Hi, I have an old carlton estate & was thinking of upgrading to something a bit more classy.
Now, many estates seem to have a smaller load area because of a sloping rear door (including the 5-series BMWs) but anybody know how E series Mercedes compare?
I assume you mean to stick with RWD, so there's not much out there with a load area anywhere near the Carlton apart from maybe the Omegas (which are truly s**te), and the recent Merc E class (124?). My E34 is smaller in the load area but I've now had to fit a towbar for trailering the holiday crap around as I also have 2 dogs (that's the load area full then!). You could always try and find a very late (93/94) CDX Carlton previously owned by an older boy as I recently discovered for a mate. 3.0CDX 24v Estate on an L-plate with ***17875miles****!!! Got it for £1375 cash. FSH etc... It's like new, but it took 4 months of looking to find one as good as this. Best of luck.
It has been said that the W124 Estate is all the car any right thinking person should ever want, or indeed need.
There's a chap I know, rich bloke, auctioneer, stable full of classic cars, owns a starship mileage M reg, 280TE. Dark green, absolutely mint, totally full spec, a/c, leather, 7 seats, cd changer etc. It's a truly brilliant car. Built like a bank vault, never been known to break, and he uses it for all sorts of 'orrible jobs. Towing things crazy mileages etc. I want it, but all he ever says is "I've had it 10 years, it's never let me down, and a new one is £40k.. why should I sell it?"
..but the Carltons are huge - I've had two single bed frames & mattresses in the back with no problems at all. This is now my benchmark if I ever change it. I guess I need to take my tape measure to the nearest w124 estate.
Bigger and classier than a Carlton - Citroen XM estate. No longer RWD of course, but cheap, not bad to maintain if you use some common sense, and bloody huge.
CDX 24v? Didn't know they did one of them - thought the only 24v Estates were the Diamonds, or is that what you meant?
Peter
-- "Diamonds are what I really need - think I'll rob a store, escape the law, and live in Italy. Lately, my luck has been so bad, you know the roulette wheel, it's a crooked deal, I'm losing all I had."
True. Can I interest anyone in my 740GL, 2.3 manual, with sunroof, 7 seats, MOT to October 2005? Cost me £450 but I was desperate to get some crap moved; open to vaguely sane offers.
338714miles as of tonight. Just running in nicely. I serviced a E34 525i a month or so back with 535200miles on it. That one is a bit scruffy (stonechips etc) but runs beautifully. He's on his second auot-gearbox though.
Yup. Must have been a Diamond. Full leather, cruise, aircon, Blaupunkt sounds, etc....
*very* sweet. Hope your 'old bus' is going ok. cheers, JB
Get an 850 then. First of the decent handling Volvo estates. Even Jeremy Clarkson thought so, apparently. Would have thought one of them could be had for around the £2k mark.
I was thinking the other day actually - an 850 could be part of a plan of mine to own several pairs of cars with the same model name/number, but completely different cars. Volvos could feature quite regularly actually. I was thinking along the lines of a Volvo 850 and a BMW 850i, a Ferrari 360 Modena and a Volvo 360, a Mazda 323 and a BMW 323i, etc etc. Then I'd spend lots of money on private plates that spell out names, like D4VES, S7EVE, T1MMY etc etc., just for a laugh.
Needless to say, I wouldn't actually do this unless I had *serious* amounts of money to piss away.
Peter
-- "Diamonds are what I really need - think I'll rob a store, escape the law, and live in Italy. Lately, my luck has been so bad, you know the roulette wheel, it's a crooked deal, I'm losing all I had."
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