Best smoker barges 1-5 large [Vol 22]
Discussion
E90_M3Ross said:
W00DY said:
https://www.carandclassic.com/l/C1997268
People often joke about the sales disaster that was the Avantime, but don't spend enough time talking about how the world is a better place for it existing.
W00DY said:
https://www.carandclassic.com/l/C1997268
People often joke about the sales disaster that was the Avantime, but don't spend enough time talking about how the world is a better place for it existing.
biggbn said:
W00DY said:
https://www.carandclassic.com/l/C1997268
People often joke about the sales disaster that was the Avantime, but don't spend enough time talking about how the world is a better place for it existing.
Would love one of these and a C6 on my drive.
Sadly in my dreams only !
Wow that does seem reasonable. Obvs the gov will want to tax it off the road, and ownership could be ‘interesting’ as was said in terms of bits.
I know nothing really about them, are they a fixed executive chariot aimed at folk who have other folk to do life stuff, or is it a wonderful left field choice where the seats fold and it could be cavernous for filling with things (I’m not expecting anywhere near a flattish load space as you’ll be tipping armchairs up)
I know nothing really about them, are they a fixed executive chariot aimed at folk who have other folk to do life stuff, or is it a wonderful left field choice where the seats fold and it could be cavernous for filling with things (I’m not expecting anywhere near a flattish load space as you’ll be tipping armchairs up)
If you want to go sit in an Avantime then Beaulieu has one in the "I used to have one of those" section. The interior plastics have not worn well and the doors frequently have issues but I guess they're getting alot more use than normal, the Mondeo and Cavalier they have though are spotless and fully functioning every time I've gone, such a difference to the Ford's & Vauxhall's I've sat in recently. 
anotherswifty said:
Wow that does seem reasonable. Obvs the gov will want to tax it off the road, and ownership could be interesting as was said in terms of bits.
I know nothing really about them, are they a fixed executive chariot aimed at folk who have other folk to do life stuff, or is it a wonderful left field choice where the seats fold and it could be cavernous for filling with things (I m not expecting anywhere near a flattish load space as you ll be tipping armchairs up)
I saw one at a builders' merchants a few years ago. It had long bits of wood sticking out of the side window opening. I know nothing really about them, are they a fixed executive chariot aimed at folk who have other folk to do life stuff, or is it a wonderful left field choice where the seats fold and it could be cavernous for filling with things (I m not expecting anywhere near a flattish load space as you ll be tipping armchairs up)
I think there's been at least one post about the difficulties of sourcing Avantime specific parts. I think they said they were waiting for one to get broken and that until a part became available the car was out of action.
V8 Nissan Cima to be had for 3.5k. Anyone has experience with these? Not blessed with good looks but interior seems nice enough. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/157578989214
KadettE said:
V8 Nissan Cima to be had for 3.5k. Anyone has experience with these? Not blessed with good looks but interior seems nice enough. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/157578989214
A car i have never heard of but instantly like!! KadettE said:
V8 Nissan Cima to be had for 3.5k. Anyone has experience with these? Not blessed with good looks but interior seems nice enough. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/157578989214
Plain looking which probably helps compared to some other imports, direct competitor to the Crown Majesta's (so top of the Nissan tree), can't advise anything specific but make sure you're happy with the infotainment limitations, very difficult/expensive in my Crown to get model connections to work. I do like carpets with a pattern 
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/267536900848
On a JDM theme this might go cheap. Needs a good clean and polish and some better wheels.
W00DY said:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/267536900848
On a JDM theme this might go cheap. Needs a good clean and polish and some better wheels.
This is what I have and with the 'top' Athlete engine for the 12th gen Crown meaning over 300bhp and a well thought out 6sp auto it'll do 0-60 in a whisker under 5 seconds. Lazy cruising is serene and relaxed with enough shove makes getting out of a busy junction a breeze, 70 ish mph is just under 2k rpm and with VVTi it'll happily do high 30's mpg on the motorway to balance out the sub 28 you'll get around town. On a perfect European jaunt I got 44mpg for over 2hrs on a drizzly monday in Holland. On a JDM theme this might go cheap. Needs a good clean and polish and some better wheels.
