Best smoker barges 1-5 large [vol8]

[Baryonyx]

E65Ross said:

A barge like that without cruise is criminal in my opinion.

My XJ has cruise control, but aside from checking it worked a few weeks ago, I've never used it. Even when doing hundreds of miles in one day, I'm happy to use my feet on the pedals.

[Lowtimer]

Same here. But I know some people like to use it

[r129sl]

E65Ross said:

ESP light doesn't stay on when the system is on in modern mercs. It's on when the system is off.

Well, that's what one would think but not on this poxy little thing. It is shown in green in the binnacle and on the switch. That seems to be the default when you turn the car on. I hate the thing and now I have to drive it home.

[W00DY]

bmthnick1981 said:

Sold it not so long after, wife didn't like it!

What did you think? Nice ones seem pretty good value at the moment and I like the idea (not so much the aesthetic, but I could warm to one I think.

The CLA looks rubbish too. Like a scaled up childs pedal car version of a CLS.

[W00DY]

r129sl said:

I put my r129 into Merc Newcastle for a service today and they have loaned me a CLA 220 CDI to drive around in.

My God, we sometimes question our sanity on this thread (see last weekend's outpouring of angst) but we are RIGHT. What a shockingly bad car. Not only does it look a dog's dinner (subjective, granted), but it drives awfully.

The suspension is sort of rounded-off-rock-hard; the engine is gruff and unrefined; the controls unintuitive (why does the ESP light show when the system is on? why is the hazard light switch not big and red? what is going on with the radio/telephone/navi/settings?). But worst of all, the visibility is really shocking. The windows are like slits with great big pillars between them. The combination of wing mirror and 'A' pillar really blots out a huge swathe of visibility; likewise the combination of silly "sports" seat and wide 'B' pillar; rearward the combination of seat and fat 'C' pillars makes any kind of parking really tricky. Of course, you haven't a hope of seeing the extremities of the car when parking. I haven't caned it yet but it doesn't feel very fast and there is zero feedback from the controls. Despite being a mere 257 miles old, it has a terrible squeak from one of the seats. And the interior plastics are awful.

Horrid, horrid, little car.

You need something to take your mind off it.


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1988-ONE-OWNER-FROM-NEW-...

LHD so you can justify it as your "holiday car".

[QuantumTokoloshi]

Some quick mods on the 129, fitted the cubby bin in place of the cassette holder and fitted the Kienzle radio. So far so good.

Some pics of the radio in the 129.




And a night shot.

Edited by QuantumTokoloshi on Thursday 26th March 20:42

[PowerslideSWE]

E65Ross said:

A while ago there were a few people saying about how poorly BMW leather wears the miles. It's the the best quality leather of any car I've been in by a long stretch but I'm guessing people just don't care for it. I really don't clean mine that often (maybe a couple of times per year) but the drivers seat (which is by far the wost) doesn't look THAT bad. It's done just shy of 123k miles now.... There have been cars on here with fewer miles which look far worse. The quality isn't the best but I think most people must just really not care for the seats at all?

As stated before I also believe that the leather in the 7-series is of much higher quality. My e38 750 is 20 years old now and has 240.000 km's on it and the only ever so slight wear that is visible is on the "piping" on the driver seat, apart from that it's flawless. Nappa in mine. My other 750 parts car had wasserbuffel leather, very thick and natural feeling w/o so much as a mark on it. 7 series were expensive cars, the 3 series were...well, also expensive, but less so. It shows, the interior in the old E38 is so solid it feels like you can tow the car by hooking it up to the indicator stalk basically, same can be said regarding the Mercedes of the 80's and 90's, W124, W126 and the W140 imo . Never driven an E65, but I have been in a few, and they are very nice aswell.

[Stegel]

L

QuantumTokoloshi said:

Some quick mods on the 129, fitted the cubby bin in place of the cassette holder and fitted the Kienzle radio. So far so good.

Looks good. My car has the original radio cassette and a CD changer in the boot, but already has the cubby box - whether it never had the cassette carrier or it has been changed I don't know, but I'm now contemplating buying the cupholder for the rear compartment. Having lived with them for 3 weeks, I have decided the original 12 spoke wheels on my car "spoil" it for me; undecided, but 17" Evo II rims are in the frame at the moment.

(I see - if I interpret your switches correctly - your car has ADS - what's the ride like?).

[QuantumTokoloshi]

Stegel said:

Looks good. My car has the original radio cassette and a CD changer in the boot, but already has the cubby box - whether it never had the cassette carrier or it has been changed I don't know, but I'm now contemplating buying the cupholder for the rear compartment. Having lived with them for 3 weeks, I have decided the original 12 spoke wheels on my car "spoil" it for me; undecided, but 17" Evo II rims are in the frame at the moment.

