Looking forward to whatever design this car deserves a place in paradise. Lost to the south joe. Papp love. Me im going to do it. With all my truck still going at a 6000000 kilometers i spend more time caring for him and then my family acted up on me. I love my only one 1st car here because its a good car for the people only hear it on for a poor country boy like me. That. Mercedes khans them every day classics chorus from the latter part of the last century in germany theyre now collectors items but in north africa and latin america many are still in use as were courses helping people earn a wage. This is the Mother Church every year hundreds of thousands of car fans make the pilgrimage to stuttgart and the control center of mercedes. More than 130 years of automotive history are on display in the resale he spends museum. Among the 160 vehicles on display are legends like the 300 s. L. Prototypes that never went into production. And silver arrows that made motor racing history. The museum also boasts regular road going models from yesteryear restored to tip top condition and available for sale assuming youre ready to spend the price of a new car on a 40 year old model the stroke 8 is the germans called the new generation w one 114115 was launched in 1968. The egyptians called it can see it a piglet of all things because thats what they thought it looked like. Tare class is a taxi driver he drives a mercedes 200. 00. Cairo on the nile the biggest city in africa on the longest river in the world. Tariq is a very special taxi driver his clothes are stylish as his car. His 59 his mercedes only 25 years younger. Hes been driving a cab for almost his entire working life. Tariq is not keen on new cars he calls them plastic cars that i sift. You know in addition to have a very crazy you know sometimes they like. It i feel as. If youre having to see i have a very good stuff did anybody catch me. Is that libby is not happy but me knowing the full might. Just throw what. I like to see with his right. Leg starting more people here. Was in dont be able and. The ability to love is like this particular. And to beautiful one is like watch and sometimes be able to tell it like look the sudden shift thats got to be in the same exist. Is going to. Sharm el sheikh and St Catharines monastery for half a days drive from cairo and like the pyramids the popular tourist destinations. But the city itself is a juggernaut it has 20000000. 00 inhabitants but hardly any so. Or tramlines public transport is minimal if you dont want to go by foot here you need a car or taxi. Cab. There are over 50000 cabs in cairo. But drivers like tariq are now a rare breed because the state subsidizes new taxes that have catalytic converters. Egypt is fighting pollution a huge problem especially in cairo. The aim is to banish dirty older models. Tariq has to keep his 200 running because theres no chance he could register and another old mercedes as a taxi. For him a worrying prospect. Of leaving. It plus the. News. Of. The bugs agenda every few months for months i like to change that. To assist. With that is that it just would be. 8 years but from time to time torak does still have to take his mercedes to the garage. After all it has about half a 1000000 kilometers on the clock. The trunk lid is jammed a minor problem and one thats quickly fixed was torics 200 is one of the last in cairo but in the nile delta he says theres a city full of old mercedes models 50 years after the new generation series came out. It was. Designed mats dispensed around the front to. So im afraid the. Carbons and thousands more that. Youre starting to fork out your fork. Them from going to test me for long in the boxes. Maybe under that none lets run through would include. The berms and the fish grams and yes mother. Thats a dispenser on the fence which i know. So perfect your. In the Mercedes Museum theres an entire area dedicated to the stroke 8 and its successors theyre called every day heroes the bread and butter cars that once guaranteed mercedes sales. Along with the mass produced cars there are a few very special models in the exhibition. Such as this italian stroke model repurposed as a hearse for some passengers final journey. The successor model was known internally as the w 123. Mercedes produced 2700000. 00 units almost half of them were exported from germany to 173. 00 countries at 1st customers would have to wait up to 3 years for delivery it was replaced by the w 124 this. Portuguese diesel powered taxi has driven 1900000 kilometers not that youd know it. The w 124 has long been a collectors favorite. In the southern german town of putting the w 124 club holds its final minutes of the year in late summer a chance for members from the streetcar region to meet their colleagues from various the club has just under a 1000 members throughout germany and those who have just 1124 are in the minority in the world of course there was always a bit of snobbery involved when it comes to driving cars from a time when emissions were hardly an issue. That. We have to prove a convertible it was a dance 6 cylinders 8 cylinders 4 cylinder diesel the whole range. I just enjoy driving and ive always loved cars line on t. V. For me this is a wolf in sheeps clothing there isnt alls and people wouldnt look twice if it said 200 diesel on the bag. But then you hit the gas pedal hard more cars because they got smoked. So. Their card doesnt give much away never mind the bobble head or the missing name badge their numbers a 4. 2 leader v 8279 horsepower top speed 250 kilometers per hour. At 30 year olds rocket. But the 124. 