Best smoker barges 1-5 large [vol8]

[texasjohn]

SpeckledJim said:

Oh, happy day. Lovely lovely car.

In the blessed quiet times between falling asleep and returning tut'mill, I plump for something exactly like that when I decide that the Venn-lozenge is just a little too narrow between the F355 I don't own and the 456 I haven't got.

You and me both, mate!

[CharlesdeGaulle]

Seems very cheap. Far too cheap?

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C619676

[texasjohn]

CharlesdeGaulle said:

There may be others local-ish too of course.

Any appetite for a meet? Anyone planning to head to Bournemouth for the Wheels Festival? I'm going tomorrow.

Anyone around next weekend? Any thoughts or preferences for a location?

I have wife and kids in tow at the weekends but if something is arranged near to me (Southampton area) I will pop in for 10 minutes and amuse with my exhaust rumble on the old-man-spec 550i.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

Wasn't someone on here on the lookout for a 124 cabrio?

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C619339



Quite why you'd keep a car for 4 years, not use it, and have it registered elsewhere is beyond me.

It now has an MOT, but hasn't been used for 10 years. Could be a decent project.

[r129sl]

CharlesdeGaulle said:

Seems very cheap. Far too cheap?

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C619676

No COMAND sat nav/ever-so-useful telly. I'd pay extra!

[cat220]

r129sl said:

CharlesdeGaulle said:

Seems very cheap. Far too cheap?

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C619676

No COMAND sat nav/ever-so-useful telly. I'd pay extra!

That's hard to ignore at that price. First impressions are that it seems too cheap although I suppose its now 15 years old with a big v8. The lack of command etc wouldn't bother me.

[Krikkit]

Quite a few miles and undesirable colour scheme... Seems about the right price to me...

[13aines]

CharlesdeGaulle said:

There may be others local-ish too of course.

Any appetite for a meet? Anyone planning to head to Bournemouth for the Wheels Festival? I'm going tomorrow.

Anyone around next weekend? Any thoughts or preferences for a location?

I live in Crowthorne and my dad lives in Fleet - i'm over that way a lot. I only have a motorbike, but have been looking in this thread for some bargain barge for my first (road) car.... sadly budget its a bit smaller! Perhaps 3k for a good E46 coupe with the sport pack, or 1-1.5k for anything else that doesn't light my fire quite so much - leaning towards the latter as I could buy now rather than have to save all summer while off uni - I have a supersport bike anyway for my thrills, but still want a bit of punch.

I've always been into my german cars and love this thread! My mum and dad had 5 series beemers (early 90s 535i and mid 90s 525) when I was growing up in the 90s and my dad has had a C320 in recent years, and currently has a CL55 AMG.

If anyone spots anything decent at the 1-1.5k mark please post it - Ideally 15 years old max, no bigger than a 5 series, and petrol (less trouble at high mileage?) Ideally not a crummy hatchback, but I have been considering a ST170/Corolla VVTI/Celica VVTI, although want a barge, would like all day comfort, cruise control, decent auto box etc.

Matt

Edited by 13aines on Friday 29th May 23:20

[E24man]

mwggriffiths said:

PowerslideSWE said:

4941cc said:

mwggriffiths said:

I've switched the direction steptronic works too so manual shifts are more rally car sequential (Now it's push away to go down, pull back to go up) - best mod I've made to the car I reckon!

BMW did themselves too across the range in 2001 for the 2002MY, by which time E38s had all been built.

How did you do that? I want to make that change aswell, it's very counter intuitive to push the stick forward to change up I think.

And a question regarding sport suspension on the E38. My 2000 750i swb has factory fitted M-sport fahrwerk, is that the same as the 740 Sport or Alpina? Mine is also non-EDC.

Also has flat black window trim and antrazite headliner but nowhere does it say its a 750 sport.

Yeah I'd heard that - I'm on the lookout for an E39 2002+ Steptronic surround so I can get the indicators the correct way around too [/OCD]

The mod itself is simple enough - pull the surround off, de-pin the central two wires, swap them and refit: http://www.bmwtips.com/tipsntricks/DZ/StepTronic.h...

You can do either side of the plug it shouldn't matter

EDIT: Stick your VIN into one of the BMW VIN decoders online and see what options it has ticked, I'll re-do my 740i Sport to compare

Edited by mwggriffiths on Friday 29th May 07:50

Done this mod to both my 2001 B10 V8 Touring and the 1997 B12; I managed to bag a couple of late E39 gear surrounds and have the indicators the correct way round too; the E38 surround has to be taken to pieces but the window/ indicator can be used.

