Is this overpriced for a trade car?

Let's see how many of these I can get a Carlton Estate to match....

Yup - 2.6s are probably reasonably pokey but probably still get a good 25mpg from - 3.0 24v you'll probably not see much less than 20mpg worst case - they're quite good on a run apparently.

Not *quite* as small - easy enough to park though.

Not as high up, but "check", sort of.

Well definitely on the count...

And that.....

The 9000's a quick one like an Aero, innit? Not quite, I guess, but the 24v won't be a million miles off.....

Erm, they're ok for what they are.....

Reliable - yes, as long as you don't use pikey spec oil, which the posh sodium filled valves don't like, I vaguely remember hearing. Fuel economy - almost...

Stick a nought and a bit more on - if there's a 24v about you should get a solid but not mint one for about £1000-1500.

I didn't touch it, but it's probably telling you that you really want a nice A8.

BTW, the deal with that M3 fell through as the bloke had someone turn up with the cash. Probably better that way.

I'm 6'2" with my height biased towards my back rather than legs and it was fine for me. I'm also of portly persuasion, although I seem to be loosing a little for no obvious reason.

Anyway, I fitted well into mine.

Mine happily towed a car trailer loaded with GTM Rossa K3 from here to Bury and back in a day.

They're not a car to love as such - like my Sylva, for reasons which genuinely escape me - but if you got one you would know that it had been a great decision and would repect it for ever. It's a car to trust your life in and not cost you a fortune to run.

I should imagine that doesn't help at all.

Need more, getting 28 out of the Saab, rarely get to do a run now, maybe=20

3-4 times a yearnot driving in rush hour and driving for more than an=20 hour.=20

I was getting 30mpg minimum out of the Octavia mainly local driving with=20

38 on a good run, I want better.=20

I paid =A385 for the estelle and it needed =A370 welding and brake parts fo= r=20 the mot, nothing after that.=20

--=20 Carl Robson Audio stream:

W124s stopped in 1995, so a T or V-reg W124 would be pretty suspect.

They're not indestructible, either, in that they wear like any other car and some of the parts are horrific when you get away from consumables. What amazes me is how much people will put up with in their cars - £1800 E200 1994 Estate, one careful owner, and when I actually drove it the heater was misting, the car pulled, a wheelbearing was howling, the tailgate was rusty...

It's not that I'm expecting a W124 NOT to be like this, but that people will describe such a car as "Drives well" or "smooth luxury" or whatever. "It's pulling violently to one side, the brakes are grinding, and the rear suspension is shagged" "Yes, but it drives well!".

IME, and I wanted a W124 again quite strongly a while back and had the money to spend on one, the good ones are rare and the ones for sale in trade ads or classifieds are usually not as good as people think they are. Which could probably be said for any used car, but for some reason the W124s reputation makes these faults somehow disappear.

Richard

Mercedes A-class turbo nutter thing.

Not cheap and not the best handling, though.

Richard

With that in mind, maybe they'd make an ideal opting-out-of-company-cars choice for someone on here :-)

Elder gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

The factory wouldn't have fitted a Cobra alarm. The dealer might when the car was new, but the factory wouldn't.

Very much the vibe I got from the MB Club. Basically the closest thing to an honest reply you got was: "Yes there are a thousand expensive, relatively common faults, but it's a Mercedes Benz and barring the head gasket, leaks into the cabin and delaminated screen it's been a paragon of reliability."

I don't, but I wouldn't like to be taking finance out on a couple of K worth of car. If it came to that point then I'd be running around in £200 worth of Citroen ZX or some other unfashionable derv piece of tat.

They were back then. BMW, Saab and Merc fitted Cobra alarms. I even phoned Cobra UK about it. "Sorry mate, they were a factory fit not a retail item, you would need=20 to take it to an old Saab dealer if you can still find one".

Made by Cobra, badged as Cobra on the horn and the box, but not the fob.=20 And under the bonnet there is even a specially formed channel to take=20 the wiring from the horn at the front of the inner wing into the=20 aquarium.

--=20 Carl Robson Audio stream:

I was getting 30mpg minimum out of the Octavia mainly local driving with

38 on a good run, I want better. ********************************************

I'm not surprised, didn't it only have like, 115bhp? Mine get's that and I have a full 82 more bhp and probably not much more weight, and hugely shorter gearing.

Mind you, I've never got that out of it because I thrash it mercilessly, like wot it was designed for :-p

D'oh. Someone on Cliosport has recently got an immaculate, late, E36 Evo, the one with different wheels and a bit more power. It looks to be an absolute beauty in the pictures.

It kinda made me want one too :-)

ggy than yours, it's still well over

Some hardcore narcotics... either to sell to raise the money for something worthy, or to take to keep up the illusion you'd get something that meets the full criteria above

-- JackH

It is a case of having to get used to it, yes. There's a "is this really worth the aggravation?" argument to be won before getting used to it. The Caterham has a small footwell, I'd need to wear certain shoes to drive it and even then, it would take plenty getting used to. Would it be worth it? Hell yeah.

With a diesel Saxo, I'd run one because it looks okay*, it's cheap, it'll not get nicked** and finally because it has a decent ride / handling compromise. Worth it? Probably. Not so sure the middle range Saxos make so much sense but there you go, that's just me..

*it isn't butt ugly like say the Micra. **actually it might thanks to the VTR / VTS.

My suggestion is to compromise, either with two vehicles (and all the other compromises this involves!). Decide what you *need* and what you *want*. From your list above, my compromise was on the performance, handling* and purchase price when I bought 9-3 SS 1.8t. Of the list above, I added "comfort" and "cruise control" and removed "interior space," "visibility" and "boot space."

Cruise can always be retrofitted (bringing my post on topic, meh).

I did consider running "small diesel hatchback" (think: Fiesta TDCi, that sort of thing) with cruise added. But then decided, sod this, it's probably my last chance to run something vaguely interesting in the UK.

Of course, you're not me and I'm not you, so your mileage will vary. You can do a lot worse than a fleet-type machine; think Passat, Mondeo, 406,

9-3. Diesel, petrol, LPG; whatever.

But. Why did you chop the Octavia? Will the same thing happen again?

*although as it happens, the SS feels a lot sharper than I initially gave it credit for.

Could be. The Duratec-8v is quieter, but whines a lot, whereas the Endura-E is gutteral. They're barely quicker, standard against standard, over Elvington's quarter mile strip. Chip the Endura-E, fit the lightest wheels you can, and they were effectively the same (times were +/- 0.2s).

Ford fitted the non-air conditioned machine with tall gearing and the Duratec-8v needs >500 rpm on the tacho for the same performance, so it didn't feel anywhere near as immediate as the Endura-E. But the Luxury model (with a/c) has the same gearing as the Endura-E and is very close in fuel consumption.

It's a lovely specification; Kermy was a Luxury. It'll also have QuickClear and may have the in-dash multichanger as I recall.

Too old.