Best Smoker Barges 1-5 large [Vol 4]

[jonnydm]

Fox- said:

jonnydm said:

Bad era Merc, missing a few key images but does seem honest.

You seem to be able to tell a lot from a few pics and a vague advert!

My hunch seems to be correct. If I was more interested, I'd ask for more pics but I've received an email from a chap's work account that lists a website and twitter account at the bottom.

Apparently no mechanical issues/ rust, serviced in May and based in N London.

[Quietlybonkers]

Merc E320 CDI Avantgarde estate with £7k worth of extras. New price £41,025.

Purchase price with 150k miles in June 2009 (2001 Y car) was £4830
Sale price with 225k miles inJan 2012 was £1000

Serviced every 19,000 miles, bought just serviced, sold without servicing, so only three services.
Non-service expenditure was tyres (very standard 17 inchers, so not pricey, and £1300 on a fuel valve fault , de-sooting the engine and replacing a broken intercooler.

Returned 38mpg throughout.

That's what I call good barging!

[richardxjr]

Quietlybonkers said:

Merc E320 CDI Avantgarde estate with £7k worth of extras. New price £41,025.

Purchase price with 150k miles in June 2009 (2001 Y car) was £4830
Sale price with 225k miles inJan 2012 was £1000

Serviced every 19,000 miles, bought just serviced, sold without servicing, so only three services.
Non-service expenditure was tyres (very standard 17 inchers, so not pricey, and £1300 on a fuel valve fault , de-sooting the engine and replacing a broken intercooler.

Returned 38mpg throughout.

That's what I call good barging!

Nearly free.

Depreciation and bork cost you 7p/mile, but the saving in the devil's fuel over, say, 24mpg petrol is 8p/mile

[SpeckledJim]

Quietlybonkers said:

Merc E320 CDI Avantgarde estate with £7k worth of extras. New price £41,025.

Purchase price with 150k miles in June 2009 (2001 Y car) was £4830
Sale price with 225k miles inJan 2012 was £1000

Serviced every 19,000 miles, bought just serviced, sold without servicing, so only three services.
Non-service expenditure was tyres (very standard 17 inchers, so not pricey, and £1300 on a fuel valve fault , de-sooting the engine and replacing a broken intercooler.

Returned 38mpg throughout.

That's what I call good barging!

I can tell a similar story. W210 E320 CDi Avantgarde Saloon, also 2001 on a Y-plate.

One owner car, before I bought it this spring for £1900 at 116,000. No rust, and clearly a proper chap.

Issues so far (4,000 miles):

Glitchy gear selector making starting a hit-and-miss affair
Wheels need refurb
Electrochromatic wing mirror glass losing its juice

Issues I've done nothing about yet:

See above.

Costs overall:
£35 MOT (pass, no advisories)
£160 for two Pirelli P-Zero Rosso (235/45/17 I think)

Just scraping 40mpg on long-term average. 30 round town and 50 on the motorway.

[hornetrider]

SpeckledJim said:

Issues so far (4,000 miles):

Glitchy gear selector making starting a hit-and-miss affair
Wheels need refurb
Electrochromatic wing mirror glass losing its juice

Issues I've done nothing about yet:

See above.

[Quietlybonkers]

I think you will find a replacement photochromatic new mirror glass prohibitively expensive. Dronsfields could possibly supply a used one - they did me a rear seat belt for an ML at 25% of the new price.

[SpeckledJim]

hornetrider said:

SpeckledJim said:

Issues so far (4,000 miles):

Glitchy gear selector making starting a hit-and-miss affair
Wheels need refurb
Electrochromatic wing mirror glass losing its juice

Issues I've done nothing about yet:

See above.

Oh, something I have done something about though - de-yellowing the headlamp lenses. Took an hour with various grades of wet and dry, and a rotary polisher with cutting compound. Great result, considering how total a disaster I'd thought I'd made of it half way through. Very satisfying process.

[SpeckledJim]

Quietlybonkers said:

I think you will find a replacement photochromatic new mirror glass prohibitively expensive. Dronsfields could possibly supply a used one - they did me a rear seat belt for an ML at 25% of the new price.

