Critical Mass of Like Minded Enthusiasts

[Jlaa]

Often times I wonder why I put up with living in San Francisco. SF is congested, full of insufferable way-left politics, and expensive.

I live on the west side, where housing is slightly less hideously expensive, and where everyone lives in tacky-tacky look-a-like boxes that are all glued together side-by-side ---- these boxes represent "a house" where in most areas of the country these boxes would represent "penalty box."

But then, quite frequently, I'm reminded of little things that make it so unique here. People here are the west side are often huge car nuts --- but you would never be able to tell with a cursory glance. I've got a neighbor that uses a w140 S600 as an outside parked daily car, another neighbor that uses a w140 S420 as an outside parked daily car, etc.... and of course my direct neighbor, who has, among other fine hardware, a 20K mile w211 e55amg.

GVZ has been over to my nabe --- he knows the deal.
It makes for pleasant conversation with neighbors when greeting each other in the morning.




A few houses over, earlier in the week ---



Driving around these parts is really a spotter's dream. Do you guys have a similar experience?

 

[kwontumspeed]

Where's the E55 in that pic? I only see an 036...

 

[Jlaa]

Where's the E55 in that pic? I only see an 036...

You must be a fan of this song ---

[video=youtube;FvzNeh4Mq1o]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvzNeh4Mq1o[/video]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvzNeh4Mq1o

 

[LWB250]

I lived in San Bruno and later in Montara, right across the PCH from the ocean, and I was always amazed at the unusual and uncommon cars I would see. At the time (late 1990s) I was driving a 1982 300SD (W126) and a 1970 250C (W114). I used to take the 250C out on I-280 on the weekends and wind it out - make those Zeniths sing!

Dan

 

[daantjie]

Here in Vancouver I rarely see nice older Benzes. Mostly beat to crap old W126 300SD's. Have only ever seen 2x 500e here in 12 years.

 

[Jlaa]

I lived in San Bruno and later in Montara, right across the PCH from the ocean, and I was always amazed at the unusual and uncommon cars I would see. At the time (late 1990s) I was driving a 1982 300SD (W126) and a 1970 250C (W114). I used to take the 250C out on I-280 on the weekends and wind it out - make those Zeniths sing!

Dan

Montara and San Bruno! That's a local gent if I've ever seen one. I bet you saw tons of nice vintage stuff pop out of nondescript garages.

Here in Vancouver I rarely see nice older Benzes. Mostly beat to crap old W126 300SD's. Have only ever seen 2x 500e here in 12 years.

This I am very surprised to hear. There's tons of money around Vancouver...... but no vintage young timer or old timer Benzes? Are most of the nice stuff you see modern, *vulgar*, expensive, new, ostentatious hardware?

I see a lot of vulgar ostentatious stuff closer to Silicon Valley (McLarens, Bugattis, Lambos, Ferraris, etc.) but I see more of the "characterful" stuff closer to San Francisco proper. Lots of 80s Toyota Land Cruisers recently.

 

[LWB250]

Montara and San Bruno! That's a local gent if I've ever seen one. I bet you saw tons of nice vintage stuff pop out of nondescript garages.

Really more Millbrae than San Bruno. My employer put me up in an apartment that was part of the El Rancho Inn on El Camino Royale. I could sit out on my patio and watch the planes take off and land at SFO. After a few months I ended up renting a place in Montara. A lot of cool cars over the hill, not so much in San Bruno/Millbrae.

Used to drive by Artichoke Joe's every day on my way to work and back - work was in SSFO. Easy commute.

Dan

 

[msq]

I was in the Bay Area for ~5 years. Double thumbs up on your comments about the insufferable left wing politics (while at the same time the same people walking in the city to work each morning, Latte in hand, gladly step over the 5 passed-out homeless people, like they don't exist). Also your comment on cost of living is spot on. You get numb to it until you move away. I remember paying over $5 a gallon off Sand Hill Road ~2009.

Having said that some things about it made it a bit of a car mecca for me aside form the cars you would spot.

- My favorite part (this sounds so simple/basic but remember it coming from an East Coast guy who does everything to protect/preserve his cars - I had two cars out there, neither that I would drive in winter in East Coast): In 5 years I didn't get a single rock chip on the windshield or even on the front hood/bumper of either car. This sounds like a small thing, but when you care for/appreciate your cars like many on this forum do, not having a single moment in 5 years of "oh cr@p, what do I do now, repaint the hood, fix that chip and then end up with 10 more 'chip fixes' in the next two years etc."

- You could more easily run into people that appreciated the value of a 25 - 40 year old "special car" that most people would not even know or recognize other places. The BMW in your pic is a good example.

