Best smoker barges 1-5 large [Vol 10]

[Croutons]

SpeckledJim said:

I do 15 - 20,000 miles a year commuting in my cheap XJS, on a needs-must maintenance basis. Spent much less than £500 on noisy / oily / bouncy bits in 2 years.

It has never Failed To Proceed in that time.

Hello there fate! Can I tempt you!?!

[derin100]

BrabusMog said:

derin100 said:

E65Ross said:

derin100 said:

That's so true and a very good way of looking at things by comparison. And to that I would add that after 10 months that the w124 would still be 'yours', probably still worth £6000 (if not more...because good ones aren't getting cheaper); whilst your mate's £6000 spent on the lease plan car will be 'gone' i.e. effectively "dead money". So it's a double whammy!

There is a point for the lease argument though, and I may get burned for this.....but some people just don't want something that has been farted in by another owner and is 20+ years old, will almost certainly have other issues which will require more frequent trips to the garage to get sorted, worry about rust. They want something that is more quiet, has better brakes and safety features, has nice and chilly working air conditioning, a decent stereo which can be hooked up to their phone, they want consistent payments which makes budeting far easier etc etc. and for that you can't blame them (although £600/month for an A4 is a joke)

You're right, Ross...and those people are actually by far in the majority, I think. But they do have to pay a lot for the privilege.

Not really if you jump on the right deal at the right time. Hence why I've got a nice 640d. It's a million miles better than my old E38 740i in every way. I do love barges but they are more a hobby than a serious proposition for most people and I certainly wouldn't look down my nose at someone for preferring to run a brand new A4 as a daily over an Audi 80

What was the deal on the 640d? I've been having a bit of a day thinking about those?

[anonymous-user]

Citroen CX 22 TRS

74,000 MLS

Something pretty different.

£2,995

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Citroen-CX-/262538965669...

[derin100]

ELUSIVEJIM said:

Citroen CX 22 TRS

74,000 MLS

Something pretty different.

£2,995

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Citroen-CX-/262538965669...

Ok...I'm not even going to open that link before I say: "Who died this time?"

Am I right?

[golfer19]

ELUSIVEJIM said:

Citroen CX 22 TRS

74,000 MLS

Something pretty different.

£2,995

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Citroen-CX-/262538965669...

That is a nice old thing.

[derin100]

Seems I wasn't right...or they haven't stated it this time.

But I also just looked up...they've got that power rating wrong. I was thinking 85 bhp sounded woefully weedy in a car that size but I think the "85" is kW. BHP is 113. So 0-100km/h is 10.6 and V Max 116 mph so enough to be safe in modern traffic? Roughly 190E 2.0L performance which I found fine.

Looks like a nice, different thing to have.

[Krikkit]

ELUSIVEJIM said:

Your sterling barge-rustling over the last few pages has been most welcome, but can we have the pictures from the auctions etc instead of a screenshot of your desktop?

Right click on an image on ebay, copy the address and then put it between some image tags, like so:
[img ] URL PHOTO [/img ]

[PowerslideSWE]

New barge purchase inspired by Woodys cracking looking E39.

After having 3 E38 750 i's and 4 E39's on the trot all with the straight sixes of various sizes and all with the m-sport package I found a rather rough but very cheap '99 pre-facelift non exterior M-sport 540. 2 owner car, imported to Sweden as a yahreswagen from Germany, and one owner for 15 years and after that the guy I bought it from. Last owner had it just under a year and haven't really lavished the car if I'm honest, but the oil and filters were recently changed as were the valve cover gaskets, water pump, brakes and pads all around, new rear calipers, pretty much every suspension component bar the struts and springs have been changed in the last few years so it feels tight as a drum and rides very quiet. etc.

Good points. Nice colour combo of orient blue over heated black leather sport seats. M-Sport suspension and steering wheel, very high spec in general, nav, electric sunblind, side blinds, dual pane glass, glass sunshine roof, telephone on a cord etc Interor in rather good nick, and it even has the non-foldable rear seat which is actually comfy. Engine is quiet and pulls strongly, I reckon this is just as rapid as my 750's were and the gearbox is smooth up and down through the gears, but sometimes with a little un-tidy downshift to 1st, but pretty much all my automatic BMW's have done that, so I'll leave it be.

Bad points, and If I'm honest they are a few.. No, and I mean zero service history, AC needed a re-gas and got one only to find a small leak, so that has to be adressed same as the MOT advisory of a slight oil leak from the engine. Rusty rear arches, some rust on the sills behind the front wheels, one headlight looks like it's been thru a meteor shower and the other one is brand new, and the paint on the hood is bad and the rest of the car would mind a serious cut and polish, but some slight rust repair and it will look presentalble. Sits on 16" style 48's on very good but still all season tyres in the wrong dimension 205/60-16 so I'm looking for a set of staggered 32's or 5's.

So this is what a very high spec very tatty sub £1200 looks like. (Sellers pic I might add)

Edited by PowerslideSWE on Friday 22 July 20:34

Edited by PowerslideSWE on Friday 22 July 20:37

[anonymous-user]

Krikkit said:

Your sterling barge-rustling over the last few pages has been most welcome, but can we have the pictures from the auctions etc instead of a screenshot of your desktop?

