Meetups

"Ang Batuta ng Mercedes-Benz Sa Pilipinas" or Mercedes-Benz Club Of The Philippines for the lack of a less boring translation. Before the advent of online communities, internet relay chats, bulletin board systems, meetups are the heart and soul of a club. People gather around with a single common interest whether it's a fondness towards the horses on the bonnet of a jeepney or a forum of daring Makati Window Cleaners Association, the convocation is physical rather than virtual. And to better understand a person, spoken words are better than written words, Mercedes-Benz enthusiasts are no exception to that fact.

Sunday was the day designated that a certain meetup will be brewing in the South side of Metro Manila as I read my SMS five days ago from a fellow enthusiast. As I checked the digital landscape it all seems quiet so this sounds to be interesting, it signals a 99% pure Mercedes-Benz rap session. Location is a nice, fresh, premiere European used car depot called AutoVille, forted between to rooks Shakey's and Sinangag (Fried Rice) House. Aware that it's a bloody traffic Sunday so I took a drive around the nearby province (Cavite) to circumvent the Filipino's love affair for free airconditioning and I ended up taking the nice [let me borrow the line from a lifestyle auto magazine] "world-class" thoroughfare called Daang-Hari. Estimating the driving time, I rather take this long and winding road and enjoy the view of the old communities at the end of it rather than languish in one of Henry Sy's greedy undoings.

So I took it, ended up in a little community somewhere in Bacoor, Cavite. If I'm an Su-27 Fighter pilot I can call that route The Long Cobra Maneuver and pop out from the rear of the target. With less hassle and more acceleration, I finally ended up to my destination right smack on target, just a bit late.





I'm not really so sure if what I came for is just part of the club or the whole of it. Or did I arrived in the last day of The Great South European Car Sale?



As of now, this is one of the finest Mercedes-Benz convergence I have ever been to on any given Sunday.



It's great to see people of different age brackets share the same enthusiasm for the marque.



One of the most interesting part of this gathering is, all exhaustion from driving were diminished by the untiring view of these classics and modern classics cramped together in a space-deprived area that upgraded its real property value for a few hours.





At night time, it's great to see people who stayed and still talked about the three-pointed star over the bottle of chilled fermented malt and yeast.

Another Interesting Year

I started this blog with an opening poetry from one of the Philippine's premiere rock bands; The Breed with their famous "Black Mercedes Benz", a hit wonder of the early '90s. I believe this year is going to be an interesting year for Klaudia as she has been whipping SLEX south, north and back with all the might and strength of 25 year-old beater that has been beautifully broken in. And now delivered live from YouTube; Klaudia's own music video. Enjoy!

Enjoyed A Drive Lately?

It's been a year again since I have been driving in the streets of Metro Manila almost on a daily basis lately and if I'm not doing that I'm dozing off in one of the most modern buses plying EDSA and the South Side of the Metropolis. I would admit I'm not really keen in driving a "lesser" car anytime. Now I can relate how foreigners think of us as motorists in general. Anyway, here are few of my observations from the past twelve months of driving.





Smart Cars Are Mostly Driven By Dumb Drivers


New cars today contains a lot of acronyms that even someone with PhD can't catch up with. CVT, VVT, EFI, TDi, CDi etc. good enough to fill an alphabet soup. In the parking lot I can still see cars that are obviously equipped with backing sensors...and dented bumpers.


Cheap Motorcycles, Cheap Fuel

Obviously what's creating havoc in the streets of Metro today. Every morning, my breakfast will not be complete without an early morning news of an accident involving illegally tuned cheap motorcycle. Add it with fuel price spiraling downwards and you got a dangerous combination of a nincumpoop who can afford to buy fuel and ride like hell.


Can Drive But Can't Read

I really wonder how LTO is examining drivers these days. There's a nonsense on-the-spot drug test that barely deliver its purpose. To my little surprise, I still caught drivers who can't even tell a road sign written in alphabet means. Freight trucks that are not allowed to cross particular bridges still do the opposite with total disregard to the lives of others.





But so much for that. Driving in Metro Manila can become a stress reliever rather than stress giver, oftentimes the relief is coming from being even. And despite this Filipino immaturity to road safety there are times and I will tell when driving is truly a breeze, specially with a classic Mercedes-Benz.

