Author Topic: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?  (Read 21262 times)

Flyair

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I would like to know whether you noticed any particular reaction or hears some questions when other drivers spot your Pagoda on the road?

Let me shoot the first one:

In my case I have encountered the following:
- reactions:
1.   Friendly: mostly while waiting on red lights: smiling and often asking about the car.
2.   Curious: especially while driving along, sometimes even unsafely close and often causing short jams behind,
3.   Jerky: stupid accelerations, overtaking and swerving into my line. Non-age related, but rather to show off how fast is the car of that sorry jerk.questions:

- questions:
1.   Usual: what’s year? what type?
2.   Stupid: how much? Can’s I get a modern car? Why is the car so noisy?
3.   Surprising: would you like to give me a ride (a young and not ugly looking lady)?, would you swap (a driver of a SL from early 90s)?

And for you? What was your experience in that matter?
Stan
1971 280SL
2011 SL550 AMG
2011 GL
2015 GLA

iftykhan

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #1 on: September 15, 2013, 15:33:53 »
Hi Stan,

I have only owned my pagoda for a relatively short time but have only had positive comments.
I was however surprised as to the diversity of the people who have commented on the pagoda. Age range from about 10 to 80.
My girlfriend always laughs as apparantly I'm in my element - being a bit of a show off !

Ifty

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #2 on: September 15, 2013, 15:34:01 »
The Highway non-overtake irritates me for some reason

I am trundling along minding my own business but rapidly approaching a car in my lane BUT don't pull out as someone is tearing along to overtake me. Then they slow down, normally right in the blind spot, to take a good look. Causing me to slow down.
I know they are just being curious etc but it bugs me!
James L
Oct69 RHD 280 in DB906 with cognac leather

Cees Klumper

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #3 on: September 15, 2013, 22:06:11 »
I only get positive reactions, in now 14 years of ownership, both while driving (thumbs up, smiles) and when stationary, for example atbgas stations. Most common question by far is "how old is it?" Which is then usually followed by "but it still looks so good!"
Cees Klumper
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GGR

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #4 on: September 15, 2013, 22:44:27 »
Here in the US 99% of the questions are "What year?"

Reactions are mainly positive, with thumbs up quite often.

Sometimes people show impatience, tailgate or pass on the right, may be assuming an old car is going to delay them.

I also get the guy staying in the blind spot while I need to overtake another car. But with the conversion I did, it's usually just a matter of pressing a bit on the gas and pull in front of the admirer, which in turns drops jaw.

jaxxonia

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #5 on: September 16, 2013, 21:11:19 »
I guess I'm lucky!  The interest is almost always friendly or curious.  It is rare that I take a drive and someone does not ask or comment about the car.  In the past 2 years, the questions have become more about value, as in "what is it worth?'  It can sometimes be a bit crass and I usually plead ignorance, unless the person is an enthusiast.  One thing I have noticed is that more and more younger people are asking questions.  They often comment on style and chrome, two elements lacking in most modern automotive transport.  I have heard "Granpa used to own one!" more than once.

Jaxxonia
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Driven more than 40,000 in the past 13 years

sfanale

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #6 on: September 16, 2013, 23:27:49 »
I had a lady in a parking lot GET INTO the passengers seat one day.  I was slowly rolling through the parking lot (taking it easy with speed bumps and pedestrians everywhere) and this lady (mid 40's) was walking in front of me, stopped, came around to open the door, and got in.  I just looked at her and she said "This is my dream car, can you just take me to the end of the parking lot?"  The most hilarious part of it was she left her husband standing by himself in the middle of the lane, just looking confused and perplexed.

I also had an incident with a motorcyclist who would not leave me alone.  He followed me for several blocks while he kept throttling his bike (a late model CBR) and glaring at me.  When he pulled up next to me at a light, I just yelled at him: "What the hell do you want??"  When the light turned green he slammed the throttle and took off in a wheelie.  Then he pulled in front of me and slowed down while he continued to throttle the engine and do wheelies.  At that point I was getting pretty irritated and so I turned into a parking lot and just left him behind.  I have ZERO clue what his intention was with the stunts and the noise...

paulr

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #7 on: September 17, 2013, 07:32:16 »
honk honk..oy.mate, oy...honk honk. !

I take my belt off, lean over and wind down the window and I get " thats a classic...eh, thats a classic..cuh !. "

My car is in the UK.

ghenne

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #8 on: September 17, 2013, 10:12:53 »
Many years ago, I was stopped at a light, top down on a beautiful summer evening, a pretty date beside me. A career bicyclist (you know the type, corduroy slacks, backpack and a beard) rolled up.

