Best smoker barges 1-5 large [Vol 21]
Discussion
Mancayman said:
E90_M3Ross said:
donkmeister said:
Mancayman said:
Good evening bargeists
Hoping you can help.
Would like something comfy to get me from Cheshire to Gloucestershire and back once a week - a round trip of 230ish miles.
Currently use my wife's X1 or our Mini. The X1 is great at that, the Mini isn't too bad surprisingly. However, at 12 years old the Mini is more expensive to run than my Cayman due to the frequency of things that need fixing and replacing. Also, it's not auto and does not have cruise or heated seats.
The curve ball here is that my son takes his driving test next month - is there a barge in existence that would be insurable for a newly qualified 17 year old for him to use when necessary.
Any suggestions gratefully received.
Or am I being completely unrealistic?!
Thanks in advance.
The answer is just above you - V8 M3 will do it in just over an hour each way whilst sipping gently at the petrol. Hoping you can help.
Would like something comfy to get me from Cheshire to Gloucestershire and back once a week - a round trip of 230ish miles.
Currently use my wife's X1 or our Mini. The X1 is great at that, the Mini isn't too bad surprisingly. However, at 12 years old the Mini is more expensive to run than my Cayman due to the frequency of things that need fixing and replacing. Also, it's not auto and does not have cruise or heated seats.
The curve ball here is that my son takes his driving test next month - is there a barge in existence that would be insurable for a newly qualified 17 year old for him to use when necessary.
Any suggestions gratefully received.
Or am I being completely unrealistic?!
Thanks in advance.
fuel efficient it really isn't. Not too bad for what it is I guess, but yeah, it's not great. Worth it 
Hippea said:
That is a pretty cool car and about the right sort of money to buy it and drive it. The only slight issue is that Autotrader is quoting the 0-60 as 9.0 seconds... meaning it is terribly slow and I feel that could put a bit of a dampener on things... especially with the Cosworth badge on it. Sometimes the Autotrader figures are wrong though... so there's still hope. 
dscam said:
macron said:
Rare indeed. Lovely thing. Will sadly be afflicted with endless electrical gremlins at some point. They just cannot help it.
screaming and waving fire extinguishers at it when it spontaneously burst into flames whilst parked.
Massive risk at £3.5k. Too much money to throw away if it goes mammaries skywards. £500 and I'll take it. And will buy some flame retardant underwear.
I do like it, though. I had a Mk3 Gooner (having been convinced that the electrical and quality issues had been resolved by Renault), the thing tried to eat me when one if its tailgate struts collapsed, and the bootlid crashed into my skull. Good job it (my skull) doesn't contain anything important. I think the car was 4 years old at the time. It was swiftly traded in for a Mazda 6.
dscam said:
W00DY said:
Hippea said:
I like them. Looks very comfy and I'd definitely enjoy the reactions of friends and family.Far from perfect with some fettling required it seems but also quite a fair asking price imho.
Probably is a bit disappointing from the traffic lights but I’m sure it’s moves along very well.
CivicDuties said:
dscam said:
macron said:
Rare indeed. Lovely thing. Will sadly be afflicted with endless electrical gremlins at some point. They just cannot help it.
screaming and waving fire extinguishers at it when it spontaneously burst into flames whilst parked.
Massive risk at £3.5k. Too much money to throw away if it goes mammaries skywards. £500 and I'll take it. And will buy some flame retardant underwear.
I do like it, though. I had a Mk3 Gooner (having been convinced that the electrical and quality issues had been resolved by Renault), the thing tried to eat me when one if its tailgate struts collapsed, and the bootlid crashed into my skull. Good job it (my skull) doesn't contain anything important. I think the car was 4 years old at the time. It was swiftly traded in for a Mazda 6.
It seems that the bearing in the cooling fan had collasped and the blades of the fan had jammed on the radiator. No fuse on the circuit, in the end the wiring loom caught fire.
Fixed under warranty, which was how I got to find out the cost (VAT registered, so we paid the VAT). Loan cars provided for the 6 months it took them to get the parts and fix it. The model was only three months old at the time. Only other cost was a parking ticket, while waiting for recovery with the bonnet up.
8 years later, and now having migrated to a Safrane, I got a factory recall notice for my third 25 to have the fan bearing changed.....quick, these Frenchies
A fair chunk of those 9.0 seconds on those old 4-speed autobox cars is stirring up the torque convertor from rest in the loooong first gear and then the gearbox having no real sense of urgency even for full throttle shifts, so they can feel a lot better in everyday driving than (say) a relatively short-geared five speed manual car with the same overall 0-60 time would.
I think that would be part of the appeal for me, though. The last of the bread and butter brand range-toppers that only did "big", "comfortable" and "massive equipment list on the top model" without really thinking about anything else to more than a basic level of competence. That and the rear bench with so many different textures of leather it looks like they got H.R. Giger to pop by the design studio on one of his slow days.
I think that would be part of the appeal for me, though. The last of the bread and butter brand range-toppers that only did "big", "comfortable" and "massive equipment list on the top model" without really thinking about anything else to more than a basic level of competence. That and the rear bench with so many different textures of leather it looks like they got H.R. Giger to pop by the design studio on one of his slow days.
Edited by Timberwolf on Friday 1st March 10:20
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/305426051524
Since it's Friday. Scarab green might be my favourite BMW colour.
The interior looks less distressed. I like the ear wax removal tool stuck into the A pillar.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/226012111834?mkcid=16&a...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/226012111834?mkcid=16&a...
https://carsonline.bonhams.com/en/listings/daimler...
Hello
Theuy know there customers with factory Geralded chrome side-strips
RUI488 said:
21st Century Man said:
Threadist Judas and I have had experience of Chinese tyres. It wasn't good.
Yeah i’m not going to weigh in on a tyre debate as i’ll only get called rude names. Cheap tyres are for cheap people.
The way I see it is that you can't judge how good these cheap tyres are by day to day driving. You'll only ever find out how good or bad they are when something goes wrong, and you're either swearing about that near miss as you carry on down the road, or find yourself upside down in a ditch (ok, slightly hyperbolic, but you get the idea).
tobinen said:
That's quite appealing. Good find.
judas said:
RUI488 said:
21st Century Man said:
Threadist Judas and I have had experience of Chinese tyres. It wasn't good.
Yeah i’m not going to weigh in on a tyre debate as i’ll only get called rude names. Cheap tyres are for cheap people.
The way I see it is that you can't judge how good these cheap tyres are by day to day driving. You'll only ever find out how good or bad they are when something goes wrong, and you're either swearing about that near miss as you carry on down the road, or find yourself upside down in a ditch (ok, slightly hyperbolic, but you get the idea).
I've got to experience all sorts of cheap nasty tyres from buying sheds and they range from "really quite OK but still not great in the wet" (landsails on a V8 XF) to "oh s
t I'm sliding sideways on a roundabout at 15mph in the rain" (almost all of the others).It's 100% not worth the risk of getting the latter, just buy one of the many very good mid range tyres you can get now. Some of them are so bad I've thrown a full set of 6mm tread tyres in the bin because they're straight up not safe in the rain at any speed.
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