[0a]

13aines said:

I live in Crowthorne and my dad lives in Fleet - i'm over that way a lot. I only have a motorbike, but have been looking in this thread for some bargain barge for my first (road) car.... sadly budget its a bit smaller! Perhaps 3k for a good E46 coupe with the sport pack, or 1-1.5k for anything else that doesn't light my fire quite so much - leaning towards the latter as I could buy now rather than have to save all summer while off uni - I have a supersport bike anyway for my thrills, but still want a bit of punch.

I've always been into my german cars and love this thread! My mum and dad had 5 series beemers (early 90s 535i and mid 90s 525) when I was growing up in the 90s and my dad has had a C320 in recent years, and currently has a CL55 AMG.

If anyone spots anything decent at the 1-1.5k mark please post it - Ideally 15 years old max, no bigger than a 5 series, and petrol (less trouble at high mileage?) Ideally not a crummy hatchback, but I have been considering a ST170/Corolla VVTI/Celica VVTI, although want a barge, would like all day comfort, cruise control, decent auto box etc.

Matt

Edited by 13aines on Friday 29th May 23:20

I wouldn't limit your search to 15 year old cars. At the lower end of the thread budget and looking at 5 series cars, a nice "lucky find" e34 model may be a more reliable car than an e39 as the e39 is more complex and more expensive to fix. The difference is that the e39 is a more modern feeling car!

[harrykul]

Heads up for anyone looking for a nice s124: Nick Froome has put a post up on his newsfeed about a highly specced E320 in blue coming up. Judging by the spec, I think it's this car that has come around again:

http://www.mercland.com/model/144-1995%28M%29-MERC...

[r129sl]

Bare bones spec S-Class here. It looks rather lovely, but I'm not sure I could stomach the absence of air con in a 'S' (despite the ad recounting its presence, it's not there). Still, less to go wrong and it looks lovely in Bornite, a colour designed for the 140. £4,000.

The dealer is very much our kind of dealer: sub £5k smoker barge-tastic.

http://www.stgeorge.co.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=pub...

[defblade]

I'm more BMW then MB as a rule, but find myself quite drawn to CLs...

...except why do MB insist on making them strict 4 seaters? It just instantly rules them out.

[Lowtimer]

defblade said:

I'm more BMW then MB as a rule, but find myself quite drawn to CLs...

...except why do MB insist on making them strict 4 seaters? It just instantly rules them out.

What does it rule them out for? It was never intended as a large family saloon: that's what they make the 4-door S-Class for

[E65Ross]

0a said:

I wouldn't limit your search to 15 year old cars. At the lower end of the thread budget and looking at 5 series cars, a nice "lucky find" e34 model may be a more reliable car than an e39 as the e39 is more complex and more expensive to fix. The difference is that the e39 is a more modern feeling car!

This. The earlier era cars do tend to be more simple and easy to fix on the whole, but also are more prone to rust. The older cars also are more likely to throw up some problems simply because they're older.... But the newer ones are no spring chickens either.

Couple of years back I drove an E34 535i with over 230k on the clock. Suspension was tired but it was reliable and still felt like it'd just keep going.

[Devil2575]

Lowtimer said:

defblade said:

I'm more BMW then MB as a rule, but find myself quite drawn to CLs...

...except why do MB insist on making them strict 4 seaters? It just instantly rules them out.

What does it rule them out for? It was never intended as a large family saloon: that's what they make the 4-door S-Class for

Defblafe's requirements perhaps...

[Lowtimer]

Seems a bit harsh to criticise a design for not doing something completely outside the original design brief. You can't move a wardrobe in a CL either. Need to tote hoards of people and piles of stuff, the E-Class estate is the Merc barge for you.

[The Big G]

velocefica said:

harrykul said:

Thanks guys. Will put some pics up on my return.

Back to business: this has popped up in NI recently: really like the e31 but I'm now skint for the forseeable. Good value in my eyes.

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C617092

I know a guy from NI had an 8 series for sale for at least a year before it sold

This one could be on for a while too. The leather colour not the real problem, it's the beige dash at least it's been priced accordingly as they really are worth a few grand less than the grey or black dashed cars. It also looks to me as if it's lacking in a few options too, it looks rather sparse on my phone around the gear stick. So wondering if it also has cruise or electric wheel adjustment.

The wheels look fantastic, if more difficult to keep clean than the throwing stars. Would love a set for mine some day.

Edited by The Big G on Saturday 30th May 09:21

[harrykul]

That Bornite 140 really appeals. The lack of stuff strangely doesn't put me off on this occasion as it would probably encourage me to use the other cars: if it's a warm day (which is rare in NI) we could make use of the SL.

The ad says 300se 3.2, but the cam cover looks to me like the m103 300-24v unit?

[harrykul]

The Big G said:

it's the beige dash

Edited by The Big G on Saturday 30th May 09:21

Yep, I don't know how they passed that one at the design stage.