balthazar

Wow- it's not a brown derivative. It is sharp... but that 4275 lbs (huh; 1 lb more than my '59 coupe) is shipping weight- this thing is every bit of 4650 lbs. my B-59 Invicta coupe~ shipping weight : 4274 curb weight : 4394 options weight : 110 Actual curb weight : 4504 '76 is going to have more/heavier options, I'd have to believe. Yank the 350 and put a massaged 455 Stg 1 in there with some circa 3.23 gears and you'd have a real sleeper. Cheers.

2500HD turned 100K today. Just breaking in.

twin Kawasaki 6-cyls in the rear

What is the expected number of OD gears in this 10-spd? How many OD gears does the mercedees 8-spd have? A lot of these mega-speed trans never see the higher gears, I'll bet (except on de-acceleration).

what are these "great changes" and how is the sport car segment "changing fast"? Corvette should never be about sales numbers- no other top shelf sports car is. Discarding the iconic identity cues of the Corvette in a primary search for more sales is folly.

smk4565~ >>"...a subcompact car in FWD or AWD won't hurt Mercedes especially when they can offset it with V12 rear drive cars."<< Disagree. MB sells a handful of RWD V-12s; the FWD 4-bangers are going to relatively swamp the roads in comparison. This will 'tilt the windmill of perception' with the general consumer. >>"And Mercedes already sells the A-class and B-class elesewhere and it hasn't hurt their brand at all."<< That is because mercedees doesn't have the same reputation/perception elsewhere that it relies on here in the U.S.. General consumer doesn't see mercedees taxis & garbage trucks & cargo vans and other dumpy utilitarian models all over; most folk here still think the brand is something special & unique & principled.

{hoarse whisper} Its not about the drive wheels; it's ALL about the brand. {/whisper}

Yeah- 8.4 in '95, 10.8 now. It's up. Beyond the statistical.... what's the significance? IOW, what are the (many) causes, and why?

The flaw in that theory is that BMW 'entry models' keep getting bigger & heavier, necessitating new models underneath. 3-series has gained something like 1500 lbs over the years and will soon be the 'middle' line with 2 or 3 models below it. It may not be soon, but no one saw ANY FWD BMWs coming...

^ not sure Mercedes learns from their mistakes- after all, look @ the r-class.

^ And that wave hasn't even crested yet. It's damage & results are as yet unknown.

I heard this on the radio. I was searching for whatever angle may (or may not) have been there, IE; does anyone feel 10.8 yrs old on average is a bad thing? I don't, yet reporting this has to have some significance for those that do...

The 'mercedees Spark' is coming !!

I give huge props to putting a Caddy mill in it, esp the monster 500, but that's as far as I can endorse the outcome.

Original is a stretch, since the overall shape is reminiscent of the BMW 1 Series. I don't see much of anything specific to the 1-series that warrants calling it out as something inspirational here. 130 has an unusually rigid belt line spine, not sure how I fel about it really.

I agree with the above posts: the volume isn't that bad... Question is, does 19K include a bunch of 1st yr impulse sales that won't show up for yr 2?

mercedees is just as messed up really; B, C, E, then S. suvs : G is the most expensive, then GL, then R, then M, then GLK. Then the sprinter, which fit's the 'pattern' nowhere. Personally, I abhor overtly simplistic naming schemes, like it's aimed at children. Lincoln MK( ) is the pits, tho.

^ That's a serious cultural downgrade- what a shame. No one lives forever tho. Municipalities should just let people (AT LEAST over 65) alone and let them live out their lives. The bulldozer will come around soon enough. I drove past an antiseptic mattress & crib store today, on the same highway lot where an old dude ran a hubcap business around his house. For years he had a for sale sign for $1 million. I bought a few sets of caps & rims from him. Miss the place.

Three unrelated manufacturers, but dabbling in the same circles. Company 1 had much success in road vehicles (cars & trucks), and much success in rail vehicles (locomotives). This one is a freebie. Company 2 had much success in road vehicles, and minor success in rail vehicles. Still in bidness. Company 3 had little success in road vehicles (but they were in production under the same name), and much success in rail vehicles. Long gone.

In some pics the car looks fairly clean & interesting, but in others, not so much. Could've done without the 'trying too hard' fender 2-toning. That a 'cuda in the background?

A '54 Kaiser Manhattan, looked real solid & complete, was sitting awkwardly in front of an old brick house's garage... the type of house that looks like a 90+ yr old guy has been living there since the '40s, and this car was just pulled out of the garage after being in there since the '60s. There was a dumpster behind the house... I will have to stop in tomm & see if I can figure out what's going on there.

^ Average national price of regular today is $3.38. In order to put $110 of 3.38 in a truck, you'd have to pump 32.5 gal. My F-150 with dual tanks had 37 gals onboard. A tacoma only has a 21-gal tank. I doubt any small truck has anywhere near that sort of capacity. 20 gal @ 3.38 is $67. Let's not get all crazy. I never understood the whole idea that it costs $X to fill a tank. No one (but me) carries cash anymore- so it's not a matter of pocket change. Sure- the price gets high but 'I can't afford to fill my tank' is ridiculous; you're going to burn X gas whether you fill the tank (on credit) half way or all the way. The people running out of fuel on the side of the highway when gas was $4 were complete idiots.

You've got the beefy white-letter radials, Olds Super Stock rims, the Olds 4-spoke sport wheel & a T-grip shifter, even the 2-tone job which breaks up the bland bodysides, PLUS it's a relatively clean coupe bodystyle.... then you get around the the 'phone-it-in' FRT & RR fascias and no engine under the hood... and it all sags like a pin in a balloon. Jeers

You can use masonry bits in a non-hammer drill, but it will go very slow... or hit a rock and just spin. You can try a masonry/stone 'star' chisel... ...but with 3 inches of concrete, you're going to vastly prefer a hammer drill.