- You could see a 35 year old car that was still being used as a driver, clearly not a garage queen or restored, and perhaps left outside on regular basis, yet due to the weather it was still preserved so well.

- Driving down Rte 280 at speed in your favorite car, with curves in the road and no "eye pollution" on the side is great, and PCH is amazing.


AMG's are as common as taxicabs, and I didn't like that (but this was mainly due to MB making so many models/variations and making it not such a rarity, so maybe not a comment on the Bay Area).

I guess I wasn't surprised at the "almost no American muscle cars" since it's a place that I had travelled to a lot prior and I knew the tech heavy population seemed to like german/italian and even english (Aston), maybe a little Japanese, but I don't think I saw a single Corvette in 5 years. I am not an American muscle car guy, but at points in my life I felt like "I should buy one, a 63 split window corvette is a cool car". In the Northeast in the summer Corvetts are everywhere. I am sure I must have seen one, but can't even recall a single American muscle car.

 

[daantjie]

Montara and San Bruno! That's a local gent if I've ever seen one. I bet you saw tons of nice vintage stuff pop out of nondescript garages.



This I am very surprised to hear. There's tons of money around Vancouver...... but no vintage young timer or old timer Benzes? Are most of the nice stuff you see modern, *vulgar*, expensive, new, ostentatious hardware?

I see a lot of vulgar ostentatious stuff closer to Silicon Valley (McLarens, Bugattis, Lambos, Ferraris, etc.) but I see more of the "characterful" stuff closer to San Francisco proper. Lots of 80s Toyota Land Cruisers recently.

Indeed here in Vancouver you see tons of every kind of high end car imaginable mostly due to all the rich foreigners here who also use this handy avenue to wash their ill gotten gains. Don't get me started on the real estate situation, now that is a gong show of note...

 

[Jlaa]

I was in the Bay Area for ~5 years....

- You could more easily run into people that appreciated the value of a 25 - 40 year old "special car" that most people would not even know or recognize other places. The BMW in your pic is a good example.

- You could see a 35 year old car that was still being used as a driver, clearly not a garage queen or restored, and perhaps left outside on regular basis, yet due to the weather it was still preserved so well.

- Driving down Rte 280 at speed in your favorite car, with curves in the road and no "eye pollution" on the side is great, and PCH is amazing.


AMG's are as common as taxicabs, and I didn't like that (but this was mainly due to MB making so many models/variations and making it not such a rarity, so maybe not a comment on the Bay Area).

I guess I wasn't surprised at the "almost no American muscle cars" since it's a place that I had travelled to a lot prior and I knew the tech heavy population seemed to like german/italian and even english (Aston), maybe a little Japanese, but I don't think I saw a single Corvette in 5 years. I am not an American muscle car guy, but at points in my life I felt like "I should buy one, a 63 split window corvette is a cool car". In the Northeast in the summer Corvetts are everywhere. I am sure I must have seen one, but can't even recall a single American muscle car.

Yeah, we're on the same wavelength. I saw this green alfa street parked and ran into this other red one the other day .... so lovely!




Even 16-bit era cars see lots of appreciation --- this guy was totally ballin' in his pristine mid 1990s Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4 Twin Turbo with active aero everything!



And when was the last time you saw someone use an early 80s Mazda 626 as reliable daily transport?!?!?!



I love the kamm-back styling on the 80s Alfa Spyders ....



I have no idea what kind of VW this is --- it has consulate plates.....an import.

 

[msq]

yea, those are all examples of exactly what I am talking about. Alpha is a great example, when I was out there I wanted to buy one (now they are even more expensive) and I really could not have one here in MA, 90+ degrees in summer so I would need to find one with A/C (likely aftermarket) and then can't drive it 7 months a year.

 

[Maui]

I see a lot of Merc's in the Portland area. Most are newer C Class, but I do see quite a few W124's. I wouldn't say they appear to be cherished and babied but they are a fairly common site. I suspect many are driven out of necessity.

Around our other place, on the Olympic Pennisula, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a Prius. They appear to be breeding like rabbits. I rack it up to the Seattle effect.

 

[Jlaa]

I see a lot of Merc's in the Portland area. Most are newer C Class, but I do see quite a few W124's. I wouldn't say they appear to be cherished and babied but they are a fairly common site. I suspect many are driven out of necessity.

I see SO. MANY. OLD. MERCS. In fact I see at least two other w124s just getting out of my immediate neighborhood every day --- only of them is an .034. Occasionally I see this older gentleman drive what seems to be a CIS Signal Red 300CE with grey rockers around ... mostly seeing him go to the supermarket and back ... I waved to him once but I don't think he really understood why I, in my signal red car, was waving. I will start taking a pictures of all these old Mercs I see.[/QUOTE]

Around our other place, on the Olympic Pennisula, you can't swing a dead cat without hitting a Prius. They appear to be breeding like rabbits. I rack it up to the Seattle effect.

