Best smoker barges 1-5 large [Vol 10]

[YoungRestorer]

bob-lad said:

0a said:

"Jaguar XJ12 6.0 V12 330 BHP Saloon X305
1 previous owner from new
88k miles with service and VOSA records
Carnival Red with cream leather
Current owner for almost 26 years"

£3,999. http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C760493#

Wow. That stopped me looking at little grey fergies and back at Jags.

Spiffing.

Can't have been with the current owner for 26 years if it was released in 1995... must be a typo

Love that car though, if I get a job soon, that is exactly the sort of car I would be looking at as a barge treat

[AllyBee]

0a said:

74k mile 545. The ad claims it has been cleaned and waxed on a daily basis...! http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

Out of interest does anyone know much about these cars? Are there any common issues or things to look out for?

Thanks.

Edited by AllyBee on Wednesday 29th June 10:07

[bmthnick1981]

0a said:

Lungwun said:

The issue now is, once you start looking at barges, a lot of desirable cars come into view. The E38's, the D2's, the C140's and the X308's.

I guess the smart thing to do would be to buy them all (at once or one after the other)

^^^Massive barge 1-5 potential here!

I've had 3 e38's; (1) LWB 740i on 16" wheels and with contour seats (2) LWB 750i on 18" style 32s and with upgraded leather and a huge spec - massive regret on selling this one, and (3) SWB 750i on 18" style 32s with standard seats.

The E38 is massively under-rated in my view. I think I was lucky as I had no petrol tank problems on mine, that said I dont think this is an insurmountable issue these days and all old barges have some issue or another. The worst problem I ever had was the ignition switch went on the 740 meaning the ignition stayed on even with the key out, a new barrel sorted it.

I've had a D3 A8 (4.2 Qauttro), a 1998 Jag XJR (not sure if this is a X300 or X308) and a Merc C140 (600 V12) and I probably prefer the e38 to all of them for a variety of reasons. I always found the a8 and c140 felt heavy, the e38 especially if equipped with working e38 and 18" wheels and good tyres always felt nimble and light on its feet to me (for a 2+ ton barge). The Jag XJR is a great car but very different to the e38. You sit low and snug in the XJR, the cabin is much smaller which provides a more 'sporty' feel. The e38 cabin feels large light and airy, the elbow room for example is great, the seats do go low if that's what you want.

I'd have another e38 750 in a heart beat if I could find a decent one with sensible miles and a good spec for fair money. Both of mine cost sub £2k but those days are gone I think. I would imagine you are into £3-4k for a decent one now.

On the e32 vs e38 the e38 feels like a vastly more modern car. The e32 is lovely, the dash more focused on the driver etc makes it feel like a BMW of old, I had a SWB e32 740 and it was a good car (drove it to Germany and back from Dorset very comfortably) but I would always have an e38 over an e32 I think.

Gratuitous couple of pics of my old LWB 750;

[hornetrider]

AllyBee said:

0a said:

74k mile 545. The ad claims it has been cleaned and waxed on a daily basis...! http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

Out of interest does anyone know much about these cars? Are there any common issues or things to look out for?

Thanks.

Looks lovely for an old girl and mahoosive spec.

Xenons, Comfort seats heated and cooled, Logic 7, window blinds, HUD, low miles, FBMWSH. Being an 04 it's cheap tax as well.

The 545i can have issues with the coolant pipe running in the V, but you know what? If you didn't buy a barge based on every common faulteveryone would be running around in LS400s. Even though it's an SE, I like those wheels and it looks well.

[Lungwun]

bmthnick1981 said:

0a said:

Lungwun said:

The issue now is, once you start looking at barges, a lot of desirable cars come into view. The E38's, the D2's, the C140's and the X308's.

I guess the smart thing to do would be to buy them all (at once or one after the other)

^^^Massive barge 1-5 potential here!

I've had 3 e38's; (1) LWB 740i on 16" wheels and with contour seats (2) LWB 750i on 18" style 32s and with upgraded leather and a huge spec - massive regret on selling this one, and (3) SWB 750i on 18" style 32s with standard seats.

The E38 is massively under-rated in my view. I think I was lucky as I had no petrol tank problems on mine, that said I dont think this is an insurmountable issue these days and all old barges have some issue or another. The worst problem I ever had was the ignition switch went on the 740 meaning the ignition stayed on even with the key out, a new barrel sorted it.