It's Holiday

And you think bringing your Benz out is a good idea? Unless you want to unnecessarily stress an aging ride then go ahead. Rat racers think the same and holidays are like giant Pied Piper.




Going to Work

Filipinos love to cram. That's not rant, it's a fact. Work starts at 0830H most of them will leave home at 0700H to enjoy traffic jams. And the worst part, they will compare how bad traffic here than in any place in the world. Early birds catches the fastest worm. Early morning drives are the best time to drive listening to the engine's gentle hum at 80km/h and climbing.




Driving Home

The part I hate most is to mix with jerks on the road. And that is the time to go home and other drivers doesn't seem to have the intention of doing so. There are a couple of ways to deal with it; stay late in the office or leave on time not a minute late. In this way you'll enjoy the best drives the Metropolis can offer that any traffic-jam-brainwashed flip will keep on driving at snail pace despite a smooth and spacious road ahead, I'd say wake up that chap with a loud air horn. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A Merry Mercedes Christmas To All

2008 has been a very interesting and rewarding. Patiently, Klaudia is being brought back in shape and has been stubbornly reliable. On my first anniversary of Mercedes-Benz ownership, it's PHP139,000 worth of spending upon checking her service records. Crazy as others may think on why someone would spend like that on something that can't be resold at a prime value. That is called the happiness money can't buy.



Bringing back to life dead and dying components in her are just some of the simple joys of having her around to take care of. Idling like a fairly new car, can still whip a nasty surprise to the people who thinks she's already old.

I took Klaudia because I believe in Mercedes-Benz's value proposition; Only a Mercedes can be at par with another Mercedes. It doesn't matter if others has higher horsepower, better tuned and well calibrated. The bottomline is Mercedes-Benz is what others want to be associated with.




My Mercedes-Benz ownership was never about prestige or caprice. Contrary to what "practical" people have known, it's cheaper to maintain than a younger Honda Accord. With oil prices dropping, fuel cost is not a valid argument as of this writing. Just like any other car, a well-maintained Mercedes is a reliable Mercedes.



Owning a Mercedes comes with great responsibility. If someone just want to get one for the looks and the pomp of it please just buy another car. A Mercedes deserves a much more responsible owner whether it's old or new.

And this Christmas, I'm glad that I got to save Klaudia and put her back on the road in the state that she truly deserves and more. And hopefully, she'll spend more years providing great driving experience for me and to the future generation of Mercedes-Benz lovers. Happy Benz Motoring this Christmas!

So, Buying A Classic Mercedes?

It's been a while since my last post and as we all know we're not yet in the middle of a global financial crisis, we're only at the tip of it, the middle is yet to come. In light of all these, I have to work double time as well. Now, I got a bit of luxury to relax and note my observations on my favorite automotive marque.

Given this situation, one would ask "Why buy a Classic Mercedes today?". One good reply can be "Why not?". It's not about trying to satisfy one's caprice or going against the advises of the "practical" people or even enhance one's status symbol. In some cases, buying a classic Mercedes is even more rewarding than buying just another brand new vehicle which any moneyed bigot can do.

This write-up will not try to pull off a point-by-point buyer's guide, there's just so much of it in the Web. So going back to the real topic; Why buy a classic Mercedes? Classic Mercedes-Benz cars ranges from modern classics with road-going age of ten to twenty-five years, true classics that goes on for thirty years over and vintage which are mostly museum artifacts. We'll basically cover modern and true classics.

These Cars Were Designed With The Car In Mind

The purpose of the car is to move people and goods from one place to another. Recite it four times. So what is Mercedes-Benz value proposition here? A classic Mercedes-Benz has served this purpose gazillion of times and will do more in to the future. With fuel prices plunging as of this writing, a false sense of environmentalism will be sent to the backburner and it's the best time to own a classic Mercedes.




These Classics Are Easy To Fix

And relatively cheaper too. Mercedes-Benz classics, when handled by the right people, will go a long way, they're so tough they almost live forever. Before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Manila is already enjoying the sight of this great German import, it has stood the test of time and crisis here longer than any Japanese, Korean or even other German brands in this part of the planet. Therefore motor shops that are specializing in servicing these classics are not really hard to find.




