Till we meet again......

Those that know me know that I LOVE cars. I had a 1997 Mercedes-Benz E420 that I loved dearly. It was getting on in years, and I knew that eventually I would have to start spending money on it, so I bit the bullet and traded it for a 2005 Mercedes-Benz E500 4Matic. I was VERY excited about the new car but almost cried when I left the old one. This new one had a bigger engine, more power, all-wheel drive for more grip and better handling, etc....and I got a great deal on it. When I bought it, there were a couple little things that I wanted fixed, one of which was a message on the display that said Visit Workshop, which in the end, proved to be its undoing. This error means the Airmatic suspension that goes along with the performance package on this car was leaking out its air, which could cause some serious problems while driving it.

I bought the car on February 7th, and drove it for about 3 weeks until Mark Martin Ford got some of the parts in for it. They fixed what they could and took it to Little Rock to get the rest of the work completed. I never had the car for more than a week at a time after that. Five trips later, they said that it was finally done after a front strut, strut sensor, and suspension valve were all replaced and the computer controlling that system was reprogrammed. I drove it about 500 miles when the light came on again on Monday (June 1st). At this point, I decided enough was enough, and so did Lance Landers (he's Mark Martin's business partner and operates the dealership) who had spent nearly $6,000 trying to fix it. So, he's taking the car back for what I paid for it and is in the process of finding me a 2009 VW Jetta TDI, which will be my first ever brand new car. I can't really say too many negative things about the guys at the dealership. They've been over backwards to take care of this thing, and have spent a ton of money trying to do it. So, I'm trading a Mercedes with a small hydrogen bomb under the hood for an oil burner....I must be getting older...

I love Mercedes cars. I've owned 2 -- the first was a brilliant piece of engineering and was just like your first love. You never really get over it right? It made you feel emotions both good and bad, but at the end of the day it was just something wonderful. The 2nd was even better in terms of performance, handling, etc...and the interior looked like something out of Star Trek BUT was built on a Friday after lunch and about 20 German beers I think. It's pretty rare for one to be like this, but it happens. I'll own another one some day....mark my words...;o) (speaking of which, my birthday is coming up -- anyone want to buy me a CLS63 AMG?)