Best Smoker Barges 1-5 large [Vol 5]

[bmthnick1981]

Not seen one of these end around £4k before;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MERCEDES-S600-Bi-Turbo-V...

0-60 in 4.8 for these and around 190mph with the limiter removed IIRC

[richardxjr]

6 cyls, 7 brown seats, gingers, working a/c, 88k, home counties, £2750.





http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C398143#

[Hammerhead]

Dee brown ledder, it make me horny

[Fox-]

bmthnick1981 said:

Not seen one of these end around £4k before;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MERCEDES-S600-Bi-Turbo-V...

0-60 in 4.8 for these and around 190mph with the limiter removed IIRC

I thought only the facelift ones were turbocharged..

[derin100]

Re: That E39 530 Sport:

sparks_E39 said:

Fox- said:

Just serviced but overdue a brake fluid change?

Yeah... saw that. Bit odd. Missing pixels is a non issue as it's a cheap fix. Hmm...

Neither would be a reason to turn-up on what looks like a potentially very good buy though?

[sparks_E39]

derin100 said:

Re: That E39 530 Sport:

sparks_E39 said:

Fox- said:

Just serviced but overdue a brake fluid change?

Yeah... saw that. Bit odd. Missing pixels is a non issue as it's a cheap fix. Hmm...

Neither would be a reason to turn-up on what looks like a potentially very good buy though?

True.

[Rollcage]

stropley said:

How about not one, not two . . . but three 540iA tourings for thread budget?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1997-BMW-540I-TOURING-AU...

[img]http://i.ebayimg.com/t/1997-BMW-540I-TOURING-AUTO-BLUE-THREE-AVAILABLE-starting -at-1395-/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/Kb4AAMXQiNdRfZO0/$T2eC16ZHJHkFFmD8zgTvBRfZO0Rglg~~60_12.JPG[/img]

No mention of mileage in the ad for the first blue one?

I'm prepared to be shouted down here, but he's sorely mistaken if he thinks (as he states in the ad) that they are now the cheapest they will ever be. I'd imagine they have a fair way to go yet, depreciation wise, with no guarantee they will ever really rise.

[Fox-]

Rollcage said:

I'd imagine they have a fair way to go yet, depreciation wise

They are already worthless. How can they have a fair way to go? That would mean they'd have to be worth a fair amount first, which they are not. One of them is 1200 quid - thats it. It's depreciated. It is worthless. Finished now. It's always going to be worth within a few hundred quid of that.

Edited by Fox- on Tuesday 18th June 19:20

[Baryonyx]

edo said:

Another 'charged Xj.

The quartersawn wood on the glovebox cover is lovely.

[Rollcage]

Fox- said:

Rollcage said:

I'd imagine they have a fair way to go yet, depreciation wise

They are already worthless. How can they have a fair way to go? That would mean they'd have to be worth a fair amount first, which they are not.

I mean they will be commonly for sale for under £1000 soon enough.

Not too many people would pay £2300 for an R reg V8 dipsomaniac with high maintenance costs these days, and the leggier ones will get cheaper and cheaper.

Just makes them bigger and better bargains for the few prepared to buy them i guess!

[slippery]

Fox- said:

I thought only the facelift ones were turbocharged..

You thought right. That ain't no bi-turbo.

[derin100]

richardxjr said:

6 cyls, 7 brown seats, gingers, working a/c, 88k, home counties, £2750.





http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C398143#

These cars look good value when one looks at that purchase price.

However, I got my white 300CE back tonight. It's still nowhere near finished and so I don't know what the final cost will eventually come to but put it this way:

The cost (just in monetary terms alone) that has gone into it so far already exceeds the purchase price of that estate car by comfortably 2.5 times!

I estimate (if I'm lucky) that the final cost will be bewteen £8-9K.

Even my 230CE has cost me £8K. Ok, so we can substract £1500 to replace the engine after the unforseen calamity...but it was still over £6K to get it to this...and you still wouldn't say it's a 'perfect' car. It still has its 'foibles' and things that could be better. I don't believe these cars can ever be 'perfect' without literally 10s of £Thousands spending on them. If you're going to do that you may as well do it on something that 'the market' is going to pay you handsomely for at the end of it like a Pagoda (rightly or wrongly because I know what is the far better car to own and drive). I've had the 230CE advertised for quite a while now at a £2500 LOSS. I've had one total time-waster and one 'possible' but "not before October etc etc".

http://www.bmwclassics.co.uk/Mercedes_C124_230CE/i...

The white 300CE will (sadly) mostly definitely be my last project.

Edited by derin100 on Tuesday 18th June 22:24

[bmthnick1981]

slippery said:

Fox- said:

I thought only the facelift ones were turbocharged..

You thought right. That ain't no bi-turbo.

Ahh ok. How can you tell? Were the bi-turbo's facelift only as Fox says or is there some other tell tale sign?

[r129sl]

derin100 said:

richardxjr said:

6 cyls, 7 brown seats, gingers, working a/c, 88k, home counties, £2750.





http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C398143#

These cars look good value when one looks at that purchase price.

However, I got my white 300CE back tonight. It's still nowhere near finished and so I don't know what the final cost will eventually come to but put it this way:

The cost (just in monetary terms alone) that has gone into it so far already exceeds the purchase price of that estate car by comfortably 2.5 times!

I estimate (if I'm lucky) that the final cost will be bewteen £8-9K.

