Best smoker barges 1-5 large [Vol 10]

[markh1]

bob-lad said:

Esp as this one's in thread budget. Admittedly a little older and with more miles.
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

It's not a manual though. Can't ever recall seeing a manual 540 touring which is a shame as I would love one!

[BlueHave]

Grunt Futtock said:

markh1 said:

Long time thread lurker here....

thought some of you chaps might find the price of this E39 540 touring manual 'interesting'

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

Looks lovely but I will be interested to see how long they have it at that price

Wow, that is very strong money for a 12 year old 5 series. I suspect they are trying it on in the hope someone has a particular hankering for a 540i touring, to give it fair dues it is in good condition.

They are trying their luck. I'd expect it to drop to half that within a month.

[Lowtimer]

Both 530i manual and 540i manual tourings are very hard to come by. That said, if you buy carefully you can still get a usable E39 M5 for £15K and that's likely to be a far sounder long term investment than a £15K 540i, even though it will need more money spending on it in coming years.

The Cheshire manual 540i is probably lovely, but half that price would be more like it.

[Krikkit]

Lowtimer said:

Both 530i manual and 540i manual tourings are very hard to come by. That said, if you buy carefully you can still get a usable E39 M5 for £15K and that's likely to be a far sounder long term investment than a £15K 540i, even though it will need more money spending on it in coming years.

The Cheshire manual 540i is probably lovely, but half that price would be more like it.

For £15k you could almost buy a minty 540T auto, a ropey M5 and pay someone to marry the two.

[Lowtimer]

Krikkit said:

For £15k you could almost buy a minty 540T auto, a ropey M5 and pay someone to marry the two.

Well... kinda. But much less value destructive to actually run the two cars separately, and in that way you might just about squeak the two for £15K without either being an immediate wallet-buster. The E39 M5 is really not a car you want to go bottom-fishing on, pricewise.

[Krikkit]

I think £20k would comfortably see the project done with a rebuild of most of the drivetrain/suspension, a desirable estate curio to drive, and a considerable pile of parts to flog.

[r129sl]

Jodyone said:

cat220 said:

I know there is lots of love for the 123 on this tread. This was parked a few cars along from me at Bondi beach today. Looked in great condition...

It's lovely. A distant cousin of my car! Somewhat less ratty body though..

I love to see this sort of thing.

[Lowtimer]

Krikkit said:

I think £20k would comfortably see the project done with a rebuild of most of the drivetrain/suspension, a desirable estate curio to drive, and a considerable pile of parts to flog.

As a DIY project for the highly skilled and time-rich mechanic with the right facilities, perhaps. As something with labour charges attached, not a chance.

The problem here is that you're either going to have to start with a beautiful M5, which would cost way too much at the outset, or if you're working with a desperate cheapo M5, you're going to have to replace, rebuild or restore an awful lot of extremely expensive M5 bits along the way, otherwise the labour cost of moving worn out bits from one car to another is completely wasted. It's the cost of restoring a shagged-out M5 into a good M5, and that's easily £20K by itself, plus the cost of the original car, without the complication of the end result being a Touring.

A respectably tidy 540i auto with no rust is £4K. Any E39 M5 which isn't badly misfunctioning is now a minimum of £10K but a seriously rotten MOT failure might be £6K so let's say that. A proper S62 rebuild alone is about £5K to dismantle and inspect properly, replace all the seals and gaskets, rebuild the VANOS, change the chains and tensioner and so on, even if the core engine is not actually broken or worn out. A clutch and flywheel replacement for an M5 is about £1700 at dealer rates, about £1000 done by a good indy. While you're there you'll need to do the prop centre bearing and guibo. Call that another £500. Replacing the dual MAFs is about £500 all in, a set of discs and pads is £1000 fitted. The diff seals on any cheap M5 will need doing: that's a £250 job.

That's before you start looking at the suspension, all of which is going to be completely shot on any bargain-basement M5 - obviously you wouldn't pay the labour cost of completely removing the 540i suspension and replacing it with the M5 suspension without replacing the springs (the Touring comes on air springs at the rear), the dampers and every single piece of rubber. Or the actual labour of converting the auto car top manual, shifting over as many of the interior trim items as you can afford (e.g. the front seats, which will probably need a full retrim as the saloon rear seats won't go into a Touring so they won't match).

The crap rotten M5 will need a complete set of staggered wheel refurbs and new tyres, call that £400 for the wheels, £600 for the tyres.

And everything else that I've forgotten about, but you get the drift.

Edited by Lowtimer on Thursday 21st April 16:39

[Usget]

cat220 said:

I know there is lots of love for the 123 on this tread. This was parked a few cars along from me at Bondi beach today. Looked in great condition...

I remember seeing that car when I was at Bondi!

