Robert Hall

More Not Good it proves to be true... damn.

This might be my favorite of the Challenger concepts this year..it's so clean.

Ya...I've had that pic as my background on my laptop for a while now.. R

A fuel tax is a consumption tax, like sales tax. The more you use, the more you pay...that's fair--- I'd pay more than a Corolla driving a similar distance (since the Merc uses more gas). Though the Merc weighs a lot more than the Corolla, and the Pete weighs a lot more than any car, so theoretically the heavier vehicle does do more wear and tear to the roads. Perhaps a better system probably would probably be a tax on the # of miles you drive....maybe determined yearly when you register a car (i.e. the # of miles this year minus the number of miles last year * a percentage)? That would indirectly impact consumption. However it happens, this country needs to invest a lot more than they are now in infrastructure--roads, bridges, etc.

I've sat in one, unfortunately, the low side windows and roofline cuts into the side and rear visiblity, but damn, what a sexy car, inside and out..

I don't have a problem w/ a gas tax--I'm using the streets and roads, I should contribute towards their upkeep. No different than all the taxes I pay on an airline ticket.

And IIRC, Jean Reno drove a brown 6.9 in 'Ronin'... For some reason, I prefer the US-spec round headlights on that era Merc compared to the Euro lights. Another car that is very cool from a decade earlier is the 300 SEL 6.3....I've seen a couple, and they always have an interesting stance--low in the front, high in the rear...

Oh yeah... I have a friend-of-a-friend that is literally a dead ringer for Mariah... looks enough like her to be an evil twin. Still looks great even after having 6 kids by at least 4 exes.

Yeah, winter is approaching in E. Ohio also...my brother and Mom have put away their oldies for the winter, incl. my Mustangs. On the other hand, old car weather is here now in Phoenix--the next 5 1/2 months should be very nice. Then it's back to the oven.

A Benz in particular I'd love to have is a late '70s 450SEL 6.9. Those were the first Mercs I really noticed as a kid in the late '70s reading Road & Track. Something about big, fast sedans have long appealed to me. A couple others I like are some of the original AMGs--the Hammer E-class sedan in particular (not the gaudy all white AMGs of S. Florida that I remember from the '80s) and the early '90s 500E that was tweaked by Porsche.

Sorry.. afraid 68 and I do have in common the fascination w/ older Benzes. Back to your regularly scheduled thread..

That's part of the appeal to me they have.... there is a seriousness about older Benzes..they aren't flashy luxurious, but project a bank-vault solidity and attention to detail..

68, did you find the heater and A/C controls in your 500SEC had a bit of a learning curve? It's taken me a while to make sense of the controls in the 500SEL, even after reading the manual carefully. Some things take time to get used to, esp. the window controls on the console (I'm so used to them on the doors in American cars).

Hmmm...probably the really clean pale yellow '64 Skylark 2dr ht (no hubcaps, black steel wheels on whitewall tires) I saw on Sunday. The chrome looked perfect, the metal was quite straight. Speaking of '66 Chevelles, there is a very clean '66 coupe (non-SS) in kind of an antique gold (reminds me of the color of the '65 GTO my brother had long ago) I see in traffic at least once a week or so. Has '67 style Rally wheels. I did see a goregous silver blue '63-64 Riviera last week, first time I'd seen it around.

Hmmm.... For a well-known mainstream star, I'm fond of Angelina Jolie...she did a nude scene in 'Gia'..great body, great face. An actor I like who has done some nude scenes in the past (Unbearable Lightness of Being, Havana) is Lena Olin.... beautiful, intelligent woman, always fascinating to watch. Past 50 now, though, so not sure if she'd want to do a nude scene these days. A actor primarily on TV I find quite interesting is Sofia Milos, quite hot (she was memorable in one episode of the Sopranos, is a semi-regular on CSI: Miami). As for the younger ones, I also like Kiera Knightley (though she's a bit too thin)...she did one in the deleted scenes of 'Domino', IIRC. Amy Adams could be interesting. Kate Winslet is always interesting, and I like her curvyness. I don't recall if Natascha McElhone has done any nude scenes, but she was memorable in 'Ronin' (great car chase flick) and more recently, 'Californication'. Love those big eyes.

Agreed. We will have to agree to disagree about politics and move on. 2 days after the election, lets shut the political threads and move on to talking about the exciting news out of GM these days.

Agreed.... two days after the election. Time to retire all the political threads. Time to get back to the exciting news out of GM these days!

I can believe that..I still see a LOT of '80s, and quite a few '70s Benzes on the road, esp. here in the Phoenix area. My sister's are an '84 and a '91, both w/ over 100k miles. She's thought of getting a third one--she wants a '70s 450SL roadster. Benzes before the mid '90s were built to a very high engineering standard...very well put together cars.

What's up w/ you and your wierd Hitler fixation, 68? Every other post from you lately mentions him.

I'd argue conservative is fundamentally backward looking and closed-minded, while liberal is open, modern, forward looking and worldly.

So true..there are always politics and games in any human organisation.

Normally I love the S-class (I'm driving an old one these days), but I really can't get into the styling of the current one (though I love the CLS).

I don't vote on skin color... I'd vote for a woman--I would have supported Hillary had she been the nominee. I can't relate to McCain--he's old and right wing, representing a party with a tired, failed agenda. No way would I want to be associated w/ the scary social conservatives that have destroyed the Republican party.

Nice... I'm really loving the 500SEL the more I drive it...it's so solid..no squeaks and rattles at over 176k miles now. .. it's running great currently (my sister replaced a lot of things over the last 6 years). In this weather, I'm enjoying driving with the huge sunroof open and windows down. Been driving the 300CE with all the windows down occasionally also. I haven't driven my Jeep in a month...the Mercs had been sitting so much for the last year, they really needed to be driven.

I fillled up the silver beast last week @ 2.69/gal, for $51 total.. I can commute for 2 weeks on a full tank, not bad.