16 year old son and Automotive lessons learned

[RicardoD]

Perhaps some of you remember the "190E or W124 for my 16yr old son" post. I didn't start it but jumped in when my son turned 14. I was looking forward to some father son automotive bonding. He is 16 now and just got his drivers license. Here is what happened.

I eventually purchased a W210 earlier this year, a black on black 2000 E430, for cheap ($3k) with good bones but needed some cosmetic love. I changed the windshield, rear seat leather, trans filter/fluid, diff fluid, spark plugs & wires, rear door panels, right rear door actuator, and completely rejuvenated the 18 year old neglected interior. I even got a paint correction on the outside.



I love it but even though I promised to tint the windows, change to a sport grill (as shown in photo), and put on AMG mono blocks from an E55, my son hated it. He didn't let on at first but as the day for his driver license approached, the car and his feelings towards it just turned into a black hole of misery in the RicardoD household. On the one hand I was struggling with the entitled spoil baby crap my son was throwing at me. You get what you get. I slowly realized I had bought a great car for 16yr old Ricardo and not for my son Alex. I had turned something that was so fundamental to who I am, and something I'd hope to share a bit of with my son, and ruined it. I eventually came home from work one day, and had to let my wife know I made a colossal mistake buying this car, and it was time to cut my losses and move on. I put the car up for sale and sold it 2 days later to a young 20 something kid, with an old soul who respects Grandpa-mobiles, who couldn't believe his luck running into a RicardoD used car, complete with maintenance book, and every single issue taken care of on the car. He will get another 100k miles out of this thing easy. I ended up eating some money as I put more in than the car was worth but I did end up getting those E55 mono blocks that will soon end up my my E500. So it was not a total loss. A big loss of my personal time however and months of un-needed family tension while wrestling with the right thing to do.

So I cut a deal with my kid, lets wipe the slate clean, and start over with a car search the right way, where nothing would be purchased without his consent (or his mother's for that matter).

In 1989 my Dad bought me a used 1981 BMW 320i when I was in my late teens. I love that car and it got me all the way through graduate school.



I eventually ended up doing the same thing for my son as my Dad did for me. I found a 8 year old 2010 BMW 328i coupe. Metallic gray but with saddle brown interior. M-sports suspension option. Just like my Dad bought me back in the day but this car is light years better.



So yes, I have a spoiled kid, but he is happy, and more importantly, we got the car on the lift this weekend, he changed the oil by himself enthusiastically (can't suck it out from the top like my E500), and also polished and detailed it. Here he is doing the synthetic clay bar treatment before I went at it with the polisher.



Now his friends are driving too, and word is spreading there is a great DIY garage is at Alex's Dad's house and I am getting asked to help with transmission service on an Audi next weekend. So that makes me happy that my garage time fun is intersecting my kids world and glad to help out the youngsters learn how to take care of their cars. Automotive harmony has returned to my house hold and my 14 year old younger son is happy he won't end up with an old Mercedes grandpa mobile like his older brother (I offered to buy him Bill Sutton's Silver E500 but he declined! Haha).

 

[luckymike]

You're fortunate, Ricardo. Can't get our boy interested. His older sister is a car maniac, though, so at least one of our kids got the gene.

 

[RicardoD]

I wouldn't say my older son is a gear head, but he actually is listening, and now understands what a torque wrench is, and what 25Nm means on the oil filter housing of his BMW. Even his basic dexterity with tools is crazy poor but at least he is out there with me and trying. I am not asking for him to be a gear head DIY guy but when some mechanic down the road tries to pull a fast one on him, I want him to have at least a basic understanding of what is involved. Anyway, by then its just batteries and electric motors, right?

 

[r44raven]

This thread really interests me. I'm sure I've posted a comment before on this site about the difficulty of getting insurance over here in the UK for young (particularly men) on high performance cars (which the MB W210 and the BMW 328i would be considered to be).

I think the chances of obtaining cover for a 16 year old for such cars would be pretty well impossible at any cost. And from 21 years up to 30, young men are still considered risky - and the premiums would be massive - in the region of several £1k's per annum.

