Who would have thought ?

[John Landon]

A few days ago, I treated myself to a new motor, and after saying a fond farewell to my old car and whishing her all the best with her new keeper, I started to empty out my carrier bag full of my belongings that I keep in my car.

A bag of change for the car park, USB charger, cloths for the wind screen, torch, gloves and brolly, but mostly CD's. Lots of CD's.

I quicky realised that all these compact discs were not going to fit, or at least be in arms reach if I ended up stowing them away in the boot.

Luckily I realised that my new car has a USB port that will interface with the sound system, and last week I had bought myself a USB pen drive that has 128 GB of storage and is no bigger than my thumbnail.

Several hours later, I had ripped ALL my CD's to this USB drive, and they only took up less than 10% of the available space on said drive.
Hoping my cunning plan had worked, I was even more delighted when after plugging the drive in and accessing it from my entertainment system, all my music was accessible, and nicely presented, complete with track list and album cover being displayed on the screen..

Hard to imagine when as a young kid, I bought 7" singles, then 12" albums, many of which are in my wardrobe at home causing the shelf to bend. Then I had about 30 CD's that take up a fraction of the room the albums occupy, and now, all those albums occupy the space of something the size of my thumbnail..

love it..

[crewmeal]

I did a similar thing with my favourite music, transfering everything to a USB and sold my CD collection for a pittance to Music Magpie. The space I saved in the cupboard is now full of other junk!!

[John Landon]

My CD's all went to a charity shop, there may be some old git like me who will pick up a bargain to reminisce with in the comfort of thier living room. Quite a variety to choose from, and all in good nick..
I just downloaded an album today in work. Double CD in MP3 format for about 8 quid. Put it on my Google drive and grabbed it when I got home. Just realised I am helping to save the planet with not having or buying any plastic, so my Green credentials are rising. A few electrons may have been mildley disturbed along the way, but hey, hasnt that always been the way down here in the game of life.

The Garage are asking me to post a review about my car. I am saying nothing, Its always buyer beware with these second hand car dealers, the front tyre was flat first time I saw it, it went flat 2 days after I bought it, Blowing up a tyre does not fix a slow puncture apparently, the new front headlamp ( which cost them best part of a grand ) had not been correctly aligned..

But not to worry, I am handy with the spanners, and if the car holds up well for the next couple of weeks, I will invest in a new set of tyres.
Never liked just changing one tyre, I always do them in pairs, and my mate gives me a good deal.
getting more MPG, cheaper insurance and Tax.
My old car was in perfect condition, I bought it as a do-er upper during Covid.
It was a 2007 Mercedes CLK Coupe, AMG line, whoever gets that will drop really lucky, not a single fault on the car.

I know or sure, it will be up for a lot more than they gave me for it, all they have to do is put a For Sale sign in the window and hose it down...

[Teddyboy]

What's the new car, then?
I'm currently hating myself for falling in love with the German Mercedes Benz motor cars. We're onto our third; they're fantastic!

[John Landon]

My Old car was the Mercedes CLK coupe, AMG sport in black.

It was my mate Gendalf that put me onto Mercedes, and the experience so far has been very good.
I did a lot of work to the CLK, but in the end it paid dividends, having put in a flawless performance during my ownership, taking me all around the country including the far south of Somerset and back in one day, a week long tour of the highlands, and touring my old homeland of the North Yorkshire Dales and moors. plus being my daily driver.

Here is the finished product after many hours of mechanical and bodywork labour during those covid months.



The new one is a Mercedes-Benz E220 AMG Sport Cdi


This was before they did the work required. I have since corrected one or 2 issues.




Getting to grips with all the tech' has taken a couple of days, but I am almost there now.
The Sat Nav is very polite, but the Linguatronic ( voice control ) system is a challenge, as she does not speak-a my lingo... yet.

I thought I could say, "Navigate to Home", and that's what would happen, but no, so we end up going somewhere else instead and having a one sided argument.. Bit like the wife really..


its a pleasure to drive, all the modern safety features, and getting to grips with how Mercedes think things should be done..

