A Manual Tranmission Mercedes......Try Again

In talking to the average car enthusiast about transmission preference, and most likely you’ll hear that manual shifting is the way to go.  The do-it-yourself gearbox has a long history in automotive design and motorsports.  Thanks to simple, yet robust design, it has stood the test of time.  There's a good chance you'll still find brand new showroom cars without the automatic option at most dealerships.  The manual transmission was, theoretically, made obsolete decades ago when automatics were introduced to production motor vehicles, as an upgrade.  They are smoother and easier to drive, and seem to have become more "standard" than standard transmissions.  Why then, would anyone still want to drive a stick, when they could just put it in “drive” and go? And how long will it be till they are completely absent from new cars? Anyhow, of course I am one of the odd individuals that would much rather opt to drive a manual transmission.  Why do you want a manual car when automatic is much easier to drive is often asked when I tell people my preference.

Well, possibly the most convincing argument for driving a stick is that it's just plain fun.  It takes a special touch to handle a manual transmission just right.  The "practice makes perfect" saying fits quite well here.  There is a certain amount of pleasure that comes from taming the clutch, thrashing the shifter, and getting every ounce of your engine's power to the wheels.  Essentially it’s an ego booster.  A sense of pride results from the mastery of manual gear changing. Simply put, shifting through gears and downshifting when desired puts a huge grin on my face. But unfortunately, the Mercedes I currently drive forces me to admit to manual drivers that I let my car do the shifting for me.  For me, at least admitting my car is automatic reduces me to measly status. But it’s not my fault my car is automatic though, I’ll explain more.

The 6-Speed Mercedes-Benz C300

The Automatic Mercedes-Benz C300

Unfortunately, my Mercedes (North American model) was only produced with the automatic transmission. Honestly, this is the one drawback I have with this car, the lack of a manual gearbox available. Although, my automatic transmission is one with the tiptronic (an automatic transmission that allows the driver to manually shift the gears without a clutch) feature, I still love the feeling of having three pedals at my disposal.  The automatic gives me a disconnected feeling with the car, and sometimes make driving rather mundane. But what can I do? Unfortunately it looks like there’s not much that I can do, besides opt for a more enthusiast friendly car (BMW anyone?).  

The North American models of Mercedes feature minuscule numbers in manual transmissions, while the European model of Mercedes comes with the manual standard. (Well, maybe I should just move there?) When we think about the modern (North American) Mercedes brand, “offers stick shifts” isn’t really something that springs to mind. In previous years, sales have plummeted in the manual transmission, so the U.S.-market Benzes are likely to go all automatic, all the time, in the near future. For now, I’ll stick with the automatic, but I’ll be sure to locate a manual transmission Mercedes before they are completely swept up by the other enthusiasts. Three pedals will again be a part of my future driving plans.

Coming Soon.....Summer And What I Plan To Do

After my post last week, it has made me and more excited for the upcoming summer. Surely, it will be a busy summer with lots working and making money, but I will be sure to spend some quality time and money on the car. I’ve already developed a list of things I want to change and modify in my car, and I’m sure as the summer progresses that list will only become longer and longer. On the website, or better yet the enthusiast forum, dedicated to anyone who owns the same car as I do, I’ve gained numerous ideas of how to modify my car while still keeping it classy and elegant. Most times, in my free time you would find me browsing the enthusiast forum looking at other members’ cars and what they’ve done to them. Personally, I think your car is a personal reflection of who you are. Although I agree that car engineers have put a lot of time and thought into the design of the vehicle, I like the idea of modifying the car making it my own. Once I start, I think it’ll be hard to stop.

Modifying a car may be a complete waste of money considering cars do not necessarily appreciate in value, but regardless it makes me quite happy. I guess that’s all that matters, right? I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of seeing the progression of your car from the first day of the process to the last. Certainly, taking pictures during the process and posting them on the forum to see what others say makes the process just a tad bit more fun.  The sense of accomplishment that comes along with seeing the final product seems priceless. Anyways, it seems only right that I share a couple of the things I have planned for the summer for the Mercedes.

