Best smoker barges 1-5 large [vol8]

[MJK 24]

Ferrari 550 purchase - living the dream! Bella macchina! Enjoy :-)

[PlayersNo6]

0a said:

Needs reambering http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1989-G-Mercedes-Benz-190...

50k miles and £2k. Manual though.

Very similar to my old one (a lowly 1.8 manual but I loved it) :



Not sure about 'THE CLUTCH AND GEAR CHANGE ARE SILKY SMOOTH' bit...

[Blown2CV]

550 in the barge thread, glad someone's done it! Top of thread Budget clearly blown several times over but there we go!

[cat220]

harrykul, love the 550, fantastic piece of kit, perfect for euro trips and weekends up the west coast!

[derin100]

harrykul said:

derin100 said:

Hence my wife's S124 E320 may be going up for sale on Ebay soon

Dang, I just put my S124 E320 up for sale- now I've got no chance!

Edited by harrykul on Tuesday 2nd June 23:42

Sorry for the very late update, Chaps but I've just got in from Barge buying! Left a deposit on the E39 525i Saloon and will hopefully get it some time next week. It's lovely...I think anyway.

Harry! Have no fear regarding my wife's S124 E320. It's decent enough but by no means a show car. It's got 180K miles on the clock and gets used a lot for all duties...school runs, trips to the dump, lugging furniture (even sofas!), most recently a huge load full of stuff from IKEA! Has plenty of good points but also bad points.

[derin100]

r129sl said:

derin100 said:

W00DY said:

derin100 said:

W00DY said:

0a said:

derin100 said:

Agree with all of the above!

Cool car with great luggage carrying capacity and build quality...too much wind noise at speed. Hence my wife's S124 E320 may be going up for sale on Ebay soon pending the outcome of a phone call that I'm expecting regarding an alternative Barge with a blue and white stylised aircraft propeller symbol on the bonnet in the next 10 mins.

You will regret it

This is true.

This maybe true....but I doubt it.


Sadly, for other reasons which I won't go into here but which are now resting very uncomfortably with me, W124s but even more so the Mercedes fraternity in general are no longer particularly "Flavour of the Month" with me anymore. This is especially so at this present moment in time.

I have become very "disenfranchised" to say the least and it's now time for me to go back to "the hole" that they think I came from, m'thinks...which was always BMWs. I will sell off my Mercs, at whatever costs to get rid of them... then stick to BMWs in the future.

It's not the cars....it's the people.

Oh dear.


As the forefront of all Mercedes knowledge and passion appears to belong to members of this thread, then I can only apologise for our behaviour.

And why is everyone keen to get out of S124s at the moment, is there something I should know?

It's not here Woody...it 's their "Club" (and that's the most important word i.e "club") that is inhabited by self-satisfied but more importantly self-serving A-holes.

Oh dear indeed. What has happened?

I don't want to say here Jonathan but I'll email you.

[derin100]

Stegel said:

derin100 said:

It's not here Woody...it 's their "Club" (and that's the most important word i.e "club") that is inhabited by self-satisfied but more importantly self-serving A-holes.

The club is great for the technical resource but you don't have to spend much time near it to become exasperated by the attitude of some members / officials. Not enough to make me walk away from MB, but I can see your point.


I echo Woody's comment - this 124 exodus is quite worrying!

Yes, it's exactly this!

[derin100]

S3_Graham said:

I don't want to sell my 124, mines purely for the practical reason that a 300-24 with 200K+ isnt really ideal for a 100mile a day commute. From a money point of view, not reliability or comfort!

I have similar feelings Graham. An E320 is really too big an engine for my wife's purposes. And it's not really the car or even the model's fault at all (because they are great cars) but I really (sadly) feel disenfranchised.

Not related to the latest "incident" but as a marker of the "tossers"....When I sold my W202 C240 with a genuine 14K (yes, fourteen!) on the clock to a local MB Club member, who is a very nice chap, I got snide comments on their forum because I had advertised it on my website ande my website happens to be called "BMWCLASSICS". Yes, it says "BMW" in the title but this drew purile enough comments that the chap who bought to felt compelled to defend me:

http://www.bmwclassics.co.uk/Mercedes_C240/index.h...

One of the main reasons I sold it was because I was told that if I entered it into one of their "concours competitions" I would be immediately docked points simply because the mileage was so low. WTF?! And now since then they've apparently changed their rules. Yeah, that's right guys make the rules up as you go along to suit each other.

[derin100]

dbdb said:

derin100 said:

This maybe true....but I doubt it.


