Used to be they chose vehicles which could see large improvements with carefully targeted small fixes and upgrades. (The Audi TT shifter fix was brilliant in illustrating how a seemingly catastrophic failure could be a small, albeit deeply buried, part.) This episode marks the moment when they pivoted to simply throwing cubic dollars into routine "by the numbers" refurb and flip jobs. Six grand for the car. Two grand to replace an age-deteriorated interior. Four grand to replace perfectly serviceable wheels, lights, and bumpers, solely because the stock ones weren't the right kind of flashy. (And the primary contribution of the vaunted "Euro" front bumper is to highlight the poor job Mercedes did integrating the bottom shape of the grille with the front valence. I'd never noticed that until they went out of their way to show me.) Nothing special, no contributed knowledge, and nothing there that anybody with a wallet and a set of wrenches couldn't do. No clever fixes, and no unexpectedly economical alternatives. Just hours and dollars. Blegh. The only info useful to a hobbyist was how horrifyingly labor-intensive AC ducting repair will be, should they be faced with that themselves.
And minus an extra star for patting themselves on the back over how superior their personal taste is to other people's.
And minus an extra star for patting themselves on the back over how superior their personal taste is to other people's.
