Best smoker barges 1-5 large [Vol 10]

[tobinen]

Don't think the V6 ever made it to a 140.

Post facelift 420 or 500 would be my choice, or go full fat with some 600 V12 goodness

[QuantumTokoloshi]

Lungwun said:

Gentlemen,


Just thought i'd put my questions in here as Mercedes Models seem to be winning the best smoker barges by a wide margin.

Some good Audi and Japanese barges too. We have even had a few Cadillacs of late.

[confused_buyer]

tobinen said:

Don't think the V6 ever made it to a 140.

Post facelift 420 or 500 would be my choice, or go full fat with some 600 V12 goodness

The disadvantage of the later models is that they sometimes rust very badly.

[BigBen]

tobinen said:

Don't think the V6 ever made it to a 140.

Post facelift 420 or 500 would be my choice, or go full fat with some 600 V12 goodness

You could get the 320 straight 6, no V6 and I think there may be diesels in the foreign markets.

Post facelift for me all the way, much more modern looking dash and the styling changes to the outside go some way to hiding the car's bulk.

I have had a V8 LWB and now a V12 coupe, either would be a fantastic choice although the V12 is the more remarkable car in the way it goes down the road at silly speeds in near silence. Then again the V8 sounded great when you used the rev range.

Ben

[Lungwun]

QuantumTokoloshi said:

Some good Audi and Japanese barges too. We have even had a few Cadillacs of late.

By winning, I meant what thread participants have in their garages. Though I probably think it's a close battle between Mercedes and Jaguar.

PS I can't seem to multi quote on my mobile.

[SpeckledJim]

QuantumTokoloshi said:

Lungwun said:

Gentlemen,


Just thought i'd put my questions in here as Mercedes Models seem to be winning the best smoker barges by a wide margin.

Some good Audi and Japanese barges too. We have even had a few Cadillacs of late.

Lamentable dearth of the following, though:

• Citroen DS & SM

• Jaguar MkII and variants. Mk X / 420G also

• Rover P5b and P6

Come on you lurkers with the above, don't be shy.

(we can briefly extend the thread to 1-120 large for the above, no?)

[Krikkit]

jonnydm said:

Barge Update:
Went to pick this up yesterday evening, pleasant enough train ride from Waterloo to Liphook then a short cab ride to the vendor.

The car is as expected a nice enough example, with a few small dings / marks around.

The inside is lovely, the seats are huge(!) and the aircon works very well as do all of the various lights and switches that I've tried.

The drive - my first was getting into it to take it home - is best described as smooth. I had country lanes, along with the A3, M25, M4 and A406 to get to grips with it - all in torrential rain. The steering is light and the pedals with a reassuring weight that take a bit of learning how best to use.

As far as tidying up a few things, I'll look into sorting the soft close and the CD changer (neither of which are drastic fixes / essential).

A final thought for now is on size and usability, whilst it feels spacious inside, it fits very well inside a parking bay and the parking 'guidelines' are actually pretty useful. Though, I have been spoilt for years by the BMW passenger mirror dropping to help with avoiding kerbs. A full tank was just over £100 (I had to put my card in twice as I was using 'Pay at Pump').

With a classic policy costing relative peanuts, this could be the start of the fleet that I've long wanted!

Liphook is a great place to pick up a barge from. Glad to hear it's gone well!

[jonnydm]

Max M4X WW said:

SuperHangOn said:

jonnydm said:

jonnydm said:

BlueMR2 said:

jonnydm said:

Sitting at work, nursing a sore head. Think I might have just bought a W140. Thoughts on this?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mercedes-W140-S500-Silve...

Have you picked this up yet? Any more info?

Plenty of small touches, like the boot handle that pops out so your hand doesn't get dirty when you open and close it, then retracts when you shut the boot.

Going to pick this up tomorrow evening hopefully. Will make sure to give an update - looking forward to this.

Barge Update:
Went to pick this up yesterday evening, pleasant enough train ride from Waterloo to Liphook then a short cab ride to the vendor.

The car is as expected a nice enough example, with a few small dings / marks around.

The inside is lovely, the seats are huge(!) and the aircon works very well as do all of the various lights and switches that I've tried.

The drive - my first was getting into it to take it home - is best described as smooth. I had country lanes, along with the A3, M25, M4 and A406 to get to grips with it - all in torrential rain. The steering is light and the pedals with a reassuring weight that take a bit of learning how best to use.

