Drew Dowdell

There are four kinds of Mercedes here in Europe. 1. Taxis 2. Sprinter work vans and variants 3. Former taxis now privately owned and beat to hell 4. The few and far between non-E-Class, non-C-Class cars that are privately owned. The vast majority of Benzes, probably over 90%, both here in Cologne and in Paris fall into the first 3 categories. and as I thought about it more, there is no way to discern those Benzes in group 4 that are company cars bought for employees and Benzes that were sold retail to someone who really wanted a Benz... other than the fact that company cars rarely come in a color other than black, silver, or beige. Very few Benzes here are ANY color other than black, silver, or beige.

There are four kinds of Mercedes here in Europe. 1. Taxis 2. Sprinter work vans and variants 3. Former taxis now privately owned and beat to hell 4. The few and far between non-E-Class, non-C-Class cars that are privately owned. The vast majority of Benzes, probably over 90%, both here in Cologne and in Paris fall into the first 3 categories.

Being on the "10 best" list of import humping magazines like Honda & Driver or BMW Trend tells me nothing of how good the car really is. Honda & Driver had their 3-Series test car have catastrophic brake system failure to the point of nearly wrecking and gave it first place while complaining about the thickness of the steering wheel on the CTS.

that sounds more like a good time than a disaster....

Walking over the Seine in Paris today. Here is something I didn't expect to see parked... well... anywhere in Paris. Then, just up the street I found a Chevrolet Cadillac dealer that doesn't seem to have any new vehicles, but has these two in the window I also spotted a brand new VW Up!. After seeing it in person, I feel that VW made a serious mistake not bringing this car to the US. VW could have cleaned house with this little car. I have more pics of this, but I have to erase the guy's registration number before I post them... and it is nearly midnight here. I may go to the VW dealer near my temp flat in Cologne and take a closer look at one.

I wish I could make it... even though I'm an Olds driver, the Olds nationals are just too far away and the NC ones could be reachable. And feel free to post pictures and further updates of the show here. I'm sure everyone here would appreciate seeing the classic Buicks.

QFFT

But smk, you've said repeatedly that BMW has been "Best evar!!!" for 30 years and that is clearly not the case. My 81 Toronado has a nicer interior than any of those BMWs AND with 96k miles on it has held up excellently.

that doesn't sound right... and even more suspicious is that the phrase in wikipedia is repeated word for word for word on every search result. But as I'm 4,000 miles away from my reference materials right now, I can't say anything against it. I do believe that a water separator from GM started in 1984, but perhaps that was only on replacement engines. 1984 rings strong in my mind because it was by then that the engine was running properly and the next natural reaction from GM was to kill it after 1985.

Check this out for flagship luxury: The 1984 BMW 735.... or as I like to call it, "The Yugo Look with Wood Applique" I'm sure the Kennworth sized steering wheel aided in the handling. That's just the covering... they all have foam, which you can see clearly at the front and rear as Dwight would point that GM is not even interested in tucking the ends of the headliners. Certainly, the foam has improved... but as I've seen bubbles forming in cars barely 10 years old, GM has not fixed the problem. Keep in mind, that since A/C is now virtually standard and A/C systems stay pressurized longer, on average, than they did in the '80s, you can account for some of the headliner durability by the fact that people running the A/C are not driving 65 with the windows down. The bubbles grow until the wind starts to make them flap, which eventually causes the whole thing to go. The headliner is totally different these days.

BME & mercedees were far from being a 'world class standard' circa the early '80s. BMW interiors for one were horrendously cheap & spartan. BMW of today (still not great) wouldn't even recognize early '80s BMW. Both have made huge leaps in interior quality, appointments, equipment & luxury, but they were pretty bad then. You need to cut yer revisionist history timespan down a bit. '81 5-series: Moving up to 1986...you have BMW continuing with the Yugo look And Buick pushing the envelope of technology. Keep in mind, digital dashes may not be in style today, but they were all the rage at this time. And even this 1986 Lincoln Mark VII after 25 years of wear and tear, looks like a more luxurious place to spend your time.

By 1984 they were fine. They had a water separator and stronger head bolts.

The Civic DX is a unicorn right there with the Corolla L. Virtually impossible to find because dealers don't order any, their sole purpose in life is to allow the respective companies to shout "With a base price of just $XX!!!!!"

The Volvo T5 is an interesting beastie, but comes up looking weak and thirsty compared to more modern turbo 4s.

I'm seeing 3 Volts a day on my commute into work each day (the same three) They still stand out in a crowd.

Well preserved, but not sure why.

Well to put another perspective on it, Mark Reuss was asked point blank if there would be an Impala SS variant. He replied that this new one already was being offered with a V6 with about the same horsepower as the old SS. I wasn't going to correct him about the torque deficit however. I'm thinking this is your answer.

I'm gonna go ahead and say no. That has more of a Volt looking face to it dontcha think?

yes, there is a formatting issue. It is IP.Board software related, not anything mudmonster did. We are awaiting a fix.

Quite possibly one of the only ones left for this year/trim. You'd certainly be the only one at the car cruise with it. Cheers for the preservation.

I like it for the weirdness

A properly designed modern 4-cylinder diesel should be able to do a lot better than that with fuel economy. The V8 Oldsmobile diesel was good for about 30mpg by 1983 when it got an overdrive gear... and that was a V8... and old...

With a "buy-it-now" price of $8,000, he has basically tripled the value of a Suzuki Samurai

it could, and I think does, kick in over a certain speed

The Thriftmaster 6 isn't fast... but it'll start every time.