(Even myself, with 50 accident free driving years behind me, was quizzed by various insurers when I bought my 500e; I was asked to provide proof that I had experience of driving powerful cars, and had to give them chapter and verse of previous cars I had owned).

I understand the only way around insuring young drivers is to register the car in one of the parent's names, and for that person to be shown as the vehicle keeper and main driver - with the young person as an "occasional" user. Of course, such an arrangement can all fall apart in the event of an accident, when it is usually easy to discover that the young person is in fact , the main user - especially if he/she is living away from home, or using the car to commute daily to college etc.

 

[gerryvz]

Thanks for the follow-up, Ricardo. My son is now 19. He couldn't care less about taking care of cars. Or anything else that's valuable, for that matter.

I am so glad that you are able to use the experience as a "teachable moment" to help him learn how to care for something special and valuable, and to properly maintain it. It's a gradual process, but keep at it. The life lessons are applicable far beyond the teenage years.

You're a good dad for recognizing and doing the right thing. A life lesson for you as well I think as fathers, we've all done that .... doing something important really for ourselves but in the name of our kids, and assuming it's equally as important to them.

It's heartening to me, to read and see your story. You made my morning, and for that I thank you!

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[nocfn]

Agreed with GVZ! Great story, and great lessons learned. Often I might as well have the plague as I work on the cars but my kids (in last year(s) of college) are showing an appreciation and desire to understand what is wrong with their cars and how to go about fixing it now. They both must participate in the basics of repair or I will no longer just do it.

So my point is they are coming around and are requesting to take my cars out for dinner rather than the Wife's A207.

 

[S70/2]

I am disappointed you didn't get him a near identical E21

 

[HowardK]

Hi Ricardo,

I know what you're going through. When I was younger, BMW was the car to get. I had a 1976 2002 in Actic Blue. I later got a silver 633 csi. During the 90's, BMW did not offer an upgraded 2 door except for the 850i. I could not afford one. When I was in Austin, TX visiting a friend, he loaned me a 1989 300 CE. After driving it for a week I knew that the build of the Mercedes was far superior to the BMW at that time. When I got rear ended in the BMW, I bought a used 300 CE, black on black. That was the best car I had ever owned. Fit and finish was superb. Unfortunately, I got rear ended in that car too. I replaced it with a 1994 E500. My current driver is a 2002 CLK 320 with a 2005 CLK 500 cabriolet as a back up.

 

[kwontumspeed]

My dad and I struck a deal that if he bought me a car I would have to perform all the light maintenance. He would afford me all the tools and supplies and I would also have to enroll in the mechanics class at school which was only offered to upperclass students, but was able to enroll after he had made a few calls. It was only after I was grown and had years of wrenching under my belt that I realized what he had done. It wasn't about the light wrenching, but creating an opportunity that I would not only expand my skill set on my volition but carry it through the rest of my life. It also established a sense of ownership and value that has carried across other facets of my everyday approach and view of things around me. What started out as "dad, I want a car" aged over time to "dad, I can build a car".

 

[Melville]

Really interesting posts here. When I was growing up, my dad had zero interest in cars. So I never turned a wrench at all and, because of that, I didn't develop the innate sense of how to fix things. So, now, even if there is a detailed how to, I find that I'm not sure about basic stuff and get worried about breaking things (because, when I do plow ahead, I always break things). For someone like me who isn't naturally mechanically inclined, that early experience is crucial.

My 3 year old has picked up my interest in cars from me. I've had him help me with the really basic things. Things like holding a flashlight, passing tools to me, etc. He loves it...and sometimes he is actually helpful. I also learned a lesson that if you have a 3 year old around a car, you have to expect him to act like a 3 year old. He loves riding in my 500E. One time, he grabbed at my Madera refinished rear rolltop and yanked at it. My first reaction was a bold "don't do that" type of statement. Then I realized that saying things like that will turn his huge enthusiasm about the car into fear. So now, if he does something he shouldn't do, like make a mess or even break something, I'm dedicated to making sure he doesn't look at my car as something to be afraid of (while still trying to teach him about proper behavior and even if, inside, it kills me). Whenever he sees a car that is sort of smoke-silverish in color, he gets excited and says "papa, that's like your special car!". That's huge for me and I hope he can keep that excitement.

