Best smoker barges 1-5 large [vol8]

[V12 AMG]

r129sl said:

It's in a right old shabby state. In no particular order:

Missing headlamp wipers.
Broken grille
Front bumper from a pre-facelift car
Ill-fitting sunroof
Defunct telephone antenna in rear screen
Shabby wheels
Sagging SLS suspension
Stuck wireless antenna
Past paintwork (badge is on wrong)
Sun bleached walnut
Broken transmission selector wood trim (it has been yanked up rather than slid forwards after removing the coin tray)
Wrong steering wheel
Busted passenger seat cover fixings (so goodness knows what the driver's side is like)

Photos always flatter and it doesn't look wonderful in those photos.

Unfortunately a lot of those issues are the costly things to sort, that's without even considering the inevitable rust under the parcel shelf.

An ok second hand front grille is £250+ if you can find one.
The correct late front bumper can fetch £500 if it has good corner chromes.
A genuine Hirschmann antenna can be strong money as well for these W126s.
Fixing a sunroof can be very time consuming and can usually render the headlining as un-usuable. Once it's been removed to get to the sunroof it rarely goes back properly and becomes saggy and horrible. The front 2 sunroof drains are probably blocked and rusty anyway. Very common.

Without banging on about every shortcoming, many thousands could be sunk into this car just to get it into reasonable usable order.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

Lowtimer said:

hornetrider said:

Gentlemen of the Thread, if you would indulge me for a moment.

Jesus. £80k in depreciation for 20,000 miles in three years. Four quid a mile BEFORE fuel, insurance, tax etc.

Thanks, Hornetrider, I feel so much better about all the money I spent on the full mechanical refresh of my E39 now.

Depreciation. Bloody fantastic (for us bottom-feeders).

One day, a little way off, that will end up in this thread of the future, and what an epic buy it will be. If all the kit still works.

[Lowtimer]

CharlesdeGaulle said:

Depreciation. Bloody fantastic (for us bottom-feeders).

One day, a little way off, that will end up in this thread of the future, and what an epic buy it will be. If all the kit still works.

Not until, what, 2026 or 2027 though? Some time around then. Equivalent to a late 1990s car now.

[anonymous-user]

Has that car got ceramic buttons? That's a fine, fast, sexy beast.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

Lowtimer - you could be right, but I reckon it could come earlier than that based on some of the values we've seen from E65s and so on recently.

[hornetrider]

OpulentBob said:

Has that car got ceramic buttons? That's a fine, fast, sexy beast.

Why yes, yes it has.

[hornetrider]

Lowtimer said:

CharlesdeGaulle said:

Depreciation. Bloody fantastic (for us bottom-feeders).

One day, a little way off, that will end up in this thread of the future, and what an epic buy it will be. If all the kit still works.

Not until, what, 2026 or 2027 though? Some time around then. Equivalent to a late 1990s car now.

F01s, like F10s, seem to be holding their prices quite well in the used market at the moment.

That E66 750i at 5k seems an uber bargain when you look at the cheapest F01 without the devil's fuel which still comes in at 20k+.

[4941cc]

hornetrider said:

I just oofed all over my wibble.

[r129sl]

4941cc said:

hornetrider said:

I just oofed all over my wibble.

That's a lovely car. I'm glad for our sakes that there are still people ordering up cars like this rather than simply taking silver diesels in M-Sport trim from stock. I was in one of these 7s the other day (thank God for Uber) and it was extremely impressive, much more so than the w221 I used the following day.

[Gruber]

So it looks like I might be back in the market for a £1-5k bargain barge of the family estate variety.

Mrs G's family wagon had an unfortunate coming together with a waste truck yesterday evening, and I suspect it'll be touch and go whether it is deemed economically repairable.

Derin's W124 is looking more appealing than ever...

[E65Ross]

That 760Li looks mega! Bit out if budget, mind.

[hornetrider]

Gruber said:

So it looks like I might be back in the market for a £1-5k bargain barge of the family estate variety.

Mrs G's family wagon had an unfortunate coming together with a waste truck yesterday evening, and I suspect it'll be touch and go whether it is deemed economically repairable.

Derin's W124 is looking more appealing than ever...

I've heard a certain threadist has a ropey old Merc on the bay

[Gruber]

hornetrider said:

I've heard a certain threadist has a ropey old Merc on the bay

You won't be surprised to hear it is already on my watch list!

Just a shame he couldn't have tried a bit harder with the ad... it's really hard to tell the condition of the car from the crappy description and blurred shots.

[SuperHangOn]

I'm sure it's technically brilliant but I've actually got zero want for that Seven. It's all very corporate and sterile, I expect it will date to the point of looking a bit laughable by the time its in budget.

Think it would be an XKR with 40k myself.

[4941cc]

Yum.

2002 CL600 N/A 119k £5,750

[Krikkit]

hornetrider said:

OpulentBob said:

Has that car got ceramic buttons? That's a fine, fast, sexy beast.

Why yes, yes it has.

Sad, but that was the bit in the spec (apart from the twin-turbo V12) that excited me most. Ceramic buttons, ooh.

[r129sl]

Krikkit said:

hornetrider said:

OpulentBob said:

Has that car got ceramic buttons? That's a fine, fast, sexy beast.

Why yes, yes it has.

Sad, but that was the bit in the spec (apart from the twin-turbo V12) that excited me most. Ceramic buttons, ooh.

I missed that. What are ceramic buttons? Is it drugs?

[4941cc]

r129sl said:

I missed that. What are ceramic buttons? Is it drugs?

Buttons, made of a ceramic material, rather than - urgh - having to touch plastic, like a prole.

Standard kit on V12 F02s (there are no V12 F01s, sadly) I thought.

[V12 AMG]

4941cc said:

Buttons, made of a ceramic material, rather than - urgh - having to touch plastic, like a prole.

Standard kit on V12 F02s (there are no V12 F01s, sadly) I thought.

My cheap 2 yr old phone has ceramic volume and power buttons. Can't say they're any better than the plastic ones on it's predecessor.

[0a]

It looks like I will have to wait until next week to get the 500SL back, as the exhaust people need to order some tubing to fit onto the manifold. Oh well!

A quick question - the car sometimes takes a few turns before starting - is this an easy, known fault to fix?

I picked up the 300E which is now sounding polite again after a new back box, I will do 800 miles or so in it over the weekend. I'm looking forward to it. It's like having an old friend back! The quality and ride are much better than the SL.