On The Road With Johnny B ...Filling The Perfect Garage

Being a Certified Car Loonie you tend to Daydream about Old Cars on a daily basis. One of the things you tend drool about is the perfect Car Collection or "Perfect Garage" Now keep in mind I am realistic and unless I hit The Powerball I'm not going to be buying Million Dollar Car anytime soon. With that in mind I am trying to keep my list within Classic Car's I can afford and what my soon to be Garage Space will be. Also will break it down into types of junk because my Automotive Dementia knows no bounds. So with the usual No Fanfare "Away We Go!!"...

Daily Driver...1981-1985 Mercedes Benz 300TD wagon Ya gotta have something you drive everyday. Perhaps one of the best vehicles ever built is the Benz 123 Chassis and in Station Wagon form ultra useful. Mercedes Benz built the 123 Body from 1976-1985. Known for its durability, safe like build quality, superb comfort, road manners and masterful engineering it is considered by some as the best all around Mercedes Benz ever built.

The Benz 123 came with many engines but the one you want is the 5 cylinder Turbo Diesel. Known as the OM617 this 5 Cylinder Turbocharged wonder is good for 500K plus miles with proper upkeep. When paired with the Handsome 300TD Wagon you have the perfect Daily Driver that will last for decades. Some downsides are 123 Body Benzes tend to rust, the OM617 can sprout oil leaks and even though they move along swiftly they are not drag race cars. With all that a 300TD Wagon will gobble up freeway miles like a freight train and squeeze out 30mpg. I would add to mine an AMG type body kit and some cool beefy wheels and tires to make it the perfect Stylish Daily Driver. Real nice 300TD's can still be scooped up for $10,000-$15,000 making them affordable. Special note: Gotta like the way a Benz Turbo Diesel sounds.

Something Dumb...1976-1978 Chevrolet Chevette If you wanna to piss off your friends and enjoy being a nerd every Perfect Garage needs a Really Dumb Car. In the dark days of the OPEC Oil Crisis and needing a replacement for the Horrific Vega GM borrowed a Spunky Hatchback from it's South American Division. Slapping 5mph bumpers, steering column from the Nova and required emissions the Chevy Chevette was born. The good and bad news is the Chevette shared little parts with any other GM car of the time. The Chevette compared to the other GM small car junk of the day wasn't that bad of a car. The 1.6 liter OHC engine (1.4 liter in the Scooter model and the bone shaking Diesel) was semi robust and the rest of the "Vette"

wasn't screwed together to gross but compared to offerings from Japan it just didn't cut the mustard