 

[Trae]

I hold this board RESPONSIBLE for all of my wrenching.

Before the "how to" instructions I knew nothing.

Also, Col. Klink tried to teach me a thing or two with his posts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeyGhMwbb2Y
[video=youtube;GeyGhMwbb2Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeyGhMwbb2Y[/video]

 

[gerryvz]

My dad and I struck a deal that if he bought me a car I would have to perform all the light maintenance. He would afford me all the tools and supplies and I would also have to enroll in the mechanics class at school which was only offered to upperclass students, but was able to enroll after he had made a few calls. It was only after I was grown and had years of wrenching under my belt that I realized what he had done. It wasn't about the light wrenching, but creating an opportunity that I would not only expand my skill set on my volition but carry it through the rest of my life. It also established a sense of ownership and value that has carried across other facets of my everyday approach and view of things around me. What started out as "dad, I want a car" aged over time to "dad, I can build a car", metaphorically speaking.

Starting when I was in high school, and continuing on through my college and early adulthood years, my parents started giving me tools for birthdays and Christmas presents. They stated out with good quality Craftsman socket sets, and continued to round this out with other tools over the years. Around the time when I got married in 1996, I started acquiring my own tools. In my VW GTI during my college years, I carried in the back compartment a large Craftsman toolbox with all of my key tools in it, just in case I needed them if it broke down (generally speaking, I never did). Though I bungeed it down, it always sloshed around back there when I was screaming around corners and on-ramps and the like....

My dad always did his own basic maintenance on all of our cars growing up -- changing oil, tune-ups, and modest repairs. He even did some bodywork (pretty significant dent repair from an accident that happened to the car before he bought it) himself with body putty and such. He never did anything major like removing an engine or transmission, or heavy mechanical work or anything like that.

I was lucky in that my dad could fix just about anything, and had the tools to do so. I watched, and helped, him fix any and everything around the house (things like fixing appliances, doing electrical work, running new outlets, light switches, plumbing, putting in a sprinkler system, re-roofing his house, etc.). Having watched him during my formative years, I had no problem changing my own oil and filters, and doing basic maintenance myself. I always bought the service manuals for my cars to help facilitate things.

With my 1984 VW Rabbit GTI, which I had from 1987 through about 1992, I got pretty adept at changing out "consumable" items like alternator belts, CV joints and front wheel bearings. The most advanced job I ever did was in about 1991, when I replaced the clutch of that car in my dad's garage, with his tools and some assistance from him. I was so proud of myself having done that job back then!!

I consider myself so blessed to have had a father who loved working with his hands. Whom I learned so much from, both on a practical basis in helping him, and from osmosis in watching him. My dad was a slight gearhead at heart, but he had so many hobbies that he never devoted too much time to cars other than making sure they were well taken care of. Though I have gone much further than my dad did with working on cars, I know in his later years with my MBs he was always proud of me that I took care of them as I did.

One of the things I'll be doing over the next couple of months (including later this week) is visiting my mom, and I will taking many of my dad's tools and shop equipment from his homes back to Maryland with me (a cross-country road trip is in the works for August). It will be an honor to have much of my Dad's tools and equipment (some of it redundant to my own) and I will cherish all of it as I build out my own Garage Majal next year here at my new home in Maryland.

I still have 98% of the sockets and hand tools that my folks gave me some 30 years ago, and they are often featured in my HOW-TO articles that I post to this site.

Ricardo, you should start carefully giving your son a toolbox and sets of tools (perhaps starting with a set of Metric sockets, then pliers and screwdrivers, etc. etc.) and helping him build up his own set to get started.

