Autoworld Brussels is a rather excellent car museum in Brussels, Belgium. I’ve been a couple of times, in 2013 and 2025. While the core collection doesn’t change all that much, there is a section that is probably about 20% of the museum that is for rotating special exhibits. When I visited last year, the special exhibit was for the cars of Maserati. I really...
Today was the final day of the 50th anniversary of the W123 event and what a great event it was. Originally the plan was to have a farewell breakfast at the Girl Guide hall of Queanbeyan. However, they suffered a plumbing disaster, so instead of going to the hall, they made breakfast at MB Spares and Service, in Fyshwick. Considering the last minute change,...
Day 1 was about getting to Canberra. Day 2 was all about using and enjoying the cars. And Day 3 was about getting as many together as possible. We started out with a cars and coffee event in Fyshwick. This was somewhat of a warm up for the main event, and allowed cars within a few hours drive of Canberra to come in for...
The second day of the 50th Anniversary of the W123 started with a swap meet. Day 1 had been about getting to Canberra and a welcome BBQ. We assembled at Black Mountain parking lot, which was the departure point for the Scenic Drive we would do later. This was a great location to do it, as the parking lot was basically empty. There was...
In January 1976, the W123 was launched on a cold and snowy day in Stuttgart. It would prove to be one of the most iconic models in Mercedes-Benz history. The W123 has since become a bit of a cult classic. It is still probably the best entry point into classic Mercedes-Benz ownership. 50 years later, the Australian Mercedes-Benz clubs and the W123 facebook group,...
Led by the MBCACT, the state based Mercedes-Benz clubs are planning a major event for the 50th anniversary of the W123. The W123 is one of the more significant models in Mercedes-Benz history and so it is an important milestone. I’ve been slowly tidying up my W123 since I purchased it. However, I had a couple of last things I wanted to do before...
Back in October, I purchased a 2012 S212 Mercedes-Benz E350 Wagon as a new family car to replace the 2007 S211 Mercedes-Benz E350 wagon. This is a car that my wife primarily drives, I mostly drive my classics. It wasn’t actually that easy a choice to find something we liked. Specifically we wanted: A car, not an SUV or Ute. Large cargo area that...
While this site focuses on the older cars I own and drive daily, none of these cars are the primary family car. Since August of 2016, my wife has been driving a 2007 Mercedes-Benz E350 S211 wagon. This has been the primary family car until October of this year. During that time, the car covered around 88,500km over 9.3 years. It has now been...
Last year MBCNSW held an event at Linwood House for the first time. Linnwood house is a historic homestead in Guildford that has four open days per year. Each of them has various car clubs and attractions attend. The goal of the event was to try and entice out some of the interesting older cars in the club that rarely come to events. Last...
Back in late 2023 the soft close mechanism on my 300TE became erratic. Sometimes it would work and sometimes it wouldn’t. Sometimes it would randomly come on when driving. At the time, I assume it was to do with the mechanism, so purchased a second hand soft close and had it fitted. It didn’t fix the issue. Since I was about to go on...
Today was the annual German car show held in Sydney. It’s generally a pretty good event and worth a visit. It is no longer the concours event for the club, that is now held at a dealership earlier in the year. This year I wondered what the event would be like as the organization had appeared a bit haphazard. Promotion seemed to start quite...
Update 22/12/25: This car is now sold. My wife’s 2007 E350 S211 Wagon is for sale. This has been our family car for the last 8 years and it has always been reliable and comfortable. if you want a car that can occasionally seat seven and is not an SUV, the Mercedes-Benz E-Class wagon really is the only choice. Not only do you get...
Back in January when I was on my road trip to Brisbane, I noticed the glow plus relay on my 240D would randomly come on while driving. I didn’t think that was a great situation. At best it’s going to drain the battery and at worst possibly burn out the glow plugs. I also noticed that the plugs would stay on for a...
This week my 560SEC was in having the front suspension rebuilt. I’ve been thinking about doing this for a while, and knew it was time during my last oil change when I saw the condition of the ball joints on the front suspension. I also had a vibration through the steering wheel when parking that I thought may have been related. Unlike when I...
My 450SE is still equipped with its original Becker Mexico Cassette 485. The Becker works beautify including the wunderbar. For Australian delivered cars, the Mexico Cassette 485 was only for 1978 model cars. The main visual difference between the 485 and the other pinstripe Beckers is the model script, which is all caps BECKER MEXICO. Naturally I wanted to keep the radio in the...
Today was the annual ACT German Car show. I try to head down to Canberra each year, as I always enjoy going. It is a show that punches above its weight, has a nice variety of cars and is usually very well organized. As with last year, I drove down on Saturday afternoon to attend the pre-concours dinner. It is a good way to...
On my 1981 240D I had a problem. The sheer accelerative power of the OM616 engine was causing the Mercedes star to lie flat against the bonnet at high speeds. It is rather embarrassing to be driving along the motorway with a limp Mercedes star. Todays job was to replace it. I had a couple of spares, as this part is shared with the...
Running a small fleet of older cars can always present challenges, as they’re not as simple as the older classics, and are somewhat computerised for their time. I first knew there was a problem when Naomi called me, communicating indicators on Jessica’s 2005 CLK320 weren’t working. We told her to drive home and upon arrival, I found the instrument cluster had totally failed, but...
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