Even my 230CE has cost me £8K. Ok, so we can substract £1500 to replace the engine after the unforseen calamity...but it was still over £6K to get it to this...and you still wouldn't say it's a 'perfect' car. It still has its 'foibles' and things that could be better. I don't believe these cars can ever be 'perfect' without literally 10s of £Thousands spending on them. If you're going to do that you may as well do it on something that 'the market' is going to pay you handsomely for at the end of it like a Pagoda (rightly or wrongly because I know what is the far better car to own and drive). I've had the 230CE advertised for quite a while now at a £2500 LOSS. I've had one total time-waster and one 'possible' but "not before October etc etc".

http://www.bmwclassics.co.uk/Mercedes_C124_230CE/i...

The white 300CE will (sadly) mostly definitely be my last project.

Edited by derin100 on Tuesday 18th June 22:24

How come so many high specification smoke silver 300 TE-24s are on the market? There's this one, there's our old friend on the Bay (which curiously is not shifting) and then there was the Lincolnshire bargain of a fortnight ago. This latest is the best if the mileage is true. It has everything except heated seats and a fire extinguisher.

Anyway Derin, I know what you mean. My 260,000mile E300 diesel T is going in next week for (1) new steering box and (2) new steering links and bushes. That'll be another £1,000 all told. When I have the bodywork titivated next month (two wings, bit of rust on the n/s/r door frame, de-dinged, waist down respray), I'd have thought I'll be up to £9k or £10k. Anybody sane would have leased a new E220 CDI Estate.

But I wouldn't have it any other way.

[SuperHangOn]

^^ Really don't know how you manage it!

This looks nice (and possibly bargain basement if you're lucky)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-540I-TOURING-AUTO-GR...

[slippery]

bmthnick1981 said:

Ahh ok. How can you tell? Were the bi-turbo's facelift only as Fox says or is there some other tell tale sign?

Fox is right. 2003 MY onwards IIRC. The difference between the two is substantial.

[CampDavid]

SuperHangOn said:

This looks nice (and possibly bargain basement if you're lucky)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-540I-TOURING-AUTO-GR...

What a lovely thing at a lovely price. Could do worse

[edo]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MERCEDES-CL500-AUTO-GREE...

[longblackcoat]

derin100 said:

richardxjr said:

6 cyls, 7 brown seats, gingers, working a/c, 88k, home counties, £2750.





http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C398143#

These cars look good value when one looks at that purchase price.

However, I got my white 300CE back tonight. It's still nowhere near finished and so I don't know what the final cost will eventually come to but put it this way:

The cost (just in monetary terms alone) that has gone into it so far already exceeds the purchase price of that estate car by comfortably 2.5 times!

I estimate (if I'm lucky) that the final cost will be bewteen £8-9K.

Even my 230CE has cost me £8K. Ok, so we can substract £1500 to replace the engine after the unforseen calamity...but it was still over £6K to get it to this...and you still wouldn't say it's a 'perfect' car. It still has its 'foibles' and things that could be better. I don't believe these cars can ever be 'perfect' without literally 10s of £Thousands spending on them. If you're going to do that you may as well do it on something that 'the market' is going to pay you handsomely for at the end of it like a Pagoda (rightly or wrongly because I know what is the far better car to own and drive). I've had the 230CE advertised for quite a while now at a £2500 LOSS. I've had one total time-waster and one 'possible' but "not before October etc etc".

http://www.bmwclassics.co.uk/Mercedes_C124_230CE/i...

The white 300CE will (sadly) mostly definitely be my last project.

Edited by derin100 on Tuesday 18th June 22:24

I like nice cars - unsurprisingly, given that this is Pistonheads - but don't like to spend money on new ones. At the moment I'm driving a GL420 which cost me a little over one-fifth of its original purchase price (the original owner specced it with just about every option known to mankind, and a list price a smidge under £100k). It has high running costs, which I have no problems with; it's all part of the game of super-barging where I play at looking like a 3rd world dictator.

The attraction of a good 124 is obvious, and I'd happily buy one for, say, £5-7k knowing that the fuel consumption would be poor, the maintenance costs would be higher, and that I'd get bitten every so often for something expensive like a suspension refresh or a torque convertor reconditioning. That's OK and in my man-maths world, a bit of a bargain.

But I'm not sure I'd be prepared to buy a cheap one and try to obsessively re-build it to better-than-factory specification, knowing that the only person I'd be pleasing would be myself, and that I was chucking money down a drain. To me that's dangerously close to classic car territory, where all of a sudden you wake up and realise that you have an intimate knowledge of autojumbling, are able to recite a car-detailing regimen in your sleep and sre, in fact, the chairman of the local branch of your Mercedes Owners Club.

Essentially, barges at £1-2k are (in my mind at least) usually too far gone - these are expensive cars, and even from new the maintenance spend is high, and has to be continuous, otherwise you end up with exactly Derin's problem of needing to throw many thousands of pounds at a car to get it right. Over the years I've found it more cost/time-effective to do it my way - pay a bit more, restore/fix a bit less. And actually drive the car, rather than have it sitting on the drive/in the garage with a grumpy wife complaining that "you spend all your time fiddling with that thing".

[louiebaby]

CampDavid said:

SuperHangOn said:

This looks nice (and possibly bargain basement if you're lucky)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-540I-TOURING-AUTO-GR...

What a lovely thing at a lovely price. Could do worse

Have the nostrils lost their chrome surrounds? I dislike the beige interior on these, and they're not my favourite wheels, but I know some people like them. Looks like an ideal smoker though, buy on condition, and cross your fingers a bit.