00 also has its weaknesses says a russian is an issue with our device anyone looking at these cars to avoid one with visible russia because there will be an endless money pit. Rust isnt an issue with these cars here nor is jealousy. Have you sometimes suffered from your husbands will be lived. Not as such hes always been a petrol head in france i bet its also his job. I also like to drive fast or at least i used to there was hobbies than this escape your motherhood he said this is. His own 1120 fours they sold one recently it basically packed it in on all fronts after half a 1000000 kilometers their phone was ringing off the hook. So they were all people from lebanon and jordan who take apart these cars and take them back home because importing complete vehicles into these countries is no longer possible to import foreign complete foxworth avoiding diesel indonesia since these cars are still on the road theyre not they need the parts and here in germany there arent many left so when a car is sold for parts its the man does he. Just because it. Is always on the lookout for spare parts larby was born in morocco and has been living in stuttgart for 40 years he drives a 986 w 124 wagon. You can still get new parts for my car and you can also get parts on e bay or from a scrap yard the cars not so well that you cant get spare parts anymore. As he sometimes comes up with the goods as easy usually sells whole cars used models in the low cost segments that are easy to repair many of them end up here into roughly through other countries but exporting to larby is native morocco is becoming difficult. They must not be older than 5 years and this car is very old no chance of it entering morocco. Many countries have similar import restrictions environmental factors are increasingly important but used car dealers are resourceful. A trader might show up lets say from egypt 20 plus vehicles takes them apart puts them in a shipping container transport them to egypt then puts them together again and sells them as normal cars. Or they welded well yes yes. Thats one solution what is imported is not a whole used car but 2 halves considered spare parts larby is planning a trip to casablanca in his native morocco by car 3000 kilometers as the crow flies from start cart. One last check before the trip as the neighbors look on. Marvie as a trained car mechanic and worked for decades in a mercedes contract still ranch house he knows the 124 inside out here just how old is it now i dont race 31. Even so the cars are flawless that you can come with me in morocco theres enough space thats going. To be offered cars as a bit too much of a surprise for paper base neighbor. Its the plague if you bought it so ill show you some pictures of morocco. Just to look at the whole car park is just w 123. 00 taxis but theyre really sturdy thats just. Why this is because of and that is casablanca downtown or you see only 123 several where no matter where you look. The payback should imo morocco just gets more beautiful every time i go there. Its my home after all you know i love. Casablanca and industrial and commercial metropolis on the atlantic home to 4000000 people and moroccos largest city. And its largest hometown. He grew up in the damp sometimes neighborhood. He comes to visit once a year sometimes he comes alone sometimes with his wife and 2 sons marvie retired a few weeks ago in the future he plans to come to morocco not just for a few days but for a few months each year for. The. Local black people want to rocco is still my home but since my roots are here thats where germany is my 2nd home to where i earn my living. So both morocco and germany have become my home and i cannot live without either of them to the. Credit city. So is this. Thats why every year he drives from one country to the other and back again with this mercedes which looks perfectly at home in morocco whereas in germany it almost seems like a relic from times past. Metsi to spin for decision even for the going to. Be you know you meet the bear to discuss a wife and the theme is that when the. Her is it hard to feel no use to feel by the books and if you. Want to not need to feel a need some of it and it was originally permissible. Now some believe that your thought should snuff a little bit of an automobile both for the number of issues. On their lives each we feel is a good model. To have folks getting. Back in casablanca the w 124 like the one larby drives is considered almost a new car here not least due to the price. The cityscape is dominated by the preceeding 123. Its nickname in morocco is the white shark. Theyre mostly used as call taxi which are generally booked for longer trips. They work according to the principle of shared taxi. Driver starts when the car is full. Most call taxi are mercedes 240 diesels. Yes you did that this was. Modern competitors are catching up vans made by rhinos no prized romanian brand dacha are picking up the pace here. But the passengers swear by mercedes and the mercedes taxi driver says wait here for customers to moroccan style relaxing with a glass of coffee or a look at. That document who may is 59 years old and has been a taxi driver for almost half his life as he drives daily from casablanca to el gato his native village about an hour away he travels 4 to 500 kilometers every day on his taxi seats up to 6 passengers 4 in the back 2 in the front of the building locksmith also drives a diesel the fuel is cheaper than gasoline in america and ahmed white shark uses around 8 leaders per 100 kilometers thats hardly any worse than a new car. Those of. Us who do what you i looked at some new colors but i didnt like them. Compared to mercedes or liability is downright ridiculous. That in the mercedes you can drive even 2 or 3000 kilometers without worrying about whether youll break down in the desert or somewhere. Of that. Youll always get where youre going. All of your adult. Hard to believe if you take a closer look at other myths car it is after all 36 years old. Mom it does not know how many kilometers its clicked the a doll matter is broken. Up leading. To the good. Life like your dream of. If we see him on the lookout for spare parts. Replacement spit on matter perhaps larby article can help his parts warehouse has nearly everything especially for the 240 diesel the most common model here but every year it gets harder to find used parts 10 years from now larby says there wont be anymore. He can still get a lot of parts from europe from cars that have been in accidents or were scrapped every 3 to 4 months he receives a delivery by ship the last one came a month ago and has almost been completely sold on. Unfortunately this white mudguard which i could use comes from the wrong car the successor model. And then theres a problem with ahmeds 123 its leaking water but its not a cracked hose its something much worse the thermostat housing is corroded the surface all eaten away whats needed is a new part but that cost several 100. 00 drams or he can try the garage across the street. What follows is an introduction to moroccan improvise ation involving advanced aluminum welding the welding wire comes from an old alternator housing and its all done freehand. After a few minutes the corroded hose connectors are welded. To the ground off the excess material. Thank you. Now they only need to put together a seal and the thermostat housing can be reinstalled. The entire repair takes half an hour and cost around 6. 