Along with most mod-cons you'd want it'll also have cornering lights above 10km/h, centre vents that swing to waft air con around, reversing camera, rear-armrest stereo controls, and a Japanese lady will also tell you the date & time when you first turn it on each day along with wishing you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year at the appropriate times. The infotainment in this one has been upgraded so that's good for androidauto/apple carplay whatever they've chosen connectivity, in base form the unit has a mini-disc player (remember those?) and a cd/hdd so you can import upto 25gb of albums, it also has a calendar function to pop up alarms to tell you everything from the next service to rotating your tyres and yes for this you can use a romani keyboard. The heated seats are missing compared to mine but it does have parking sensors whereas I just have to use the force
The tints could be a pain to remove if they're the ones offered from the factory by Toyota and not aftermarket and it has the 'base' aero kit compared to 3 other options available when new. I have an original brochure and yes you could get those seat doilies even for these in 2006 
When new it was roughly £37k with this engine so about the same as the S-Type SE diesel that I've also had, the Crown has abit more NVH than the Jag and the mpg is worse but only just, 32 mpg plays to the Jag's 36 (yes my Jag diesels sounds broken, it probably was).
Problems with this generation of Crown - alternators can go, the dash's can crack though this one looks great compared to mine & bonnet struts can fail... and that's it. It's a Lexus GS underneath and all parts are available either through Toyota or from Japan (took 9 days to get me a pair of new bonnet struts).
As you can tell from the above verbal waterfall above I adore my Crown, I didn't even know what one was until I picked mine up from TorqueGT and it's been the best car I've owned by a country mile except for maybe the Skyline. This year will be my 7th year of owning mine and it's turning 20 but it doesn't feel it. I keep trying to replace it but to keep the same combination of speed/handling/comfort/reliability/mpg is very hard and so I'll probably get another later gen one from Japan when mine is done, unless I can find a 605 mi16 going cheap
edit: maybe if I was being really picky I'd get a 13th gen over this one, it has slightly more reserved styling, only has the bonnet strut problem and is slightly more economical.
Edited by TommoAE86 on Monday 12th January 19:54
Edited by TommoAE86 on Monday 12th January 19:56
W00DY said:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/267536900848
On a JDM theme this might go cheap. Needs a good clean and polish and some better wheels.
Bit of tint removal too...
TommoAE86 said:
This is what I have and with the 'top' Athlete engine for the 12th gen Crown meaning over 300bhp and a well thought out 6sp auto it'll do 0-60 in a whisker under 5 seconds. Lazy cruising is serene and relaxed with enough shove makes getting out of a busy junction a breeze, 70 ish mph is just under 2k rpm and with VVTi it'll happily do high 30's mpg on the motorway to balance out the sub 28 you'll get around town. On a perfect European jaunt I got 44mpg for over 2hrs on a drizzly monday in Holland.
Along with most mod-cons you'd want it'll also have cornering lights above 10km/h, centre vents that swing to waft air con around, reversing camera, rear-armrest stereo controls, and a Japanese lady will also tell you the date & time when you first turn it on each day along with wishing you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year at the appropriate times. The infotainment in this one has been upgraded so that's good for androidauto/apple carplay whatever they've chosen connectivity, in base form the unit has a mini-disc player (remember those?) and a cd/hdd so you can import upto 25gb of albums, it also has a calendar function to pop up alarms to tell you everything from the next service to rotating your tyres and yes for this you can use a romani keyboard. The heated seats are missing compared to mine but it does have parking sensors whereas I just have to use the force The tints could be a pain to remove if they're the ones offered from the factory by Toyota and not aftermarket and it has the 'base' aero kit compared to 3 other options available when new. I have an original brochure and yes you could get those seat doilies even for these in 2006
When new it was roughly £37k with this engine so about the same as the S-Type SE diesel that I've also had, the Crown has abit more NVH than the Jag and the mpg is worse but only just, 32 mpg plays to the Jag's 36 (yes my Jag diesels sounds broken, it probably was).