I've had a D3 A8 (4.2 Qauttro), a 1998 Jag XJR (not sure if this is a X300 or X308) and a Merc C140 (600 V12) and I probably prefer the e38 to all of them for a variety of reasons. I always found the a8 and c140 felt heavy, the e38 especially if equipped with working e38 and 18" wheels and good tyres always felt nimble and light on its feet to me (for a 2+ ton barge). The Jag XJR is a great car but very different to the e38. You sit low and snug in the XJR, the cabin is much smaller which provides a more 'sporty' feel. The e38 cabin feels large light and airy, the elbow room for example is great, the seats do go low if that's what you want.

I'd have another e38 750 in a heart beat if I could find a decent one with sensible miles and a good spec for fair money. Both of mine cost sub £2k but those days are gone I think. I would imagine you are into £3-4k for a decent one now.

On the e32 vs e38 the e38 feels like a vastly more modern car. The e32 is lovely, the dash more focused on the driver etc makes it feel like a BMW of old, I had a SWB e32 740 and it was a good car (drove it to Germany and back from Dorset very comfortably) but I would always have an e38 over an e32 I think.

Gratuitous couple of pics of my old LWB 750;

So much great information these past few hours

I really do appreciate them all, I wish PH had a way to star messages you plan on returning to without bookmarking entire pages.

Except there is a way and I don't know about it.

[S3_Graham]

That looks awesome Nick.

E38 is an itch i've yet to scratch.

[bmthnick1981]

hornetrider said:

AllyBee said:

0a said:

74k mile 545. The ad claims it has been cleaned and waxed on a daily basis...! http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

Out of interest does anyone know much about these cars? Are there any common issues or things to look out for?

Thanks.

Looks lovely for an old girl and mahoosive spec.

Xenons, Comfort seats heated and cooled, Logic 7, window blinds, HUD, low miles, FBMWSH. Being an 04 it's cheap tax as well.

The 545i can have issues with the coolant pipe running in the V, but you know what? If you didn't buy a barge based on every common faulteveryone would be running around in LS400s. Even though it's an SE, I like those wheels and it looks well.

I think that looks great, if it could be had for £5k it would be good value as well I think.

[r129sl]

I love the Jag V12 from yesterday and I have always been an E38 fan. It seems to me that the E38 epitomises what this thread is about but then time has moved on and they are so few in number, at least in good order. The 545i posted earlier certainly is an archetypal thread car. I have driven one of these and it was very fast indeed, much faster than my r129 SL500, and much smoother, too.

This caught my attention. It is over-priced and out of budget but a treat for the simpletons among us:

http://www.ccbenz.co.uk/?page_id=1731

[BlackGT3]

k-ink said:

Awesome info once again chaps. Many thanks

I ran a 2000 MY E38 740 Factory Sport for 3 years 2010 - 2013. They are great cars and I enjoyed mine however, unless its had all of the problem areas attended to, you may find yourself on the back on a tow truck as I did a couple of times.

My car had covered approx 110k miles when I purchased it. The previous owner had replaced the springs and dampers at 100k. The gear box had also been replaced.

The weak points are:

Cooling system - AUX Fan - Coolant pipes - all of these should be replaced on a car of this age and this is why I ended up on a tow truck twice
Gear Box
Electronics drain the battery quickly
suspension components/bushes - you may have herd of the dreaded 'shimmy'
Rocker cover gaskets
Rust in the boot, door bottoms and arches
Fuel tank

Usual items such as Fuel pump, water pump etc.

They are very well made cars and with the correct maintenance will no doubt run for many, many miles.

My car had an extensive maintenance record and most items above except for the fuel tank had been changed. It also had a set of new tyres and everything worked. When I came to sell, there are very few buyers for these cars. I had one enquiry and approx 4 chancers after advertising it for 5 weeks. It sold for 1,790GBP to a private buyer who wanted a barge.

You can spend a lot of money keeping an E38 in top, reliable condition however, if you keep it for a long time, the outlay to do this will beat the depreciation curve on a much newer car. Personally, I would not pay much more than 2k for a good one unless its had all the main issues sorted and its virtually concours.

[jke11y]

bmthnick1981 said:

hornetrider said:

AllyBee said:

0a said:

74k mile 545. The ad claims it has been cleaned and waxed on a daily basis...! http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

Out of interest does anyone know much about these cars? Are there any common issues or things to look out for?

