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The action happens at on Instagram. Follow me there for the Plankhond car extravaganza!

03/06/2026

During a side hustle I stumbled upon this absolutely outrageous Mercedes W201 ‘Avantgarde Rosso’. And fell in love.

So what happened? To celebrate 10 years of the W201, Mercedes launched three limited Avantgarde versions of the 190 — intended to give the ageing W201 series a fresh breath of air and aimed at buyers who wanted their Baby Benz a little less sensible and a lot less beige.

The Avantgarde Rosso (ca 2.200 built) was powered by a 1.8-litre petrol engine. It was the most accessible of the trio — and probably the least subtle. Mercedes wanted it to be the most artistic of the three, which is easily explained by the completely bonkers ‘Arcade’ interior, inspired by modern art and the New York graffiti scene. At least, that’s what Mercedes wants us to believe. The Avantgarde Verde (ca 900 built) was the most sensible of the three. It was green inside and out and came with the 2.5-litre five-cylinder diesel engine. At the time, this model was classified as a low-emission vehicle. And finally, the Avantgarde Azzurro (ca 950 built), was the sporty one. It came with Mercedes’ Sportline suspension, which was stiffer than the regular setup. The Azzurro was the driver’s choice and had a four-seat interior with individual rear seats. Each seat had its own colour: blue, yellow, red, and green.

The Avantgarde Rosso is my favourite version of course. Who can say no to an interior like that? The detail that got me is the original folder for the instruction manual. It’s covered in the same wild ‘Arcade’ cloth and it’s apparently very hard to find. And suddenly I can see myself driving a Mercedes…

Mercedes-Benz 190 1.8E Avantgarde Rosso, 28 October 1992.

24/05/2026

At their the owner of my old showed up - with the BX. I must have felt this coming, cause I had picked my clothes to match it exactly 😍

The former flagship of the fleet looks splendid as ever and is taken incredibly good care of. I couldn’t have imagined a better custodian than .bruggen !

Citroen BX 19GT, 7 January 1985.

19/05/2026

GM: “Here’s your platform.”
Saab engineers: “Cool, we’ll fix it.”

The NG 900 spent its whole life being called “not a real Saab” by people who never drove one longer than 14 minutes. Meanwhile it was a real Daab: the story goes the car’s development was very advanced before GM came aboard. Saab quietly stuffed tue 900 full of turbo weirdness, fighter-jet ergonomics. Plus they gave us Black Panel, something I still believe actually improves safety during nightly drives.

Yes, the second generation of the shares its genetics with an Opel. But so does your body with a potato and that doesn’t make you french fries. The “fake” Saab kept the company alive for years while everyone complained about it. Isn’t that a very Northern European thing to do: hating the thing that saves you?
Now the good ones are disappearing, and suddenly everyone talks about the NG900 like a misunderstood genius instead of a disguised Vectra. I’m in on the 900NG. Are you?

Saab 900 2.0, 20 November 1997.

18/05/2026

Dacht je dat je alles wel wist over de Volvo 300-serie? De 363 CS die het merk overwoog had een heuse V6 met 140 pk, de motor van de 264. Het is er nooit van gekomen maar wat een spektakel had dat kunnen zijn!

16/05/2026

The undisputed king of cannot be anything but the . The index is crystal clear about these: the 307 is an undiscovered gem. Within five years people will want these as a . Get one while they are still cheap!

Peugeot 307 1.6-16V XS Pack, 5 March 2004.

11/05/2026

I’d almost forgotten about , since The Netherlands is not competing this year and I had other things to attend to. Anyway, ’ eurovision-themed week is in full speed and of course we all need to chip in.

The II is the result of pre-Piech Volkswagen trying to be cool. Which it obviously isn’t. The has a front overhang so huge, its front is already half way to Salzgitter while the back is still in Wolfsburg. Which, incidentally, is a feature the shared with the Passat B, another pearl from the Herbert Schäfer era. If the II were an Eurovision-entry, it would be something like ‘Sonntag’, the 1982 entry by Austria, sung by a band appropriately named ‘Mess’. While the world was listening to punk and new wave, Austria figured ’Sonntag’ was what was needed to stay on top of the Zeitgeist. Yeah, right.

Volkswagen Scirocco 1.5GT, 28 October 1981.

10/05/2026

I said it yesterday already, but everyone needs to hear this. A huge shoutout to the people of . The philosophy of is that every car, however humble or unattractive, counts. But that doesn’t go for the cars alone, but for the people as well. EMWalhalla, which has by now grown into a huge event with over 1,000 cars, is still free for everyone to join - even if you’re not an EMW member. It’s fully run by volunteers who spend weeks of their precious free time planning and organizing everything and at the big day, they hardly have the time to enjoy their own succes because they are so busy running the show.

All these people are investing their precious time and money to make sure other people have the best time, and they ask nothing in return. That’s not just being passionate, that’s setting an example 💕

08/05/2026

I’m getting a bit wobbly about their event, tomorrow. Not just because it is the annual highlight for many Dutch car lovers, but also because I will officially present my book about the . I’m fine with doing a little speech and all, but I’m a bit nervous about how people will respond to it. Around 80 people have bought it already—a purchase based purely on their trust that I probably made something worth their money. I’m confident enough about my skills, but actually creating something and sending it out into the world for people to judge is exciting in a way I haven’t experienced before.

Wobbly is how Frans Christophe (2) must have felt when he sat front row during the launch of the at the International Marketing Conference on 16 February 1976. Frans (4, standing), and the late designers John de Vries (sitting, right) and Peter Provoos (sitting, left), are the three ‘fathers’ of the Volvo 343. For the three men, the stakes were a bit higher than in my case of course. The 334 had to save the Born factory in the south of Limburg. Frans worked on the car from the very early stages in the summer of 1969 - 57 years ago this year - and stayed on board until the last 340 rolled off the production line in March 1991. He will be sitting front row again tomorrow, as he kindly accepted my invitation to receive the first copy of the book, which feels like an honour—and another reason to be a bit wobbly about it all.
By the way: those who bought the book already will receive it by mid May, and it will also be avaliable at EMWalhalla, tomorrow.

Will you be attending EMW tomorrow? Hope to see you there!

Volvo 343 DL, 28 February 1979.

(‘Du coté de chez Swann’ by Dave peaked at 9 in the Dutch carts in February 1976.)

06/05/2026

Just a in everyday use. The has become very rare, 26 years after production stopped. This is one of the later models, with painted ‘everything’ in a colour that was also available on the first C5.
Unpopular opinion: I’d have a well equipped first generation C5 over a Xantia. It is pretty and all - timeless even - but the Xantia somehow just doesn’t do it for me. Are you team Xantia or team C5?

Citroën Xantia 1.8-16V, 10 november 1999.

02/05/2026

is up for this season. As I live in Amsterdam, I can’t keep more than two cars close to home. And wit my XM out, that means the bright blue bus had to be put in storage. I took it to one last event - the big annual Renault season opener - and let have a spin, which incidentally introduced him to the wondrous world of power steering.

No more from my side for a while. Bye bye weird little van, see you next year 💙

Adres

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