"Is that all you want from life"? he asked.

"Pretty much!" I answered.

Jordan

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #9 on: September 17, 2013, 11:41:49 »
This summer my wife and I went to Niagara-on-the-Lake for a picnic along the Niagara River.  We parked on the side of the parkway where there is quite a bit of tourist traffic.  Lots of comments from cyclists saying nice car.  At one point a new MB SL drove by and my wife saw his brake lights come on when he passed.  She said he was turning around but I figured he was just pulling over.  He did turn around, drove past our car again, turned around and pulled in behind.  He and his girlfriend/wife then got out and proceeded to take maybe a dozen pictures of my car from various angles.  We were at a picnic table maybe 50 m away but he didn't say a work.  Got back in his car and drove away. 
Marcus
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Rolf-Dieter ✝︎

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #10 on: September 17, 2013, 15:05:01 »
Hi Stan,

I think here in North America people may react a bit different then in the Eastern Europe part of the world. I've been driving german cars for quite a while (Mercedes 300 AMG, 350 LM and C350 etc countless BMW's one we still have a 535is 1987 my daughter drives her and will never sell her then there is my daily driver a 2011 M3), while I had some comments on the aforementioned cars it does not compare to the comments I get on my 1969 Pagoda 280 SL.

Some are like;

Nice car ... love the colour!
What year is it?
How much does it cost?
How long do you have it?
Nice jalopy (got that one yesterday on the way home from the P-50 Williamsburg, Virginia event) ... I ended up telling that lady all about our cars and educated her a bit :)
Wonderful car you just don't see many of them anymore!

Countless from passers by on the highway.

I only have the car since May this year and driven her some 3,000 miles since then the longest trip was from Sept. 12 to Sept. 17 some 1600 Mile round trip from London, Ontario to Williamsburg, Virginia USA and back home (with some unplanned detours, I'll let Dr Benz tell you all about that he tells the storey much better then I ever could), anyway during this trip I lost count how many I got and acknowledged from passers by. Some even followed me into Rest Areas to have a closer look.

In general I find that people over 50 often know much more about this car then some of the younger folks.
DD 2011 SL 63 AMG and my 69 Pagoda 280 SL

Peter van Es

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #11 on: September 17, 2013, 15:37:52 »
My car colour is the same as Rolf-Dieters and I get lots of thumbs-up also, and very positive comments about that very 60's-70's colour... you never see that on modern cars. What I find is that two age groups particularly like the car... kids (especially boys) between 3-15 years of age... will call out "Cool car Mister". I think it is because the design (boxy yet with no obvious place where the soft top is stored) is how a kid would draw an open-top car naturally.

The second group that will turn heads is indeed the group that would have coveted this car in their youth or as young adults. Let's call them 60+. There's a lot of them in my neighborhood, and I can frequently see them turning around when I drive by.

On the road attention is positive too. People do not display any of the negative emotions that obviously very expensive cars draw. I see longing glances or rubber necking from modern Porsche drivers quite often.

When on the motorway/interstate I occasionally get people slowing down in the fast lane, just outside my field of visibility too. Because I always drive defensively (i.e. I keep very good track of what goes on around me, having been rear-ended once already) but not slowly, when I see this happening, like GGR (but without his big engine) I put my foot down and will accelerate and move in front of them. It might not drop jaws like GGR's car would, but I still surprise many of them.

Peter
1970 280SL. System Admin of the site. Please do not mail or PM me questions on Pagoda's... I'm not likely to know the answer.  Please post on the forum instead!

jameshoward

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #12 on: September 17, 2013, 17:46:36 »
I got this once. Some weird guy just passing me by...
James Howard
1966 LHD 230SL

Peter van Es

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #13 on: September 17, 2013, 19:47:04 »
I've seen that guy somewhere as well... he was drunk as can be and that weird guy behind him was trying to drag him upstairs? Am I hallucinating?
1970 280SL. System Admin of the site. Please do not mail or PM me questions on Pagoda's... I'm not likely to know the answer.  Please post on the forum instead!

hauser

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #14 on: September 22, 2013, 05:30:26 »
Most will give a nod of approval but there always that one particular driver that just doesn't care.  On my way back from Williamsburg a not so nice female driver in a VW Routan didn't like the idea I was trying to pass her.  I was in the center lane of I95, I executed my left turn signal and as I was making my careful left merge she sounds off her horn for what it seemed like a very long time.  I substituted my left turn signal for the right and promptly got back in the lane I came from.  My window was down so I motioned to the Florida woman to go on ahead.  I was given a not so nice look from her older male companion. 

