Finger Lakes

RESIDENT’S MESSAGE SECOND QUARTER 2021

by Don Klug

Greetings fellow Finger Lakes Section MBCA Members,

What we think as normal is something we’re all looking forward to. It appears that some of the restrictions we have been living with are beginning to ease in 2021 with the introduction of the Covid vaccines. Progress!

However, the old normal has changed and as we regather for our social activities of club events expect to see some change.  Shown above is a picture of what a normal Mercedes Benz Grill used to look like. Of course, a Mercedes Benz grill looks a bit different today. Our new normal will no doubt be different too.

The Sonnenberg Gardens Fathers’ Day car show will be June 20^th and our club has agreed to set up our regular club section to display our cars. The annual picnic will again be hosted by longtime member ‘Red’ Kosinski, at his home in Scottsville on July 11^th. This event is always a top notch gathering. Red supplies the meats and the club supplies an assortment of refreshments. Bring a dish to pass and your bathing suit. Red’s pool is beautiful. This year the picnic will also serve as our annual meeting, albeit a short one.

National MBCA Director at Large Jim Roberts has arranged for the 2021 Performance Driving Event at Watkins Glen, now re-scheduled for July 25^th. Our club, National and the Lotus, Ltd have held this event for many years now on one of the most desirable tracks in North America. Set your calendars for these events.

As a club, we want to return to something social and normal. This of course means that we need champions willing to coordinate other events between August and October. For instance, how about another car rally trip in September or October?. This can be discussed at our picnic/ annual meeting.

Another item in need of discussion is membership. Discussions have been ongoing this past year from National down to regional levels. I am sharing with you here some of the numbers provided by North East Regional Director Drew Webb in upstate New York as well as National. 

Our own FL Section has lost three members over all, dropping to 87. In 2020. Our neighbor to the west, Niagara Section have remained static at 110 while to the East, Hudson-Mohawk has increased 29 to a membership of 256.

Drew Webb also shared with all of the section presidents that at the end of 2020, MBCA National noted a member increase of 1,420 over 2019, an 8% increase. While this is good news, Drew Webb, noted that 3,489 new memberships in 2020 were from the rebate program offered through the National and Mercedes Benz dealerships partnership. National decided to shorten the lead time of membership that allowed  immediately joining MBCA at a dealership to obtain a significant discount on a new MB vehicle. The time requirement has now been extended back to 30 days; it remains to be seen how much that extra waiting time will affect the ongoing membership increases. I suspect our new member numbers from the program will decrease.

Let’s hope that it still contributes to a fair number of new members; our individual section challenge will still be to retain a fair number of these new members by making them feel valued and welcome. New members should feel so pleased with us that they will want to continue membership in the club. Of course, there may be several different characteristics to new members. People buying cars at the dealer may be different car buyers than many of today’s younger Mercedes Benz vintage car buyers. Elsewhere in this newsletter Dave Tobin has shared a message titled “Generation Shift”,  about who is purchasing vintage cars from long time Mercedes Benz’s owners and club members. Thank you, Dave.

Looking forward to sharing your most recent Mercedes Benz experiences. Happy driving.

President Don Klug

Greetings fellow MBCA Finger Lakes Section members,

 Welcome to 2021 and goodbye 2020!!

 This is usually the issue that we briefly review our past year and introduce our schedule of events for the next year. Even though we haven’t had much opportunity to gather this past year, the good news is that 2021 shows promise. We did manage to enjoy at least two events this year. Our Fall Color Tour Drive in October explored the route 41 corridor along Skaneateles Lake between Cortland and Skaneateles and was hosted by Doug and Bea Archer. It seems that driving our cars as a group, distinctively respects social distance guidelines.

Long time club member Dave Tobin invited FL Section members for a November 15^th Coffee and Donuts event which offered the last opportunity to drive a summer car and visit his location in Horseheads. It was a rare opportunity to view beautiful antique cars. 