 

[maw1124]

I worked around and wrenched on cars as a teenager. Growing up in Detroit, it was kind of unavoidable. All of my uncles worked in the plants, so there was always some car being worked on over the weekends. My high school jobs weren’t quite as gritty, but they were around cars nonetheless (stereos, car alarms, sunroofs, waxing and reconditioning, etc.). Even to this day, I’ll mess around on the interiors, but have zero interest in wrenching underneath. I’ll pay someone to do it, and stand there talking and watching while they do it. Maybe when I get older, I’ll have a lift in the garage, etc., but for now it’s just not my interest.

My 15 year old son has grown up with me owning multiple cars, he likes them, is intrigued on how they still “feel new” all these years later, etc. So he has gotten the real lesson I wanted him to have — take care of it, it’ll take care of you, you’ll save money and have cooler car in the end, plus it’s more fun — a hobby of sorts. I’m thinking of what to get him now, and I’d kinda zeroed in on an RClass, or giving him my Allroad. He plays travel soccer, so either would let him load up all his gear and a few mates for tournaments. More responsibility for him, less driving for his mom, sort of thing. He knows my friend / mechanic in MI, so whenever there’s something wrong with the car, he can take it to Uncle Sam, who’ll treat him like his own son, and he’ll get a better car lesson than he ever would with me. Much of what I know about car mechanicals, I learned from Sam (or Rex) anyway.

But still, one’s a wagon and the other is a minivan and he’s a teenaged boy. So thanks Ricardo, I’m proceeding with caution. I may just take him to auction with me, and teach him how to buy, which is almost a better lesson than how to fix.

maw

 

[Stevester 500E]

Likes and dislikes of car years and models are interesting.
my first car was a hand me down American Rambler, as American as you can get, and i appreciated that column shift car.
Every car I have owned since then, I have bought with my hard earned money.
I got into DIY car work out of financial necessity.

 

[gsxr]

I got into DIY car work out of financial necessity.

That likely applies to >99% of the forum population. If I found a winning Powerball ticket on the sidewalk, I'd hire Klink at triple whatever his current salary is to maintain my fleet of MB's, lol.

 

[Stevester 500E]

That likely applies to >99% of the forum population. If I found a winning Powerball ticket on the sidewalk, I'd hire Klink at triple whatever his current salary is to maintain my fleet of MB's, lol.

Well, you would be behind me in line because I would be paying Klink, 5 times his hourly rate! Lol.

 

[Stevester 500E]

I hate breaking those plastic pieces. Never broke a single plastic piece in my 1966 Plymouth Valiant.

...and get worried about breaking things (because, when I do plow ahead, I always break things).

 

[samiam44]

Hey Ricardo-

Thanks this is perfectly timed. My son's 1th birthday is tomorrow. This past year he changed completely to helping some in the garage where he had no interest before. A realization, that someday he'd have to do maintence. Man we can was a few cars quickly... he's ready for detailing and waxing the 500e.


Michael

 

[duuder]

i actually have an e21 thats similar in color to my 500e. awesome car!

 

[mikeym]

I don't have the link handy but saw a clip early this year that kinds born in 2016 and onwards are less likely to have driver licenses than previous years. Basically, the rate of getting driver licenses is reducing. That's what I expect my kid will do but good to see that she wants to work with me in the garage when fixing the W124s (and hence her words "why is daddy always worked on the black car" or "why is the black car always broken").

 

[Klink]

Thanks for the “if I won the Powerball” offers, gentlemen! I know it will shock you (not) to learn that I got into doing this stuff for a living because I started into it via DIY, which I started because I could not afford to pay somebody else to do it.
Hell, I still can’t afford to pay somebody else to do it...

 

[maw1124]

Well, when you start with a 6.3, that’ll happen... no one can ever afford anyone else to do it.

;-D

maw

 

[gerryvz]

Well, when you start with a 6.3, that’ll happen... no one can ever afford anyone else to do it.

;-D

maw

We always used to joke that the 6.3 was a parts cost multiplier above and beyond pedestrian 108/109/111/112 parts.

It wasn’t too far off the mark....

