New member introductions

[Peter van Es]

Greg, welcome!

[ja17]

Welcome Greg,

Speak up on any issues you have. There are lots of experts and resources here.

[Basil]

Hello ! My name is Paul van Houten , from 1949, married for 42 years to Hetty, no children and we are living in 's-Gravenzande, some 20 miles from Rotterdam in The Netherlands.
British classic cars used to be favorite. Never to old to learn, I found out that there are cars more comfortable and I decided to swap my Austin Healey for a car that I always liked for its looks.
A 1964 Mercedes Benz 230 SL European first delivered in Italy. Last saturday I had a smooth test drive and it will be delivered this Friday.
Best regards, Paul.

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

Hello Paul,

Welcome to the Pagoda SL Group forum ... happy and safe driving always!

[Mike Hughes]

Looks like an absolutely lovely car.  Congratulations!

[Basil]

Thank you Rolf Dieter and Mike. I hoped for more comments on the color of the car.!

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

Hello Basil,

It is a nice colour as well as colour combination. I find that my blue car gives up different shades all depending on the outside light ... yours looks like a dark brown what is the colour code on your name plate under the hood?

Mine is blue 903 H ... I do get a lot of comments on my colour, almost more then on the car itself.

[DaveB]

040 is black

[KevinC]

Beautiful in black. What's the interior color?

[Basil]

120  whisky . I will ask Mercedes Stuttgart for a copy of the data card and find out if this is the original color.

[gerster]

Welcome here Paul it sure is a beautiful color, nice contrast with my car maybe we can meet once!

Greetings: Ger.

[Basil]

Sure Ger, we will meet next spring.
I will use these next months to check the technical part of the car and update it where necessary.
Een groet van Paul.

[Peter van Es]

I'd like to welcome new member Pagoda0014 to this forum. He is, after all, a special new member to the Pagoda SL Group. Why?

It's his car on the group logo (see picture below).



Additionally, he is likely to attend the next European Event in 2014 at Goodwood. So if you have not seen his car in real life, that's your opportunity.

I hope he will introduce himself here and tell us more of the story of how he got to own the Böhringer Pagoda.

Peter

[Jonny B]

Indeed welcome! I did not have the chance to meet him in Germany, but hope to do so at Goodwood. I did somehow manage to take a fair number of photos of the car!

[Kikas]

G'Day All,

Just joined your most informative and well organised Pagoda SL Group Forum. It's great! Thank you to all the organisers.

I don't have a SL yet but intend buying one when I visit California April 2014, so I'm looking, but like most don't want to spend too much. I low end car to start with is fine but it must be drivable. Any ideas?

I'm 55 years old, have a gorgeous lady with one small defect (she's not a Petrol Head) but I suppose most gals aren't.
My son is an airline pilot my daughter a nurse.
We live in Perth Western Australia which has the worlds best climate.

My favourite car is my '67 Mustang which is highly modified as I'm a confessed "HOON", I drive it regularly and everyone wants a race. Unfortunately it's a Police Magnet and I get stopped very often. For zip!!!

Looking forward to owning my 1st SL Pagoda.

See y'all
Roco

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

Good'Day and welcome to the forum Roco, I'm sure you like the folks around here

[Garry]

Welcome to the Group.

RHD Pagodas come up in Perth quite a bit and are usually a bit cheaper that the East coast. I actually flew over there to look at one.  On the other hand if you don’t mind driving on the wrong side the US cars can be cheaper than the RHD cars.  Having said that the resale value will always be commensurately less.  Bit like trying to sell a RHD car in the USA.  Not a big market for them there.

Suggest you look around here first to get a good idea what you are looking at or will be if you go the US route.   They are nothing like a Mustang both is what to look for and condition based values.

Have a good read of the Tech Manual.

Garry

[Kikas]

G'Day Garry,


Thank you Garry for your post.

Well I'm, pretty surprised by you saying that Perth cars are cheaper the Eastern States ones. The general feeling by my buddies is that 1) Perth cars are dearer and 2) we don't have much choice.
My Mustang is LHD, having owner it for over 10 years, I really don't notice any difference with LHD.