We had to unfortunately cancel the balance of our 2020 schedule. Yet, during this lapse in sharing events, your executive board has been active with plans for next year attending zoom meetings with Regional Director Drew Webb, who has kept us informed of National’s actions. It seems that income has been down enough that section rebates were reduced for the balance of 2020. A new national website is scheduled for 2021 and a new national rebate program for dealers of from $500 to $5,500 was initiated for new car buyers that required club membership. As a result, national club membership has increased 3.3% since August 31^st. Our Northeast Regional membership increased by 62 members, a change of 5.6%. This very positive uptick may mean that National can restore local club rebates to their full share.

The 2021 Board will retain Judith Handzo as our Secretary/ Treasurer and Peggy and Oscar Raffo as section webmasters. The Handzo’s are planning to sell their home and move somewhere warm. As a result, we have openings at our executive level, Secretary/Treasurer position, I am told by Judith, the job requires little time.  Rather than burden with regular executive meetings we communicate as needed via e-mail and phone.  Volunteering at the executive level is its’ own reward and a wonderful way to meet so many people enjoying the marque automobile we all love to drive. Yours truly continues to carry on as your section president till our annual meeting.

Three 2021 events have been set and they are listed elsewhere in this Tri-Star issue. We are holding off on the opening of our schedule till June. Our annual meeting for 2021 will be on a date, time and location to be determined in June. Judy Handzo is investigating venues with an expected date announcement in our 2^nd quarter Tri-Star Issue. The annual picnic will again be hosted by longtime member ‘Red” Kozinski on Sunday, July 11^th.  National MBCA Director Jim Roberts asked if our club will host the 2021 Performance Driving Event at Watkins Glen on Wednesday June 16^th. Our club, National and the Lotus, Ltd have held this event for many years now on one of the most desirable tracks in North America. Set your calendars for these events.

We are open to ideas and coordinators for dates in August thru October. A Fall Color Tour is always a ‘crowd pleaser’ which simply needs someone to coordinate. Please feel free to contact me at [email protected] or 315-785-8800 with your thoughts for additional 2021 club events.

Now, allow me to again share some famous words of our past president Bob Handzo, “Enjoy the rest of winter, in the sunny south (Mercedes weather) or the blustery north (possible Mercedes Benz weather with the right vehicle and Blizzak snow tires). Remember the good times had by all when the FLMBCA will gather sooner than we all think”.

  Another reminder, if your membership is coming due, please renew.   Be safe, be healthy and have a wonderful holiday season.

All the Best,

Section President Don Klug

It’s Fall! Many of us are still masked and although we may have spent a little time behind the wheel of our Mercedes these past several months, we still hope to have fun again with our fellow club members. In an attempt to do just that we have our Fall Color Tour scheduled for Friday October 9 th. This is the only club event we feel safe conducting for this season. We can easily social distance ourselves in our cars and drive together from Cortland to Skaneateles while enjoying the colors of fall. Upon arrival at our destination, we plan to enjoy a lunch (that we bring) along side of Skaneateles Lake. Bring a chair. We thank Doug and Bea Archer for coordinating this event. Your club officers have decided to move our annual meeting to late March or early April, 2021, in hope that we see a significant change in our fight against COVID-19. Judy Handzo, our annual meeting coordinator, has several venues in mind and will provide details at a later date. In the meantime, consider joining us October 9th . As well, may I recommend that you enjoy the article in the September- October issue of The Star magazine, ”At The Helm, The history of the steering wheel at Mercedes Benz”, written by Star staff. The article covers the first steering wheel designed for a race in France in 1894 and its evolution through the newest generation, “2020: The Capacitive Steering Wheel “, designed for 2020 Mercedes vehicles. I believe that the article captures the essence of Mercedes Benz continued effort to design and build world class cars and reminds us all of the outstanding leadership engineering we have come to enjoy with Mercedes Benz ownership. Sequestered in the garage with hope for a bright 2021.

Don Klug, Section President