Mercedes Youngtimers

Maybe my father is the guilty. If he knew it before, probably he would still use the yellow 1.5 zsiguli or he buys that nice Volga station wagon wich was bought in th wery last moment before him. But it happened different way.

I lived the change of the system as a child. My remembrances are fading but I can clearly remember one thing. Daddy went for some days with his friends to germany to buy a car. I was waiting for him, dreaming of what kind of car miracle he will come home with. It was
sure, that it will be a Mercedes Benz Diesel. He was dreaming of it like lot of others. The heating oil was nearly for free, the enterprenneurs were getting rich, the wind of west touched us and a lot of money came, what we didn't know for what to spend. A new
fridge? A bigscreen color TV? A C64? Maybe a HiFI tower? Or for example an AKAI video recorder? Or a Standinglamper Benz? No! A laying lamper! The last one was a pretty cool thing to have in these times. For a nowadays teenager it has to be explained. Everyone was longing for them when DVD and home movie were unknown things.


I remember how I was longing for daddy to come home. They arrived with a huge trailer with a yellow w116 on it. My hart started to beat as I saw those huge backlights. But I became sad because it was not ours. The crackjack car dealer bruoght it. Daddy came home with empty hands.
Some weeks later the head of the family left again. With new hopes, with enthusiasm, a pack of Deutsch Mark int he pocket of the Levi's jeans jacket. These times we had no mobile.de, or D A Z magazine. Above all, we still didn't have phone but it was already planned. Not telling about the comlpete lack of foreign language knowledge.
Different winds were blowing...

Daddy arrived home, but this time not with empty hands! I remember the shiny Classicweiss paint, the perfect pergamen MB-tex/cloth interior. It was gliding on the road like a fairy tail, the engine was so quiet that we nearly didn't hear it running. But the reality is never so perfect. This car was already a 12 year old one with a lot of hudred thousands in the tacho, from the end of the list: 200D, 1976, no options except the aftermarket Blaupunkt radio. The first route led to the locksmith's garage, because there was plenty to do on it. But it was ours, we were very happy, and the neighbours were very envy.

We were roaming around the whole middle europe, I nearly grew up on the back seat. I discovered the world in it. The huge backseat, the noise of the diesel engine and the buring soundof the worn out differential made me fall asleep. But my father earned the money for the family with it. Ran his business, purchased with it, hooked a trailer on it, used the roof rack. No, he didn't transport vegetables with it! No way!
Two or three years of heavy duty, the engine was gone on a petrol station in Kecskemét. At this time the rost already came out of the white paint, it had a sunroof mounted on it against the warm, and a seat cover against the filth.It was necessary to make an overhaul on the chassis, the paint and the engine. In the meantime one more w123 came to the family, but a petrol driven one.

When I was in the garage I always looked after the small books of the car. It was in the secon wardrobe, and I was studying the pictures in them (I was not yet able to read, not even in german) I was wondering, how much switches can be mounted instead of those plastic covers and how much different versions were avalilable. The other Benz had wooden inserts, tempomt, armrest, and nasty small headlight wipers. But no one from the adults gave me an answer, why there are so many differences between the two cars. Here is the most beautiful pitcture from the above mentioned book:



This is the interior of a no options w123:


I made a decision, that I will have a car like this with all the options available, what they designed for it in the factory but the evil customer didn't buy. These options were expensive like a good Opel.



Without having a driver license, I was collecting toy cars, of corse only with stars on the nose. The first serious one I had from an italian holliday. A Bburago 500SEC. But it's a next story.

So we are in 2009. In my garage there is the same car, what the story is about. Since I have it I nearly always repair somthing on it. I put a lot of money, plenty of time in it to be in a shape like I dreamt. When I inherited it was already a hopeless one. But I did not give up, and maybe thanks to my friends I met in this company It will be more beautiful than I've seen first time in my life. Already 20 years ago. Here is a 2 years old photo:



Maybe it looks like I'm not grown up, but I'm afraid I will always be the same. You can discover my helpless insanity in my next posts.