[cat220]

Usget said:

cat220 said:

I know there is lots of love for the 123 on this tread. This was parked a few cars along from me at Bondi beach today. Looked in great condition...

I remember seeing that car when I was at Bondi!

Small world! Great to see these cars still being used properly! Looked very cool (well at least to me)

[r129sl]

cat220 said:

Usget said:

cat220 said:

I know there is lots of love for the 123 on this tread. This was parked a few cars along from me at Bondi beach today. Looked in great condition...

I remember seeing that car when I was at Bondi!

Small world! Great to see these cars still being used properly! Looked very cool (well at least to me)

Buy your own here. Way out of budget but the roof boxes alone warrant the rule breaking. That and the photo location: gravel, grass, country cottage all rolled into one. Shame there's no mention of mileage and shame also it's a manual, although in reality that probably makes it much easier to drive in fast-moving traffic.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1986-Mercedes-Benz-300TD...

[glenmore3685]

r129sl said:

Shame there's no mention of mileage

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1986-Mercedes-Benz-300TD...

208k back in August

[Stegel]

[quote=r129sl

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1986-Mercedes-Benz-300TD...


[/quote]

The vendor has a couple of interesting lots - his photography "house style" varies rather a lot, I wonder if he hired in the grass and gravel for this car and thinks the back street bomb-site more fitting for its shabbier brother.

[TheLordJohn]

Stegel said:

The vendor has a couple of interesting lots - his photography "house style" varies rather a lot, I wonder if he hired in the grass and gravel for this car and thinks the back street bomb-site more fitting for its shabbier brother.

8 grand!? Jesus, holy mother of Mary. What a scandalous waste of money that'd be.
I don't know what's wrong with me, or with you lot, but aside from a very select few, I just can't get into older Mercs at all.

[olly755]

markh1 said:

Long time thread lurker here....

thought some of you chaps might find the price of this E39 540 touring manual 'interesting'

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

Looks lovely but I will be interested to see how long they have it at that price

Not sure which comedian came up with the price, but in any case they are superb machines and the 6 speed manual suits them well. As good a do-it-all car as I can think of. From memory, the number of facelift manual V8 Sport Tourings sold could be counted on two hands.

Although that car is probably at an age and stage where little has been required in the way of replacement parts so far, but that time is approaching. Money will need to be spent. Start the price with a 4, and it becomes interesting.

I really enjoyed my 540i/6 tourer, and still not sure to this day why I sold it (to Mr Gonzales, occasionally of this parish). I blame a new baby at the time and the associated pickling of brain that goes with it. For reference to compare with the one above, I can't remember the purchase and subsequent sale figure, but it began with a 2.

[forzaminardi]

BrabusMog said:

PowerslideSWE said:

JF87 said:

Blackety-black LWB 4.2 Sovereign, threadbare and slightly iffy ad but a full year's ticket and apparently FSH. £1.1K so far with three days left.



www.ebay.co.uk/itm/56-JAGUAR-XJ8-V8-SOVEREIGN-LWB-...

I wonder what it goes for in the end. A similar in Sweden is more than 10 times the cost of that...Could I live with the steering wheel on the wrong side? I reckon I could.

My 6 series is coming over with me for 5/6 weeks from end of May as I'll need to go from Göteborg to Jonköping 5 or 6 times and I don't fancy doing it in a rental Yaris, I'll let you know how I get on

Pretty sure that was on Autotrader for around £3k a few weeks ago - someone recommended it to me when I asked about cheapo barge suggestions. Looks very similar anyway.

[lostkiwi]

This has potential with a bit of haggling:
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...



Looks reasonable aside from a slightly odd shut line on the bonnet front edge.

[TheLordJohn]

Stegel said:

The vendor has a couple of interesting lots - his photography "house style" varies rather a lot, I wonder if he hired in the grass and gravel for this car and thinks the back street bomb-site more fitting for its shabbier brother.

8 grand!? Jesus, holy mother of Mary. What a scandalous waste of money that'd be.
I don't know what's wrong with me, or with you lot, but aside from a very select few, I just can't get into older Mercs at all.

[Grunt Futtock]

lostkiwi said:

This has potential with a bit of haggling:
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...



Looks reasonable aside from a slightly odd shut line on the bonnet front edge.

Bit of a sleepy hollow vibe going on in that photo though....

[Stegel]

Grunt Futtock said:

lostkiwi said:

This has potential with a bit of haggling:
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...



Looks reasonable aside from a slightly odd shut line on the bonnet front edge.

Bit of a sleepy hollow vibe going on in that photo though....

I was going to say it looks like the NS bonnet latch has not caught, but looking at the wing / bumper alignment I'm not so sure. Don't MM SLs have a plaque of some sort within the interior or am I mistaken - I would expect to see a picture of that in the ad.