OT: Mercedes and Such

[Guest guest]

Hey Marcia .. and other good folks ..

 

> Rob and I bought a lovingly used '79 Mercedes Diesel 4-door

> sedan for that very purpose.

 

I like Mercedes .. great cars they are fer'shur. You can drive by a

construction site and hear absolutely nothing .. they are great cars.

 

But this post ain't got nothing to do with saving fuel and helping to

combat Global Warming and such .. its just sorta a ramble to let folks

understand that things can always get worse than they are. ;-)

 

Back in 1995, I planned to return to the USA and go to law school ..

so I shipped my household goods to Tennessee (where they are still in

a storage warehouse) and I sold my K5 Gas Sucking Chevrolet Silverado

Blazer with a 400 CI Engine to a young Airman for around half what it

was worth because I didn't want to pay to ship it back to the USA.

 

Then I decided to stay here. Being without a car I was not all that

happy then one day I saw an ad that said the ChiCom Embassy had a 1985

Mercedes 230 SL for sale for 4 K .. so I visited them and talked them

down to 2 K .. and bought it. But, it was a Blue Plate car .. one had

to have a " Dip " passport (which I had ) to buy it because it had been

brought into country duty-free. Finer'n frog hair split three ways

was this little car .. and I put over 100,000 Km on it in the next 10

years.

 

Both Martin and Chris rode in that little jewel as we toured Turkey ..

she was one fine little machine.

 

Because it was a Blue Plate, I had to register it with Turkish Touring

Club and they issued a Beyanname (probably a French word) that

indicates property is duty free but one cannot sell it to a local.

And each year I had to pay X $ to the Touring Club to maintain that

Beyanneme .. they kept the Tax Free Documentation.

 

I drove that car till October 2006.. loved that baby I did. Then when

I decided I was gonna return to the USA I put it up for sale .. but

only US Military or those with Diplomatic status could purchase it.

Nobody wanted a 1985 vehicle that was not up to the American exhaust

system standards. I did not get a single offer.

 

That left me with two options .. take it out of country (but to

where?) or give it to the Turkish Gummit. I chose the latter. But

when I tried to give it to the Gummit I found that though I had paid

my X $ to Touring Club each year and they had done their bureauctic

thing by getting the proper stamps and such in my Beyanname .. and I

had all the receipts for payment of the X $ per year .. the Touring

Club had failed to put in a bureaucratic stamp in 2002. Bad news!

 

The Gummit said I owed big bucks for having violated the terms of

having a Blue Plate car in Turkey.

 

My long time friend and relatively powerful attorney tried to get the

Customs folks to accept the error as being a simple oversight by the

semi-official Touring Club .. but they (like most Customs officials)

were not inclined to listen to logic. Their offical postition was

that though I had receipts for my annual X $ payment to the Touring

Club, the car was mine .. therefore it was my responsibility to make

sure that the Touring Club did their duty. BS this is but that was

their position.

 

They recommended that I bring the Touring Club to court and prove that

I was a victim. Court cases in Turkey last 3-4 years sometimes and

even though I was right .. the odds of winning against a semi-official

agency were about as good as getting a wild cat to hold still while

you poke butter up his butt with a hot poker. ;-)

 

So I used other connections .. a General, a Prosecutor, and a Province

(State) Chief of Police .. and they got nowhere fast .. which is very

unusual in Turkey cause such folks have a lot of horsepower. And ..

the Big Bucks I owed was becoming Bigger Bucks by the day.

 

To make a long and sickening story short .. I learned who was the most

powerful agency in Turkey .. the Customs Agency .. and as my penalty

was growing by the day .. I choose to pay it and get it behind me.

 

To give this car (which cost me but $2,000 K) to the Gummit .. free of

charge .. I was fined a total of $2,642 .. and after payment of same I

gifted the Gummit with my Mercedes.

 

Why am I telling this tale which has absolutely nothing to do with

using cooking oil and such as fuel? (1) Because I want to .. it makes

me feel better to grouse about being screwed. (2) To let American

folks who think our Gummit eats manure and howls at the moon know that

things can always get worse.

 

Everybody has an opinion .. everybody thinks something .. as for me, I

think I am gonna have one more ice cold Efes Beer and then I am gonna

hit the sack.

 

Y'all keep smiling. :-) Butch

[Guest guest]

On Behalf Of Butch Owen

Saturday, April 07, 2007 5:58 PM

OT: Mercedes and Such

 

 

 

Hey Marcia .. and other good folks ..

 

> Rob and I bought a lovingly used '79 Mercedes Diesel 4-door

> sedan for that very purpose.

 

I like Mercedes .. great cars they are fer'shur. You can drive by a

construction site and hear absolutely nothing .. they are great

cars.

 

But this post ain't got nothing to do with saving fuel and helping

to

combat Global Warming and such .. its just sorta a ramble to let

folks

understand that things can always get worse than they are. ;-)

<snipped for brevity>

 

Y'all keep smiling. :-) Butch

 

Yikes, it's a wonder you can keep smilin', Butch. Just shows to go ya, a

bureaucracy by any other name is still a bureaucracy! I'm calling it a day

myself . . . 6 hours in the garden tackling weeds. Oh, my achin' back.

Time for an aromatic bath.

 

 

Be Well,

Marcia Elston http://www.wingedseed.com

http://www.aromaconnection.org

" Give thanks for a little and you will find a lot. " Hausa Saying from

Nigeria