Housekeeping: Happy MLK Day
It’s Martin Luther King Day, and it’s a holiday for American employees working for our corporate overlords, so we’re going to take the day and take a nice little break.
As sometimes happens, you may see a post or two here or there, especially if news breaks, but we’re otherwise off. We’ll be back at it on Tuesday.
Take ‘er easy, dudes (and dudettes).
[Image: Irina Qiwi/Shutterstock.com]
Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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Enjoy the day off.
You Canadians also have MLK holiday?
Back in 92 I bought a very basic 190E. One from the last MY and a special version for the Portuguese market. As the car tax was based on engine size and a tax jump was introduced at 1,750 cc, Mercedes produced a smaller displacement version of the 2.0L unit (I think a 1.8L version also existed in other markets for the same reasons). Still expensive but it did hooked me to the brand. The poise, ride and handling were a revelation. Looking back it is the car I do regret to have sold. There are still a lot of them on the road, which is a testament to the car durability. Also, the shape endured the passage of time very well. Bruno Sacco considered the 190 his greatest achievement. Subsequently (and 3 generations of E class later – W210, 211 and, currently, 212) one senses a dilution of the brand. The W212 (3.5L NA M276) is great but they started to chase BMW’s while BMW moved into MB ‘territory’ and that special feel is lost. Now both are after Audi (4WD) and they do not differentiate too much. Too generic. Once it expires, a Toyota will take its place.