 

[Stevester 500E]

very nice looking coupe !

....I eventually ended up doing the same thing for my son as my Dad did for me. I found a 8 year old 2010 BMW 328i coupe. Metallic gray but with saddle brown interior. M-sports suspension option. Just like my Dad bought me back in the day but this car is light years better.

View attachment 78766

 

[RicardoD]

Thanks for the all the interesting responses.

I think the chances of obtaining cover for a 16 year old for such cars would be pretty well impossible at any cost. And from 21 years up to 30, young men are still considered risky - and the premiums would be massive - in the region of several £1k's per annum.

(Even myself, with 50 accident free driving years behind me, was quizzed by various insurers when I bought my 500e; I was asked to provide proof that I had experience of driving powerful cars, and had to give them chapter and verse of previous cars I had owned).

This is fascinating, and note to myself: never relocate to the UK. I own several vehicles and my agent figured out the cheapest vehicle to ensure my son on, in this case it was my 2006 Toyota Tundra Crew Cab truck. The new BMW coupe is in my name and my son is insured to drive all my cars, but has been assigned the truck his primary vehicle according to my State Farm insurance agent.

i actually have an e21 thats similar in color to my 500e. awesome car!

or rather this comment is worthless without pics of your E21! Is it like this one: https://www.griotsgarage.com/category/about+our+cover+cars.do




My son's new BMW Coupe is a great car. It has the older inline 6 and a gorgeous saddle brown leather interior that we finished detailing this weekend. You get a lot of car for the money since everyone is scared to death of out of warranty BMWs. This one has 60k miles on it and passed its PPI with flying colors. My son is slowly learning about part costs and saving on the labor end of things. Otherwise, I told him to get a Honda in the future and just use your car as an transportation appliance.

Starting when I was in high school, and continuing on through my college and early adulthood years, my parents started giving me tools for birthdays and Christmas presents. They stated out with good quality Craftsman socket sets, and continued to round this out with other tools over the years.

That's very cool Gerry. I remember as a teenager going to a Sears Outlet store and buying a Craftsman tool box and a small tool set to work on my BMW. My Dad would always buy the cheapest made "China" stuff, "Taiwan" at that time. I bought my nephew a very nice Craftsman tool set with case for his 16th birthday. I think he thought I was nuts but he thanked me a few years later telling me how often he started using his tools and that it now means a lot to him.

When my older son was entering his teenage years I had to come to the reckoning that he was not "Ricardo 2.0", and that he would have to follow his own path. I do my best to influence him and remain confident one day he will value what I was trying to show him.

My younger son, to my surprise, signed up for Machine Shop 1, as a freshman in high school starting this fall. He may just turn into a real gear head.

 

[gerryvz]

When my older son was entering his teenage years I had to come to the reckoning that he was not "Ricardo 2.0", and that he would have to follow his own path. I do my best to influence him and remain confident one day he will value what I was trying to show him.

It's a tough reckoning, to be sure. But also an important part of being a parent.

Your last sentence could have been spoken by me. Though, I'm sure at points my own Dad said that about me. I too, still hold out hope that my son will one day learn the value of taking care of what's important and valuable. If he never does, then when I leave this Earth, someone is going to score a lot of cool stuff (not talking about my stash of MB parts ).

 

[LWB250]

I grew up in an automotive household of the 1960s - my Dad was an executive VP of a division of GM at the time and got program cars every six months. We had a beautiful Pontiac Tempest, a first off the line Camaro (us three kids fought over who had to "sit on the "hump" when we went to church in it on Sundays.) My brother had a 1968 Pontiac Firebird with a 400 ci mill, Hurst factory shifter and all the other related high performance goodies. Mom, well, she suffered with all the cast-offs of GMs failures in the 1960s that the execs got for near nothing, bless her heart. She had a Vauxhall wagon and later an Opel Kadette. Sister's first car was a Renault Dauphine.