As far as tidying up a few things, I'll look into sorting the soft close and the CD changer (neither of which are drastic fixes / essential).

A final thought for now is on size and usability, whilst it feels spacious inside, it fits very well inside a parking bay and the parking 'guidelines' are actually pretty useful. Though, I have been spoilt for years by the BMW passenger mirror dropping to help with avoiding kerbs. A full tank was just over £100 (I had to put my card in twice as I was using 'Pay at Pump').

With a classic policy costing relative peanuts, this could be the start of the fleet that I've long wanted!

I spotted that car as well, I reckon that's a great buy.

I also bought my old Merc near liphook, schlepped down on the train to collect and drove back the same way around the north circ... queuing for hours up to hanger lane gyratory while glaring at the guages is no fun but a good test of a car! The car turned out to be pretty good so hopefully a good omen for you!

Totally missed this, I could have been your taxi Could you PM me exactly where the came from? Interested!

Thankfully, I didn't have to queue for hours! Liphook to NW11 in under an hour which was pretty good I thought given the conditions. Interestingly, when I popped out last night, I took both keys with me but went for the RR, thinking to save the S for nicer drives. Conversely I was thinking this morning which I would take if I had to take a last minute jaunt to Europe, Benz currently leading, I think.

Max - I assume you mean location? It was a chap near Bordon.

Krikkit said:

Liphook is a great place to pick up a barge from. Glad to hear it's gone well!

Thanks!

[Sterillium]

Full service history and only just moved into six figure miles... £1400.


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lexus-LS-400-LS400-autom...

[anonymous-user]

Are Merc E320cdi estates from 03 onwards generally the best £3-5k comfy slusher barges for mainly motorway stuff? Not a fan of Audi or BMW, want a nice smooth drive, any mpg over 35 on pretty much pure motorway work (at least 60 miles a day), big enough for bikes, kayaks, and with a few toys to add a bit of lux (would like bum warmers, keyless would be great as would auto tailgate). Will live outside, be stood for a couple of months at a time, or be driven by a woman who's own car looks like she washes it with a hammer.

It's either that or a Volvo V, but I don't trust the gearboxes and fancy a change from Swedish.

(sorry. Don't want to start a what car and would appreciate beardability)

[Croutons]

C6 2.2D with 100k on in thread budget, but is it toppy in gold at £4995?

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C750188

[BigBen]

OpulentBob said:

Are Merc E320cdi estates from 03 onwards generally the best £3-5k comfy slusher barges for mainly motorway stuff? Not a fan of Audi or BMW, want a nice smooth drive, any mpg over 35 on pretty much pure motorway work (at least 60 miles a day), big enough for bikes, kayaks, and with a few toys to add a bit of lux (would like bum warmers, keyless would be great as would auto tailgate). Will live outside, be stood for a couple of months at a time, or be driven by a woman who's own car looks like she washes it with a hammer.

It's either that or a Volvo V, but I don't trust the gearboxes and fancy a change from Swedish.

(sorry. Don't want to start a what car and would appreciate beardability)

The best choice for that job by miles. I really like mine. Plenty of beardy posts on here about what to look for (summary, Valeo radiators, SBC pumps) but essentially they are sound and the SBC pump job is becoming cheaper as more cars become old enough and Merc don't do the for free anymore.

A post facelift car won't have SBC and the radiator issue has gone so probably worth finding one of them. Mine is a 320 CDi, it still has a decent turn of speed and has many feature that are well ahead of its time. A V8 would be my ideal 'one car for all occasions' candidate.

[Jodyone]

Croutons said:

C6 2.2D with 100k on in thread budget, but is it toppy in gold at £4995?

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C750188

The colour works for me- gold is definitely "having a moment" around now, not unrelated to Apple's tech offerings, at a guess. Also, I checked out a gold (it's technically called some kind of beige) C6 a while back, and liked it more than I'd expected. I don't know how the 2.2 drives, but it's probably fine and dodges the high VED of the 2.7. Split/fold rear seats are weirdly desirable over the fancy lounge pack (Versatility trumps fun, I guess!)

In bargey news, we've driven to the west coast of france over the last few days, putting about a thousand miles so far on our new W126 300SE. Lovely glidey stuff. 20L of petrol in the boot just in case.