(I see - if I interpret your switches correctly - your car has ADS - what's the ride like?).

It had, it has got conventional shocks and springs now.I bought it with the conventional shocks etc.

Edited by QuantumTokoloshi on Thursday 26th March 21:49

[cat220]

harrykul said:

You weren't a fan then

Do the main dealers look after you in terms of price? The one over here was pretty expensive and made me look for indies...

I bought a set of rear disks and pads this week for the e55, £120 all in. They also happily give a discount being an older car and offered to fit them for £108 which I didn't take them up on but didn't think that was too bad for a main dealer.

[Krikkit]

r129sl said:

I put my r129 into Merc Newcastle for a service today and they have loaned me a CLA 220 CDI to drive around in.

My God, we sometimes question our sanity on this thread (see last weekend's outpouring of angst) but we are RIGHT. What a shockingly bad car. Not only does it look a dog's dinner (subjective, granted), but it drives awfully.

The suspension is sort of rounded-off-rock-hard; the engine is gruff and unrefined; the controls unintuitive (why does the ESP light show when the system is on? why is the hazard light switch not big and red? what is going on with the radio/telephone/navi/settings?). But worst of all, the visibility is really shocking. The windows are like slits with great big pillars between them. The combination of wing mirror and 'A' pillar really blots out a huge swathe of visibility; likewise the combination of silly "sports" seat and wide 'B' pillar; rearward the combination of seat and fat 'C' pillars makes any kind of parking really tricky. Of course, you haven't a hope of seeing the extremities of the car when parking. I haven't caned it yet but it doesn't feel very fast and there is zero feedback from the controls. Despite being a mere 257 miles old, it has a terrible squeak from one of the seats. And the interior plastics are awful.

Horrid, horrid, little car.

I like the look of the new C-class in estate form, but the arse of the saloon looks like it's melting. I see plenty of them working next to a Merc dealer too, for better or worse...

Unfortunately the visibility issue is a result of ever-increasing demands for safety - the new C-class will be an order of magnitude stronger than a 190. You wouldn't have to find that out as often if you could see out of the damn thing though!

All that said, the old girls have a great deal of charm, and you can't argue about which is built with better quality parts.

[derin100]

r129sl said:

I put my r129 into Merc Newcastle for a service today and they have loaned me a CLA 220 CDI to drive around in.

My God, we sometimes question our sanity on this thread (see last weekend's outpouring of angst) but we are RIGHT. What a shockingly bad car. Not only does it look a dog's dinner (subjective, granted), but it drives awfully.

The suspension is sort of rounded-off-rock-hard; the engine is gruff and unrefined; the controls unintuitive (why does the ESP light show when the system is on? why is the hazard light switch not big and red? what is going on with the radio/telephone/navi/settings?). But worst of all, the visibility is really shocking. The windows are like slits with great big pillars between them. The combination of wing mirror and 'A' pillar really blots out a huge swathe of visibility; likewise the combination of silly "sports" seat and wide 'B' pillar; rearward the combination of seat and fat 'C' pillars makes any kind of parking really tricky. Of course, you haven't a hope of seeing the extremities of the car when parking. I haven't caned it yet but it doesn't feel very fast and there is zero feedback from the controls. Despite being a mere 257 miles old, it has a terrible squeak from one of the seats. And the interior plastics are awful.

Horrid, horrid, little car.

r129sl for the "New Clarkson" possibly?

[cornershop]

Any D2 S8 love out there ? My recent acquisition below

2001
4 previous owners (inc one plate change),
99k miles,
Gearbox rebuild in the last 10k miles,
Colour is TBC - no code in service book or spare wheel well

I'm lead to believe its a very rare non-sunroof model.

Currently at Motor Continental in Crouch End, North London, having the cambelt done, together with t-stat, water pump, rollers, pulleys etc, v-belt, new alternator, new front lambdas, gearbox and engine oil/filter change. Four new tyres and lower door trims also imminent.

Lots of knowledge and helpful peeps on the a8parts forum

[Agent Orange]

bmthnick1981 said:

Yes, very easy to get a bolster fixed. Economical too in my view. I paid £200 to have this done on a 325ti I bought for the wife a few years ago (two new leather patches, foam repair, seat 'painted');

That is good! Nowhere near a bad as the wear I need repaired but very good.

[cat220]

cornershop said:

Any D2 S8 love out there ? My recent acquisition below

2001
4 previous owners (inc one plate change),
99k miles,
Gearbox rebuild in the last 10k miles,
Colour is TBC - no code in service book or spare wheel well

I'm lead to believe its a very rare non-sunroof model.

