Happy Father’s Day to those who celebrate.
Sunday is generally a sacred day of rest/family here in Portugal, but two dads teamed up to get our failed rental 2024 Mercedes E 300de back on the road. I hope that no fathers were implicated in the engineering of this useless machine. It’s a five-seat car that can barely hold luggage for two people because most of what should be the trunk is taken up by a hybrid battery (impossible for a rental customer to charge because a special card has to be set up with a Portuguese tax ID and bank account).
In its 13,000th kilometer of life the machine suffered an all-systems meltdown and refused to start, claiming that the 12V battery was exhausted. Two dads came out to deal with the problem. One, a tow truck operator and one a restaurant chef who was working on a Sunday. Jumping the car didn’t help and the tow truck guy’s voltmeter showed 12V on the battery. With these two guys putting their heads together plus a phone call to another dad, the car was resurrected via a dramatic reset involving tools applied to an under-hood connector. We limped away without CarPlay, navigation, or the new European speed nanny.
Here’s to the dads who work Sundays and holidays to make life better for their families!
(The tow truck guy waved away a 20 euro tip (this is enough for a sit-down meal for two here). We ate at the restaurant last night and for an early lunch today while waiting for the tow truck.)
That’s what you get for not renting a ferrari this week.
Hybrids are the worst of both worlds. Twice the complexity and thus unreliability and cost, with often overstated fuel economy due to easily gamed standardized testing procedures (as shown by Dieselgate).
@Fazal, hybrids are great, and Toyota Prius is a good example of reliable car which has been around for a very long time. German cars, hybrid or not, are problematic. They are over engineered, over complicated and over loaded with too many electronics that depend on each other for the car to function properly. Not only that, when parts of the car stop working, you are at the mercy of the dealer to fix it (most mechanics don’t have the tools that are specific to German cars) and let’s not talk about the cost to repair.
My advice about cars: unless you have money to burn and love luxury, stay away from German cars — and never buy a brand new car.
George: I don’t understand the problem with new cars. Purchased-new Toyota and Honda minivans have delivered more than 20 years of reliable transportation for me (never had a “won’t start” incident). The Mercedes made it through just 2 days without a major meltdown.
@Philip, for someone like you, who is established, buying a brand new car and holding onto it for 15+ years, that’s the right thing to do.
I have come across a lot of folks, falling into the trap of buying a brand new car just because they want to. Those are folks who are living paycheck-to-paycheck and finance their car (thinking small payment, every month is OK, but ignoring the overall cost and burden when hard times hit). Or recent graduates doing the same out of excitement and wanting to reward themselves (and falling for the $K saving for graduates from car dealerships).
I bought a brand new car only once. You or some readers may recall, a very long time ago, there was a credit card from GM that offered $ back each time you used the card, there was no limit or expiration on the points, but the points can only be used toward buying a new GM car.
The points can be combined with any other sales that might be going on. I used my points, dealer sales, and manufacture discount to the point, I saved almost $9K. This was back in the early 90’s when brand new car prices were under $20K.
The Mercedes AA Class.