Since winter seems to be practically over, it’s only right to start off the spring and summer seasons with a fresh coat of paint. Most likely, this will be where my first paycheck will be headed to, the paint shop, to get it re-painted black to eliminate the damage to the finish done by winter driving. After I recover from that bill, I’ll be sure to pursue some new summer wheels and tires.  So far, I’ve narrowed my search of wheels to the 18 inch AMG monoblock wheels (a personal favorite of mine), along with some new tires to wrap them up in. I’ll post a picture of the wheels, no worries. Soon after I purchase a new set of wheels for the car, I will then work on the ride quality of the car by purchasing sport springs and shock absorbers that will lower the car about two inches, and provide me with better handling. What could he possibly do next you might ask? Well there’s a lot, but those are the major areas I want to cover before anything else, but there are some small things I’d love to do as well.

If time allows I will then purchase a European style license plate that I can replace with the rather dull Connecticut license plates. This will definitely add to the personality of the car as it will give the car a more European look. I’m excited to see how it will turn out! But these are all the plans I have for now, but I’ll be sure to keep you guys posted on what new ideas I come up with.

The Pictures Do Not Tell All......Sadly

This week I’ll be talking about something I’ve been planning for this upcoming summer related to Mercedes. Since I’ve started driving I’ve always wanted to buy a car to work on and fix up all by myself. I enjoy working on my car now, but I would like to acquire a car that needs some minor body work and interior work. Basically I would want something that I can work on throughout this summer. So recently, I’ve been searching around for cars, especially a Mercedes-Benz, that’s maybe been in a slight accident or something of that nature. As some of you may or may not already know, cars with accident damage can be about 50% cheaper than cars with no damage. So, this would definitely be in my budget range.

Usually the price of a car is drastically cheaper when it has written off, or “totaled” by the individual’s insurance company. Cars are deemed “totaled” by the insurance company when the value of the damage done actually exceeds the value of the car. Often times, insurance companies find it easier to just declare an accident damaged car (especially older models) “totaled” so they can pay the individual the value of the car prior to the accident. Once the owner of the damaged car is paid off the owner usually opts to purchase a newer car. In this case where the owner chooses to just part ways with the damaged car, the car now becomes property of the insurance company. Since the insurance company is not a dealership they try to make up the cost of the damaged car they just purchased by selling it to people at car auctions willing to rebuild and fix up these cars. Of course, these cars are discounted by almost half, so the price to those who are familiar with fixing up cars is seemingly attractive. Additionally, sometimes the cars that are declared “total loss” may not even be damaged beyond repair and would be feasible to repair. Now, going back to my summer plans on how I wish to acquire one of these cars to work on as a project over the summer, I recently thought I found one that was perfect for me.

I was looking on eBay and happened to find my dream car. The 2000 Mercedes-Benz C43 AMG, now I know I already literally the same car (the car I have and the 2000 C43 AMG model I’m talking about shared the same exact body style), and yes I know it is an old car, but the history behind this car is unlike no other. This particular year only 91 were produced, and only 25 were imported to the United States. According to the Mercedes-Benz enthusiast forum, there were 3 that were confirmed to be wrecked.  With these numbers in mind, I see this car online and it seems surreal that it is up for sale. Not only is it up for sale, but the listing price is very low. After some more researching on the car, I find out that it only has 36,000 miles.

I thought this might be the deal of a lifetime, as I could potentially own the lowest mileage C43 AMG sedan in the world. After looking at some pictures of the car it was evident that the car needed slight cosmetic work to bring it back to life, but why not I thought this could be the perfect summer project.  I called the seller and my enthusiasm went south as I heard the history of the car. Apparently, the car had been in an accident in which it hopped over a high street island (basically the pavement that separates the roadway) at a high speed resulting in “irreparable” frame damage. Sad to hear such news like that considering frame damage cars are something that are not worthy fixing because a bent frame compromises the integrity the vehicle and most times the car will never drive the same.  Judging the car based on the pictures seemed to prove me wrong as the pictures did not tell the entire story. Now, I know why the price was so reasonable for this car, and I’m glad I did further research before committing to it. This is definitely something to learn from, as pictures do not always tell the history of a car. Sadly, though this brings the total cars imported to the U.S. that year down to 21, and who knows of the other ones that may have been crashed and not reported. In the meantime, maybe I’ll stumble upon another one of these cars in the future.