Blake's blog

Scraped your wheels against a curb? Chances are good that your wheel can be repaired at significantly less expense than purchasing a new rim. Check out this informative Autopia article about refinishing damaged alloy wheels. If you’d rather not do the work yourself, the talk to the folks at Wheel Colission Center; they’re the best in the wheel repair business.

Anyone looking to restore or preserve their leather interiors should take a look at Leatherique’s line of products. Forget cheap leather cleaners and conditioners. Leatherique Rejuvenator Oil softens leather and helps prevent cracking. Their line of custom matched dyes restore your faded or worn leather to good-as-new condition. If there’s enough interest, I’ll post a how-to article about Leatherique in the future.

$14,736.61. That’s the average successful sale price of 1999-2001 W210 E-classes (not including the E55 ///AMG) on eBay in the last couple weeks. Let’s suppose that instead of buying a six year-old E-class, you set out to purchase a brand new car. What new cars can you buy with that money?

For anyone that does their own maintenance or would simply like to know more about their cars, a subscription to AutoZone’s AllDataDIY service is indispensible. AllDataDIY gives you access to all the technical service bulletins and nearly all other service documents and repairs instructions for your specific vehicle. Even if you don’t do your own work, reading AllDataDIY will help you catch dishonest mechanics in the act.

Made a 650+ mile trip from Michigan to Virginia this week in my 1998 E320 4Matic sedan this week. Average fuel economy for the trip: 29.8 MPG (@ ~70 MPH). Not bad for a four-wheel drive luxury car that weighs close to two tons and has an ungoverned top speed north of 140 MPH!