V1 and my portable
Nav (Garmin Quest 2)...then I found that the cigarette lighter had no power.
I drove for a while deaf, dumb and blind, then found that some other things
weren't working either. So I pulled over, found the fuse box and found that
a fuse was blown. Doh. Replaced it and everything came back. 

The car is a long legged runner...it really eats up the miles. Comfortable
too. 

I've got a set of euro lamps coming from ebay.de for $150. I'm pretty sure
they're Bosch OEM...which will help at night. Stock lighting sucks. What is
it with the Germans? Are they getting us back for the US DOT requirements
that they give us such lousy DOT lighting?

My mechanic, who owned an '88 300E for a long while, said that these things
*really* suck in the snow...even with good snow tires. I'm putting a set of
Nokians on next week...hopefully he's wrong, but we'll see. If it really is
that bad, I'll pick up a cheap quattro for winter use. Missed a reasonably
nice '95 A6 stick sedan on ebay...it went for $3K and probably needed
another $2K in work - ignition switch, clutch, and more...

Anyway, I'm enjoying tooling around in this beast...it's quite different
from anything I've owned before, except perhaps my old Volvo 122S with 60K
miles on it (tight *and* soft!)...I think it feels a bit like that...

Lee