Nobody's Perfect

It's a fact. Whether we like it or not there will be lemons in our lives. Mercedes-Benz is no stranger to this as well specially when they started incorporating computer technology into these cars and depended heavily on it. I'm a software developer, not the best in the world, and the one dumber than me might have programmed for one of the chip that goes in one of these soon-to-be modern classics. I don't need to imagine how is it going to look like, I always see cars like this whenever I visit my mechanic and it never seems to leave the place.




All in all, these are just the fun and excitement of owning a classic Mercedes-Benz whether it's a W123, W201, W116 etc. these are the classics you can return to when you got sick and tired of high-technology nonsense.

Too Busy These Days

A lot of stuff is keeping me from posting some thoughts about the Three-Pointed Star these days. And right now, I'll just post a real quick one. We are all aware of US-driven Global Financial Crisis that will going to ping like dominoes in all the shores of the world, but despite these crappy scare tactics and learning the hard lessons of just how much the world consumers are willing to pay for a barrel of oil (and these glorified jerks knew that people are smart enough to put a stop on buying when the smell of greed is all around), it is always safe to say that "all is well" in our part of the shore specially whenever a stately Mercedes-Benz breeze through our streets.

There's just a noticeable number of W124s plying around the Metropolis, not much W201s as compared against the BMW E30 (let's keep it that way), W123s of varying states some are eye candies and some are simply eyesores. Surprisingly, there are new S-Classes barreling down the roads as well which gives an investor a hint that our place has a very interesting market today. Another good sign to tell are pocket of enthusiasts mushrooming from different communities sharing their passion for the marque all purely for the fun and love of it sans strings.

Interview with Bruno Sacco

The World Wide Web is so dynamic that sometimes valuable information that we stumble upon today may no longer be available tomorrow for some reason such as the site administrator may no longer keep up with the tedious demands of maintaining and archiving static data.

So while I'm on it and googling "W201 Retro Design Concept". I'm going to make a small breakdown of what I have stumbled upon, Automobile Magazine's Marc Nordeloos Q & A session with the legendary Mercedes-Benz designer; Bruno Sacco. So without any futher adieu. Enjoy!

Automobile Mag: What Mercedes-Benz models do you consider to be your best designs?

Mr. Sacco: The 1980s W126 S-class, the 1990s R129 SL, the CLK, the SLK, and the W220 S-class that debuted in the late 1990s. But my favorite is the Mercedes-Benz 190 [W201] because of its importance to Mercedes.

I must agree that the W201 may not be the best Mercedes-Benz model but it's sure was very important to Mercedes-Benz especially when it was under intense pressure from competitors.



Automobile Mag: Is there a model you designed that you're unhappy with?

Mr. Sacco: The W140 S-class from the early 1990s, because it is four inches too tall.

I'm not sure about it since I'm no big fan of Big Benzes. Some may like it a lot but this particular model wasn't made based on the designer's ultimate wishes.



Automobile Ma: What current designs do you like?

Mr. Sacco: I like what Cadillac is doing with some of its models. I did not like the Allant, but the Evoq show car and the XLR are good designs. It's nice to see manufacturers come up with a new design language and develop it. But it is important to be careful which models a company chooses to feature an edgy design.

Yes, edgy is the new sexy.

Automobile Mag: What current designs make you shake your head?

Some of the SUVs from Korea. Also, BMW seems to lack a clear focus on its design theme. It is important to balance classic design themes when developing out-there designs.

And ACTYON is what I have in mind!

Automobile Mag: What non-Mercedes designs are your favorites?

Mr. Sacco: The Lamborghini Miura, the Ferrari 275GTB, and--although I know it's a Mercedes--the Gullwing.


Who would go wrong for a Gullwing?

Automobile Mag: What are your thoughts on retro design?

Mr. Sacco: It's popular and it helps sell cars, but it offers little perspective on design. I do like the Mini, though.

The Mini, The FJ Cruiser, The Shelby. The W201 retro? Somebody should run a design contest for this!

Automobile Mag: What cars do you own?

Mr. Sacco: A Mercedes 560SEC. I love the car except for the large, plastic door-handle surrounds. I am considering having my car modified to fix this design flaw.

I can't wait to see this Super Mercedes flaw fixed.



Automobile Mag: Say you have a long weekend ahead of you. What do you drive and where do you go?

Mr. Sacco: I would take a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren to Paris.

Now I gotta grab my camera and spot an SLR McLaren. See you around!