For the most part, the rule was that the "house" would finance half of the cost of your car, with right of refusal. This kept me from buying a beautiful 1964 Cadillac hearse my school buddy whose dad ran the local funeral home was selling, dang it. There was also an unwritten rule that the first car you drove, for no matter how short the time, had to be a VW Beetle, as my father firmly believed that if you learned how to drive a Beetle you could drive anything, and I truly believe he was right in that respect. Not to mention they were all over the place and cheap as wine. We always seemed to have a Beetle hanging around the place somewhere....

While I learned to drive in my brother's Beetle, my first "real" car was a 1970 Ford Maverick two door. Three on the tree, AM radio, heater and 170 ci inline six. You couldn't get much simpler than that.

Another requirement of car ownership in our household involved maintenance, all of which you performed under the watchful eye of my Dad. A former B-29 remote control turret mechanic and later B-29 flight engineer in WWII, he was all about RTFM and following procedures using the right tools. (Look up how complex the remote control turrets were on a B-29 and your head will explode.) At age twelve I knew what the term "shadowing your tools" meant.

Older brother did not follow that path. While he liked cars, we often found that tools were a dangerous object in his hands, and as a result either I or Dad would service his car. It was the best for us, the car, and older brother. Some people are simply not mechanically inclined. He was one of them. He is now, like my father was later in life, a corporate banker.

While I would love for my two boys to have the same interest in cars that I do, I found early on that current generations simply don't seem to be interested in how things work, or better, how to repair them. My youngest son willingly engages in maintenance and repair of his car, but his older brother sees a car as nothing more than transportation, and treats it accordingly. That's why he drives a 1995 E300D. For the vintage, you can't get much simpler or reliable than a normally aspirated diesel W124 sedan. He dutifully changes oil and filter at the proper intervals, but that's about it. I've learned to accept this is the best I'll get, and I take it as is. I will say that when repairs are in order he willingly jumps in and assists, so he's not totally out of the picture.

Youngest son is somewhat of a gearhead, but mostly just likes car porn rather than working on or modifying them. We have provided a car to him gratis as long as he was in school, and he has always taken what was given without one word of dissent and regularly thanked us for the privilege of such generosity. The motivation is to stay focused on school and not have to be distracted by car issues. I got him hooked on BAT, and he has decided that he wants a Datsun 240/260/280Z some day. Great retirement project for me, no doubt. Better do it soon before they get to 500E prices....

I guess my point is that I feel lucky my kids have never complained about my choice of cars (for them) and have always been more than grateful that I've provided them a solid, reliable means of transportation. I'm also blessed that I have the resources to do so. Any additional interest is icing on the cake for me.

Dan

Sister's Dauphine:




1962 and the Vauxhall wagon and a Beetle:




Easter 1964 and Mom's Vauxhall wagon:

 

[duuder]

My apologies, here you go

 

[RicardoD]

Dan,

Awesome story. Thanks for sharing, especially the cool photos. Vauxhall wagon for the win!

 

[vatc5637]

Great stories. For those of you with children who are uninterested in things automotive, don't despair, all is not lost. They may eventually pick up the bug out of necessity. I have 3 adult sons, none of whom showed any interest in cars when they began driving other than their potential to attract the attention of the fairer sex. In other words, they took after their mother and treated cars as "toasters", just fill it up and turn it on. So they had no appreciation for the build quality of a W124 or the pure automotive rawness of an E28 M5. The good news is that they were never interested in driving my cars (so I never had to worry about them joyriding the M5, SL500 or 500E), and were easily placated with Hondas, Fords, and Toyotas, so I got away cheap buying Civics, Corollas and Escorts. They were taught basic functions, so they all know how to change oil & filter, change a tire, check fuses, etc. but nothing else. (You all know how hard it is to get a 16 year old to do anything that they didn't think of, and preventive auto maintenance is simply not one of those things). Even when offered my old cars (BMW's, 230K, E420), they refused as German brands represented boring "dad" cars.