Currently at Motor Continental in Crouch End, North London, having the cambelt done, together with t-stat, water pump, rollers, pulleys etc, v-belt, new alternator, new front lambdas, gearbox and engine oil/filter change. Four new tyres and lower door trims also imminent.

Lots of knowledge and helpful peeps on the a8parts forum

Lovely! Really do like these!

[derin100]

I hate cars! And I specifically hate £1-5K Barges!

So, I recently spend a significant sum of money getting all the brake-pipes replaced on the E39 525i Touring and the Aircon fixed with a brand new pusher fan.

I do all of this with a view to its return to France today. Before it goes I check/do all the routine service items and also run not one but TWO different diagnostic test softwares on it. Both BMWhatApp and INPA/EDIABAS...not once but several times...to make absolutely sure there are no faults showing up before my wife drives it back to France today.

So, she arrives there late this afternoon. Fine so far? Well, except that when she switches the car off the A/C pusher fan just continues to run at full belt with no signs even after waiting ages of stopping.

After disconnecting the battery, then re-connecting she takes it for a short drive down the French country lane nearby to see if this has sorted it out; whereupon our elderly neighbour (Belgian...significant probably) apparently comes hurtling along the lane in the other direction, round the bend too fast, smacks the passenger side mirror and smashes it.

Then insists (after admitting he was 60-70kph round a blind bend on a road that barely has width sufficient for two cars) that it wasn't his fault and that it was hers! Then insists he that he wants it sorted through the insurance companies and makes my wife fill out all the forms.

I've seen how he drives...and I know my wife is far from the best but I'm inclined to believe her. It would cost me about £30 to buy a new one in the right colour off EBay and about 10 mins to fit ours.

Meanwhile, the auxiliary fan still keeps running so I have to talk her through disconnecting its connecting when initially she was insisting on the phone that there was no such (HUGE!) fan itself visible on the front of the car at all!!!

Take a look at this video of the front of an E39. Can you see a HUGE big thing on the front that looks vaguely like a "fan" anywhere? I know it's tricky...but look real hard! See if you can spot it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjr5uHavj7w

[richard300]

cornershop said:

Any D2 S8 love out there ? My recent acquisition below

2001
4 previous owners (inc one plate change),
99k miles,
Gearbox rebuild in the last 10k miles,
Colour is TBC - no code in service book or spare wheel well

I'm lead to believe its a very rare non-sunroof model.

Currently at Motor Continental in Crouch End, North London, having the cambelt done, together with t-stat, water pump, rollers, pulleys etc, v-belt, new alternator, new front lambdas, gearbox and engine oil/filter change. Four new tyres and lower door trims also imminent.

Lots of knowledge and helpful peeps on the a8parts forum

Looks like dolomite grey or aqua Blue....

[Rincewind209]

I like the D2, it's such a simple shape, not fussy at all but when you see in the flesh it's a very imposing car.

[QuantumTokoloshi]

cornershop said:

Any D2 S8 love out there ? My recent acquisition below

2001
4 previous owners (inc one plate change),
99k miles,
Gearbox rebuild in the last 10k miles,
Colour is TBC - no code in service book or spare wheel well

I'm lead to believe its a very rare non-sunroof model.

Currently at Motor Continental in Crouch End, North London, having the cambelt done, together with t-stat, water pump, rollers, pulleys etc, v-belt, new alternator, new front lambdas, gearbox and engine oil/filter change. Four new tyres and lower door trims also imminent.

Lots of knowledge and helpful peeps on the a8parts forum

Top cars, a good buy, with ridiculously comfortable seats.

[Stegel]

derin100 said:

I hate cars! And I specifically hate £1-5K Barges!

Derin, I feel for you. It's not just 1-5k barges, in my experience cars pick on women. Tempting fate, I cannot recall the last time I was stranded, but our two non-barges, and their predecessors, have stranded my wife, sometimes on more than one occasion per car, requiring recovery. Take comfort in your wife's mechanical ability; my wife, while intelligent, highly qualified in her profession and happy to turn her hand to many practical tasks, could not disconnect and reconnect a car battery, and as for identifying, let alone disconnecting, an A/C fan, no chance. As for your neighbour, yes, being Belgian is significant without doubt.

(My perception of my wife's automotive ability has not been coloured by her reversing her E class into my sparkly, newly repaired CLS last night, on our drive; very minor scuff to each, but apparently I had parked in a cavalier fashion).

Edited by Stegel on Friday 27th March 07:44