Poor quality photo of the 240D taken from the street with my new camera phone
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Released to Drive!
Here is a photo of Mickey Hollingshead at his command post at the repair facility. Our "new" Benz is out of the shop. After being administered to by Mickey and his skilled cadre of assistants at Jim's Fine Car Service, she is rolling on the streets of Albuquerque. Last Friday was her release day and she has been driven every day since then. She took Adam, Sue and me to dinner at Yen Ching on Saturday evening. She took Siku, Sue and me around town on errands and to Christine's 20th birthday party on Monday. Here is a rough list of the improvements to the 240D:
01. New tires all around with the best old one becoming a spare
02. Replacement wheel for the one damaged by the dust devil
03. New front control arms
04. New brake pads and rotors all around
05. Replacement radiator, hoses and fluids
06. New ignition switch so that one key will fit all locks (previous replacement not by VIN)
07. Replacement rear dome light (was missing!)
08. Replacement sunroof switch (previous one was sticking)
09. Passenger side mirror (this 240D did not come with one standard)
10. New Potentiometer to reactivate dash lights
11. Thorough wash job and continued scrubbing of interior
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Jim's Fine Car Service
Mickey Hollingshead owns Jim's Fine Car Service, which is located off of San Mateo in Albuquerque. He took the new car into his shop on May 9, and is diligently working to adjust the 240D to my requirements. Because of the dust devil that hit us in Arizona, the Mercedes needs a replacement wheel and a wheel alignment. Mickey recommended new tires all around, and I agreed.
The car came without a rear dome light, so Mickey ordered one. It needed new glow plugs. It needed new brake pads. There was a leak in the transmission that Mickey is chasing down. Finally, it needed a key issue solved; the previous owner had replaced the ignition switch with one that did not match the other locks and he did not provide me with a door key, so I could not lock the vehicle! Mickey has ordered a new ignition switch that is based on the VIN, so hopefully the new key that comes with it will provide me with locking capabilities.
I have spent the last week and this week without my new vehicle, a very difficult proposition for me since my other Mercedes was damaged in a collision last week; it is drivable, but looks rather bad on the driver side thanks to a Toyota pickup that slammed into another Toyota pickup and then slid into my driver side and burst into flame (I thought this only happened in the movies!). Mickey said that he may be done with the new Benz at the end of this week.
The car came without a rear dome light, so Mickey ordered one. It needed new glow plugs. It needed new brake pads. There was a leak in the transmission that Mickey is chasing down. Finally, it needed a key issue solved; the previous owner had replaced the ignition switch with one that did not match the other locks and he did not provide me with a door key, so I could not lock the vehicle! Mickey has ordered a new ignition switch that is based on the VIN, so hopefully the new key that comes with it will provide me with locking capabilities.
I have spent the last week and this week without my new vehicle, a very difficult proposition for me since my other Mercedes was damaged in a collision last week; it is drivable, but looks rather bad on the driver side thanks to a Toyota pickup that slammed into another Toyota pickup and then slid into my driver side and burst into flame (I thought this only happened in the movies!). Mickey said that he may be done with the new Benz at the end of this week.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Out of Phoenix - the minor disaster
Rob and Frankie spent the night gallivanting around Scottsdale and Tempe with Niece Christine's friend Jen, who showed the young men all the sights. In the morning, around 8:00 Phoenix time, we left the hotel, Rob driving the 240D and me driving the ML320, and traveled the steep grade back up into Flagstaff. The poor 240D labored, sometimes only achieving 30 mph at very steep inclines. In Flagstaff, we ate at Coco's Restaurant and had a grand time. After the meal, we left for the four hour drive to Albuquerque.
Between Flagstaff and Gallup we ran into a series of dust devils, one of which had about twenty tumbleweeds in the cone. one tumbleweed left the passenger front wheel of the 240D bent! The photo here is not the actual dust devil (since I didn't bring my camera). We saw another dust devil around a trailer park development that was carrying a 4x8 sheet of plywood or a door within the cone. I am glad that we didn't run into that one!
