Best smoker barges 1-5 large [vol11]

[TheLordJohn]

georgezippy said:

Am trying hard not to buy this.
I have an A4 (TDi) of similar age that is utterly dependable and totally rust free, yet it would seem the 2.4 is a bit unloved and hence ludicrously cheap to buy. It is a manual, just had cambelt done, and seems clean and tidy. Ad says £1650.





http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/152437141894?_trksid=p20...

Edited by georgezippy on Wednesday 22 February 11:10

Keep tying as hard as you can not to.
Owned one Audi and it was an absolutely hateful pile of poo.
Couldn't wait to get rid of it.

[K12beano]

Be...

harrykul said:

Jaysus!

...indeed

[K12beano]

TheLordJohn said:

Keep tying as hard as you can not to.
Owned one Audi and it was an absolutely hateful pile of poo.
Couldn't wait to get rid of it.

^^^ Pretty much this

I owned a 2.4 engined A6 (2003, owned from 2004 to 2016) - the engine itself was the (only) good bit.

Luckily this one's a "Manuel". The Multichronic in these vintage is hareful - in 120k miles I had to have THREE major gearbox repairs (north of £5k) and generally there was very little working on the rest of the car by the end of it. (Certainly air-con, parking sensors, boot latch and electric windows all gave up the ghost at fairly early stages in its sorry life.) Averaging 34mpg from that V6 was the only nostalgia I can muster....

[Jimmy Recard]

It was that bad that you could only bear to drive it for twelve years?

[K12beano]

Jimmy Recard said:

It was that bad that you could only bear to drive it for twelve years?

....my second vehicles were a TVR and latterly a BMW bike, but honestly after I'd shelled out a few grand each time for the gearbox I told myself I'd have to keep it a couple more years to get the money back - and by the time it got to a value of less than the cost of repairing the a/c I was using it for only a few thousand miles a year and couldn't afford to change it. Last job was three years commuting into London on TfL.... hence it took me nearly three years to find the ideal replacement!!

[mondayo]

golfer19 said:

As you can imagine, Ian...given today's events, as described above, the atmosphere chez nous this evening is somewhat....Frosty!

It's the other way about for me.
The wife keeps asking me when am I buying another car.
I'm on the iPad every night checking the classifieds.
Trouble is I cannot make up my mind what I want.
Hopefully going to view a couple of possibilities on Thursday work permitting,

Best/worst of both worlds here; after buying a new car 10 days ago (brought it home two Fridays ago) and went through something I'm sure many threadists have experienced.

I've spent many moons looking for and researching the new car. Then finally buying one, obviously the wrong one....as apparently a 5.4 litre Mercedes is twice as fast and twice as expensive as had been signed off on. Imagine her displeasure when she caught me looking at cars, less than 24 hours after the latest purchase....apparently not giving sufficient attention to the current Saturday night singing competitions.

This week I'm mainly looking for an E class boot liner (if anyone has any top tips?) and old cars, with big engines.

[golfer19]

harrykul said:

golfer19 said:

It's the other way about for me.
The wife keeps asking me when am I buying another car.
I'm on the iPad every night checking the classifieds.
Trouble is I cannot make up my mind what I want.
Hopefully going to view a couple of possibilities on Thursday work permitting,

Are they local to you (and me)? Anything interesting?

One in Fermanagh and another in Dublin.
Both the same model.
Quite scarce around these parts.

[Bonefish Blues]

bob-lad said:

harrykul said:

dme123 said:

W00DY said:

bob-lad said:

This is the only Galaxy I'd buy

Bleughh.


I do love a Minstrel though oddly.

Agreed. Sliey vegetable oil crap but Minstrels are oddly compelling, especially if consumed along with a cup of tea

Yep, not a fan of them either. Either simple Dairy Milk or Green & Blacks.

Edited by harrykul on Wednesday 22 February 09:03

Indeed, but it's better than that hideous people carrier.

( Cadbury's seems to have been replaced with American slime now, so even Dairy Milk is avoided. )

Lidl Fruit & Nut FTW

[harrykul]

golfer19 said:

One in Fermanagh and another in Dublin.
Both the same model.
Quite scarce around these parts.

Look forward to updates.

[georgezippy]

K12beano said:

TheLordJohn said:

Keep tying as hard as you can not to.
Owned one Audi and it was an absolutely hateful pile of poo.
Couldn't wait to get rid of it.

^^^ Pretty much this

I owned a 2.4 engined A6 (2003, owned from 2004 to 2016) - the engine itself was the (only) good bit.