Heart-stoppingly so. As the fluid drains (about 15mm gone now) the mirror seems pretty clear, so I'm going to remove, butcher and replace. If that doesn't work, It'll be £14 from eBay for a heated but not too-clever-by-half-dimming one.

[V8Wagon]

Oh lordy....I like it!

Bit of a rarity here....Spanish 540 Sport Tourer anyone?

Not keen on the rims but that's about it.

Oh yeh, I'd rather it was cheaper too!

http://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-motorbikes/ultr...




This one looks a bit more shedlike, typical Gumtree fodder. Those headlights are new to me, nice wooden steering wheel and check out the flagpole!

http://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-motorbikes/rare...

Edited by V8Wagon on Thursday 18th October 00:30

[Quietlybonkers]

V8Wagon said:

Oh lordy....I like it!

Bit of a rarity here....Spanish 540 Sport Tourer anyone?

Not keen on the rims but that's about it.

Oh yeh, I'd rather it was cheaper too!

http://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-motorbikes/ultr...

Edited by V8Wagon on Wednesday 17th October 23:16

Strange thing, taste? I usually hate anything brash (even my TVR is navy blue and quiet - relatively!), but my first thought was "nice wheels"

[jonnydm]

hornetrider said:

SpeckledJim said:

Issues so far (4,000 miles):

Glitchy gear selector making starting a hit-and-miss affair
Wheels need refurb
Electrochromatic wing mirror glass losing its juice

Issues I've done nothing about yet:

See above.

Thats barging.

Like the 540i6T Sport above lots - not many of them about, only the second or third I've ever seen for sale. Don't like the ACS rims.

[GBB]

V8Wagon said:

This one looks a bit more shedlike, typical Gumtree fodder. Those headlights are new to me, nice wooden steering wheel and check out the flagpole!

http://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-motorbikes/rare...

IIRC those are US Spec headlights?

[louiebaby]

V8Wagon said:

Bit of a rarity here....Spanish 540 Sport Tourer anyone?

Not keen on the rims but that's about it.

Oh yeh, I'd rather it was cheaper too!

http://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-motorbikes/ultr...

One of the rare cars I would swap mine for, providing it was straight. If you don't like the wheels, a set of genuine replacements wouldn't be too expensive off ebay. Someone from here has to buy that.

[BigBen]

GBB said:

V8Wagon said:

This one looks a bit more shedlike, typical Gumtree fodder. Those headlights are new to me, nice wooden steering wheel and check out the flagpole!

http://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-motorbikes/rare...

IIRC those are US Spec headlights?

Look like it. The flag carrier suggests an ex embassy car. In general it looks st for £3.5k

[BeirutTaxi]

BigBen said:

Look like it. The flag carrier suggests an ex embassy car. In general it looks st for £3.5k

I feel more tempted by the pink one posted a few pages ago (just over £1k I think). Having owned an old Merc with partial history I know that it's definitely worth waiting for one with a fully stamped book. Much less painful in the long run.

[jke11y]

BigBen said:

GBB said:

V8Wagon said:

This one looks a bit more shedlike, typical Gumtree fodder. Those headlights are new to me, nice wooden steering wheel and check out the flagpole!

http://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-motorbikes/rare...

IIRC those are US Spec headlights?

Look like it. The flag carrier suggests an ex embassy car. In general it looks st for £3.5k

What is more amusing is that it was £1k on a buy it now on eBay last week. At that money I was tempted to buy it and drive it around London with a saltire flying. Original seller sounded a decent sort too.

[GBB]

jke11y said:

What is more amusing is that it was £1k on a buy it now on eBay last week. At that money I was tempted to buy it and drive it around London with a saltire flying. Original seller sounded a decent sort too.

Seller was Nigerian embassy?

[jke11y]

It looks more to me like a jap import car (just a few things like the tyres / flag /lights/ some history / white walls and the no rust).

Either way, £1k punt to a £3250 minter is stretching things.

[edo]

Would this be ruinous to fix?

http://classifieds.pistonheads.com/classifieds/use...

[john_r]

edo said:

Would this be ruinous to fix?

http://classifieds.pistonheads.com/classifieds/use...

Looks like not just one corner of the adaptive suspension has collapsed... so I'm guessing it's a problem with the system rather than 'a corner' as the advert suggests. £10k-£15k should cover it?