[V8] V8 Mercedes station wagon

[Roger Woodbury]

I saw this plug on eBay sometime ago.  Interesting car, and I love the Euro
headlights.  But, no, thanks.  

I well remember when this Mercedes model came along and how disappointing it
was.  I was a freshman insurance agent in Massachusetts and one of the
agency's friendly competitors bought a new four door sedan and I got a ride
in the car one day when we were out looking at a property that we shared the
risk insuring.  I was VERY impressed by how wonderful and solid, smooth the
car felt, particularly since I had driven an extremely nice Mercedes 280S
while I was in Florida and shopping for what eventually became a new Volvo
144S wagon.  Clearly the V8 Mercedes was a whole generation newer than that
very nice 280S.  

But I didn't want one.  I didn't like the way the car looked.  Ride comfort,
luxury, appointments, equipment, clearly a cut above the old body
style...but I wanted the old body and if I couldn't have one of those, I
really wasn't interested.

Much as it was when I found my '93 Audi V8...the car that was destined to
become "The Gentleman's Express". It was at the Audi dealer outside
Philadelphia, and I flew down to pick the car up and drive it back.  The
sales manager picked me up in his demo, a new Audi A8.  Lovely car.  Smooth,
quiet, luxurious, very up to date.  Very nice.  

But I don't want one now, nor did I then.  I didn't like the bulbous rounded
shape, which reminded me very much of that sweet, sweet girl who was, oh, so
attractive in high school, but who I never really wanted to date because her
round bottom and overall voluptuousness was just the other side of
attractive for me.

True, true, that A8 was indeed much like that long ago forgotten sweetheart
in high school, built for comfort. But I prefer the rather more solid feel
and promising responsiveness of the V8. The firm precision of the more
angular body is far more to my liking than the rounded shape of the more
modern, and perhaps less tactile nature of the newer model.

It also must be remembered that it is only fairly recently that Mercedes has
built all wheel drive passenger cars.  They learned how to do it from Audi.
And if I really feel the need for an Audi  V8 wagon, it is easily
obtainable, either buy buying an S6, or perhaps shoehorning a V8 from a
donor into some other A6 Avant.