I'm visiting the US in April to do the Mustang 50th Anniversary, did the 40th 10 years back and loved it. Plan on arriving in LA in April 2014 for 10 days by myself to source a Pagoda and do the Mustang Show. Back to LA to pick up Babe then we'll cruise Vegas, Grand Canyon, Lake Tahoe, San Fran, the Big Sur and then back to Long Beach to ship the car, then NY for a week.

See ya,

Rocco

[Kikas]

G'Day Rolf-Dieter,

It's G'Day not Good Day....... (Ha Ha)  ,

Thanks Rolf-Dieter for your welcome.

Looking forward to being part of the forum with you guys.

4 degrees c. for you today in Ontario, brrrrrr. It's gonna be 30 on Perth.

Rocco

[Garry]

Rocco

When I was looking for my second Pagoda that I have now, I watched all the for sales around AUstralia for nearly two years.  Don’t know about other cars but certainly the Pagodas appeared to be asking about 5-10k less in Perth.  As I said I flew to Perth to look at one that was in pieces.  I did not buy it only because the seller had not catalogued what he had and mixed it all up in boxes without any labelling whatsoever. That was two years ago and I doubt things will have changed.

You should do a lot of research, there are quite a few members and also Pagoda sellers in CA.  There are also some shonky ones so private would be the best thing if you can find one that you want at the time.  There is one of our members, Tom Collit, (tcolt@netzero.com) operating as LA Restorations who has a restoration shop in downtown LA that would do an appraisal if needs be and also store or work on the car for you.  I purchased an E Type there two years ago, drove it around and back from Ohio to LA and Tom did a left to right conversion for me before shipping it back here for me.  Worked out really well.

Garry

[Kikas]

G'Day Garry,

Thanks for your reply.
2 Pagodas,

How interesting. I have owned 2 E-Types over the years, the sexiest car in history.

Thanks you very much for your most welcomed and appreciate comments regards buying a LA car. Shonky dealers, well....... I very much appreciate the tip. That's great news that I have Tom Colitt's LA Restorations details for an LA contact.

When you drove the E-Type from Ohio to LA, how'd you get insurance?
I also bought my Mustang in Texas and drove it to LA - no insurance, just chanced it. I'll have my wife with me in April next year and she'll have a heart attack if she knew we were driving illegally, so I need to arrange insurance which is almost impossible for a foreigner in the US.
Can you confirm that dealers will not allow the car to be driven off the lot without sighting proof on insurance - correct Gerry?

In WA one can register and license cars pre 1988 without the need for RHD conversion.

See ya,

Rocco

[pj]

Rocco,
since you dared to boast about the climate, I will dare to ask: how often does it snow in Perth?

[Kikas]

Ha Ha, good one......all in good fun PJ.
What' snow anyway?

Rocco

[Rolf-Dieter ✝︎]

Peter (pj) … Weather in Perth is almost like Vancouver, BC. here and then when temperatures dip down they do get a sprinkling of snow sometimes a bit more like in 1992

I think I told you my story about the 4 months I spend in Australia on Business (Adelaide, Perth and Whyalla South Australia, mostly Whyalla) in 1984 and got to see the America's Cup and the boat that brought the cup to Australia.

Rocco, When I was down under I always greeted Folks with Good Day spoken with a German Accent of course  … I always did get a smile

[Garry]

Rocco,

I had a 5 speed 280SL that I sold about 18mths ago together with what had been the second E Type I had owned.  Too many cars in the shed

You will need insurance.  The way I did it was to use an American address, in this case it was another members address in Ohio. I also got a temp permit for registration from Ohio for 30 days.  It was really quite easy for the reg. permit but was difficult for the insurance and I had to shop around on the internet a lot before I got one that would do it.  Problem you will strike will be the green card or equivalent.  I had worked in the USA for three years whilst in the military so had a number i quoted but in the end that was not necessary and they just gave me 6 months insurance (was the minimum).  I will have to look up and let you low the company.

As far as dealers letting you drive off the lot, I am not sure but there is only one thing that works as far as I could see and that was $$$$$.  Both with insurance and most other things as well

I suggest you contact Tom. There are possible ways around the reg insurance I am sure.  Tom actually rode back from PUB with me in the E Type, was a great trip. Here is the story.
 http://www.sl113.org/forums/index.php?topic=14705.0 Ohio to Australia.

Garry