First car for a student

Yeah, agreed.

I still have some thinking to do on the car subject. Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and help, you all seem to know your stuff.

VW Rabbit

You can hardly make a broad weeping generalization from two celicas.

A lot of us drive 20, 30 or 40+ year old Mercedes. I'm not sure I've ever seen a 10 year old Toyota still on the road.

As for the quality of toyota parts being better than Mercedes, well, um, err, no.

As for the price, do you see Toyota ads that say "parts to fix these cars cost the same as Mercedes parts" ? No. The vide they give is they're cheap; they're not, as some of us have known all along, they cost the same.

Which car would you rather be in in an accident? A 1958 Mercedes or a 10 year old Tercel?

"Celica Dude" wrote in news:A3nuc.11138$ snipped-for-privacy@nwrddc03.gnilink.net:

Been there, done that (5 toyota's)! Pound for pound, the 300E is the best modern gas vehicle on the market today!

Celica...dude, 4 years and 50,000 miles isn't exactly a long time or an example of longevity. Now if you had said 20 years and 250,000 miles, that would be a good example. The only reason I was recommending against benz was that when something does break, if you can't do work yourself it will cost way to much. Same if you can't change your own brake pads (which is about $350 at the local indie benz mechanic and 500 at the dealer). If you can, they are the best cars to buy. Richard

George Mann haute in die Tasten:

This may be true for the US market, but the rest of us prefers the bulletproof 230 E ;-)

Frank

three's, i heard these same kind of opinions a few months ago when i was asking for people's thoughts, but so far i really haven't found much validity to them. In my experience, nothing much has really gone wrong, and the decision to buy a mercedes over a honda or a toyota has been, so far at least, a good one. i say, if it's the car you want to own and drive, then go for it. if you're asking for opinions here, you've prolly done some serious research on what you want to spend your dollars on, and it's better to make the decision yourself rather than hoping other people will reinforce it. do what you want to do.

and as for students and mercedes not go>

GAAAAAAAASP!!!! SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW????

What do you mean with _slooooooooooow car_????

I always win all races against pedestrians, bikes, motorized bicycles and even mopeds (ok, not all mopeds, but most)!

And just today I won a race against an

279 PS Mercedes-Benz with the OM 906 engine - yes, that was a Citaro city bus, but I won!!!

So it is NOT slow - it only is not THAT fast!

Juergen

1982 W123 240D auto Euro sedan 72 PS Top speed 86 mph, 0-62.1 mph = 24.7 sec

SLOW is a W123 200D auto Euro sedan with 55 PS I once drove: Top speed 78 mph, 0-62.1 mph = 33.2 sec

;-)))))))))

That must mean that my 1980 W123 200D with 60 PS was a sports model...143 km/h top indicated...

DAS

"Juergen ." haute in die Tasten:

It can run faster than US speed limit and faster than recommended top speed on Autobahns. So it is not really slow;-)

Frank

Aaaah, sorry to nitpick, but MB states 135 km/h for the manual trans W123 200D with 60 PS - the older 55 PS version with manual trans was stated with 130 km/h (and with auto trans 125 km/h).

143 km/h were stated for W123

- 240D manual trans with 72 PS

- 240 TD manual trans with 72 PS from 08/1978 on

- 300D with auto trans with 80 PS

- 300TD with auto trans with 80 PS

- 300CD with 78 PS (auto trans available only)

In reality most W123 diesels were a bit faster than stated by the factory - coupes were a bit faster than the saloons due to the lower roofline and T-models were a bit faster than the saloons due to their rear delivering slightly better aerodynamics.

And YES, by today's standards _all_ W123 diesels ARE slow.

Juergen

Well, I use it for city driving only - there power is not that important but to know the fastest route to your destination.

On country roads you notice _how_ slow it is because at - say - 90 km/h you put the hammer down and - nothing happens: It takes ages to reach the 110 km/h or so you would need to overtake. Largely the very same situation on 2-lane highways where you rarely have a chance to change from the right to the left lane - with 3-lane highways the situation is somehow better but you always notice it is car from yesterday.

BTW it always astounded me how much better a W124 200D with the very same 72 PS performs on country roads and highways.

Juergen

I carefully used the word "indicated", especially as my figure is greater than the works figure, which you just confirmed.. :-)

My work colleagues -- many of whom had the same car type -- were always envious as they never bust the 140 km/h barrier. I put it all down to careful running in...

Of course, we have to deduct something for the inaccuracy of the speedo :-( ...which is why I never tried to find out the true top speed in order not shatter any illusions...

I must say, before I acquired the 200D -- my first diesel -- I could not understand why certain Mercs made only 'stately progress' on motorways and slowed down further on gentle inclines. I just thought they were very dignified and unhurried... :-)))

BTW, I think we have had this conversation before...

DAS

Speedometer accuracy is easily check with a GPS handheld... although I hope you have a friend to do the reading while you are driving... it is a bit dangerous to do both at the same time.

Sure we had - another proof life is a series of circles only ;-)

Juergen