Cleaning and Detailing

Here's an Ebay listing for a 300D... definitely, these pictures are meant to impress even the most cynical of buyers!







Hey, I get that detailing an old car you want to sell is a drag, but maybe 30 seconds to throw out the McDonalds trash isn't too much to ask?

Gerrett Conover,
M-100 Membership Sec'y
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1971 600 SWB
1979 450SEL 6.9
1981 250 LWB
1995 Impala SS
1996 S500
[img=left]http://www.600swb.com/Images/600_sm.jpg[/img=left]

I see this all the time, along with pictures that look like they were taken with a Box Brownie with Vaseline smeared on the lens.

If they took the car to a car wash for $10, I promise it will be the best return on their money they've ever seen.

Mike:

Years ago I read a book written by a guy who went "undercover" at a 3 different car dealerships as a salesman in order to find out how best to make a deal (on the buyer's side). He had a few (obvious) suggestions:

• Be civil to the salesman; they're human, too, and will try to 'screw' you if you walk in with an 'attitude'
• Do your homework; know what the car's invoice cost is, and suggest a price 5% BELOW invoice when the salesman says, "What do you want to pay for this car?"
• CLEAN your trade-in. The used car manager will respond better to a clean, shiny car.

I think people who sell cars without cleaning them are just lazy, stupid, or both.

But, I'm certain that people who use the "shaky or out-of-focus cam" trick are just plain shady. They are purposefully trying to hide paint, chrome and interior defects.

Gerrett Conover,
M-100 Membership Sec'y
-----------------------
1971 600 SWB
1979 450SEL 6.9
1981 250 LWB
1995 Impala SS
1996 S500
[img=left]http://www.600swb.com/Images/600_sm.jpg[/img=left]

I was watching one of those home renovation shows with Cheryll recently and they featured a house in the UK that made that car look pristine. You could see the woman decorator the TV lot brought in repeatedly puking and gagging from the stench. The owners couldn't understand why it hadn't sold for 1.2 million pounds in 18 months.

The only funny thing was that there were two feral adult kids buried in the junk. To sell the place, not only did the advisors make them take two thirds of the house and contents to the tip, but they insisted that the kids go into the skip as well[:D][:D][:D].
Art

Ok, now we're way O/T, but that's ok... About 3 years ago there was a Frontline (?) report on PBS (public TV for our non-US friends) about a group of senior citizens in Bangor, ME, who greet inbound and outbound US soldiers headed from/to Iraq. Bangor, being an airport with a HUGE runway, relatively isolated, and far enough northeast to make the US-Europe trip slightly shorter, has seen more than a million US soldier-trips since the Iraq "war" started. Also, since it is isolated, I'm sure it wasn't lost on the US government that major TV stations wouldn't hover around for news stories.

Anyway, one of the gents was getting close to 90 years old; he lived alone, widowed, in a sprawling, if not falling down, white Maine farmhouse. The reporter ventured inside with his daughter... The first floor, and I kid you not, was 12" deep with empty cat food cans. In every room. And on top of the old cans was trash, clothing, and broken furniture.

Now, there is a cable TV show called "Hoarders", about the psychological issue of people like that who cannot throw things away or clean, to the point that their houses are condemned. Like OCD, I guess the urge to hoard cannot be overcome by rational thought. Therapy, and perhaps even medication, are the only way to break the cycle.... Pretty sad, actually.

Gerrett Conover,
M-100 Membership Sec'y
-----------------------
1971 600 SWB
1979 450SEL 6.9
1981 250 LWB
1995 Impala SS
1996 S500
[img=left]http://www.600swb.com/Images/600_sm.jpg[/img=left]

That's the depression mentality. I was raised to save the bent nails and straighten them out for reuse. Fits right in with banana sandwiches in my family.

One wonders why I have 36 old mercedes laying about. At least my backyard is now 95% car part free (as I got yelled at).

-CTH

Charlie, you have a collection that makes me green with envy.

With best regards

Al
1970 Mercedes Benz 280SL California Coupe
1971 Mercedes Benz 250CE (RHD in the UK)
1971 Mercedes Benz 300SEL 6.3
1972 Mercedes Benz 280CE 4 speed
1973 Mercedes Benz 280CE 4 speed
1973 Mercedes Benz 350SE 4 speed
1979 Mercedes Benz 450SEL 6.9
1981 Mercedes Benz 500SLC
1984 Mercedes Benz 500SEC
1987 Mercedes Benz 560SEC
1988 Mercedes Benz 560SEC Euro
1991 Mercedes Benz 560SEL
1973 GMC LWB Pickup
2006 Adidas Samba

Only John Freeman has a bigger collection than you two (200+ cars ) ha ha...[:D][:D].
I have mountains of crap rare and valuable mercedes parts which I am trying my hardest to get rid of. I have even given stuff away ..[:D] but the biggest problem is that mercedes don't wear out like Holdens and Fords do so a lot of owners simply do not need a spare diff or trans etc. Unfortunately some it isn't mine either.
The 420 I bought recently was full of rubbish but was a very good car underneath it all.
I once bought a BMW 3.0 which was really full of crap and i had to pull the interior out to clean it. I paid $1600 for the car ( kangaroo damage) and found $1650 in loose change through out the car.[8D]

quote:

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12-14-2004, 11:49 PM #8
Tom Hanson
MBCA Member

What the heck, try to stuff a MB 6.9 liter V8 in it. What a machine that would be..
__________________
Tom Hanson
Orange County Section

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Len Levine was the former US champ (if nuttiness is a sport). When he passed some 5 years back, he left his sister an estate consisting of a house near Atlantic City on 5 acres of property and 214 cars (104 of which were Mercedes) in all sorts of conditions, and a very large dog.

His place was a magnet for any cheap Mercedes available within 200 miles of Atlantic City.

-CTH

Eventually a 'collection' becomes a business. I'm thinking specifically of European Connection in KY, with many hundreds of older Mercedes spread over fields and hills.