Rant on my 500 SEL

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

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.