Best Smoker Barges 1-5 large [Vol 7]

[hornetrider]

S3_Graham said:

The 55 is a masterpiece. Best engine ever made.

S3_Graham said:

Got one in my CLK, fancy buying it?

Did I say the engines are amazing and worth billions?

[radiodanno]

CharlesdeGaulle said:

There are a few experts on these on here, notably r129sl, so he's probably the man you need.

Bodywork looks OK in the pics. Even if it has it, the air con may not work anyway, they often don't. Many of these are pretty high mileage at this age, and I personally am a fan of higher miles over lack of use, so you should have a reasonable expectation of reliability, subject to the usual caveats when buying old cars.

Let us know what you think if you view.

ETA - I'd want a full MOT on it myself - currently only to Jan.

Edited by CharlesdeGaulle on Wednesday 22 October 12:54

That guy always has 124s on the go. There was one picture he took that had 3 or 4 in the background. I guess he must know a bit about the cars.

[RobinBanks]

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2014...

How's this for a grand? I don't care if it looks scruffy on the outside as long as it's nice inside.
It's probably hiding more rot though.

[Chicane-UK]

RobinBanks said:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2014...

How's this for a grand? I don't care if it looks scruffy on the outside as long as it's nice inside.
It's probably hiding more rot though.

If that rot shown on the arch, is into the sill, surely it'll never get through the MOT in a couple of months time?

[RobinBanks]

Chicane-UK said:

If that rot shown on the arch, is into the sill, surely it'll never get through the MOT in a couple of months time?

That was my worry. And also I think that waiting long enough would get one in better condition for that price.

[JF87]

This E320 looks a lot better than most, crap plate and slightly iffy rims notwithstanding. Sensible miles & LPG! £1500 with a day left.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mercedes-E320-Estate-Aut...

Edited by JF87 on Wednesday 22 October 17:57

[r129sl]

CharlesdeGaulle said:

vit4 said:

|http://thumbsnap.com/oN5OIjov[/url]
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2014...[url]

I've got half an eye out for another ~1k estate and find myself strangely drawn to this - ad states air conditioning (although conveniently placed steering wheel means that you can't see the dashboard?) and it certainly doesn't look too bad for 302k miles! Out of idle curiousity if by 'Full Service History' it has been serviced to schedule every time, would it prove reliable? A couple of years ago I recall travelling in a taxi 250D with well over double those miles that still felt tight, have wanted one since

Edited by vit4 on Wednesday 22 October 12:07

There are a few experts on these on here, notably r129sl, so he's probably the man you need.

Bodywork looks OK in the pics. Even if it has it, the air con may not work anyway, they often don't. Many of these are pretty high mileage at this age, and I personally am a fan of higher miles over lack of use, so you should have a reasonable expectation of reliability, subject to the usual caveats when buying old cars.

Let us know what you think if you view.

ETA - I'd want a full MOT on it myself - currently only to Jan.

Edited by CharlesdeGaulle on Wednesday 22 October 12:54

The engine should be fine with these two caveats. If a long time is left between services, you can get compression problems on the rearmost cylinders. I don't know why. And if the vacuum pump has not been changed, then it should be changed immediately (it is driven off the timing chain, at the front of the fuel pump and when it goes it takes the timing gear and fuel pump with it, the interval is 250,000miles).

Otherwise, it will be worn out but serviceable, by which I mean you can run it into the ground over the next 12 to 24months or steadily overhaul it and get indefinite use out of it. But it will be completely worn.

It has a/c but my hunch is it is the dealer-fit Diavia system.

I think I'd want a pukka 12 month MOT as well.

[0a]

There's always going to be demand for a cheap, W124 estate with the 300 diesel engine - a proper workhorse! With this kind of car I rely on calling the owner and getting a feel as to whether it sounds like a relatively well maintained example.

[radiodanno]

JF87 said:

This E320 looks a lot better than most, crap plate and slightly iffy rims notwithstanding. Sensible miles & LPG! £1500 with a day left.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mercedes-E320-Estate-Aut...

Dead link is dead.

[JF87]

^ Hmm, weird. Item number: 321551781236

[andburg]

apologies if already posted......



http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/b...


if its only needs the LCM repair then it could be repaired DIY or sent away and repaired for under £100!

[olly755]

andburg said:

apologies if already posted......



http://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds/used-cars/b...


if its only needs the LCM repair then it could be repaired DIY or sent away and repaired for under £100!

Wheels are worth that alone.

[minimoog]

radiodanno said:

JF87 said:

This E320 looks a lot better than most, crap plate and slightly iffy rims notwithstanding. Sensible miles & LPG! £1500 with a day left.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mercedes-E320-Estate-Aut...

Dead link is dead.

Working fine here.