Luckily this one's a "Manuel". The Multichronic in these vintage is hareful - in 120k miles I had to have THREE major gearbox repairs (north of £5k) and generally there was very little working on the rest of the car by the end of it. (Certainly air-con, parking sensors, boot latch and electric windows all gave up the ghost at fairly early stages in its sorry life.) Averaging 34mpg from that V6 was the only nostalgia I can muster....

Am well aware of the dodgy autobox hence the interest in this. It ticks many barge boxes (leather, V engine, reasonable waft etc..).
The A4 I have had for 7 years of similar age may be a burner of the devils fuel but the thing just keeps working at double the milage despite daily (ab)use (that too is a manual). At 16 years old the only issue is failing pixels on the dash display. I assume (maybe incorrectly) that this would be similarly reliable given it's condition.
I think it's sold now so temptation removed (have enough cars)

[mondayo]

counterofbeans said:

Just wanted to say thanks for all the advice received. Looks like the value is quite a bit more than I thought which will enable me to get the car into tip top condition for sale (it doesn't need much), probably in the spring if anyone is still interested.

Many thanks

This one is the closest I've seen recently, on spec and price.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2002-52-BMW-5-SERIES-4-4...

[olly755]

TheLordJohn said:

georgezippy said:

Am trying hard not to buy this.
I have an A4 (TDi) of similar age that is utterly dependable and totally rust free, yet it would seem the 2.4 is a bit unloved and hence ludicrously cheap to buy. It is a manual, just had cambelt done, and seems clean and tidy. Ad says £1650.





http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/152437141894?_trksid=p20...

Edited by georgezippy on Wednesday 22 February 11:10

Keep tying as hard as you can not to.
Owned one Audi and it was an absolutely hateful pile of poo.
Couldn't wait to get rid of it.

Not really what I want to hear, seeing as I've just bought an A4 2.5TDi and am still yet to pick it up!

[MorganP104]

olly755 said:

Not really what I want to hear, seeing as I've just bought an A4 2.5TDi and am still yet to pick it up!

Relax. I've had an Audi 2.5 TDi, and it was fine. Not the best car I've ever owned, but by no means the worst, either.

You'll find people have horror stories with all sorts of cars. Just because theirs was crap, doesn't mean yours will be.

[bob-lad]

Indeed. Back in 1996 I had a new Vauxhall Vectra, which I think is universally agreed a crap car, and yet I did 56,000 miles a year in it and it never broke down.

It even had air-con in the glove box, which was great.

Crap is relative.

[MajorMantra]

Perhaps this should be in the Bargain Basement thread, but it's certainly a barge. Who fancies some horrid chrome arches?

Over 200k and £995! Feeling brave?

https://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-motorbikes/199...

[edo]

Chrome arches = rusted to f*ck.

[MorganP104]

You'd need massive balls of steel to take on a V8 S-Class with 210k on the clock.

Still, the boot on one of those is pretty big. You could carry them around in there.

[Jimmy Recard]

K12beano said:

...my second vehicles were a TVR and latterly a BMW bike, but honestly after I'd shelled out a few grand each time for the gearbox I told myself I'd have to keep it a couple more years to get the money back - and by the time it got to a value of less than the cost of repairing the a/c I was using it for only a few thousand miles a year and couldn't afford to change it. Last job was three years commuting into London on TfL.... hence it took me nearly three years to find the ideal replacement!!

Ahh then yes, I can see how the twelve years crept up!

They are not a brilliant car, I have to agree. And the Multitronic gearbox was just an insult to customers.

When they were new I thought they looked great and would age better than E39s and E-Classes - I was very wrong about that, nearly 20 years on

[CharlesdeGaulle]

MajorMantra said:

Perhaps this should be in the Bargain Basement thread, but it's certainly a barge. Who fancies some horrid chrome arches?

Over 200k and £995! Feeling brave?

https://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-motorbikes/199...

I'm not so sure it need be that scary. If it has a long MOT - no mention of it in the ad, so it's definitely an if - and if there are no dodgy warning lights either illuminated or de-bulbed, you can't go far wrong for Shed money. Obviously you'd need to regard it as a consumable and not spend much on it, but there are worse things to cruise around in for a year. I'd see getting it to moon miles as a legitimate challenge.

Normally chrome arches are a warning sign to a discerning barge-ist, indeed to any person of taste, but I'd embrace the look and have a bead seat cover and a dodgy air freshener to complete the taxicab vibe.

[Fun Bus]

MOT until July. Passed it's last with no advisories.