I'm responsible for infecting our area with Prius cars (I'm on my second one) but these days the Prius is so old school and the biggest infection now is the Palo Alto Camry.

 

[a777fan]

And when was the last time you saw someone use an early 80s Mazda 626 as reliable daily transport?!?!?!

View attachment 82143

And OG sunshine plates and original dealer surround to boot!

[emoji1303][emoji1303][emoji1303]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Klink]

California has always been THE place for car spotting in general and Merc spotting in particular. I have heard two different versions of this story, but I don’t have the slightest reason to doubt the veracity of either: the story(s) being that until the SUVs were introduced in late 1997, fully HALF of all the new Mercedes-Benz cars sold in the US were sold in the state of California. The other version of the story? Same, except that it was the entirety of North America, not just the USA.

We were always told that this was the reason so many USA MBs had California emissions equipment even if they wound up being sold in other states. We were always told that they wanted to make sure they had far more than enough California version cars available. We were also told that this was the reason so many niche cars like the 500E, V12s, etc. were done in California version for the full US market. It was just easier since most of them were going to be sold there anyway...

 

[JCM1]

I lived in El Granada near Princeton Harbor for a couple of years in the '80s and saw many unique rides passing through town. Not so many in town though. It was always fun around HWY1 down the coast a bit where you never knew what you would see. So many enjoying one of the the most scenic and fun stretches of motorway anywhere.

Here in BC I've lucked out again with the Sea to Sky Highway in my backyard...........

 

[LWB250]

I lived in El Granada near Princeton Harbor for a couple of years in the '80s and saw many unique rides passing through town. Not so many in town though. It was always fun around HWY1 down the coast a bit where you never knew what you would see. So many enjoying one of the the most scenic and fun stretches of motorway anywhere.

Here in BC I've lucked out again with the Sea to Sky Highway in my backyard...........

Dang! You were right down the street from me, just past the airport.

What's funny is the hassle I got for moving out there from Millbrae/San Bruno - "Why would you want to live in all that fog and damp?" I loved it.

I used to love watching the touristas come up the PCH and stop at Montara State Beach across the PCH from my house. They would all pile out, wearing their swimsuits, kids yelling and giggling, so excited to be at the beach. They would go running into the surf and within about five seconds you would hear their screams as they realized the water temperature was about 50 degrees, even on the sunniest days....

Dan

 

[Jlaa]

Found another one - about 6-7 blocks from my place. This one seems to be fairly recently registered in California (starts with 7N) and also is regularly residential street parked (see the street parking sticker on the bumper.....) Anyone here? [west side of San Francisco]

 

[TerryA]

Found another one - about 6-7 blocks from my place. This one seems to be fairly recently registered in California (starts with 7N) and also is regularly residential street parked (see the street parking sticker on the bumper.....) Anyone here? [west side of San Francisco]

View attachment 82775

Nice catch Jlaa,

A 500E is a rare sighting anytime but just parked on the street to boot.
I may be wrong but I don’t think anyone on this board would allow that sticker on the bumper.

If you see it again try for the VIN.

 

[gerryvz]

If you live in SF, and park your car on the street, you don’t have a choice about that sticker.

 

[alabbasi]

I do like that part of the world. My boss lives in Pacifica. The drive from his house to the office is bloody amazing and makes for a good reason to own a sports car or open top tourer. Sadly, I think that I need to make 3 times what I make right now in order to have the same quality of life that I do in Texas.

 

[Jlaa]

Here is an interesting Toyota (Corona?). Street Parked. Looks awesome. SE side of SF.

 

[nocfn]

as for the bay area owner, the sticker is required as Honch says but more concerning is the brake dust. Aside from the bad looks, PC damage to the pedestrians may be questioning criminal liability issues.

 

[Jlaa]

If you live in SF, and park your car on the street, you don’t have a choice about that sticker.

Right. If one lives in a neighborhood where there is permit parking, then then one needs to get that sticker to park on the street in excess of the 2 hour limit. Permit parking neighborhoods are typically located close to transit hubs or located in areas where parking spaces would otherwise be taken by commuters. Other neighborhoods which are less dense do not have permit parking sticker requirements.

 

[nocfn]

Don't kill me (I drove a Peugeot) in college, and I would put those stickers on a clear butter lid, and thru that on the dash or the back shelf if I parked that way. My peeve is stickers on cars...even a Yugo (or a Peugeot)