How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?

[Cees Klumper]

I had a guy and his wife in a Triumph TR6 pull up and ask if I wanted to trade.  I replied that I would but I am already married. 

He was assuming that, otherwise no trade would have been possible...

[Alf]

Normally I get genuine interest, thumbs up and smiles. However, on Sunday afternoon, driving home from a very pleasant day in London on a busy urban stretch of dual carriageway with a 40 mph speed limit. A modern saloon came up behind me at speed and tailgated for a few 100 yards. No where I could go as there were cars in front and to the side. So he dropped back, then aggressively accelerated, undertook me forcing me to brake hard as he cut back in front. I sounded my horn in disbelief. Probably what he wanted as it licenced him to use a few choice hand gestures. He then slowed down to give me a lot of verbal abuse mainly telling me i should get the old banger scrapped.

i can only assume he was the sort of idiot that sees anything different as an opportunity to try and bully. Despairing really that we are even in the same species

[GGR]

A modern saloon came up behind me at speed and tailgated for a few 100 yards. No where I could go as there were cars in front and to the side. So he dropped back, then aggressively accelerated, undertook me forcing me to brake hard as he cut back in front. I sounded my horn in disbelief. Probably what he wanted as it licenced him to use a few choice hand gestures. He then slowed down to give me a lot of verbal abuse mainly telling me i should get the old banger scrapped.

That's a very stupid and aggressive behavior. Though it's hard to stay calm in such circumstances, the best is to say nothing, let the other person do his/her thing and try to get him/her move away from you. Indeed, escalating the situation may end up with bent fenders and expensive pieces of chrome, wasted time and more frustration, whoever fault it is.

That said, when I was still living in France, Friday evening was quite busy on the highway driving out of Paris for the week end. The fastest lane is the most to the left one, but we usually had to wait in turn to pass slower cars. Inevitably, there was always someone aggressively flashing the lights behind even if there were 20 cars in line in front. By then I had my 6.3 which is quite a sleeper. So when the road cleared, I floored it and the guy behind was quickly becoming a small point in the rear view mirror. No more lights flashing after that. Once, after a similar situation, a guy followed me at a distance up to Le Mans, where he was exiting the highway. He passed me at very high speed right before taking his exit. I'm sure he was feeling much better after that and I had a good laugh.

[Lou F]

I can remember about a month ago I was driving my 280SL with the hardtop on and I was stopped at a red light with a car behind me.  When I look in my rear view mirror I saw the passenger holding an ipad in front of her face.  I could easily see the ipad because it was covered by a bright green protector that caught my attention.  The passenger lowered the ipad gave it a quick look and raised it back in front of her face.  I just realized that she must be taking pictures or a video.  So I gave them a little wave, which must have been a little surprise because the driver and passenger just broke up laughing!

[Flyair]

Last Tuesday my 8y old son asked me to give him a lift to his football (soccer) training. Since the weather was surprisingly good, I asked: Old or new car? I was pleased to hear: "Pagoda, for sure!". After we got there, I saw that one of the fathers accompanying his son kept watching the car with an exceptional attention. At the end of the training, he came to me and said that…. he also owned a Pagoda and the mono-topical conversation followed in a very friendly way.

So one can say that there was a positive reaction to seeing the car as I hope that there will be a new member of the SL Pagoda Group and be part of our Polish section soon.

     

[aussiebattler]

I'll try to keep this brief.. I recently bought a 230SL from the US, It was shipped to Melbourne, Australia from LA. When I went to collect it from the freight depot it would not start without a push, not battery problems !
I had to drive to to the ferry terminal at Port melbourne to board the Spirit of Tasmania for the overnight voyage to Tasmania where I live.  As I had bought the car "sight unseen" I didn't know what worked and what didn't, turned out that I couldn't lock the doors with the key and as I had to wait for about 6 hours before they started to load vehicles I couldn't stray to far away from the car.  I noticed many people stopping to look as I stood some distance away.
One bloke seemed to pay lots of attention to it, so I went to say hello.  He said he had always wanted one but never got around to actually buying one.
Turnes out he was also waiting to board the ferry with his new caravan going home to Hobart. I told him of my dilemma about where to park knowing that I had to push start the car when boarding the ferry started. For those that don't know, it can take up to an hour of stop/start queuing to finally get your vehicle aboard.
As it turned out the bloke was a mechanic who had a business in Hobart specialising in Land Rover, so he set to work on my Pagoda to get it to started.
He cut the wire to the alternator where I could reach in and short to the terminal, result was it started first go each time, so joining the queue to board and then next morning, getting ready to drive off the ferry only required me to lift the hood (bonnet in Australia) and short the wire, although this brought a few strange looks from other travellers.
It goes to show that admiration of the Pagoda by this nice bloke led to saving me a lot of grief.
Footnote; I still don't know why it won't start without shorting the wire, I suspect it could be the ignition switch.

[Louiehenry]

I do get a few rude glares, mainly from other teenagers.
But I brush them off, I worked for the money to get my 280, it's a gold 1971 with only 9018 miles on it, I pair fair market price, and I love driving it.
I was at an Exxon last week, and the fuel hose had rotted a bit on the side, so when I put the spout in, fuel shot out of the hose and covered the back of my car! Some super nice guy jumped up and grabbed a sponge and some water and immediately started to clean it off, I tried to give him some money, and he refused saying that being able to keep such a pretty old car from harm was reward enough!

[Flyair]

Louiehenry,

nice story. Are you sure about the 9018 miles....? it is probably after one or two times the "clock" went around the 5 digit windows....

[Louiehenry]

Yeah! My family is the original owners and after my dad had a matching green one that he drove a lot, I have the mileage for every time anything was done to it and the mileage at date of pickup from the dealer!

[FloridaBill]

I get alot of the thumbs up and nice car comments all the time but one thing that is odd and scary is when someone is pasing by in the right lane they will be checking the car out and I guess it is some natural reaction for their car to follow their eyes, that is they seem to "drift" over towards the car when passing, again I thinjhk it is becasue they are looking to the right and thier wheel goes to the right a bit as well.  No real close calls but I get nervous that someone will be admiring my car and they begin the drift into it or pass in front a bit too close.

[Bonnyboy]

Last saturday the rain stopped, the sun came out and I figured that it would be a great day to take out my Pagoda to drop off christmas gifts and donations to goodwill.    Life was good until 25 minutes into the ride.  The clouds came in and it started pouring just as I got to the Salvation Army.  A guy walked up and publically scolded me for driving my car in the rain (top down of course). 

I replied that it is a mercedes, it'll be ok.

His wife then gave him a zinger when she said that maybe he should sell his porsche and get a mercedes so that he could drive it more often. 

Happy new year everyone.   

[GGR]

His wife then gave him a zinger when she said that maybe he should sell his porsche and get a mercedes so that he could drive it more often. 

Ha! Ha! Ha! That's a good one!

[Louiehenry]

After I put the hardtop up for winter, I really enjoyed the people that saw it as a cabriolet, when they remarked, you have two of those!?

[Flyair]

Louiehenry,

I agree that the HT does make a difference. Pity that in our Central European climate the HT is hardly of use. When it's time to put it, rains and snow (which obviously triggers salt) are devastating the potential experience.
The HT is what gave our Pagodas their unique name and it is the shape of the car with the HT on top that I saw when I was 12 and what made me dream of it till 2009 when I finally got one.

Anyhow, I think that what your viewers said is right: in fact we have kind of two cars....
   

[Louiehenry]

You've put it in a perspective which I'm ashamed to say I had been to ignorant to think of until now! Thank you!