Dodleston, Chester Saturday 5th March 2005

The second Baby-Benz day of 2005 was well attended when, on Saturday the 5th of March we had a total of eight member's cars. This number included Steve and his wife's two A Classes.

Following another great meal the drivers of the cars voted for what they thought was the best presented car of the day. Terry (doo) won the car of the day and can be seen here recieving his prize from the webmaster.

The line up of the cars can be seen in the photos below

Many thanks to the following for attending and making it another great day.

Tony & Gilda (tony)
Richard and Ann (rich)
Mike and Junko (mykp)
Paul (Chip Young)
John, Angela and Hannah (babymerc2000)
Terry and Jill (doo)

More pictures in the gallery

Pictures and text Steve (admin)

New A Class Test Drive - Bridgnorth 19th Febuary 2005

This day was organised with the help of the Independent Newspaper Motoring Section. The test cars were loaned from the Mercedes-Benz UK Press Fleet.

Tony, Gilda (tony), Richard and Ann (rich) were already waiting in the carpark at Bridgnorth (Severn Valley Railway) when and Andrea and me (admin) arrived. Not that we were late or anything!

Although in theory this would have been an ideal meeting pointing, the car park was very full and hard to find. The fact that there was a Sixties Theme day on did not help matters. We were not able to park together only near each other.

Once John (babymerc2000), Mike and Junko (mykp), David, Andrew and Gavin (A190) and Gary (garyw) had arrived, we waited for the team from The Independent to arrive.

Elizabeth brought her own A160 Elegance, bringing the total of original A Classes to eight, while David and Shaun brought the new A150 5dr Classic SE and A180CDi 3dr Avantgarde respectively. Lots of comments about the differences between the original and new could be heard both positive and negative.

Whilst the members had a good look round the new cars I went off the look for a better spot to meet. On my return we drove round to outside a school with a big layby that was big enough to house ten A Classes. Could this have the largest convoy of A Classes ever in this country? Even if it was not, it certainly looked impressive and certainly caused a bit of a stir.

Following shuffling the cars about for the Independent's photos, we had a last had chance to drive the new cars. Our members' comments will be published in the newpaper at a later date, and on this site.

During the test drives two different members had located two different places to go for lunch, a decision was made to go to the location outside Bridgnorth, on the road to Shrewsbury. For some reason this message did not get to everyone, so I spend the next hour or so trying to locate the lost members who had gone to the other pub. As I was the last but one car in the convoy I did not know this had happened, till too late. However it meant that I got longer to drive one of the new A Classes for longer than I would have done normally. The fact that my mobile phone could not get a reception did not help either! Nearly had a sense of humour failure.

Following a great lunch, lots of chat (not just about A Classes) we made our way back home.

Many thanks to those who attended, for those who did not, you missed a great day, in my opinion the best Baby-Benz day so far.

Photos Richard and Ann

More photos in the Gallery

Steve

Cornwall Sunday 2nd January 2005

It was a lovely sunny day at Jamaica Inn but the wind was strong and quite cold making standing around outside for long periods only for the brave, and after a short look around each others cars we retreated inside of Jamaica Inn for Dinner and light refreshments. Soon after dinner John arrived from Milton Keynes in his Brabus A220 and it was back outside to have a look around this pretty unique A-Class. The photos don’t do the car justice as the entire interior is leather along with a kicking Audio visual system.

The car of the day had to go to John (Scooby) as he’d travelled the furthest to be there and had the smartest and most unique car of the day!

I would just like to thank those who turned up and I look forward to seeing you all again later in the year at another meeting.

Ellesmere Port Boat Museum Members Day

Despite the bad weather, Richard, Ann, Tony , Gilda and me attended the Members' Day which was held at the the Boat Museum in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire.

We all met at 13:30 and after a leisurely lunch in the café had a look around the museum itself. I was pleasantly surprised to be able to enter some of the exhibits on display, and found the Manchester Ship Canal exhibition very interesting.

Gilda presents Steve with the Car of the Day award.

This time the members who attended voted for the best car and I won the award.

Definitely worth a visit and a good venue for a Members' Day.

Steve