Best smoker barges 1-5 large [Vol 10]

[bmthnick1981]

I'm not mad on the colours personally, although they are very 'of its time'. That said one cant be too picky these days as there are so few around. At or around £1k I think its a very good buy given the miles. You could probably reconstitute a service book from the invoices. I can't see it losing any money if the condition of it is maintained or improved.

[k-ink]

The Ebay seller of the E34 manual 540 has added some detail:

"The speedo unit was changed last year with a used manual one which had 132k on it. Hence, the current MOT shows mileage of 132k but the genuine mileage of the car is as per the old speedo, 83k. The speedo swap-over and mileages on both units are fully documented in a letter from Fritz's Bits. The original speedo will be provided with the car."

That is a shame as it adds another layer of doubt into the history. Nice car but just not spot on.

Re:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1995-E34-BMW-540i-6-spee...





So what do we think this tidy E32 750 will go to?...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/122026645586?_trksid=p20...

I am liking this more and more. I wonder what the buyers remorse feels like after bidding too much on one of these...


Can someone talk sense and tell me why this is such a bad idea

[Trustmeimadoctor]

Off to look at 2 cars one 06 e90 325i as auto nav tv xenons memory seats etc
The other w211 55 320 cdi saloon with nav. Both same mileage roughly and same price

What would you go for?

Edited by Trustmeimadoctor on Friday 1st July 10:33

[olly755]

k-ink said:

So what do we think this tidy E32 750 will go to?...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/122026645586?_trksid=p20...

I don't think it will go much further, may cross £6k but not much more IMO.

Absolutely love it- it's probably the barge I covet the most and in exactly the right spec. Money is better spent elsewhere at the moment, if not I'd be top of the bids.

The Colonel sold an identical looking one a year or so ago, pretty sure it's the same car.

[Krikkit]

Trustmeimadoctor said:

Off to look at 2 cars one 06 e90 325i as auto nav tv xenons memory seats etc
The other w211 55 320 cdi saloon with nav. Both same mileage roughly and same price

What would you go for?

Depends on their use really. 325 is likely to be much more fun down a twisty road, the w211 will soak up miles effortlessly.

[k-ink]

Check out this little beauty...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E30-2800cc-LAST-OWNE...


2.8 engine fitted! Not a fan of red, but it is nice.

[Trustmeimadoctor]

Krikkit said:

Trustmeimadoctor said:

Off to look at 2 cars one 06 e90 325i as auto nav tv xenons memory seats etc
The other w211 55 320 cdi saloon with nav. Both same mileage roughly and same price

What would you go for?

Depends on their use really. 325 is likely to be much more fun down a twisty road, the w211 will soak up miles effortlessly.

70 mile commute and general dutys

[Minemapper]

w211 would be my choice for a 70 mile slog. Makes mile munching so effortless. I really miss mine.

[k-ink]

An old Jag... what could go wrong? £22,000 worth of bills since 1998...

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C750699

[S3_Graham]

k-ink said:

Check out this little beauty...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E30-2800cc-LAST-OWNE...


2.8 engine fitted! Not a fan of red, but it is nice.

Not a fan of the looks but seen the 325tds converted E30 on Retro Rides? Could be interesting.

http://retrorides.proboards.com/thread/190201/1989...

[bob-lad]

k-ink said:

An old Jag... what could go wrong? £22,000 worth of bills since 1998...

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C750699

Somebody please disable that man's shift key.

[will730i]

Afternoon all, another lurker here with a thread-type question for Friday pondering. Essentially, we were burgled recently and the gentlemen who visited our house in the dead of night took all our keys, and our recently acquired w212 estate. And crashed it, as we later found out...

Anyway, we were really getting into the s212 but we don't want our actual car back once it's repaired as my wife just doesn't like the idea of it. On the basis that we probably won't get back what we paid and the money spent on servicing and other things (like £400 on tyres and balancing a week prior!) we are looking at s211s, around and just above thread limit. I know they have a bit of a reputation, but I actually really like the look of these cars, and I seem to recall there are a few threadists who have experiences.

