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

Hi internet.

Mate is looking for an estate because baby.

Budget is probably 8-10k. Doesn't want diesel and not troo high a milage. Likes the idea of an octavia but now he talked to @Mikey5000 he's also looking at 3 series because the only pleasure you have in life post baby is putting your foot down. Anything else he should be looking for and what are the pitfalls with these?

Ideally doesn't want massive mileage and wants to fit in with all the cool bike woning parents in Hackney. He's aslo asking me, and whilst I like cars, I don't have a license or real world knowledge.

btw - are you around on Saturday?

Will be around in the morning I'd think, at least- might head out of town late morning but not sure yet.

fancy a car swap? I (accidentally) bought some fucking huge speakers I need to pick up in the afternoon

i'll bell you later.

ace, thank you. I really like the idea of a decent interior in a small car. Reading around on forums it gets slagged off pretty heavily though, apparently really expensive to fix?

The other option I guess is to get a Polo or something equally dull. But having done long trips in a Golf I'm not overly keen

where are these speakers?

Found round the corner

1 Attachment

That mk4 on the left looks amazing doesn't it

harlow. wait till you see them. ridiculous.

lemme know tomorrow if you want to smash them in the back of the 'brover.

okay mate - that would be good. save me two trips...

I think this is often down to lack of knowledge on the mechanics part. Dunno if they were ahead of their time, or maybe more, the car industry hasn't moved on much in the past 20 years? I mean, construction techniques and materials remain mostly unchanged, choice of components and operation again fairly unchanged, regular mcpherson struts on anything under 2000kg, 30mm spaced spot welds and heat sensitive epoxy bonded bodies, 0.6/0.8mm steel on everything etc.

Today confirmed there aren't many good mechanics out there, have one very inaccessible bolt on my engine that needs a spanner that has been bent in 3 distinct ways in order to even begin to fit. VW made a special tool for the job in the 90s, and was hoping one of these 'vw/vag' specialists would at least know of the problem, if not have the tool and be willing to earn some premium money to remove just one bolt using their magic vw spanner.
But no.
Rang about 15 of them, 13 of them didn't believe there is a vw engine thats fitted to a volvo and why don't I go speak to a volvo garage its not their problem, the rest sort of knew of the problem but didn't know how to tackle it.
IDeally need a commercial van mechanic who does vw t4 as they have this same inaccessibly problem but struggling to find one.

I would like one of these I think:

Where do I find a good one, and how much to pay? Also, who would like a very fast, very rare Volvo? I do you good price.

^ 100% badass

E90 3 Series
4 door
<=50k miles
<=£10k
Petrol

https://www.pistonheads.com/classifieds?CarTypeFF=SAL&Category=used-cars&FuelType=PTL&M=257&MaxPrice=10000&MileageTo=50000

I hate mercs, but those were rad.
@Dammit

Yes, I would not buy a rusty one, that wouldn't make sense.

There's one on eBay, odd photographs though - only with the bonnet up.

The ugliest era of BMW though

Here it is, I suspect it'd need a lot of work: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/E55-amg-Mercedes-Benz-estate-S-reg-new-mot-fsh-just-serviced-at-Mercedes-vgc-/182497561992?hash=item2a7db3cd88:g:9h4AAOSw4A5YquXQ

Daimler owned Chrysler for a while, hence the 300C, (based upon the outgoing E-series platform), and the Crossfire, (based upon previous SL?).

It was claimed on the vegetableoildiesel forum that 'R'/'S' reg E-class suffered from the first generation of MB water based paints,
with poor edge effects hence ubiquitous rusty boot edges and boot lock holes.

Add in the UK rhd models were, so I read, assembled in South Africa, these are the ones to avoid, unless the spec or service history convinces you to budget for respraying the troublesome areas.

Were the AMG variants built on the same line?

There's certain "styles" other than the M3 that look good, eg 335 M Sport and some of the front and rear bumper styles, but the povvo spec 318s with SE bumpers and wheel fitment look wank.

I have no idea.
Do they share any body panels with the non-AMG variants?
Are Germany-assembled lhd AMG vehicles from the main production line, or, is there an AMG-ing factory?

Was it the paint being the issue or poor quality thinner steel.

What is wrong with the engine?

Was the time GM owned or had an interest in Mercedes

Was going to say the same thing.

Isn't that from the era when most mercs were shit even when new?

One of my mum's friends S Class used to tell you to put on your seat belt if it dropped below 20mph. He famously drove it back into the dealership and left it there.

#anecdotalevidence