HAMMER TIME!

MORLEY’S BARGAIN BENZ GETS A NEW LOOK THAT DOUBLES HIS INITIAL OUTLAY

What do you do when you find a non-running car cheap, get lucky with the fix-it-up, and suddenly have the bargain of the century in your driveway? Yep, you spend more money on it.

Well, I dunno about you, but that’s where I’m at. So, the W124 260E I dragged lifeless out of a carport recently, has – as regular readers of this tripe would know – been returned to rude health and is now the official interstate transport module, for the good ship Melbourne Bloke Centre and all who sail in her.

As discussed some time ago, I’m completely over flying anywhere post 9/11, post-COVID, post Qantas being owned by the good taxpayers of Australia. Which is to say that if I need to venture interstate, my preferred method is via four wheels, having a lovely day in the process of getting where I need to be and thank you for flying W124. Come to think of it, given where I live in Melbourne, and the hoopla involved in getting to the airport, boarding the aeroplane and then waiting on the tarmac for an hour because some galoot (whose luggage is already on-board) has got lost in the terminal, if my destination is anywhere south of about Goulburn, it’s actually quicker to drive. Not to mention a million times more wonderful.

Anyways, a few weeks in to Benz ownership and I started looking at the stock wheels. Sure, they’re those lovely alloys dubbed `manhole covers’ by those romantic Germans, but I couldn’t help but think my car looked like every other smoke silver E-Class. And since I’d always had the hots for an AMG Hammer … you can guess the rest.