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

The 2.5l 5 cylinder petrol wasn't available on the XC70 either from what I can see, dunno about the xc60/xc90 but it appeared in the V70, nice examples of those are pretty sought after too.

It used to be the 5 cylinder models (D5 / D3, 2.5l petrol) were the ones to have, no idea about the more modern ones. I had an old D5 S60 & it was great, still some bargains around for the 163bhp one (<2006) at ~100k but the estates are increasing rapidly for anything that hasn't been humped.

There's an unbelievably mint one of these in Northern Ireland at the moment, imported from Japan but not registered on plates yet. 42,000km and the price isn't bad at all.

Edit: I presume you meant the newer version...

Replaced Mrs. Nahguavkire's car yesterday.
Out with a 2013 W176 A180 and in with a 2017 C350e Wagon.
It's quite nice!

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Seem that the Flexi are common fail point on cars I've looked at.

Try and get them not to weld the Flexi in. Use a Flexi that is clamped over the old pipes either side as you will be replacing in again in a couple of years time.

Check that ta, he said the break is right on the bottom of the cat so needs a tail welding on to mount it and then clamp it on the other end. Hopefully if it goes again there will be something to fit a new one to?¿

How did you find that? Listing is a bit of a mess, think it's legit?

No number plates and says it’s an Audi Q7 when it’s an old Volvo. Very reassuring.

If you go over lfgss road trip ;)

Irish Gumtree equivalent is Donedeal. I've no doubt it's legitimate, adverts are often a mess on it... I'm a regular browser though and like to keep an eye on oddities for sale in Ireland...

Spoke to the seller, he's going to send a load more photos.

Also the newer imports are the 4 cylinder engine and 8speed auto trans. 245 bhp.

The one in Ireland is not MOTd or registered, so defo a risk!

Oh this is exciting! Hope it works out, I had been admiring it myself but cost of VAT, VRT and road tax would make it unattractive in the Republic.

Had a fiasco last night.
Went to view that e91 330d from a few pages back. Finally one has turned up that’s low miles, m sport, black leather interior, m57 engine (albeit the aluminium one), manual, not silly money and vaguely local. Send it to mates who agree that it looks like a goer. HPI check all clear, long term ownership for 2 owners etc. Then sort out going to see it at a time when my mate is free (him being more mechanically inclined).
Have a complete palaver getting the cash out, first branch on google maps has been gone for 2 years, next branch isn’t a branch at all and is actually a “banking hub”, and can only give me £500, but thankfully third time lucky. Drive an hour to pick up mechanic mate, just as we’re setting off on the hour 15 drive to the seller, they message to say battery is flat and car won’t start, and that he doesn’t want me to waste my time. I try and explain that I’ve already sunk enough time into it, and turning around now isn’t really that convenient. So we forge on. He rings again a bit agitated but I tell him that at this point we might as well come and see the car and see what happens. He’d been a bit odd about wanting to meet at the local auction mart rather than his place, but because he can’t get the car started, it’s obviously still at his place. Anyway, more cajoling down the phone and we agree to just meet where the car actually is.
Turns out he’s a gamekeeper so I guess he might’ve been worried about having people to a place that isn’t actually his (just lives there as part of his employment or whatever).
The car has apparently been sat for 6 weeks as he’s bought a new car and not driven the old one since. Silly sausage didn’t think to try and start it before people were organising to view it.
We hook the car up to his truck and try to start it. Get a long crank but no start, which seems weird (and not a totally flat battery as described). Fuel gauge is reading 0 miles ffs. So off he plods for some fuel, 10L in, and still crank but no start. Battery voltage reading fine. Car is bleeping lots and generally seems unhappy, coolant level light is popping up despite the float showing it full, oil on dipstick is low (but car is on a slight downhill). Either way, the picture being painted isn’t ideal.
But now we’ve cranked an empty car plenty, the system will now be full of air. He rings a mechanic mate and we try a bit of easy start into the intake. It almost starts but isn’t sounding particularly happy. Then his mechanic mate turns up with a diagnostic tool and plugs it in, loads of codes pop up which he clears, and he has a bit of a fiddle to check there’s actually fuel getting to it (which there is now at least). Still no joy.
Mechanic says there’s a DDE fault which keeps coming back, and my mate points out that’s German for ECU.
“Oh ECU fault, that’s not what you want at all”
Says the mechanic,
“Who are you guys by the way”
“We’re just here to try and buy the car”
“Oh”.

We did have a good laugh about it, and unsurprisingly left without the still non-starting car. You don’t know if you don’t go, and the search continues. Shame, looked quite good otherwise!

These stories make me realise I'm a terrible car buyer because I'd still be there trying to get it running so I can drive it home and just assume I can sort it later for a reasonable amount of money.

Couple of mates are big BMW diesel nerds so I'd have been straight onto the phone with them trying to work out if it's a common issue and what we can do to rectify it 😂

I’m sure that fella was genuine, but
#csb
I once went to look at a car that had just been MOTed that day. I got there a little bit early and saw the owner and a mate frantically putting the back wheels on. I asked what was going on and apparently they had got an advisory for low thread on the rear tyres so has swapped on some different wheels. Oh that’s nice I thought, especially as they were nicer wheels. Anyway I took it for a test drive it was fine, paid my money and drove home a nice little KA. Obviously I didn’t test the hand brake on my test drive, because when I got home it didn’t work. Shit a brick, I jacked the back up thinking somehow in changing the wheels they had dislodged something, the cable wasn’t connected to anything just cable tied to the control arm. I took the wheels off as well as the drums and there was nothing in there, I mean nothing, no shoes, springs, pistons, nothing. That’s a lie there was a bolt in the end of the brake line fittings. The next day I drove it back to where I’d got it. Yeah, the person that sold it to me no longer lived there and there was no forwarding address. Turned out the car had been sat with the rear wheels under the back in pieces for a month or 2 and well a friendly mot tester and an idiot car buyer got it moved. Fuckers!
I fixed it and we drove it for 4 years and it was actually a really good clean car and still very cheap. But still. Fuckers!!!

The obvious first solution is to properly bleed all the air out of the fuel lines which would take some time which we didn’t have. A borked ECU however is more of a headache than I fancied. But either way, can’t buy what you can’t drive away and we didn’t come with a trailer. There was the chance of having his pants down on price if we did get it running.
But we didn’t, lol.

Can anyone recommend a person / company who could collect a car from London ( green lane area) , stick it on a flat bed (due to being a low Citroen that hasn’t run for a while ) and transport to Wiltshire and drop off? Any idea of cost of this sort of thing? Thanks!

I have used Shiply.com a couple of times successfully.

Just check the reviews of whoever you contract first.

I'll check with my old man who he bribed to move the Saab from SE London to Bath when my MOT expired during lockdown.

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Last time I did this sort of thing I asked a local classic car resto place if they could recommend anyone. The best thing that came from the conversation was more of the places to avoid tbh, but I did use somebody they suggested in the end. A plant hire firm! Inside knowledge:)

actually love this shape merc estate. bit central europe/nordics taxi driver but in a good way

Is it driveable?

Thanks @jono84 @Chaley @MrBaklava

@lynx - I’m not sure will ask the seller if he can get it running. If it was local I’d be going round with a can of petrol and jump leads..!

Mine went off in the back of a truck today to be fixed

Was £180 for a 70mile journey

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Have jump pack and jerry can

It’s in Stoke Newington , probably seen it on eBay and I expect someone will buy it before I can get to see it . Hasn’t run in a year and was in dry storage for around 20 apparently:
Shiply quotes coming in at £300 ish

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