Thanks.

Looks lovely for an old girl and mahoosive spec.

Xenons, Comfort seats heated and cooled, Logic 7, window blinds, HUD, low miles, FBMWSH. Being an 04 it's cheap tax as well.

The 545i can have issues with the coolant pipe running in the V, but you know what? If you didn't buy a barge based on every common faulteveryone would be running around in LS400s. Even though it's an SE, I like those wheels and it looks well.

I think that looks great, if it could be had for £5k it would be good value as well I think.

I forwarded it to a mate who called him - guys a trader pretending he isn't, massive story about it was traded in and his dad drives it to church, one owner but isn't as they've had it months and it was also a demo, but don't have v5 in their name but it's all ok innit. Nigel indeed.

[JF87]

Sounds like a Daily Mash story.

"A man who claimed to wax his car every day is full of st, it has emerged."

[k-ink]

More great information! Thanks so much. I guess you either factor in these repair costs, or get a car with all the hard work done. The expensive third option may be one of the uber expensive low mile cars.

Although as lovely as these look, I do wonder if they might prove to be too huge to live with. For example in a multi storey car park etc! I guess an E34 five would be the sensible option!

[PowerslideSWE]

E65Ross said:

1998 I believe.

September 1998, as model year 1999.

[golfer19]

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C738235#







Needs original wheels put back on.

V12 and £4500

[PowerslideSWE]

Lungwun said:

Excellent, that's just the kind of information i needed. I will also be sourcing a vehicle from Germany or the Netherlands.

And looking on Mobile.de and Autoscout24, the variation in pricing is so confusing.

I guess staying away from the 2-4 thousand Euro cars is wise thing to do. Could you please let me know the ballpark figure for a fairly decent 750?

I agree, the pricing is all over, and most likely down to the so-called classic, och semi-classic bubble in this case. Traders on the continent seem to think that 10K+ Euro is a fair price for one with 150000 miles on the clock. It's not.

I payed 55000 Swedish (divide by 12ish for the price in pounds) for mine in May last year, lost my job pretty much a month after I bought it and had to sell, had it out until november for the same price as I paid before I got a customer, who then bought it on sight. Mine was as said a rather rare, well equipped totally rust free example in a very sober and rare colour combination of antracite metallic over black, with black headliner, and genuine 105000 miles and it took me half a year to sell. Imagine getting over 10k for a 150.000 mile pre-facelift. Not going to happen.

Doesn't really answer your question tho, maybe the private sellers are more reasonable?

I assume you're looking for a RHD car? Food for thought is that the facelift short wheelbase 750 in right hand drive were made in 113 examples world wide, so they are the perverbial rocking horse poo....

Edited by PowerslideSWE on Friday 1st July 09:57

[PowerslideSWE]

golfer19 said:

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C738235#







Needs original wheels put back on.

V12 and £4500

And the style 95's that are on assuming they are genuine will get you a fair chunk of cash back, very popular on E38's.

Add says 1998, clearly a facelift. Can someone pull the VIN on that?

Edited by PowerslideSWE on Wednesday 29th June 16:29

[PowerslideSWE]

bmthnick1981 said:

E38 love...

That is absolutely fantastic.

[bmthnick1981]

PowerslideSWE said:

golfer19 said:

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C738235#







Needs original wheels put back on.

V12 and £4500

And the style 95's that are on assuming they are genuine will get you a fair chunk of cash back, very popular on E38's.

Add says 1998, clearly a facelift. Can someone pull the VIN on that?

Edited by PowerslideSWE on Wednesday 29th June 16:29

Very nice, missing the rare and expensive v12 badges on the C pillars. Nearly on 100k, is it too expensive? Probably not if you really want one. Looks a nice car, needs to be viewed and driven really.

[PowerslideSWE]

bmthnick1981 said:

Very nice, missing the rare and expensive v12 badges on the C pillars. Nearly on 100k, is it too expensive? Probably not if you really want one. Looks a nice car, needs to be viewed and driven really.

I think 4500 is very reasonable if I'm honest, nice colour combo, if you like a light interior. Seller claims new battery. The facelift ones have dual batteries...

The fantastic spec the seller raves on about tho are mostly standard equipment.

[AllyBee]

Just arranged to go and take a look at a W124 280TE tomorrow afternoon, sounds quite promising on the phone. Time to rummage through my mag collection for a buyers guide.