Best smoker barges 1-5 large [vol11]

[QuantumTokoloshi]

sussexcoast said:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371548326799

(BMW 325i compact 2003)

Am going for a test drive this Saturday, what do I need to look out for?

The car has no history, the trader has had it for over a year, it will come with a new MOT.

Or if not this car, what other two door manual big engined barge can I buy?

(Worthing, Sussex, upto £3k)

Edited by sussexcoast on Tuesday 17th January 08:23

You will probably find someone sporting a Gandalf length beard on the 325ti, on the thread below.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Other options, Hyundai Coupe, Volvo C70, Ford Probe, Mazda Mx-6, Alfa GT Coupe, Audi TT 3.2, Celica etc.

Edited by QuantumTokoloshi on Tuesday 17th January 08:41

[bmthnick1981]

The LS looks great, I do have a hankering to try one of these.

[Krikkit]

LandyManSam said:

olly755 said:

LandyManSam said:

Here's my £1200 land yacht purchased just before Christmas as a quick stand-in for my overheating IS220d, private plate included:

Looks great.

Did the Mk4's come with xenon lights then?

Yeah! Doesn't include the full beam though which is still halogen.

The reason for that is because although they re-engineered the original light unit with a projector for the xenon lamp, they won't have engineered in a shutter or blinker mechanism which lets the same bulb be used for the main beams as well - xenon lights don't take well to being switched on and off regularly, so they generally stick with a halogen main beam.

[r129sl]

This might be comfortable enough to knock about in. An early 260 E, low spec, lowish miles, sounds imperfectly OK. Currently bidding at £255 with no reserve.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mercedes-260E-W124-/3320...

[Krikkit]

Looks like a bargain, I'd want to know what this was though:

Test date 11 November 2016 
Test Result Fail 
Odometer reading 84,739 miles 
MOT test number 1374 1326 4528 
Reason(s) for failure:
Exhaust emits dense blue smoke at idle (7.3.A.2b)
Exhaust emits excessive dense blue smoke during acceleration (7.3.A.2c)
Emissions not tested (7.3.A.1)

If it checks out as something innocuous that's surely a perfect London smoker?

[bob-lad]

That's the wrong sort of smoker

[The Don of Croy]

sussexcoast said:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/371548326799

(BMW 325i compact 2003)

Aside from non-bargeliness, that car has the wonderfully over complicated optional parcel shelf; it has a clip for holding a brolly, an expandable holdall section (ideal for keeping a coat in) and hooks to hang your monthly shopping from (first unzipping the base of the holdall).

Of course, no-one actually uses that functionality - it's a faff - but just the idea that a team sat down and decided to create such a feature in a hottish-hatch does lend credence to the idea that the boys in Munich do things properly, when the budget allows.

Which means it's external appearance - from the rear quarters - was also intended. Weird sense of humour.

(I had one and loved it.)

[hornetrider]

Have we had this 300TE yet? Looks very proper, only 2 owners. A shade above budget but not too far.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2016...

[Lowtimer]

I had an early E46 Compact as a low-cost company commuter-car for a while when they were first introduced and it was excellent personal transport. Mine was a 320D for tax and 100-mile-a-day commute reasons but it was still a swift and pleasurable thing to punt around. I would not mind a 325ti as a smoker hatchback at all, though it's a nippy little 3-door rear-drive hatch rather than a barge. Usual E46 caveats apply at this mileage. Partly cribbed from the BMW forum:

- Check the rear subframe (Google is your friend here)
- Check for corrosion/rust (wings, wheelarches, sills, bootlid & roof bar mounting points in particular)
- Check everything to do with the SRS system; move the front seats fore and aft a few times to check the wiring and sit on the passenger's seat to make sure the occupancy sensor isn't on the blink (common fault).
- Check the electric windows all work properly. - Regulators can fail / do strange things

To which I'd add:

- Treat the whole of the cooling system as having a certain life, and expect it to need full refreshment if it hasn't had it in the last five years or so.
- As with all M54 engined cars try to get some handle on the oil consumption. Some of them use a LOT of oil and have done since new. Crank-case breather systems (often known as the CCV system) also tend to give trouble on M54 engined cars, and often cause high oil consumption, but are not that expensive to replace. Oil consumption doesn't really matter in itself, it's just money alongside fuel, but you need to be aware of it so that you don't run the engine low, and also need to have confidence that no-one else has run it low.

[bob-lad]

I wonder where the crossover is safety-wise between even a mid-sized modern and a lovely older Jaguar / Mercedes barge.

I appreciate this is probably heresy within these hallowed pages but as I'm looking for a replacement vehicle for Mrs-lad, it's a consideration.

Whilst I'm sure she'd be happy pottering between committee meetings in a Bentley Eight for some reason I feel I'd be somewhat envious.

[JF87]

This 740 looks pretty ace for £2,250. Not sure about M Parallels on an E32, but the originals are supplied. Diligent long-term owner too. I suppose that horrid brown line along the driver's door bottom might be a reflection from the concrete...





http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-740-auto-/1724891430...

[SpeckledJim]

bob-lad said:

I wonder where the crossover is safety-wise between even a mid-sized modern and a lovely older Jaguar / Mercedes barge.