[texasjohn]

Blown2CV said:

E65Ross said:

I've experienced the 7G-tronic box when my dad had a 2006 CLK350 back when it was brand new.

Very smooth and the ratios are well spread out. I'm not sure if they suffer any reliability issues but it's comfortably a better gearbox than the 5 speed in the E38/E39 and also better than the 6 speed found in the E60/E65 etc.

Gear changes weren't noticeably quicker though and a flick or push of the buttons on the wheel didn't give rapid changes (similar to the E65).

Only thing I found odd was the buttons on the back of the wheel were effectively like rocker switches. So either the left hand or right hand button could be used for up or down shifts. I'd rather just up shifts on the right, down on the left. Overall though I thought it was a very good auto.

I had a 7G in 2005, and yes same sort of experience. AMG at the time didn't adopt it for quite a few years so I wonder if that tells a tale. I almost disregarded the steering wheel buttons as it didn't really add anything to the driving experience, and the refined smoothness of the engine meant having to think about changes felt a bit alien.

I've got the 7G in a facelift W211 E500 5.5 that I just bought. It's a good box and my initial thoughts are the car is very rapid, feels a lot more spritely than the 550i although there is a power, torque and weight (my 550i was a touring) advantage in addition to the extra ratio. In fact it's so quick I missed seeing a kerb or pothole today and ended up with a double puncture; I've managed to put the car off the road for a couple of days while a wheel is repaired and two tyres are ordered. Bugger, oh the irony of being on a train to work after a year of having to take trains.

ETA: Where the BMW 6-speed box is a bit better is if you have the Sport Automatic Transmission (on all 6 series cars I believe), it rev matches on downshifts in sport mode.

There are a lot more CLS500s about than E500s but I prefer the looks of the W211 to the W219, JMHO.

Edited by texasjohn on Wednesday 22 October 22:27

[BigBen]

E65Ross said:

hornetrider said:

Did I read somewhere that the 55 engine is better than the 63?

Not sure where.....? the 55 is great, but the NA 6.2 is magnificent!

When AMG launched their most recent engine they played a soundtrack of past AMG greats. The 55 was among them, the 63 wasn't. Just saying.

[KrisP]

The '55 would be in the running for me, but for two things, the outdated 5 speed box and I much prefer the facelifted w211. There's no doubting about the 55 supercharged engine being rather peachy tho

[Zwolf]

BigBen said:

E65Ross said:

hornetrider said:

Did I read somewhere that the 55 engine is better than the 63?

Not sure where.....? the 55 is great, but the NA 6.2 is magnificent!

When AMG launched their most recent engine they played a soundtrack of past AMG greats. The 55 was among them, the 63 wasn't. Just saying.

• Which* "55"? *Which* "63"?

The normally aspirated 55 or the supercharged one? The latter sounds notably better than the former that in most applications isn't much more noteworthy than a regular Merc lump.

However, the 6.2 NA V8 "63" sounds bloody marvellous in all its applications, but the 5.5 biturbo "63" of recent years is much less interesting than either the old supercharged 5.4 or NA V8.

[sam303]

Zwolf said:

• Which* "55"? *Which* "63"?

The normally aspirated 55 or the supercharged one? The latter sounds notably better than the former that in most applications isn't much more noteworthy than a regular Merc lump.

However, the 6.2 NA V8 "63" sounds bloody marvellous in all its applications, but the 5.5 biturbo "63" of recent years is much less interesting than either the old supercharged 5.4 or NA V8.

Well for the information of anyone interested, a man is bringing a CLS63 AMG to my house this afternoon to see if I like it. If I do I may buy it from him. It's this one: http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2014...

[RenesisEvo]

sam303 said:

Well for the information of anyone interested, a man is bringing a CLS63 AMG to my house this afternoon to see if I like it. If I do I may buy it from him. It's this one: http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2014...

That looks stunning. I will follow your progress with envy interest. It's a good thing it's nearly 300 miles from where I am! I suggest editing the url so it doesn't have your postcode in it for all to see - you don't need anything past the advert/12345 bit.

[r129sl]

RenesisEvo said:

sam303 said:

Well for the information of anyone interested, a man is bringing a CLS63 AMG to my house this afternoon to see if I like it. If I do I may buy it from him. It's this one: http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2014...

That looks stunning. I will follow your progress with envy interest. It's a good thing it's nearly 300 miles from where I am! I suggest editing the url so it doesn't have your postcode in it for all to see - you don't need anything past the advert/12345 bit.

Wow! that is a stload of car for the money.

These engines are all lovely but the NA 6.2 is surely the loveliest V8 of all? Wouldn't it be good to see AMG make a bespoke NA straight six? Say of 3.8 or 4.2litre capacity, classic 4 valve DOHC layout. Put it in that new AMG GT as the "starter" model. We can but dream...