Thought I'd do a thread on it although this might be a boring one for the time being.....
We begin with a rough car history. Always had an interest in the Mercedes brand as a viable alternative to the BMW crowd, seemed classier and more elite as the drift scene began to swallow up all the E36's & 46's so by chance I stumbled on a cheap E-class some years ago which eventually turned out like this
E300TD - great car! It did its thing, never really put a foot wrong beside the usual stuff that comes along with W210 ownership but I eventually moved along to other things as I usually get bored.
A few cars later I get the itch for another 3pointed star and hunt for a variation I was sure existed but seemed thin on the ground...eventually I find one in my usual price bracket....cheap & rough
That after much faff including it attempting to kill me on the way home bursting a rear brake pipe later turned out like this
CLK230K 6speed manual in black-on-black - another great car! Beside the annoyance of not having a proper handbrake and trying to juggle 4 pedals on hillstarts it was fun.
Then life began to change, a missus joined the fray and I found myself having to think a bit more "sensible" in my approach to finding daily drivers.
This led to a stream of attempts which whilst being good....never really hit the spot for me as I ended up driving them mostly and the missus at that time barely drove anywhere!
07 Suzuki Swift 1.5VVT - Good fun, great on fuel and very reliable, bought with the missus in mind(posing with said beasty) but I always thought I was thrashing the thing everywhere soooooo I bought an old beater to use for work.....
2000 Civic EJ9 - Best beater I've ever had hands down! Even did a track day in it.....all be it very slowly around Thruxton but it did highlight a need for more power so around this time we had already decided to move the Swift along and I got to choose its replacement.....
2010 Mazda 3 MPS - Wow! Newest car I'd ever had and the most powerful road car I'd ever had at this point! Great fun, good build quality and fast! The internet would try to scare you away from them due to mechanical weakness and rust on earlier models but we never really found this to be true in this case.
A brief dalliance into building a "track car" came & went....
05 Astra VXR - Fun but not exactly what I wanted....ended up being a chore to sell due to the crowd that it attracts
The Civic left me around the same time the VXR appeared but I was itching for another 3pointed star sooooo VXR was sold, MPS put on the market and a chance bid on Ebay brings me to the main point of this thread.............
Are you bored yet?
We begin with a rough car history. Always had an interest in the Mercedes brand as a viable alternative to the BMW crowd, seemed classier and more elite as the drift scene began to swallow up all the E36's & 46's so by chance I stumbled on a cheap E-class some years ago which eventually turned out like this
E300TD - great car! It did its thing, never really put a foot wrong beside the usual stuff that comes along with W210 ownership but I eventually moved along to other things as I usually get bored.
A few cars later I get the itch for another 3pointed star and hunt for a variation I was sure existed but seemed thin on the ground...eventually I find one in my usual price bracket....cheap & rough
That after much faff including it attempting to kill me on the way home bursting a rear brake pipe later turned out like this
CLK230K 6speed manual in black-on-black - another great car! Beside the annoyance of not having a proper handbrake and trying to juggle 4 pedals on hillstarts it was fun.
Then life began to change, a missus joined the fray and I found myself having to think a bit more "sensible" in my approach to finding daily drivers.
This led to a stream of attempts which whilst being good....never really hit the spot for me as I ended up driving them mostly and the missus at that time barely drove anywhere!
07 Suzuki Swift 1.5VVT - Good fun, great on fuel and very reliable, bought with the missus in mind(posing with said beasty) but I always thought I was thrashing the thing everywhere soooooo I bought an old beater to use for work.....
2000 Civic EJ9 - Best beater I've ever had hands down! Even did a track day in it.....all be it very slowly around Thruxton
but it did highlight a need for more power so around this time we had already decided to move the Swift along and I got to choose its replacement..... 2010 Mazda 3 MPS - Wow! Newest car I'd ever had and the most powerful road car I'd ever had at this point! Great fun, good build quality and fast! The internet would try to scare you away from them due to mechanical weakness and rust on earlier models but we never really found this to be true in this case.
A brief dalliance into building a "track car" came & went....
05 Astra VXR - Fun but not exactly what I wanted....ended up being a chore to sell due to the crowd that it attracts
The Civic left me around the same time the VXR appeared but I was itching for another 3pointed star sooooo VXR was sold, MPS put on the market and a chance bid on Ebay brings me to the main point of this thread.............
Are you bored yet?
The interior for the most part has held up well to 160k worth of use, seats are still nice with minimal wear on drivers bolsters and everything still scrubs up shiny. The only real show of its age inside came with the rear pillar/roof trims
as a road car its perfect but I just didn't want to put it into a barrier on track. Upgrades and repairs will happen at some point but it'll be awhile.
the engine is running rough & drinking fuel harder than ever before, rear diff howls and gearbox is undecided if it wants to continue its chosen profession. Add to that the exterior has began showing what Merc's of this era do best and thats rust in all four door bottoms, boolid and rear wheelarches.
