Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

Buy a [something something] and be done with it

Amen

I'm also confused @Dammit , are you now after a 10 yr old car to leave at the airport?

It's very wet, ground is permantly wet, summers are great and whole city has a good vibe. Think only Bristol I could live in if I had to move.

You can live very nicely in Glasgow for not a lot, there are £££ areas but compared to even Newcastle or Manchester it's generally cheaper. Wetter though, permant mudguards on every bike lol.

Warehouse is big, but found that big was the same price as medium sized places. Spent 7 hours today cleaning and hosing it down, knackered now!

Worth it, though. That is my dream. I’ll end up wuth one eventually, I’ll prob need to sleep in the mezzanine.

I'm also confused @Dammit , are you now after a 10 yr old car to leave at the airport?

https://www.uber.com/en-GB/ride/

It's a fair question.

The Volvo is fast car, no question - it's lighter than most modern stuff and it has very 90's "big turbo power".

However, driving the 911 with it's high compression 3.4 has made me want to try an atmospheric, big displacement engine in my "sensible" car.

I'd also simply quite like a change, having had the Volvo for almost ten years now.

The driving I do these days is, in order of frequency:

• Heathrow airport
  
• Reading via M4 at rush-hour
  
• A big shop
  
• Errands
  
• My parents
  
  

I want an automatic because M4, I want big power because of my own personal inadequacies.

The C55 seems a good fit - that capacity with the relatively low power means it's unstressed, the auto-box is pretty bulletproof, it makes a great noise and (rust aside) should be pretty close to "just service it", especially given that with my annual mileage it'll be 2022 before I hit 100k.

The sensible route might well be to lease something, but as mentioned there is a non-zero chance of me having to up-sticks and head to the US, so entering into that sort of commitment would be stupid.

I might lend BRM the Merc on the condition that he looks after the 911 whilst I'm away.

@Dammit just out of interest, what's the rough figure for fixing the rust in the Merc.? It seems to me if the rest of the car is good then fixing it and preventing any more rust would be a good investment. After all, if they all do that then you'll have one of the few without rust in the arches once it's fixed.

I don't know - not got the estimate from Multi-Tech yet.

To be clear - I'd use the repair figure as a reference point in the negotiation on price.

Here's what I have from Multi-Tech so far on the 911, I'm adding to this as Barry posts the pics:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/8131181@N05/sets/72157693585797854

https://www.facebook.com/kim.lonnstrom/videos/10213543199067875/

I’d not be able to follow through on option 2.

I've noticed in NOLA quite a few trucks have old rusty bonnets, but are otherwise normal. I guess it's a rat style.

Could you try something similar? It might be a way of mitigating your need to carry out expensive work to make a car perfect, and would give you a creative outlet.

(genuine suggestion)

Pls no

So...

I'm selling my 5 Series estate. It won't be available until the end of the month.

2003 525d SE Auto
It's done just under 170,000 miles
FSH, some BMW some independent
It will be freshly serviced and MOTd before sale
It will also be having a service of the automatic gearbox, BMW claim the ATF is lifetime but there are differing reports from people on the internet whether or not they actually last. It's fine at the moment apart from a slightly aggressive shift into 1st gear, but I'd feel happier having it serviced.
I am owed a 2-day exterior and interior detail by a friend of mine so it will be looking fresh before it's sold.

The headlights on this shape (E39) are a weak point, the adjusters that change the beam level are plastic and become brittle and break. Once this happens, both dipped and low beam point at the floor and become quite useless making driving at night a headache. I am just waiting for delivery of refurbished headlights, which use updated adjusters made of metal meaning this weak point won't occur again. It's a shame BMW didn't do this from the factory.

The car had a new Bosch battery this winter.

It's very well specced inside, black leather, multi-function steering wheel, dual zone climate control, everything adjustable SE seats which are really comfy - just not electric, big widescreen BMW factory navigation/computer/head unit, all electric windows and mirrors, airbags, and PDC.