[Teddyboy]

They both look lovely!
Our first German was a BMW. Very nice driver, but the next one was a Merc, and a bit bigger. Then another Merc, an E320 Avantgarde Estate, which I loved, it was like a super-van! All of these were some shade of silver, and when No. 1 Son and I went looking for another, our remit was "Anything which isn't silver!" It came to us locally, at the right price and condition, and we were both seduced by it! A lovely chocolate brown E350 Avantgarde Saloon. I LOVE driving it, and can hardly wait to get back to Blighty to get behind the wheel again.
I've done away with the awful low-profiles and the plate was a Christmas box from our kids. (Both of our initials and the date of our wedding.) I hope other members don't think we're trying to start a car discussion forum, lol!

[John Landon]

That is very nice

The E Class which we both have is built on the same reliable CLK chassis, and Mercedes were working hard on the E Class to make it more reliable, as their reputation was being called into question regarding build quality, though I cant say I had any complaints with my CLK, other than the front bushes and suspension needed refreshing, no doubt to it being such a very heavy car up front. Mine is basically the facelifted version of what you have. I imagine they will be similar inside..

Those low profile tyres do somewhat spoil the ride, my previous car had 30 profile tyres on the back and 35 on the front.
My mate had a nightmare trying to get the back tyres off.

This one has 18" whiles compared to the 19" on my older car, so the tyres are not as low profile, 45 and 40 I think.



Just got back from my mates garage as he said he was free this lunchtime, so did the 2 front tyres for 170 quid all in, including balancing etc, so I can take the tyre pump out of active duty now.. hopefully..


Cars have always been my passion ever since I was a kid.

[Teddyboy]

It's a bit strange, but I have noticed that there are quite a few Mercs appearing on our roads here in Luxor lately. The ones which have been here a while are quite a lot older (Hod-Hod's ancient thing?) or certainly older than around 30 or 40 years or so. (Except, of course those belonging to the Governor's Office.) These recent appearances seem to be mostly post 2000, I should think. Many seem to be E200 saloons with German plates peeking out from behind the Egyptian ones. (And many in silver!!!)

[crewmeal]

Just realised I am helping to save the planet with not having or buying any plastic, so my Green credentials are rising.

It seems LP records are outselling CDs according to the press. How much more plastic goes into making an LP!!

[Teddyboy]

"How much more plastic goes into making an LP!!"

Just looking, I should think at least 6 times as much.

[John Landon]

I don't even know what to do with my LP's ? Mostly from the late 60's through to the early 80's. There are certainly some classics amongst my collection, and I do have a turntable to play them on, but hardly bother these days, and given the weight of them all, probably better to take them to my local recycling centre where I can recycle the cardboard sleeves and the records themselves.


with regards to those post Y2K Merc's arriving in Luxor, they will be hard for the locals to maintain, as the fuel injection system was moving more towards electronic by the late 1990's. The older ones were all mechanical fuel injection systems and easy to maintain.

My mate and taxi driver in Malta has a 1979 Merc that has clocked over 1 million miles, infact last time I was there he picked me up in it, and gave me my usual bottle of water out of the glove box. Only the interior has received a couple of refits.

[A-Four]

I don't even know what to do with my LP's ? Mostly from the late 60's through to the early 80's. There are certainly some classics amongst my collection, and I do have a turntable to play them on, but hardly bother these days, and given the weight of them all, probably better to take them to my local recycling centre where I can recycle the cardboard sleeves and the records themselves.

Be very careful how you get rid of your LP's, some could be very valuable, you only have to go into a branch of H.M.V. these days to discover a modern reproduction of old records 33.3 LP's to see the present day costs. There are really serious collectors out there, and if you think that is daft, there are very serious collectors of the original album covers, whether it has the record in it or not. Apparently the experts can tell the difference in the original cover against a modern copy.

All sounds crazy I know, but true. One day even my old i-pods will get street cred again, once people talking loud on the phone while travelling on a bus gets the message that we really don't give a ------ who they are talking to, or what about.

