Re: Rant on my 500 SEL

Rick wrote:
I'm really bored right now and I figured i would rant about my 500 SEL
and how I got it and what not. My first car was a 1997 Mercury Grand
Marquis LS. I loved it, dark blue with blue leather interior, and the
car had a generous amount of horsepower, or I thought so. The car had
170K on it, and was a very clean looking car, inside and out. I would
spend hours just cleaning it sometimes, wash/wax etc. On Sept.11
(coincidence) I got into a bad wreck and the car was totaled. I had
just replaced the wires and plugs, and took it for a test drive, just
cleaned it the day before, looked great. Pulled out on a road and was
driving around 45mph. Some kids pulled out on the street in a minivan
at the last second to try and turn left on the road. I mean the LAST
second they could. And then they realize they cant make the turn
because of traffic, so Instead of getting in the turn lane and waiting
to merge, they stop! Right in front of me. This all happened so quick,
I hit my brakes, but there just wasn't enough time. I hit him, and i
hit him good. Airbags went off and it was smoky. I tried getting out
of the car, my glasses on the ground because of the impact. I get out
to look at the damage. My entire front end was destroyed. Here are
some pictures

[URL=http://imageshack.us][IMG]http://img159.imageshack.us/
img159/3262/1171845730lxw3.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
[URL=http://imageshack.us][IMG]http://img170.imageshack.us/
img170/61/1171852031lsl7.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

I was crushed. My beautiful car was ruined because some stupid kids
tried to pull a fast one. The kid was a new driver, as he handed the
police a paper license. He got a ticket for something. What bothered
me is they got out of there car and stood there, when I was trying to
get my door open to get out of my car. They didn't apologize at all,
or come to see if I was ok. The car was towed and I went back a few
days later to get some things i wanted. I should have kept the car to
part it out, as the interior was immaculate. Oh well.

Around Christmas, my parents surprised me with a car. I was very
excited, and I didn't care what kind of car it was. It was a 1991
Oldsmobile Ninety Eight. Body looked good and it ran great, or so i
thought. They payed $1,100 for the car. 4 days later, I'm driving and
the transmission starts to slip real bad. I pulled in the driveway to
find out the housing had a crack in it. It was a separate piece where
the torque converter was at. Not sure why it did that, but the fluid
was really bad. We replaced that part of the housing with one from the
junkyard. Minutes later, it cracked again. We didn't know what to do,
so we let it sit.

A friend of mine came to look at it, and upon further inspection, it
was discovered that the floor was rusted out in many places, like
really bad. We decided the car wasn't worth the money to drop a new
transmission in.

Another friend I knew heard about what happened and told me he had
bought a car he was going to restore, but he didn't have the time/
money to. He said it didn't look that good, but it had a good engine
and transmission. Silver with black interior. It also needed exhaust,
as it was shooting straight from the manifolds at the time (it was
LOUD) This was the start of the 500 SEL. He told me he bought 2 of
them at an auto auction for $600 a piece. The first car he proceeded
to part out and made some money off of that. He said he would sell me
the car for what he payed for it, $600. I was excited. It was 23 years
old and only $600, but I liked the idea of telling people I drive a
Mercedes S-Class. We payed him the $600 and drove the car home. Went
to insure it, and they gave us a hard time because the VIN wouldn't
show in their system (grey market). We took it to another place and
they had no problem insuring it. Went to get plates and almost died
when they said it was going to be $190 for plated and registration ( I
guess they do it by the value of the car when first bought). After
paying that, I went home to put the plate on and take it for a drive.
All I got was a click. The starter went out on it. $230 later, I
finally got to drive the car.

I love it. Sure I have no cushion or seatbelt for the passenger seat,
1 window is broke, I'm missing lots of dash wood, loose steering,
nearly every vacuum line is broke, it idles at 1800RPM, eats gas, has
dents in the rear quarter panel from a tow truck, and many other
things, but I LOVE this car, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I
just think it needs some work, which I plan on doing. I want to get
the dents taken car of, and get it painted black with a great clear
coat. Then I want to redo all of the seats, as they don't look so hot,
new dash cap and new wood. So much I want to do. Im excited. My
friends call me crazy, call it the ghetto mobile, but I'm in love and
just tell them "you find a car thats 23 years old, that runs this
good, has 200K plus and has hardly zero rust" the car is great, and I
expect to have it for a bit, if not, buy another one

And I'm SO glad I found this newsgroup. The people on here are very
nice and seem to be knowledgeable, and I appreciate all the help.

Nice story!

Ximinez
--
Our three weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...
and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope....
http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/paulfitz/spanish/t1.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gldlyTjXk9A
.

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