In article , Bob Powell wrote:
The old Mercedes 240's & 300's start and stop with the ignition key
but "off" is not electric. The key off position closes a vacuum valve
stops working, there is a red shutoff lever under the hood.

The odd thing about the older ones is there was no automatic cold
start fast idle, instead a little knob you have to twist to the left
for the engine to start cold, then twist back unless you want to
cruise 30 mph at idle. The knob was an effective anti-theft device.

the things i learn here(!), i always thought that was just a throttle
control. guess i never really left it on.

Those are neat cars, built like tanks, 4 wheel independent suspension,
4 wheel disk brakes, and powered by a 60 hp (240D) or 77 hp (300D)
motor. Not enough power to stress the car much, many of the ones on
the road today have 500K+ miles on the clock. Bob

my friend always asked me, "where is the meter?", or, "did you have
the meter taken out? nice job, can't hardly tell..." he spent
a couple of years in Germany and rode in plenty of 220D taxi's. grin

--Loren