We made it back home to Albuquerque around 6:15 pm Sunday evening and were very tired.
In Phoenix
I can't believe that I didn't take a camera with me on this trip! We arrived in Scottsdale and the Mercedes was exactly where the previous owner said it would be. The key was under the passenger mat. She started right up and I drove her around the shopping center parking lot to get a feel for the vehicle. After that, Rob took over driving the 240D and we headed for the Scottsdale Country Inn and Suites. After check-in, Sue, Siku and I relaxed in our suite while Rob and Frankie took off to explore the town in the ML320. I didn't want Rob to drive the 240D because if he were in a fender-bender the car would probably be totaled, and that would not be fair to him. I drove the 240D around Scottsdale later in the afternoon to enjoy the new ride. Now, 240D's are not the swiftest vehicles on the planet, but that is good in Scottsdale since they have cameras that catch speeders - even radar detectors are useless in that town!
The Journey to Phoenix
We left Albuquerque early on Saturday morning, about 6:15 am. The participants in our adventure included Nephew Rob, his friend Frankie, our American Eskimo dog Siku, Sue and myself in the ML320.
After a food stop in Gallup around 8:30, we travelled into Arizona. During the trip, Rob expressed an interest in visiting the Barringer Meteor Crater. The weather was beautiful, about 68° F, so we decided to stop on our way to Phoenix. I had not been there since I was in high school, so was equally excited. While "the boys" traversed the rim of the crater, Siku received admiring comments in the shade of the entry canopy, Sue at her side.
I had forgotten about the steep grade between Flagstaff and Phoenix. Basically, the two towns are about 5,000 feet different in elevation. Down we went to Phoenix with me fretting about whether the 240D would actually be where it was supposed to be and whether it would make it back up the slope on our return trip.
On picking up our Benz
We had a pleasant weekend in beautiful, if somewhat warm, Phoenix (Nephew Rob is in LOVE with the town).
We had arranged to pick up the new 240D on Saturday, May 6, 2006. We received a call from the current owner the week prior to pick-up saying that he would be out of town due to his step-fathers illness, but he would arrange for a friend to get the car to us. I could not believe the arrangements, but agreed to them anyway. His friend was to leave the car at the north side of a Mobil gas station at Tatum and Thunderbird Roads on Saturday morning, and we would find the keys under the passenger seat mat! Needless to say, there was some concern about reaching the car quickly.
We had arranged to pick up the new 240D on Saturday, May 6, 2006. We received a call from the current owner the week prior to pick-up saying that he would be out of town due to his step-fathers illness, but he would arrange for a friend to get the car to us. I could not believe the arrangements, but agreed to them anyway. His friend was to leave the car at the north side of a Mobil gas station at Tatum and Thunderbird Roads on Saturday morning, and we would find the keys under the passenger seat mat! Needless to say, there was some concern about reaching the car quickly.
BioDiesel Albuquerque Blog!
GOODBYE AUTO OBSESSION BLOG - HELLO BIODIESEL ALBUQUERQUE BLOG
A new era has arrived at this blog site that will serve as a major turn of events. The first post last July complained about gas prices, around $2.19 at that time. They are now at $2.99 per gallon! With the Patrol sold to a wonderful Nissan Tech in Georgia, we determined to purchase a fuel efficient vehicle.
We wanted to purchase a Mercedes vintage diesel. The great debate was whether to buy an early S-Class, a 300 TD wagon, or a lowly but miserly 240D. Lowly and miserly won out over style and size. Yes, here is our new old girl, a 1980 Mercedes Benz 240D as photographed by the previous owner. She won our hearts by being a Grandpa car from California with a new crate diesel engine. She was living in Phoenix with the grandson of the original owner. Light Ivory in color with a palomino interior, we drove her back from Phoenix on the weekend of May 6, 2006.
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