Is this Forum alive? Speedo Repair?

I too am here and do look in almost daily on week days but rarely contribute now. It seems those who wanted what they needed have taken the fruit and gone else where. 

In my opinion the GWOA did have a lot going on but certain limitations posed a limit to its library of knowledge; my experience on G-Wagen spans from the early W460's of UK model only ranging to the W463's of early 2000. The newer models' knowledge is purely acadamic and with the World moving on puts me out of touch on the latter models and with no further Continous Professional Develepment I have stagnated and find other do have a lot more information to offer than I was able to do. 

Overall the GWOA does offer a good deal, it could be better obviously but this requires funding and staffing, our current volunteers are doing a fancastic job behind the scenes and their efforts usually go un-noticed. 

What else can I say, yes the club seems to be quiter but also I feel that the new intake of G-Wagen owners is slowing down as there is an availability issue at the right price for them; the newer G-Wagens are so much out of  many peoples range and such owners wil likely go to a authorised Mercedes Benz G-Wagen fraternatity.

Please suggest how we can do better.

 

All forums are dying .. Facebook killed them but now that seems on a downcycle. It is odd as it is harder to find actual info now that is not over 5 years old now because of this and FB seems to be less info orientated. I am a 50 year dinosaur who never went FB and started long enough ago to remember dial modems; when I quiz online media folk about this lack of info generation I seem to get no answers but it does seem to be an instant pictures/chat stream is what most folk now have and not a deep info stream on what part can be used to replace an obsolete part for example. A lot of that info was generated in the first 5 years so less info is required to be generated as you can find it in the forums where they are still running. I keep on meaning to get my website up and running, then expand it out as there is a place for info rich sites – guess it could be monetarised a bit with pop up adverts but it is not the rational however it takes time and money..

I wanted to move from a SWB to a LWB but when I see the prices on 460 ,, they all seem to be pimped 483 G55 look alikes or expensive restos. So who is going to buy a £12-14k-20k G and then DIY the work.. that is territory of the garage/clean hands brigade who park up their appreciated asset but do not use it. So there is little real work being done and hence info created, allied with the rise of FB means the forum dries up.

Meantime I check on here every week or two and pay my GWOA dues to keep it running. The G is a snow mobile for me but I did not MOT it last winter. I must do it this winter, last winter I ended up in the wife’s old Mk1 RAV4 which is maybe a better fit for my needs if not as capable. The W163 ML500 is now the wife’s transport; again not as capable (the wipers are dangerously useless in deep snow!!) but with chains it probably does as well as the G – but having to pull them off is a right pain. Humm.. nice early LWB 463 280 or 500 with lpg would be nice but maybe a 460 280 with lpg would be more sensible. Long term we will all get legislated off the road by insurance companies refusing to insure non self-driving cars IMHO – maybe those non driving garage assets have something!

Time to hand over the batton and update the forum platform if this club is ever going to get any traffic/spark any decent new conversation/get new members.

Everything is so dated and just looks like the attitude of the committme is "we aren't bothered anymore"

 

Time to spend some of the £25 memberships and update things or it's just going to tread water forever, I'm sure the founders wouldn't want it to just exist considering the following.

 

 

"During 1994 Bill Jones was entering Hillrallies with a Mercedes Benz 280GES.   He discovered that breaking things became expensive, and tried to source cheaper ways of doing it.   To get help, and pass on what he had discovered, he thought aboutr enlisting the help of other G Wagen owners.   He wrote a letter, which was published in Off Road and Four Wheel Drive magazine, asking interested owners to get in touch with him.   He had 40 replies, and from this, the G Wagen Owners Association was born.  

The first Annual General Meeting took place in Rawenstall, Lancashire in March 1995.   Those attending formed a committee, and decided on the future of the club, and its aims.   The first consideration was communication with members, and so it was decided that a quartely magazine should be published.   The first issue of G Wizz, the club magazine, followed in the summer of 1995.   By attending shows and word of mouth, the membership numbers gradually increased, and the services offered to members widened.  

Ten years ago, our first website came online.   This led to an increase in membership, and a greater geographical spread of members.   A few years later, this website was revamped, and included a forum for the first time.   The ease with which members from all over the world could communicate with each other soon established the forum as one of the greatest facilities that the club could offer.   The membership increased steadily as a result, and we now have over 350 members on all continents of the world.  

Our latest website offers even greater facilities for members, as well as a forum available to any G Wagen owner.   However, our aim is still as it was in 1995, to make G Wagen ownership a pleasure, to offer advice and expertise to members of the club and to give members the opportunity to meet and communicate with other members."

 

 

Time to add another chapter to this, clubs like this need to evolve or be left behind which is a real shame considering the history.

A relatively small number of active posters can generate a huge volume of traffic, unfortunately some of our most prolific writers have left and some joined the [in my view] secretive G Wagen register. I won't name them but a glance back in time for any reader can easily find them. Perhaps they will return, I do hope so, however that too seems to have been suffering internal conflict. With which we must wish them well.

The oither reason is that very many owners are now in their 60's and 70's and other things take priority. What is without doubt though is that the technical knowledge on this forum has no parrallel, both from current experts but within our archived material 

"some joined the [in my view] secretive G Wagen register"

You are entitled to your view...

...if anyone comes to one of the many meets and trips they might however see otherwise ;0)

It's free for everybody if they want to contribute positively ;0) Well over a thousand members!

Is that so bad though?

You could always join, at no financial cost, with a lot of false details if that's a concern.

Pretty sure you have to join and pay the annual fee to access some of the content on this site (which I'm happy to have done)

Why would you need to use false details? I'm intrigued!

Are you secrectly a member of the GRU? ;0)

It will only die if we let it!

And wouldn't that be a terrible shame.

For me, Facebook and the like are of no interest.

Clubs, sites, forums etc like this - populated by the full range of owners and enthusiasts and packed with useful information - are just vital for keeping such cars on the road. The sort of actions that would help to keep it going have been discussed here before but not many here can or have given it more of their time yet.

As there are so few of these cars around, compared to other special-interest cars, perhaps the time has come (as suggested above) to positively combine efforts with the other G-related clubs and sites and have one, positive, dynamic, active, informative entity (with regional sub-sections for gatherings?).

I am relatively new here so probably don't deserve an opinion, but I'm guessing the five new members I see have joined don't want to start off their experience here reading about how the place is dying.

Just my 2p - best wishes and happy G-motoring to all.

I'm here, not often as there was a period when I not could not login to the site.

I am here.

 

I am back also. I had a few years away when my G was SORN but I got another and came back to find it much quieter and fragmented because other sites popped up (of frustration). I normally keep a tab open all day and check regularly, but due to corporate IT issues that stopped(!!). Sorted that now. My G is having a replacement engine fitted and I woke this morning to a dream that on firing it up, it was knocking badly :( Hopefully that will not be the case. I will let you know. Maybe it prompted this visit after a few weeks. My summary in the end ... I think GWOA needs to freshen up and move to a new web platform. I manage half a dozen websites so I realise some of the work required to do this, but it is needed. We need a better forum. Where you can navigate easier, post images and video easier, like and dislike comments, rate responses, tag items etc etc. BUT, the big value is in the historical collection of advice and knowledge. So that has to be ported and be searchable. I am sure that could be done, even if as a block of archive material on new site. And then the volunteers need to make a little more time to post updates. I know the enthusiasm drops off, so engage new editors for this from time to time and let them loose on it. I would do a bit.