As chance would have it, 2 years ago my eldest son totaled his Corolla and needed a replacement car asap. I happened to have a 2001 E46 with 200k miles that a friend wanted to get rid of and gave to me as he wasn't willing to spend what it would take to correctly fix its many problems. So I offered it to my son at the excellent price of $0, but told him it would die soon on him unless he fixed up the car's obvious flaws. To his credit, he saw the wisdom of this deal and agreed. So over the past 18 months, we've spent about $3,500 in parts and countless hours repairing and re-furbishing the car. What started out as reluctant learning borne of necessity, has turned into sincere interest not only in his car, but in a greater appreciation for automobiles generally (he actually said the other day that he regretted his lack of appreciation for some of my old cars and would have loved to have driven and worked on them). And he actually volunteered to help me work on the 500E and E46 M3. My other sons are not quite there, but at least now they will seek my advice with anything auto related. As with our most of our own DIY experiences, patience and a bit of luck seem to work best.

Cheers all.

 

[Allgonquin]

Great thread! My dad was not a DIY mechanic but rather was a woodworker home improver type. But.... he had a love of cars as well. It started in 1965 when he and his good friend who both worked for Kodak bought a 65 Mustang and shared it as a commuter mobile. Hard to imagine neighbors doing that now. One week with us, one week with their family. They carpooled and their family were good friends of ours. White with red interior, 3 speed stick, 200 ci six. That was a head turning car in 1965. Flash forward to 1968, he bought another family truckster station wagon following the '64 Pontiac wagon, a Chrysler Town and Country, with the 440ci engine. I was 13 then and just getting into cars. After about 3 years, I actually convinced him to hot rod the Town and Country! We had a shop put on headers, a monster Holley, and changed the rear end to a 3.91! We surprised many cars with that sleeper, which got about 7-8 miles per gallon.

Flash forward to 1974, he ordered and bought a big block Corvette. Ooof that car was smooth and just pulled and pulled. Not statistically quick with the strangled smog engines of the day but still fast. So he started traveling to Europe often for his job, and developed a love of German cars. And around then I bought my own '69 Corvette. He used to talk a lot about the Autobahn and various high speed runs his colleagues had him on, and eventually bought an '89 535i. I was jealous - by then I was long gone from home and it took a couple years before I actually drove it. I went through several bland cars and then bought a 74 XJ12 in rough shape for a hobby car, got it sorted, and bought another and sold the first. Then in '90 or so Dad bought a 300E, traded up very soon after to a 400E, and then, in 93 he bought the 500E which I still have. His MB salesman must have loved him.... Anyway, I was always the one working on cars, but the interest in cars came from Dad. I have had 3 different BMW's and 3 different 124's, of which the 500E remains. Not to mention the obligatory minivan when we had our second child. Oldest son is a car fan, leasing an M240i, but not a mechanic. Younger son, not so much. He's inherited my 98 Land Cruiser, which now has more than 300K miles.... Best. (big) vehicle. ever.

I still work on my own cars as much as possible, but now I will choose to pay someone at times for things I'd rather not tackle!

 

[maw1124]

Great thread! ... and then, in 93 he bought the 500E which I still have...

See, and this has me tweaked. My E46M was bought at my son’s request for “a car with no hood” in FL. So the FL convertible was always his idea and he’s always had his eye on it. Until... lately he’s had his eye on the 500E. He sees it as the “kid” version of the S55, which he knows will forever be “Dad’s AMG.” So I think he kinda thinks that the E5E should be his, naturally, as if by birthright. Little does he know, his grandmother will have something to say about that.

That’s the thing about these cars, 3 generations strong — men or women (I literally see as many women as men driving them, and am partially at “fault” for that) and no fall off in sight.

Yes, great thread!

maw

 

[Klink]

Well, when you start with a 6.3, that’ll happen... no one can ever afford anyone else to do it.

;-D

maw

We always used to joke that the 6.3 was a parts cost multiplier above and beyond pedestrian 108/109/111/112 parts.

It wasn’t too far off the mark....

Exactly!
Though the '71 6.3 was my third Merc. in early 1980. The first was a '59 220S with a Hydrak in early '75, and the second was a '63 190 Sedan in '77...