[Croutons]

Several reasonably priced late C215 CL's around atm:

2005 500 with 118k, chav alloys but hey at £4499 they can be polished back up or replaced:
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

2004 500 with 102k and pleasing cream interior, £4800
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

2005 500 with 95k, 4999 but likely to drop given apparent condition (of car & employment, sadly)
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

[anonymous-user]

BigBen said:

OpulentBob said:

Are Merc E320cdi estates from 03 onwards generally the best £3-5k comfy slusher barges for mainly motorway stuff? Not a fan of Audi or BMW, want a nice smooth drive, any mpg over 35 on pretty much pure motorway work (at least 60 miles a day), big enough for bikes, kayaks, and with a few toys to add a bit of lux (would like bum warmers, keyless would be great as would auto tailgate). Will live outside, be stood for a couple of months at a time, or be driven by a woman who's own car looks like she washes it with a hammer.

It's either that or a Volvo V, but I don't trust the gearboxes and fancy a change from Swedish.

(sorry. Don't want to start a what car and would appreciate beardability)

The best choice for that job by miles. I really like mine. Plenty of beardy posts on here about what to look for (summary, Valeo radiators, SBC pumps) but essentially they are sound and the SBC pump job is becoming cheaper as more cars become old enough and Merc don't do the for free anymore.

A post facelift car won't have SBC and the radiator issue has gone so probably worth finding one of them. Mine is a 320 CDi, it still has a decent turn of speed and has many feature that are well ahead of its time. A V8 would be my ideal 'one car for all occasions' candidate.

Thank you. That's the sort of assurance I wanted. I've always wanted a merc, and prefer big estates. Seen a tempter on eBay for 2.5k but it's 5 hours away, pre face-lift but SBC done apparantly. Tempted to have a little bit of chat with him. Post 03 are all galvanised, aren't they?

[BigBen]

OpulentBob said:

Thank you. That's the sort of assurance I wanted. I've always wanted a merc, and prefer big estates. Seen a tempter on eBay for 2.5k but it's 5 hours away, pre face-lift but SBC done apparantly. Tempted to have a little bit of chat with him. Post 03 are all galvanised, aren't they?

211s don't seem to rust in the way their predecessors did so you should be safe in that respect. Link to the ebay car?

[anonymous-user]

BigBen said:

OpulentBob said:

Thank you. That's the sort of assurance I wanted. I've always wanted a merc, and prefer big estates. Seen a tempter on eBay for 2.5k but it's 5 hours away, pre face-lift but SBC done apparantly. Tempted to have a little bit of chat with him. Post 03 are all galvanised, aren't they?

211s don't seem to rust in the way their predecessors did so you should be safe in that respect. Link to the ebay car?

Look at this on eBay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252403641352

I'm on my phone so am struggling with formatting, my apologies.

[Sterillium]

OpulentBob said:

Thank you. That's the sort of assurance I wanted. I've always wanted a merc, and prefer big estates. Seen a tempter on eBay for 2.5k but it's 5 hours away, pre face-lift but SBC done apparantly. Tempted to have a little bit of chat with him. Post 03 are all galvanised, aren't they?

I've been looking at that one too, quite near me in Exeter.

Quick chat with seller and he says he'd deal at 2400. Any cheaper and I'd have bought it already, I really want to get back into an E320 Estate for mile munching because I miss my old one. Problem is I've become extremely attached to my 530 Sport Touring, despite it's love of a good drink.

Edited to add: Ha! Just seen the above post too... We are all circling it like barge vultures.

[anonymous-user]

Sterillium said:

OpulentBob said:

Thank you. That's the sort of assurance I wanted. I've always wanted a merc, and prefer big estates. Seen a tempter on eBay for 2.5k but it's 5 hours away, pre face-lift but SBC done apparantly. Tempted to have a little bit of chat with him. Post 03 are all galvanised, aren't they?

I've been looking at that one too, quite near me in Exeter.

Quick chat with seller and he says he'd deal at 2400. Any cheaper and I'd have bought it already, I really want to get back into an E320 Estate for mile munching because I miss my old one. Problem is I've become extremely attached to my 530 Sport Touring, despite it's love of a good drink.

Ooh interesting. Any other info on the car you can share? I'd have to beg a huge favour from the Mrs to get a lift down there to look at it so any info would be appreciated.

[Max M4X WW]

Croutons said:

Several reasonably priced late C215 CL's around atm:

2005 500 with 118k, chav alloys but hey at £4499 they can be polished back up or replaced:
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

2004 500 with 102k and pleasing cream interior, £4800
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

2005 500 with 95k, 4999 but likely to drop given apparent condition (of car & employment, sadly)
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

Reasonably good news for me, if they sell, as mine will be available in the next couple of months.