Thought I’d sell my E24. Couldn’t bring myself to do it.
So.. I have too many cars. Not expensive ones, just fun ones that I can work on as a side hobby. One Volvo S60 sedan that is the “normal” car, two Mercedes W124 coupes (an ‘89 and a ‘94), and the ’83 633CSi with a manual transmission. Those are just the cars that work, and are fully in my name - I’m not counting the cars and motorcycles I part own with another lunatic weekend shade tree mechanic. It’s not my background or training, I just enjoy putting them back together.
But I live in the middle of Los Angeles, the garage can only hold two, and I don’t believe in basic insurance coverage in this town, so I spend a fair amount of time and money on this stuff. It’s time to cut down.
Honestly, I thought the BMW was the odd man out, and then I’d keep the Volvo and one of the Mercedes. I grew up around these 80’s Bruno Sacco designed MB’s and really admired the stout build quality. I hadn’t driven the 6er in a bit, and it was suffering as a result - flat battery, plug wires needed replacing, the little things that go wrong as a car sits around. It’d be outside getting dusty, moving only when it was in the way of something else. When the turn signals stopped working from a short somewhere, I went to drive it to my friends shop to help me track it down...
And that woke me up. I went to drive over Laurel Canyon and across Mulholland to get to Van Nuys, and it was the first time the car had gone more than a mile in a few months... and I was reminded what a lovely machine it is. It’s an ‘83 so it’s not fast, but it was fun and lively in a way those W124 Benzes simply don’t match. The low beltline and thin window pillars, the slow but direct steering, the raspy 6 which made me heel and toe more often than necessary, just to hear it... I realized I’d absolutely regret selling it. It still needs paint, faded from that SoCal sun, so it’s by far the least attractive cosmetically... but acouple people gave me the thumbs-up like I was in the latest shiny exotic. It just made the case for itself in one drive.
I know these are getting older, and it’s easy to see them as money pits, and wonder if money could be better spent on something else. And maybe I can justify it since it’s not like I need to rely on it for daily transport (though I’ll add, even at its advanced age, it only ever needed towing once for a broken motor mount in the six years I’ve owned it). But I just wanted to share this because they really are great GT’s, and worth taking care of.
Maybe I’ll even finally get around to painting mine after all this time
'83 633CSI manual balticblau/perlbeige
'89 Mercedes 300CE diamintblau/mondria
’94 Mercedes E320 Coupe Schwarz/Palomino
'07 Volvo S60 2.5T vide grön/beige
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