 

[RicardoD]

Time to repost this image of my brother and me in front of my Dad's slow mobile 240D. 72 or 73 I think. But love the red interior! I'm the little one on the left.



Then my brother and I in front my older brother's 1984 328i. Great handling, slow 4 cylinder automatic, even worse air conditioning. But I loved the handling/ride on this car. Me on the right this time.



Then a contrast in the family wagons. On top my Mom and older brother in 1969 in front of the family Volvo. I remember you had to pull out the choke to start this one. And then below in the early 2000s, my wife's Audi A6 wagon that we bought when she got pregnant with my first born. My kids look so cute here and not the taller-than-me man-child teenage punks they are now.

 

[Jlaa]

Lovely trip down memory lane! Ive always found the detailing on Early Volvo 140s to be intricate and exquisite.

 

[Klink]

My daily from ‘82 through ‘87 was a grey with red guts ‘73 220D EXACTLY like that one. Loved that car...

 

[maw1124]

My daily from ‘82 through ‘87 was a grey with red guts ‘73 220D EXACTLY like that one. Loved that car...

I knew I had the order mixed up, but when you and TG ran them off to me, they all sounded splendidly expensive to maintain...

LOL

maw

 

[RicardoD]

I wanted to write another teenage boy family car update. I now have TWO spoiled teenage drivers at home but it has brought tremendous joy and smiles between my boys and I. They are actually both late blooming gear heads. My younger one in particular is fearless and only needs guidance. My older boy is more timid and will wait for Dad to help.

What I did with both boys is sign them up for the Teenage Driving School at the BMW Performance Center near Palm Desert, CA when they still had their permits a few months before their 16th birthday. And with my younger son I took the adult class while he did the teenage class. That was a great boy's weekend last year. This two day class made huge improvements in their driving skill and an understanding of what happens to the car at the limit. Its a bit of of mixed bag right after the class in that their car control skills and comfort in the vehicle is amazing, yet their street driving smarts are still at idiot levels. Thankfully the both made it through that period and so far no issues.



I picked up another 2012 BMW 128i (oh my goodness this is a fun car) for my younger son and we changed all the fluids together, bought new wheels, powder coated them black. Later for his birthday he got new headlights and when I came home from work one day he was half way into the job of installing them (see photo of torn down front end). I freaked out at first and then realized, wait a minute, he is a fearless gear head!!! and I was then able to help him put it back together (and prevent him from making first timer mistakes). It is amazing how much your mechanic/using tools knowledge you take for granted. I still feel like such a hack / rookie but felt like an expert showing him the basics. I was impressed he and his brother had dismantled the front bumper by themselves (via watching a YouTube video of some other teenage kid doing the same thing).





Occasionally both kids wash their cars together using all my Griot's stuff and that is cool.



Here is a pro tip, nobody seems to want just out of warranty BMW two door cars from 8 to 10 years ago. These are both $10k cars that are expensive to maintain but I only pay for the parts and try to stay ahead of the breakdowns. Forums tell you what begins to die around 60k miles, basic maintenance stuff that people neglect. Hopefully the kids understand this.



And finally, my E500, what the kids call "the Brick" because it just feels like this super solid heavier car when they drive it, is still running strong and has cool AMG wheels on it now.

 

[Jlaa]

Awesomesauce. BTW that Table Tennis table needs more use.

 

[gerryvz]

Seeing your post makes my heart warm and fuzzy, Ricardo. I live vicariously just a little bit through your posts about your teenage sons. I never had that kind of relationship with my son, despite badly wanting to.

Kudos to you for being a good and involved father, and teaching your sons skills and life-lessons that they will never forget, and will always use and rely upon. My late dad did the very same for me, and trust me if he hadn't, I'd be much the worse for it (and as an aside, it's very likely this forum wouldn't have existed for the past 10.5 years). Your sons are very lucky and you will be repaid many-fold in the future for the investment you are making now. Thank you.

 

[Glen]

You're a great dad, Recardo!