We did realise as we set off that this would be a “vehicle dependent expedition“.
Hermann has an unknown number of miles in his past. Mercedes of that age go on for ever so although his clock read 4,000 miles when we bought him, we have always assumed that this meant either 104,000, 204,000 or more, or he’d just had a new clock. Or engine.
But in the four years since we’ve had him we haven’t really done any proper trips, and he spent almost the whole of the past winter in various garages having some work done on his brakes and gearbox. (The length of time in the garages was due to parts being sourced or CoVID rather than any particularly fiddly or expensive job.)
Which means that it is with some delight that we can tell you his statistics on this trip:
Miles travelled: 2,523.
Petrol consumed: 496 litres which means we got 5.1 miles per litre or about 23 miles per gallon on a mixture of motorways, big and little roads and mountains. With an 82 litre tank that means we had a range of about 400 miles though we usually refuelled around 300 miles.
Oil consumed: About 2 pints.
Mechanical problems: 1 exhaust hanger gave way, vibrated to bits over the cobbles in Turin and Florence.
User problems: 2 instances when he completely refused to even turn over the engine when starting, both times due to leaving him in gear rather than park.
Admiring waves from general population, requests for photo opportunities, big smiles and thumbs-up on autoroutes: between 5 and 30 per day.
Amount spent buying him nice garage accommodation every night rather than using on-street parking: who cares.