The only modifications to the car are a Dension Ice Link to allow an iPod or iPhone through the BMW factory sound system, and LED dipped headlights and sidelights (angel eyes). Neither light upgrades have required chopping the OEM wiring loom, and I may actually return the dipped headlight bulbs back to standard halogen bulbs once I receive the new refurbished headlights as they will no longer be pointing at the floor and will hopefully work as BMW intended rather than as glorified fog lights.

Exterior wise there are some scratches on the doors from what I assume are car parks, there is a minor bumper scrape, there are chips on the rear bumpers from careless unloading of the rear, and there are also 2 very minor rust issues. One on the rear arch and one on the tailgate. I am hoping the majority of scratches and scrapes will be removed during the 2 day detail, so I don't want to put any pics of them up yet.

It had one issue during my ownership that was a leaky o-ring on an injector which was replaced at the cost of £35. It cost me more in travel to get to my destination and then go back and pick up the car than it cost to repair it. I'm sure I probably could have carried on driving it but it was causing a drip of diesel on the exhaust which was smoking so I thought it better to get recovered to a garage and then continue my journey on the train.

What's it like to live with? Well it's massive inside, which is great, recently took Gav, Spotter, and myself to Hadleigh Park in total comfort, 2 bikes on the towbar rack and one in the boot, plus all of our kit in the boot, and that meant we could sit in the cabin in total comfort. I currently have this lie flat car seat for my baby and it can manage to have that seat in on it's massive ISOFIX base and reclined and not interfere with the driver's seating position.

It cruises nicely on the motorway, loves to do about 85-90mph if you're that way inclined, but if you're not in a hurry will return 40-45mpg at the speed limit. Will sit on an Audi's bumper well into triple digits if you're into that sort of thing too.

It's SE spec and on 16" wheels with massive tyres, so it's insanely comfy, it has Self-Levelling Rear Suspension which was replaced at great cost to a previous owner, which means it's not going to need attention or replacing for many years to come.

It also has a split tailgate which can still be opened when the rear towbar rack is attached (but only when road bikes are mounted and not big ol' widebar MTBs), which is very helpful. The towbar is factory fitted and removable, with a piece of trim that clips in and out depending on if it's fitted or not. Full size spare in the boot.

The only known issue at the moment, other than everything that I've mentioned, is that when it was at it's coldest recently, it ran rough when it started up for a period of about 5 seconds, before settling into a normal idle. I can only assume that the diesel pre-heater was not as effective as it used to be, or perhaps it doesn't work at all, but it would only be an issue for maybe 1 week out of 52 and tbh, it's not really an issue. It didn't take an extended period to fire up, it started straight away, just sounded like it started on 5 cylinders rather than 6.

Previously owned and loved by @Mikey5000 and it's been loved by me too, I don't really want to get rid of it, I love the shape, the E39 Estate is one of my favourite shape "normal" cars of all time, but I'm buying something quite epic and I can't keep 3 cars.

I think it's worth more, but I got a bargain from M5k so I will pass that on, £1450

That's some serious value for money...!

Don't need but want.

Useless without pics though. :)

Tempting! Important question though - colour?

I'd pick it up if it was lhd

umm 3.6 n/a v6 skoda superb with dsg (with the funny saloon but a hatchback boot, or full on estate)

• remap options available for both engine and dsg?
  

It's silver.

I don't really want to put pics up until it's been seen to by the detailer.

sounds like an epic bargain. Good work dude.

hope someone snaps it up before I get pointlessly tempted

Sell it to Neil?

Neil, you can get a whole estate car for the cost of half a steering wheel!

I don't think it's quick enough for him. It feels rapid because it has good torque, about 350NM of torque vs 160bhp, but it's not actually quick, and it runs out of puff pretty quickly.

That engine is pretty unstressed though in that car as it's the "same" as the E61 535d which is a torque monster at 550NM.

Before anyone shouts at me, I know it's not the same engine. It's the same design, but the one in the 535d is obviously half a litre larger and is twin turbo rather than single, hence bigger power and torque.

Volvo has 550Nm, and is ~1,700kg.

Hybrids ridden in mud, Jimmy Carr in headscarf as brand ambassador. Not sure of Jaguar's new marketing direction. Can someone pls explain?

Fear of setting off seat air bags?