I appreciate this is probably heresy within these hallowed pages but as I'm looking for a replacement vehicle for Mrs-lad, it's a consideration.

Whilst I'm sure she'd be happy pottering between committee meetings in a Bentley Eight for some reason I feel I'd be somewhat envious.

I think basically everything before, say, 2005 will be less safe in a crash than a new Clio.

[Krikkit]

SpeckledJim said:

bob-lad said:

I wonder where the crossover is safety-wise between even a mid-sized modern and a lovely older Jaguar / Mercedes barge.

I appreciate this is probably heresy within these hallowed pages but as I'm looking for a replacement vehicle for Mrs-lad, it's a consideration.

Whilst I'm sure she'd be happy pottering between committee meetings in a Bentley Eight for some reason I feel I'd be somewhat envious.

I think basically everything before, say, 2005 will be less safe in a crash than a new Clio.

That's a tricky question - hitting a wall/solid object then yes, the Clio will be very safe by comparison... In the real world the weight of the cars has a significant influence - a W220 will fair much better in a head-on collision against a Range Rover than a small city car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExQUGk12S8U

Realistically, if you have safety in mind, Volvo.

[Lowtimer]

It's a matter of context. As a kid my family drove around in cars which didn't even have seat belts or laminated windscreens, same went for Mrs LT. Then as drivers we were happy enough driving around in Mark II Escorts and Chevettes and Capris in the late '70s and early '80s, and cardboard-box-like Pug 205s and Fiat Unos in the late '80s and early '90s. So from our point of view anything with obviously superior active and passive safety to those is therefore all upside, and 'good enough', especially if it's got weight and evidence of good safety design on its side.

In practice car design took big safety steps forward from about 1990 with the use of finite-element analysis, widespred availability of ABS and airbags, and further big steps once Euro-NCAP made it more of a marketing issue after 1997.

Outside those criteria into more make-specific thoughts, Volvos and Saabs were always good in collisions by the standards of their design eras, and Mercedes have generally done well too, from the W124 onwards, as have BMWs from the E34 onwards. My R129 SL is a 1980s design but very safe for a convertible of that era, and crash safety was one of Mercedes' biggest concerns in its design. Front-engined Porsches are some of the most solid things dating back from platforms designed in the '70s, although of course have no electronics apart from fairly slow-witted ABS.

These are probably contributory reasons why I have the fleet that I have. I would not particularly want to do 20,000, miles a year on wet and icy motorways in a Mark II Escort any more, but a W126 S-class would not cause me to be concerned at all. And I must admit that while I often hanker after a Lotus Elan +2, the knowledge of its flimsiness is one of the factors that's put me off buying one. An Elan makes a Mark II Escort look like a Challenger tank.

[LandyManSam]

I work as a Crash Test Engineer so have a bit of inside knowledge from the old boys who work here, who tell me that the LS400 was pretty well the safest car on the market for its entire life.

Doesn't look too bad even by modern standards really, and this is the early model too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s14Yraia9Y0

[SpeckledJim]

It doesn't bother me personally at all.

But at the back of my mind I know that if I ever have a prang that injures one of my children, I'll be beating myself up forever for putting them in an XJS and an XJ40 instead of a 4 year old V70.

The only reason for that decision is my own shallow entertainment. Excusable?

[Krikkit]

Absolutely agreed Lowtimer - as an 80s child I remember being ferried around in a knackered Talbot Solara, a Mini Traveller and a Montego Estate while my parents were hard-up, all with the structural integrity of wet cardboard.

I nearly added Mercedes and Saab onto my manufacturer list, but went for the default super-safe one. I know Mercedes put a lot of design effort into safety, I seem to remember a few interesting features crept into the 190 as well as the 124.

Interesting on the LS400, superficially that does look pretty good in terms of deformation. W220 looks quite good too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJb2Rv-vFXA

[The Slug Of Doom]

SuperHangOn said:

That reminds me. I have a nearly new set of 235/45R17 RS3's in the garage I should get around to flogging. Fitted them to my old S210 a few thousand miles before it died of rust So if a fellow bargist needs a set. Shameless plug I know.

Hi,
Tried to figure out how to PM you...failed....so messaging here.

Interested in the tyres please. If you can PM me, we can discuss.

Thanks

Dave

[RenesisEvo]

Krikkit said:

SpeckledJim said:

bob-lad said:

I wonder where the crossover is safety-wise between even a mid-sized modern and a lovely older Jaguar / Mercedes barge.

I appreciate this is probably heresy within these hallowed pages but as I'm looking for a replacement vehicle for Mrs-lad, it's a consideration.

Whilst I'm sure she'd be happy pottering between committee meetings in a Bentley Eight for some reason I feel I'd be somewhat envious.

I think basically everything before, say, 2005 will be less safe in a crash than a new Clio.

That's a tricky question - hitting a wall/solid object then yes, the Clio will be very safe by comparison... In the real world the weight of the cars has a significant influence - a W220 will fair much better in a head-on collision against a Range Rover than a small city car.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExQUGk12S8U

Realistically, if you have safety in mind, Volvo.

Realistically, if you have safety in mind, driver training.

[E65Ross]

RenesisEvo said:

Realistically, if you have safety in mind, driver training.

you can't control other drivers though....