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CLK430 Trials & Tribulations: Introduction

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Okay, so I finally pulled the plug and bought a low mileage, 2002 Mercedes-Benz CLK430. I'd been shopping for a fun convertible for a while with the romanticized image of top-down, wind-blowing summer fun.  I'd build a set of basic requirements to narrow the scope of my search - those criteria were: Four seats (there's three of us, and getting something that could only seat two seemed like asking for trouble from whoever would get left out) 2000 or newer, but I was really hoping for something newer than 2005 Reliability An active and established user base (forums, etc.) I won't bore you with all of the details, but the CLK430 met all of those, plus it only had 40k miles. So, my adventure begins...
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Get da'Baby

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I think my geekiness has completely rubbed off on my spouse. One of the first things she's done since finding out that we're adopting a new-born in October was to create a blog to share our joy with the world. (Yes, if this news to you, read more about it at http://monkbaby.monkshack.com ) Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but that isn't something that non-geeks do, is it? I'm pretty sure that most people don't. Nor do non-geeks want to include naming polls on their blogs either. But we have both. Go see for yourself....don't take my work for it!
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S-Class Upgrade?

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 I did it again. Another Mercedes project. This was an auction find at my local Copart - a one-owner, low mileage (124k) with a clean CarFax and decent service history. After all of the research, I broke down and bid. Winning the auction for $1,700 seemed reasonable, even given the fees would add about $1,300 to overall cost.  First inspections revealed a broken vacuum hose leading to the brake booster (right at the check valve) that was held together with electrical tape. Not really a good sign that seemed to go against the service records in CarFax. I had no idea how severely these cars reacted to vacuum leaks until I drove it. I was ready to give up, but ordered the $40 replacement line anyway. The car barely drove and if the line separated, the un-boosted brakes required a massive effort to get this giant car to stop. There were a number of surprises I was very excited about. First - the reverse parking aids worked! Secondly, the automatic rear-view mirror worked! In all o...
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