Sadly, for other reasons which I won't go into here but which are now resting very uncomfortably with me, W124s but even more so the Mercedes fraternity in general are no longer particularly "Flavour of the Month" with me anymore. This is especially so at this present moment in time.

I have become very "disenfranchised" to say the least and it's now time for me to go back to "the hole" that they think I came from, m'thinks...which was always BMWs. I will sell off my Mercs, at whatever costs to get rid of them... then stick to BMWs in the future.

It's not the cars....it's the people.

It is sad to see some mongtwazzle has spoiled things. I think you should take a moment out before you actually sell though. It may well be that you still decide to sell, but decisions made in the heat of the moment are do not always turn out to be the right ones.

The reason I say this is not potential money losses or costs, it is simply that if you do find yourself hankering after a W124 again, you will struggle to find as nice a car easily. They're old nowadays - most W124s are a bit rough round the edges.

You may ultimately be right dbdb. But W124s have now left a bad taste in my mouth....this whole issue relates to the white Coupe actually and not my wife's S124.

To rub salt into the wound, today I was just driving away from a local retail park car-park that I had stopped in to eat my sandwich at lunchtime when in rolled my ex-230CE that I sold a couple of years ago! Still looking great and still going strong! And that car was not as good or had anywhere near the time and money spent on it that the white Coupe has had:

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

[derin100]

Anyway...sorry to hog the thread Chaps with my anger!

I'm a little clearer of mind tonight.

And now back on track with far more interesting things....Harry, that Ferrari...what a fantastic looking car...it's just great! Congratulations, Sir!

You must have been $hitting it when it was being inspected to see if it was ok?

[harrykul]

Thanks for your comments on the new steed guys- it's a lovely thing.

Derin, I was bricking it alright- but even more so in the rain and flooding around Antwerp: imagine if I binned it before getting home!

Just to elaborate before we move on- the car being a "good un" means that it only needs about barge thread budget spent on it in the next year to make it perfect!!

Edited by harrykul on Thursday 4th June 08:22

[QuantumTokoloshi]

Harry, that is n absolutely beautiful car, congratulations. You are the man who has given a new definition to bargain barges!

[mccrackenj]

harrykul said:

Thanks for your comments on the new steed guys- it's a lovely thing.

Derin, I was bricking it alright- but even more so in the rain and flooding around Antwerp: imagine if I binned it before getting home!

Just to elaborate before we move on- the car being a "good un" means that it only needs about barge thread budget spent on it in the next year to make it perfect!!

Edited by harrykul on Thursday 4th June 08:22

Hi Harry

Glad you got back in one piece, the 550 looks amazing. I can't imagine what it would be like to drive something like that, or even to be able to look in one's garage/driveway (or barn) every day and see it sitting there. Congrats.

Was it the plan all along to drop it off in London for a check over? When do you expect to get it home?

[Krikkit]

Ooh, that 550 is wibble-tastic. Congrats Harry, hope it gives you some trouble-free time!

[JZZ30]

More 550 love here, fantastic!

The E39 is still a favorite of mine, just not sure about Red

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/S-BMW-535-AUTOMATIC-LOW-...


But this looks like a good example (if pricey)

[E65Ross]

Big congrats to harrykul on the 550, I'm sure it will bring you many happy times

[derin100]

JZZ30 said:

More 550 love here, fantastic!

The E39 is still a favorite of mine, just not sure about Red

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/S-BMW-535-AUTOMATIC-LOW-...


But this looks like a good example (if pricey)

Not sure about the red on an E39 either TBH.

But I don't think the price is bad given the mileage and spec? I'm duty bound to say that now because that's less the amount I'm going to be paying for the 525iSE Saloon that I'm buying!

[1Rb]

Very cheap sl500. Cursory google of ASR fault looks like it could be costly and/or time consuming but sure the beards would have a better idea.

http://retrorides.proboards.com/thread/178302/1991...

[W00DY]

So after 8 volumes I think we are all in agreement that the best smoker barge 1-5 large is in act a Ferrari 550. Congratulations Harry! Such a dream car for me that as a child I had two scale models of one.


In less wild news, like an addict who has relapsed, I'm already back in a '124 with thanks to benjj for a good deal on a nice motor.



Quite different to the last one. Cruise and electric steering column make for even more relaxed cruising. The new exhaust sounds pretty fruity, so it may need a check over, but for now I'm enjoying the soundtrack.

[W00DY]

1Rb said:

Very cheap sl500. Cursory google of ASR fault looks like it could be costly and/or time consuming but sure the beards would have a better idea.

http://retrorides.proboards.com/thread/178302/1991...

Looks like a good punt.