From memory, there was a facelift around 2005? I'm probably going to go diesel, as that's what they all seem to be, so how good/reliable are the 280/320 CDIs? There are quite a few with around 150k miles, which doesn't bother me per se, as we only do about 8k per year, but how do they hold up at that stage? The 'sport' versions tend to look quite nice, but I'm not sure about the ride on those big wheels? I guess the answer is to try one!

I'm currently elevating that status of our 18 year old e39 estate from tip-run car to family transport, but I'm not sure management will let us get away with that as our only car for too long!

[Caruso]

k-ink said:

The Ebay seller of the E34 manual 540 has added some detail:

"The speedo unit was changed last year with a used manual one which had 132k on it. Hence, the current MOT shows mileage of 132k but the genuine mileage of the car is as per the old speedo, 83k. The speedo swap-over and mileages on both units are fully documented in a letter from Fritz's Bits. The original speedo will be provided with the car."

That is a shame as it adds another layer of doubt into the history. Nice car but just not spot on.

Re:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1995-E34-BMW-540i-6-spee...





So what do we think this tidy E32 750 will go to?...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/122026645586?_trksid=p20...

I am liking this more and more. I wonder what the buyers remorse feels like after bidding too much on one of these...


Can someone talk sense and tell me why this is such a bad idea

The 540 sounds like it's had a manual gearbox conversion rather than that being the original spec. I wonder what differences there might be e.g. diff, that haven't been changed? It would put me off.

The 750il looks lovely, but I think I'd prefer an E38 myself.

[k-ink]

Agreed. Although an E34 540 in that spec and condition would be immensely expensive. Double, maybe triple the price?

[derin100]

Along with a few other minor jobs, I've just spent the morning re-gingering mine!

[anonymous-user]

k-ink said:

Agreed. Although an E34 540 in that spec and condition would be immensely expensive. Double, maybe triple the price?

I'm expecting that one to finish for £5k-6k. I find it difficult to imagine a factory car would pull it substantially more than that (maybe £8k-£9k), but then I wouldn't have imagined this car would be up to 4.4K with 4 days to go either...

I still find it staggering that there are now so many buyers for a car that would have probably struggled to sell for £4995 5 years ago.

[E65Ross]

Getting 2nd thoughts RE selling the car now lol. Driving it yesterday reminded me why I love it so. It's just so quiet, refined and spacious and the engine is pretty peachy!

[derin100]

Caruso said:

he 540 sounds like it's had a manual gearbox conversion rather than that being the original spec. I wonder what differences there might be e.g. diff, that haven't been changed? It would put me off.

Indeed! It actually says that. So, for me the originality has been seriously compromised.

Personally, I think the days of buying an E34 to go faster than another E34 are long gone. So, the argument for saying a manual E34 is faster than an automatic E34 is a bit spurious; if not down right silly. If you want to go "fast" there are easier, cheaper and...well, faster ways to do it these days.

In any event and for it's worth, the difference in performance between a Manual and an Automatic E34 540i isn't as vast as this chap is suggesting. Yes, a manual might well be "more involving" but that's the same for all manual cars...they involve the driver more because he/she has to do more to make them drive! They involve using both your left leg and left arm more.

However, from the handbook the performance figures are:

Both limited to 155 mph...I'm not going to test that.

0-62 mph: 6.4s (manual) 6.8 (automatic)

Standing Kilometre: 26.3 (manual) 26.8 (automatic)

Hardly vast?

(And as with all such older cars...these are at least 20 years old now...the above would assume both are still functioning in top/as new fettle)

[golfer19]

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C761786

Manual 535 in need of a little tlc according to the owner.
£3500

[Lowtimer]

k-ink said:

An old Jag... what could go wrong? £22,000 worth of bills since 1998...

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C750699

£1,200 a year over 18 years on a V12 Jag is not a lot of money. That amount of money is no more than normal servicing and consumables and and fixing the odd broken thing, not any determined attempt to refurbish the car in any way.