ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Small things that make you chuckle

I have had two 200,000 mile vehicles. One was a ford Econoline that went 210,000 before I sold it but wath a new engine and tranny. We also had a Honda Accord that did over 200 with nothing major but a timing belt. I sold it for $1000. My best deal was a 71 Jeep Commando I bought new for $3600, put 169,000 miles on in 5 years and sold for $2400. I was shocked when it actually sold for the blue sky price I put on it. I would have taken $1000.

Here's my little Bronco II that I'm using as a general runaround at the moment. 1987 model, almost 104,000 on the clock.

A couple of years ago my ex boss used to pick me up. It was raining and miserable. When he came to pick me up we were haveing coffee and my cat Smirkey jumped onto his window perch. He growled and hissed at the rain and went to his little house/bed by the tv. He looked up at the window and growled again and then went to sleep. I had a day off with pay for makeing the boss laugh so hard that morning. I still smile when I think of it.

An SUV in the UK?? (sans Range Rovers) Paul, did you bring that back from the states when you lived here?

Sure... the Diesel versions are climed to be extremely robust cars.
Until a few years ago almost every taxi in central Europe was a Mercedes.

Colors vary by location - Germany mostly has the beige of the model in the picture. Vienna had almost only white ones until recently. And way back when they were all black.

A very nice, comfortable, quiet car. A few years ago on vacation, we missed a train and had to 'upgrade' to a taxi the 100 klics from Nantes to Laval to make our next connection. It was a black Merc diesel just like the above. Cost me FF1000, old money, [ = $200 ] including the tip, worth every centime.

How do you get on with the left-hooker Paul? I find myself driving on or over the centre white line when I come back to Blighty in our LHD.

Ragnar,
I'll go along with the diesel Merc's being long lasting.. most of the ones that are left on the road here from the 70's & 80's are well past 300 or 400K on the clock.. Although they're usually spewing a roostertail of black soot and poking along at no more than 40mph... They tend to follow the Chevrolet mantra. "They run bad longer than most cars run period."

But for downright longest lasting....

A Montreal taxi driver on the verge of setting a Guinness Book of World Records mark for the most mileage by a car, is cursing his luck.

Just 264 kilometres short of setting the record for mileage on the same car, Joseph Vaillancourt's never-say-die 1963 Plymouth Fury sedan is headed for the scrap yard. It was smashed by a truck that ran a red light on Wednesday.

Vaillancourt had logged an incredible 2.6-million kilometres in the car, and estimates carrying more than 800,000 passengers.

The 36-year-old cabbie was not hurt in the accident.

Story from Here

I recently purchased a '93 Toyota Camry, 136K and cgange, cracked exhaust manifold, driver side window doesn't seat properly, and it leaks oil, plus I snapped the RH mirror off when I clipped a stop sign, duct taped back on for a month until I got a new one, but it still runs great

-Will, AKA that guy that needs to be more alert when he drives to school

well sound like you guys have pretty good mileage on your big toys

my older truck i have before it did hit 860,000 usmiles on the odmeter it turn over 00,000 8 time and it was powered by same diesel engine [ 6.9 liter with whimpy 185 hp ] just change head gasket at 410,000 miles due the raditor cap went bonker and blew the head gasket out and the cylinder bore is very good shape but have to retired the truck at that milage due too many hair line cracks on frame so not worth jusify the cost to rebuilt the truck.

right now i have 68 GMC and 89 Ford diesel pick up [ both have diesel engine ] the gmc have 3 cylinder engine it pretty well modifyed for increibale power 290 hp out little 276 cid engine that one have over 550,000 miles still running and the ford diesel it have 680,000 miles on clock now serving as back up truck because i went to heveier truck which it is a International truck it have DT466 engine right now it have 254,900 miles but the idleing hours is increble i have over 14,000 running hours on that engine

Oh yeah ,,, Mercades Benz cars jezz they are just about bulletproof engine they will just run almost forever and they can burn just about any fueloil you dish at the engine even with biodiesel and SVO [ straght veggie oil ]

if you guys want to know if i have any gas powered truck the answer is yes i have ole 73 chevy with propane burning engine [ i dont run that not often at all burn fuel like nuts ]

Merci , Marc

I read about a guy from Columbus, Ohio who owned a similar Mercedes as a Student in the early 80s and drove it using frying oil from McDonald's... and occasionally you smell cars here indicating the same fuel...