Right click on an image on ebay, copy the address and then put it between some image tags, like so:
[img ] URL PHOTO [/img ]

Someone noticed

I have just purchased a Toshiba Chromebook in my wisdom and it is a bl**** nightmare to figure out the differences from a windows computer.

Took me half a day to find caps

Hence why I am only on screenshot mode

Will now look into working it out. See you in 10 days.

Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 22 July 20:37

[SilverStar]

Some cracking thread purchases recently guys, although I don't post much I do read this thread daily!

Just thought I'd update you all on the 24v. After a couple of weeks off the road after the poor running returned I decided to splash out on the obvious causes first, so a new distributor cap and rotor arm were ordered from Mercedes and fitted buy my friendly indi for £20..............and now she's back to running perfectly, so hopefully that's the end of that. However now I'm using it it has highlighted i really do need to get the auto trans fluid changed as she like holding onto gears.

I'm also likely to loose my other garage in the coming months so hopefully i'll be able to sort something out otherwise I may be forced to let her go, which I really don't want to!

Any way have a picture just to prove it does work!

[Caruso]

PowerslideSWE said:

New barge purchase inspired by Woodys cracking looking E39.

After having 3 E38 750 i's and 4 E39's on the trot all with the straight sixes of various sizes and all with the m-sport package I found a rather rough but very cheap '99 pre-facelift non exterior M-sport 540.

Congratulations, I've had mine nearly 5 years and been very pleased with it. Same problem with the headlights though, the offside one has a very pitted plastic front but the other is fine.

[Riley Blue]

Krikkit said:

ELUSIVEJIM said:

Your sterling barge-rustling over the last few pages has been most welcome, but can we have the pictures from the auctions etc instead of a screenshot of your desktop?

Right click on an image on ebay, copy the address and then put it between some image tags, like so:
[img ] URL PHOTO [/img ]

Could you try that on the original ebay ad. image for that car and post the result here, just to see if it does what happens when I do it? Thanks

[anonymous-user]

Riley Blue said:

Could you try that on the original ebay ad. image for that car and post the result here, just to see if it does what happens when I do it? Thanks

Cheers mate. Will try that one.

[Riley Blue]

ELUSIVEJIM said:

Riley Blue said:

Could you try that on the original ebay ad. image for that car and post the result here, just to see if it does what happens when I do it? Thanks

Cheers mate. Will try that one.

I meant Krikkit, I don't think his method works every time - unless it's just me...

[Milemuncher]

I love this thread but I do have to call out some nonsense. I have a new SL 400. It does not average a 'real world' 24mpg. In 14 months of ownership it has averaged 34. On a recent trip to France with cruise set to 90 for long periods, it averaged over 38. I agree that the ride could be better but as an everyday useable comfortable sports cruiser it's fantastic. Especially in sports mode. I love old Mercs too but the new ones are better than often given credit for on here.

[Krikkit]

Riley Blue said:

ELUSIVEJIM said:

Riley Blue said:

Could you try that on the original ebay ad. image for that car and post the result here, just to see if it does what happens when I do it? Thanks

Cheers mate. Will try that one.

I meant Krikkit, I don't think his method works every time - unless it's just me...

From eBay go into the gallery view (from the top of the listing), right click and hit "copy image address" (in Chrome).

Paste between img tags in BB to direct-link an image:


If you ever want to see how a post is done just quote it.

[Riley Blue]

Yes, I can post the enlarged image but not the small original one in the ad. I wondered if it was my browser (Opera) but apparently not.

[Jodyone]

StrokesUK said:

Can get some better pictures later, as for how much (another key piece of info I forgot!) In the region of £6k?

That looks savage. Lucifer's chariot indeed. I'm sorry about the circumstances for the sale though.

Thankyou4calling said:

In 10 months that'd be 25,000 miles.

I can't imagine many barges on here could take that kind of punishment.

I love a barge but I don't think you can really make any comparison at all.

I've recently bought a quarter-century old barge to do almost exactly that annually, replacing something much newer, and I've done the same for a few years in the past with another even older car. Admittedly they're both 80's/90's Mercs. There's always "a list", but not much ever actually stops them.

I don't mean to derail anybody's points about leased cars though. I have no input on that as I can't imagine ever doing it.

EDIT

Krikkit said:

Oh sweet jesus

[Krikkit]

Riley Blue said:

Yes, I can post the enlarged image but not the small original one in the ad. I wondered if it was my browser (Opera) but apparently not.

You can get that one, but only if you nerd about in the code - there's an overlay to activate the gallery/zoom that stops it. You could probably use some kind of script blocker to remove the overlay and copy the image directly.

[anonymous-user]

ELUSIVEJIM said:

2004 VOLKSWAGEN PHAETON V10 Diesel 4 Motion (4WD) 5 litre

Only 49,000 miles. Could be a steel but bidding popular.

It has been upgraded or should we say tuned using hybrid power.


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2004-VOLKSWAGEN-PHAETON-...

I was interested in that right up until I saw those exhaust pipes.