Benz Dr.

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #15 on: September 22, 2013, 17:11:51 »
Believe it or not, where I live, I get no reaction at all. After driving the same car for 20 years now I really don't look any more. It's like I'm just another car on the road which I actually like. If I go to large a city, people tend to notice the car more but I'm usually watching where I'm going and still don't notice all that much. I do get the odd question and people looking at the car from time to time.

The 600 was totally different. People stopped on the street, pointed at the car and stared. One evening we went to nearby Sarnia and drove through the downtown area. I remember seeing a guy talking to his friends while standing in front of a pub and when he saw the car he stopped in mid sentence. A huge black car with all of that chrome makes quite a statement.

On the way back from the Concourse this summer, George Henne and I were blasting down 696 at 75 - 80 MPH when this guy pulled right up beside me in a SUV or pickup and began honking his horn. After I noticed him he gave me thumbs up. I really wish that other drivers would refrain from doing something that stupid..................... >:(

I found that in the early days that I was always looking to see if people were looking at my car. The result was that I nearly got into several accidents. It's kind of like watching that good looker crossing the street in front of you and not noticing that the light has changed. The guy behind you peeps his horn and you drive away. You're noticed for sure then........ :-[
1966 230SL 5 speed, LSD, header pipes, 300SE distributor, ported, polished and balanced, AKA  ''The Red Rocket ''
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awolff280sl

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #16 on: September 22, 2013, 23:54:30 »
if they don't notice a Pagoda, you've got to worry that they are texting.
Andy   Sarasota, FL
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peterm

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #17 on: September 23, 2013, 00:45:41 »
I stopped at a 7-11 for my morning coffee and an elderly man of the street was sitting out front and said

"whooo-eee  you da man"  I bought him a cup too.

Flyair

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #18 on: September 23, 2013, 03:19:15 »
I stopped at a 7-11 for my morning coffee and an elderly man of the street was sitting out front and said"whooo-eee  you da man"  I bought him a cup too.

Peterm,
which proves that owning a Pagoda involves unexpected expenses :D
Stan
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gimp

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #19 on: September 23, 2013, 03:35:08 »
On my return trip from Williamsburg I slowed down for some road construction
when a couple of workers gave me a thumbs up.
That gave me a pick me up that lasted for the remainder of the trip.
Frank

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #20 on: September 23, 2013, 04:44:19 »
Is it a diesel?
Michael Parlato

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #21 on: September 24, 2013, 13:09:30 »
Yesterday pulling into a parking lot next to a pretty (older) woman in a convertible beetle:
How old is your beautiful car, she asked?
Trying to answer in a different way I said: Much younger than the owner!
"No way" was her reply!
Now that made me smile.
Urban Janssen
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waltklatt

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #22 on: September 24, 2013, 15:41:12 »
Would you believe a guy in a Viper asked if we could trade cars.
And several times a near carjacking like experience. (Shuddering)

Walter Klatt
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Bonnyboy

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #23 on: September 24, 2013, 18:36:19 »
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. 
Ian
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Flyair

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #24 on: September 24, 2013, 18:41:29 »
 ;D hope that she did not belong to "highly collectible category" ;D
Stan
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Cees Klumper

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #25 on: September 24, 2013, 19:09:02 »
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...
Cees Klumper
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Alf

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #26 on: September 24, 2013, 21:51:16 »
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
Alf
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GGR

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #27 on: September 24, 2013, 22:14:20 »
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

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #28 on: September 24, 2013, 22:42:35 »
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!
Lou The Engineer's Rule - "Never Compromise.  Improvise"
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Flyair

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #29 on: September 26, 2013, 13:41:30 »
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.

     
Stan
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aussiebattler

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #30 on: October 05, 2013, 00:07:32 »
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

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #31 on: October 31, 2013, 16:05:31 »
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

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #32 on: October 31, 2013, 19:49:23 »
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....
Stan
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2011 GL
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Louiehenry

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #33 on: December 04, 2013, 15:11:05 »
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

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #34 on: December 17, 2013, 20:36:12 »
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

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #35 on: December 26, 2013, 21:32:58 »
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.   
Ian
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GGR

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #36 on: December 26, 2013, 22:27:46 »
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

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #37 on: December 27, 2013, 00:16:48 »
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

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #38 on: December 27, 2013, 11:10:46 »
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....
   
Stan
1971 280SL
2011 SL550 AMG
2011 GL
2015 GLA

Louiehenry

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Re: How other drivers react when they see your Pagoda on the road?
« Reply #39 on: December 27, 2013, 14:46:18 »
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!