Problems with this generation of Crown - alternators can go, the dash's can crack though this one looks great compared to mine & bonnet struts can fail... and that's it. It's a Lexus GS underneath and all parts are available either through Toyota or from Japan (took 9 days to get me a pair of new bonnet struts).
As you can tell from the above verbal waterfall above I adore my Crown, I didn't even know what one was until I picked mine up from TorqueGT and it's been the best car I've owned by a country mile except for maybe the Skyline. This year will be my 7th year of owning mine and it's turning 20 but it doesn't feel it. I keep trying to replace it but to keep the same combination of speed/handling/comfort/reliability/mpg is very hard and so I'll probably get another later gen one from Japan when mine is done, unless I can find a 605 mi16 going cheap
edit: maybe if I was being really picky I'd get a 13th gen over this one, it has slightly more reserved styling, only has the bonnet strut problem and is slightly more economical.
Good info!Along with most mod-cons you'd want it'll also have cornering lights above 10km/h, centre vents that swing to waft air con around, reversing camera, rear-armrest stereo controls, and a Japanese lady will also tell you the date & time when you first turn it on each day along with wishing you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year at the appropriate times. The infotainment in this one has been upgraded so that's good for androidauto/apple carplay whatever they've chosen connectivity, in base form the unit has a mini-disc player (remember those?) and a cd/hdd so you can import upto 25gb of albums, it also has a calendar function to pop up alarms to tell you everything from the next service to rotating your tyres and yes for this you can use a romani keyboard. The heated seats are missing compared to mine but it does have parking sensors whereas I just have to use the force
The tints could be a pain to remove if they're the ones offered from the factory by Toyota and not aftermarket and it has the 'base' aero kit compared to 3 other options available when new. I have an original brochure and yes you could get those seat doilies even for these in 2006 When new it was roughly £37k with this engine so about the same as the S-Type SE diesel that I've also had, the Crown has abit more NVH than the Jag and the mpg is worse but only just, 32 mpg plays to the Jag's 36 (yes my Jag diesels sounds broken, it probably was).
Problems with this generation of Crown - alternators can go, the dash's can crack though this one looks great compared to mine & bonnet struts can fail... and that's it. It's a Lexus GS underneath and all parts are available either through Toyota or from Japan (took 9 days to get me a pair of new bonnet struts).
As you can tell from the above verbal waterfall above I adore my Crown, I didn't even know what one was until I picked mine up from TorqueGT and it's been the best car I've owned by a country mile except for maybe the Skyline. This year will be my 7th year of owning mine and it's turning 20 but it doesn't feel it. I keep trying to replace it but to keep the same combination of speed/handling/comfort/reliability/mpg is very hard and so I'll probably get another later gen one from Japan when mine is done, unless I can find a 605 mi16 going cheap
edit: maybe if I was being really picky I'd get a 13th gen over this one, it has slightly more reserved styling, only has the bonnet strut problem and is slightly more economical.
Edited by TommoAE86 on Monday 12th January 19:54
Edited by TommoAE86 on Monday 12th January 19:56
I didn't know the swinging vents were available on this, I always assumed that was a Lexus LS-only feature.
W00DY said:
Good info on the Crown, thanks.
I like them, but my problem is paying the JDM tax.
I've got 2 import problems with mine, insurance is 4x a Lexus GS350/450h which is far over the top imo but thankfully the car more than makes up for it. The other is 1 of the 4 garages in my town won't touch it 'because import' but the boring reality is that it's just a Toyota so it talks to garage diagnostic systems and all parts are worst-case available from Toyota so lucky escape for me there. I like them, but my problem is paying the JDM tax.
donkmeister said:
Good info!
I didn't know the swinging vents were available on this, I always assumed that was a Lexus LS-only feature.
I forgot it also has Toyota's plasmacluster to ionize the air con too.I didn't know the swinging vents were available on this, I always assumed that was a Lexus LS-only feature.
Gassing Station | Car Buying | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff