I’ve been doing road trips to camps all summer. This week is gymnastics in Paramus, so I’ve been piling 5 girls into the brick for the 25 mile trip. The 3rd seat is nice in that it doesn’t require a booster seat; the belt is low enough that it fits 5 and 6 year olds. When I tell the kids they’re going to have to ride in the trunk they laugh and laugh.

Claire is thrilled to sit in the front passenger seat, but the Jonas Brothers are never loud enough. Sigh. Is it too much to wish to have my daughters grow up to be Mastodon fans?

Another great photo from David White.

I put the rack over the back, which put most of the weight over the rear of the car. It wallowed a little on bumps, but nothing too bad. The sport springs and anti-sways stabilize the ride so the car doesn’t feel overloaded. And the Yokohamas were pretty quiet.

I was luck enough to have a neighbor of my parents donate the roof bin they used to use on their 940. The Sears “Ex-Cargo” was the same model my parents used to have on top of our 1979 Olds Delta 88 when we made trips to the beaches of North Carolina. It’s nice and tall and practically doubles the cargo area, enabling me to actually see out the back window with all our equipment.

This is probably the smallest spot I’ve parallel parked into, and I don’t think I could go any smaller. The height of the SUV in front allowed me to tuck the bumper underneath just so. Unfortunately I couldn’t open the back hatch, but at least I could park in fron of my place and not 2 blocks away.

4 Years Total

30,000 total miles driven

$8,700 purchase, parts and maintenance

Yearly Averages

7,500 miles

$2,177 spent

$0.29 average cost per mile

Meh… This isn’t too great, but I figure, since i didn’t have any records to begin with, much of this was to bring the car up to the recommended maintenance. The suspension and exhaust were completely overhauled and they will last a long while.

Most of the costs have been kept low by buying parts on-line and installing them myself. The biggest expense by far was having Raw Bear Performance replace the air conditioner and water pump at $1800. The compressor seized soon after I bought it, and the new one had to be converted to R134. Once the car was in the garage the mechanic found all sorts of other issues, including worn belts and bushings and a malfunctioning water pump. While I hated shelling out the dough for the fix, it really hit me hard when I lost my job a few weeks later and was out of work for 2 months. Chilly air pumping out of the vents wasn’t really something I needed at the time. $1800 was.

I figure the brick could fetch about $2500, but I’m not about to sell it. My goal has always been to keep it in the best condition I can up to 200k and then decide what to do with it. At this rate that’s another 6 years, at 2016. Other than a few minor issues my brick is driving better than it ever has. The suspension overhaul makes it handle like a totally different car and new motor and tranny mounts got rid of the hesitant acceleration and annoying undercarriage banging.

Now if I could just get around to soundproofing the floor, adding chassis braces, fixing the overdrive, getting snow tires, repairing the vinyl seats, replacing the wheel bearings, tinting the windows, fixing the heated seat, painting the rims, fixing the leaky crank seal, replacing the front door hinge, rust-proofing the undercarriage, replacing all the missing fasteners, then I’d be all done. Right?

I’m continually amazed at the tight spots I can fit this car in. A few factors contribute to the 32′ turning radius:

• RWD cars can turn sharper because the power is independent from the steering. That’s one reason a Nissan Maxima, for example, has a 40′ turning radius.

• The 240 is narrow. 67″ vs. Subaru Outback’s 72″, not to mention the Cadillac Escalade’s 79″.

• The huge rear overhang above a short wheelbase. The 240 pivots sharper since the proportion of the wheelbase to the overall length is shorter than most cars. Compare 104/190 with the Mini Clubman at 100/155.

This may not mean much to suburban bricksters with driveways and parking slots at the local strip mall, but living in the city it saves my ass again and again. The streets are narrow and parking is scarce, so I’m always prowling for a spot. Once I find one there’s no room for error; there’s usually a line of 2-3 cars behind you, revving their engines and hovering over their horn. Sure, I occasionally pinball back and forth from bumper to bumper, but that’s why matt black rubber bumpers were made. I’m so glad I don’t have a fiberglass, body color non-bumper like most cars have these days.

The 4.5 hour ride down was quite pleasant. I’d been nervous about the stiffness of the springs but overall everything is fine. On long stretches of highway it felt about the same. The only problem is large dips and rises. The car doesn’t absorb them like it used to; you ride the full height and depth. Luckily there’s no bottoming out or shock crash-through, and no scrapping the exhaust on speed bumps.

I’ve been driving my wife crazy taking turns though. It’s so easy and precise to steer that you can lose a sense of your speed. Of course I was pushing the car a little, sending our case of Trader Joe’s Two Buck Chuck sliding around the trunk, and forcing Desiree to grab onto her seat. Fun!

But, as always, I’ve got a new gremlin in the car. No overdrive. It kicked out last week, so the whole drive was spent at 60mph in the right lane at 3200rpm. I gotta figure out if I want to check the OD solenoid, or just get the ipd bypass kit.

In honor of Jalopnik.com “Crash Week” I present an image I took last week of an accident I witnessed in Hoboken. This is the second time in the past few months that I’ve watched cars turning left into traffic and getting smashed.

We were sitting at a red light and I was the second car, behind the Volvo SUV seen above. When the light went green the Mercedes driver decided took left turn immediately, trying to beat all of us going straight. Wrong move on a rainy day.

The Volvo drove into the intersection, oblivious of the Mercedes.  The Mercedes slowed down, then the Volvo driver slowed also when she noticed the Mercedes was coming into her lane. Both drivers asumed the other one was stopping and I watched as they drove right into each other at 5-8MPH. The wheel on the Mercedes tucked under the wheel-well so nicely.

I was somewhat of an accomplice in the other accident. I was driving in Newark, NJ and traffic was heavy. Cars in the intersection in front of me were at a standstill, so I waited back so I wouldn’t get caught in the middle when the light went red. This gave enough room for a Mercedes coming in the other direction to take a left in front of me. I glanced at the passenger side-view mirror and saw a taxi coming up rapidly on the right. The next 2 seconds felt like 2 minutes. I knew they were going to collide, but I was unable to do anything about it. I was a spectator just waiting for impact.

The cab was  going around 30 and slammed the Mercedes rear quarter panel, splintering the bumper off the back and crushing the body. Both drivers got out and stared at their cars. The lights cycled through to green again and I drove off, knowing the traffic jam there was about to get much worse.