I'm pretty much set on a W124 probably a 300E Petrol

'Put the bag of Werthers Original down, and slowly move away from them with your hands where we can see them.'

It always seems cheaper to get a vehicle that's already been converted. Although then you're at the mercy of someone else when it comes to installation quality, and I've seen some s**te fitments.

There was a half-decent looking Accord 2.0 LPG on autotrader recently. I wondered about having it as my commuter vehicle because I look set to be using the flat in London in the near future and the 4xFord really isn't ideal for journeys around the North Circular and Westway.

Normally just the outer arch, tbh. Always look very carefully at anything like this with either a Mick plate or chrome arches.

The 'full house' in Landlord Bingo is a beige E32 730i with a "BAZ" plate, grey leather, inappropriate alloys (to replace the TRX jobs), chrome arches and an exhaust blow that 'just needs welding'.

Oh, and while you're looking at W124s, how about this?

What's that you say? It's time for cocoa?

Bingo, why I buy my sheds.

Bingo 2 the full house. I know there are much better cars out there than I drive, but I also know that the owners (and me if I did the same) are spending more a month on the loan to in many cases basically be in negative equity at the end and be forced to take yet more finance if they want to change their car, never mind upgrade it. And with the way things are going, I'm going to be getting tighter with my car spends, not more extravagent. Yes I will probably change regularly, but there will be less change of it being a total money pit while I own it. A new car feeling is fun, even if it is a new old s***ty banger shed until the feeling wears off.

Aye.

But I've got the advantage of the helpful techno wizard geeky mate down the dyno who will install a set up for me in exchange for a few beer tokens... literally. ;-)

Aye, well... I'll be beating him with a big stick whilst he does it - given some of the bespoke ECUs etc he's done a good job of lately, I doubt an LPG conversion is going to vex him that much.

Indeed.

So is a Saab. W124 Length 4755 mm Width 1796 mm height 1430 mm Weight 1626Kg

As you see, I'm slowly looking at shorter narrower taller cars. And the Lexus is the longest of them all. I hated it at the time as it was the only car I didn't change the shocks/springs on. But while I was waiting for a buyer to come look I gave it a good thrash and really enjoyed the silent smooth comfort of it.

If I had hung onto MOT time and it passed OK, I know I would have ended up spending up far too much money on a thorough service through, and an imported set of £1200 coilovers and uprated ARBs to tighten up the wallow without losing too much of the comfort.

Sometimes with me, it isn't the cost of what a car might cost me to get through an MOT that puts me off. It is the cost of what I might want to do with it if it does. If I knew I had a solid car, I might well have even considered refettling the £600 a corner airbag original suspension, and that would have been stupid when I was struggling sticking in £60 a week in petrol. At peak fuel prices I would have been upto about £75 a week if I had kept it that long.

I doubt that. "Very little history" is most likely because it got lost in the round filing cabinet when they knocked a 100k off and the chrome arches are usually a bad sign, too.

BTW, you'll get the big car fuel bill with that one as well - I've had a couple of W124s and while the larger petrol engines are OK for the age and size, good on petrol they aren't. TBH you'd be better off with a 300D auto if you can live with being overtaken by the odd continent.

W124s are fairly robust but they're far from unbreakable. Plus they tend to be driven by the sort of people who think that maintenance only exists in relation to ex-wives. OK, that's probably a bit negative but you'll have to be very careful buying W124 these days because a lot of them live on borrowed time.

If it is a genuinely low mileage car you'll end up paying for all the bits that go wrong because the car isn't used. Not sure if that's a better proposition - the previous owner of my Porker went through that with the (big-ish) bills to prove and now it looks like some other issue may be creeping up for the same reason. OTOH there is no reason why you wouldn't get a lot of mileage out of a 120k-150k W124 that has been looked after.

Heh, my JRG 260E had 'living death' leather. That's almost sig-worthy.

I've never bought a car on finance, so couldn't comment, tbh.

Indeed. I really should stop doing that.

Well actually, yes and no. I think it's one of the lower priced ones available at the moment but I've priced it that low not because there is anything wrong with it that I know of, but simply because I'd prefer to get shot of it sooner rather than later. Having it sit outside on the road doesn't do it many favours given by the scratches it's acquired on the bumpers over the past few months and it's too big to park in my own parking bay without pissing off the neighbours. Plus, at the end of the day the Evo is more fun to drive even though the A8 is a lot nicer on long distances.

Basically the way I look at it is that I'll either flog the A8 for the sort of money JackH mentioned or the Evo gets it - there is no point in me keeping both.

Sat in Merc dealer today, there's an 05 CLS in there, all the toys, no price on.

I had to ask, he said "Invoice shows 63k originally with options, how much do you think".

I punted in at 50%, 30k. He said "yep, if it were a 320CDI, but it's a 500, and we're not getting takers at 23k..."

So yes.

Prices have tanked.

North Circular and Westway? Not on the same trip, and coming in from Hampshire, surely?

Anywhere involving the Westway and coming in from the M3 would surely be better done by either going up to the A4 and left at the Tesco (A3220) or strategically cutting through Chiswick/Hammersmith/Shepherds Bush back roads, no?

Largely irrelevant anyway - in any case something like an Accord would be much better suited to it than the Exploder.

Think about the satisfaction of pissing off all the hippies though, the kind that stick "Your car is killing the planet" leaflets under the wipers of parked 4x4s and seem to be quite common in the capital :-) Well, I've only seen such leaflets twice in my life, and both times were seperate occasions/locations in London heh - so I'm assuming they're quite common there.

Plus, gives us all something to read :-)

You forgot 'hammer time' to make the aftermarket wings fit.

SURELY the weight for the 9000 quoted there is wrong?

PeteM - "It's such a barge". But I must admit, the rear massage seat that blurred my vision was pretty cool :-)