[Major Thom]

Would like to comment it a after living in Luxor, my values changed, now I buy cars to work for me, that are cheap to run and reliable. Gone are the days of impressing the neighbours, and those who think a car is a status symbol. Now to me a car is a drain on finance's a loss of money etc etc. I have had my Toyota now since moving to Cyprus 6 years ago, 80,000 km on the clock, diesel engine to pollute the atmosphere, good mpg. Ok might not look sporty or impressive but it's the vehicle for me.

[Teddyboy]

Whilst I agree with that philosophy to a certain extent, Choccy, I love the comfort and performance of my big Mercedes. I've always been a fan of bigger cars, partly because they're inherently safer as well as usually more comfortable. The car I have now would have been unaffordable to me in the past, but now that I've been able to obtain it, I really appreciate the comfort and power combined in a lovely driver. Like the women in the cosmetic adverts, "I deserve it!"

[Major Thom]

My Rav has got like a touch screen in it, with two leads going to the glove compartment, one has a thing like a flash drive but twice the size which gives me internet and car phone, the other I can download YouTube music films and play, however if the car moves the screen goes blank and just the music plays.. I still have not worked it all out after 5 years but a few weeks I got up Facebook and FB Messenger. There are 2 programs for maps and GPS directions, one is for local maps the other is for World maps, still not got that worked out either! Know how to find radio stations, but there is a program saying DAB, not a clue what that means. If someone calls me when I am driving everything goes quiet and I have to hit a button, then I can listen to the person at the other end and speak to them too. Complicated yes, but given another 3 years should have it worked out....only 5 weeks ago while polishing the dashboard I come across a furry thing, that ended up being a microphone and a thing about the size of matchbox, which ended up being an arial type thing that picks up GPS. I must stick to simpler things in the future, like combined radio/cassette player. Ha!!

[John Landon]

You should be able to plug your phone into the USB socket in your car, and enable Apple Play, or Android Car play. on your phone, and it will find the interface on your car.
that opens up a whole new world.. Most cars after 2017 have this feature.


After 2 months of ownership of my car, I just discovered that it can park itself ! when a message flashed up on that dashboard as I was about to undertake my first parallel parking manoeuvre , and I responded OK and wondered what would happen..

live and learn..

[crewmeal]

Buy a Tesla and it's a whole new ball game. I love the features in it with no worries about range anxiety. No road tax, no servicing as such. Insurance (for me) roughly the same.

[John Landon]

My next car will be an EV, though I am hoping to get about 4 more years at least out of my trusty Mercedes E220.
60 plus MPG make sit cheaper to run than many of these hybrid cars, and hopefully there will be a thriving second hand EV market I can tap into when I sell my "current" car.

I can see many advantages to owning one, so quite looking forward to it.

[Who2]

Whilst stuck here for 3 years I've taken up watching Wheeler Dealers.
Highly interesting especially when they purchase one of the many cars I have owned.

Every now and then I recollect doing similar mechanics and paint jobs they endeavor.
They even did an Alpine Renault but not as old as my L reg A310 Berlinette
And even an old 924 Porsche I bought over in Brixton for 2k, great fun.
Also a few Jeeps and Land Rovers ....

[John Landon]

Ah yes, I enjoy Wheeler Dealers and CAR SOS, etc.. One of my passions is doing up cars, but these days, the years are catching up with me, but I still enjoy doing what I can manage.
Renault Alpine, was a great car, and still is.

I watched Wheeler Dealers do up a Fiat Dino Coupe, and sold it for 15K when they had finished.
it was an older program though, as today that car is worth 10X that amount..


With the car owner being brutally and legally punished via taxation mainly due to this man made climate change scam, ( think King Canute ), I am thinking of buying an old VW Beetle, as it's road tax exempt and ULEZ exempt.
My old man bought one new back in '66, I went with him to Kendal to buy it. It even took a family of 5, 2 canoes and towed an Orange ( cant remember if it was a "Mirror" or "Skipper" sailing boat to our holiday destinations.
Not bad for a flat 4 1200 cc air cooled engine.