Man... thread title brought back memories. My dad drove an army green 1984 Mercedes 300D Turbo Diesel for almost twenty years. That car was a tank. I learned to drive in it. But sadly, it got into an accident and just got too expensive to repair (by the early 2000s, it got hard to find replacement driver doors). My dad replaced it with 2004 Honda Accord, which is waaaaay less cool than a W123 Mercedes.
Great write up, by the way. I'm super jealous that you get to drive all the cool cars.