00 euros. Comments mercedes is good to go. In morocco a lot of people live with all the receipts and make a living off them but if the all forwards have their way that wont be the case for much longer by other countries peraino is fighting air pollution the state pays taxes drivers half of the Purchase Price if they buy a new car even so most cannot afford to replace their vehicles and cannot get a bank loan for us meant a new car is out of the question. Will be the last one to get rid of the car repairs the truth no way am i treating it right. Thats because the car provides his income and his familys. Off med can afford an apartment in one of the better neighborhoods of casablanca he lives here with his wife and daughter and his mother in law and her nephew. His son lives in new york where he too works as a taxi driver but its not easy pays the equivalent of 2 months earnings just for the job training for his daughter ayesha she wants to become a Flight Attendant a job where you have to know people are met says nothing happens in morocco without the right connections. She. Life is expensive and difficult for taxi drivers. Nothing is provided for you here health care or unemployment pensions. These are all things that we have to cover ourselves. Already told very little. Morocco is a country in transition agriculture phosphate mining and tourism are the pillars of the economy as is illegal hasheesh farming. Morocco is a monarchy the king is as popular as he is powerful he holds sway over the economy. Even so unemployment is high one quarter of the population cannot read or write. Security and stability take precedence over freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate. Document could have been a Government Employee for life as a police man but after 2 years he decided it was not his true calling. That. I saw too much inequality but no democracy too many things i didnt like. To focus thats why i turned to the profession but its fascinated me since i was a boy driving a taxi. Simple as that. Doing his dream job for 25 years now always in the same car this is this same for me this old mercedes is my faithful companion the one who is if i really admire you i would like to stay with her till the end of it theres. The good to be a mosque one of the iconic landmarks of morocco. The red city morale. Close pearl of the south more than a 1000 years old and one of the 4 royal cities mark ash. The city is surrounded by a wall 19 kilometers long it once offered protection against bandits who threaten to take merchants goods for their lives but it was a perilous time which explains the name of the city. Does it its made up of 2 arabic words more kush you go fast or if you the area around america it was very dangerous and the caravans had to pass through it quickly you put the old city ramparts in the towers provided security for the caravans not one of the couple as did the ins catering caravans not once because they all had big gates and more kush go fast but to the name america shushan that is what i couldnt stop. Talking lexie are known as the city like the back of his hand not least the souk the bizarre and marc cash with its 10000 traders hakim is a tourist guide he speaks english german and french the 2nd official language in morocco the biggest contingent of tourists here come from france followed by spain and germany practically everything on offer here is aimed at visitors from abroad but hakim says 99 percent of the products in the souk are produced in morocco and many right here in the us are. Traditional handicrafts instead of cheap copies from abroad this benefits local producers and ensures traditional techniques of work. Arnold last. Talking the tourist guide is 45 years old that happens to have a doctorate in science he studied into sold or if but instead of researching he shows tourist to city. Business and bus you want thats what its always been a passion of mine and i like to show my country to people because i have seen that many people from europe like germany do not have the right image of our of out the rich they can do buttons with us and. Thats why he also offers tours of parts of the old town where tourists rarely venture the mark of the moroccans just around the corner from the shiny facades of the modern tower blocks. Hakims main message is that morocco is a liberal country including in religious matters he calls it islam lite. Fundamentalist islam he says is not very popular here. All this bakery does is take the customers mix they dont themselves the baker just pushes it into the oven. Mara cash is hot even in october temperatures reach 35 degrees celsius so almost no one has their own oven. I. But prosperous tourists sometimes encounter the poverty here. A friend of hakeem new haleigh sells paper tissues she is 14 years old although school is compulsory in morocco she has never attended because she has to help support her family. Her dream job. To the doctor. Mara cash a city of contrasts in the manifold ways. This was on the news a start to whats special about this city is that the modern and the ancient lived side by side of the one in desert you can see traditional wife and modern life together that live until you might find a really old door from the 14th or 15th century and next to it is an i phone 7 or 8 i phone zubin or the i phone. Its a similar scenario with taxi alongside old. One horsepower versus 150. 00 you also have mercedes models of all ages alongside their modern rivals. And as everywhere rule number one is 1st come 1st served usually. Give the most but i think there are always disputes here but after that everythings fine again emissions. Because people intervened and they helped the others to reconcile the next day is a new page. In mara cash taxes have to wait outside the old town due to the narrow streets and alleyways and the citys most famous square gym a elf not a good nest the World Heritage site is in any case off limits. Its where youll find the jugglers snake charmers musicians artists fortune tellers the sellers of miracle cures and street traders. One meaning of. Is assembly of the dead as it was once the venue of executions. In april 20th levon the square saw a new tragic loss of life when a terrorist attack killed 17 people. Today the tourists are back enjoying the squares flare especially after sundown. At 5 oclock in the morning mohammad wipes the last grain