I purchased a 1980 Mercedes 300d for $1000. It only has 157,000 miles, which is low for a diesel engine. Diesels can run 500,000+ miles, unlike gasoline engines that crap out at 100-150k depending on the make. I met the car owner through a friend whose father is a mechanic at Diesel Research Development. Right after buying the car, I took it to the same mechanic for the service that was due -- oil change, transmission oil change, a/c recharge.

Then I took the car to Lovecraft Biofuels in Silverlake to get a veg oil conversion. Lovecraft was slammed with cars that were dropped off on Friday evening and Saturday morning, and they were so backlogged that I couldn't get any work done until Monday. Bummer. I really wanted to be driving on veg oil as soon as possible, but there are other things I need done on the car.

I drove the car to Pep Boys and got two new tires. While waiting for the tires, I did some shopping at Costco and ran into Christopher Titus, from the hilarious sitcom called Titus, about his crazy family and his custom hotrod shop. The very funny Stacy Keach played his father. The show is now out on DVD and is worth seeing.

And in the evening, Melissa and I went to see the Pixar film "Cars." It wasn't intentional -- I didn't realize the entire day had been about cars until we got back from the movies. The film was a ton of fun. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. And make sure you stay through the credits. The closing credit sequence was hysterical.