LPG Bargemobile

Trouble is BMW didn't allow GM to do anything nice with it, it could never be a rival to the 525TDS (which with its smaller sibling the 325TDS were the first performance diesels) and it was thirsty, slow and noisy in the Omega. The 2.2 is only 3mph slower and 0.5s worse to 60 than the 2.5.

Petrol is around 92-96ppl Diesel is (last time I noticed) around 94-96ppl LPG is around 39-42ppl

That works out at less than half price in my world.

Yes the S500 will drop to around 15 mpg if you give it beans, but that still works out the same as paying for 30+ mpg.

Testify, brother, testify!

I keep going back to shitecars(tm) from time to time as hire vehicles. Although I can drive all of them, they give little pleasure, sometimes one of them will be mildly surprising by not being utterly vile to drive.

However there's a world of difference between a decent car and the ones that people put up with because they have to. A few years ago I did Frankfurt to Basel in a Passat. It felt like an incredibly long journey, I had to stop a couple of times, not for fuel, just to get out stretch my legs and de-ache my back.

For comparison in my own cars I usually drive from Dunkerque to Como in a day, stopping only for lunch. I sometimes cover the same route from Frankfurt to Basel as part of that drive, and I don't feel as tired when I get into Como as I did when getting out of the Passat in Basel.

Hallelujah, brother Firth. You have truly seen the light! Oh yeah!!

I drive lots of repmobiles in my line of work. Some are good enough tools for getting from one end of the country to another. Mondeos I'm quite fond of, for example. I wouldn't like to have to use one in a situation where I would be worried about time constraints and / or the stress of getting the next big sale though.

I used to do Ancona - Calais in an Alfa 164 Q4 quite often. That was an excellent mile-muncher. I've also done Rotterdam - Ancona in a Range Rover which was easy peasy.

Used to regularly do Liverpool - Newmarket in a selection of 15 yr old "pub landlord" [1] stuff and it was easy. I hired a new repmobile to do it once and that's a mistake I'll never make again.

[1] '83 Granada 2.8i Special, Rover SD1 Vitesse, Jag XJS V12.

In 3 weeks I am gonna do here (Scarboroughish) to Derby, to London, to Yarmouth to Scarborough in the V6. I fully expect to not make it alive, so my affairs are in order. On the upside, I'll have aircon with any luck :-)

Boring point worth considering here : Pete's business is the motor trade, specifically S/H cars IIRC. I'd not be surprised to see somebody in that business turn up in a car like that.

OTOH some other professions benefit from dull anonymity in car choice. So for a Doki-style young man fresh out of uni, boring car or hot hatch (youth) = anonymous, ok, other stuff means you're thinking about the car more than you should be (should be thinking about the man and what he's doing, not the car).

And really an S500 merc screams "Drugs" at fresh-out-of-uni age...

(yes, I know it's only preconceptions. but they do exist. And I am talking about business rather than personal transport here.)

cheers, clive

I'm guessing you're not worried about the car falling apart, but the car/road interface breaking :-) Unlike that bloke on .misc who was worried his primera wouldn't do Birmingham Wembley...

cheers, clive

Accompanied by the sound of a chisel on slate Clive George, managed to produce the following words of wisdom

Aye, true enough.

Also true, but understandable.

Heh, the S500 was /my/ choice though. Doki was thinking of a W126 560 SEC IIRC..

Indeed. You're not wrong, but I still say that Doki would be wiser buying something older with a decent size lump and LPG than suffer a repmobile like I had to.

Steve H was close to a nail-head interface when he suggested a W124 300TD. If he'd said a 300-24 with LPG he'd have been awarded a gold star.

Personally I'd avoid large diesels of that age. They're not as good as the equivalent petrol and LPG is a godsend cost-wise. It's only been the last few years that large, quality cars have had diesels of almost bearable refinement. I'd avoid stuff that is likely to have been repped, any older BMW unless it has proof of meticulous servicing, Jag XJ6s because of the image problem now they're getting seriously cheap even though the Ford built ones are excellent cars (I'd have one myself, but it'd be wrong for Doki for the reasons you state).

Hmm, what would I seriously recommend for the Dokermeister?

Omega MV6 or 3.0 Elite on LPG, probably. Comfy, large, cheap to fix, reliable (if cambelt done properly and recently), well equipped, handle well and cheap to buy as well as being excellent mile-munchers. Insurance may be an issue, but the 2.5 is woefully sluggish, the diesel pointless and the 2.0 is a joke.

Still a nice old thing, rwd, depreciation isn't an issue with them being so cheap to buy in the first place, the suspension is a close copy of the W124 Mercedes setup, safe enough to withstand a major incident and cheaper to run than being taxed to death on a new repmobile that he wouldn't want after the shine wore off anyway.

Pretty bloody quick as well.

"Good enough" being the point here - it's a business tool so it has to do certain things reasonably well in the fleet managers eyes (so it's got to run, cost nothing to repair and be blessed with a reasonably decent resale value). Pleasant to drive and not knackering the driver don't make that list.

Back when I was working for Avis as a driver, I got to drive pretty much anything with for wheels from Corsas to Merc S600s. They also had lots of Audis as lease cars - ever since then I've avoided Audis...

In fact, my criteria for a mile-muncher are pretty much the same as yours and I'd have an S-Class or a W124 anytime for that. Heck, I do have a W124 250D at the moment - not the most brilliant car in the world but it is a good mile eater. Just doesn't eat them very quickly...

I do like E34 BMWs and even I wouldn't buy one. The tds was in too high a state of tune for the rest of the engine and in German E34 circles it's actually the least recommended engine, right down with the 518.

My last italy trip was cavallino to ostend stopping only for a couple of quick "power naps" (I hate that phrase but it describes them well) - Rover

75 V6. For me the ability to do 1000 mile days is essential in a car, hence the choice of the 75, the S40, S60 and the E class. The A class was a financial thing, and I used to borrow the wifes toyota for long runs!

Diesel V Petrol is harder these days - if someone else was paying it'd be an E500 at least, but really the bigger modern turbo diesels are as good as, or better than the same size NA petrols.

I have a friend who's still using a pre-bug-eye scorpio cosworth for his daily driver...

Oh, there are other "hidden" differences: if one buys a big engine with=20 some grunt in Belgium, he is politely asked to pay an extra taxe at the=20 buy of 3000 UKP and a annual roadtax of around 2000 UKP.

You want LPG on it? Go ahead: a special taxe will be imposed.

This all before the car has rolled 1 m.

In the Netherlands there is even a special taxe on the weight of the=20 car. The State threats the car as a milking cow.

The above explains why a big luxo-barges in Belgium/Netherlands are=20 worth nothing after a few years.=20

Cheerio! We have Poles and other Easteners who are very interested in=20 the like. Maroccan chavs complete the picture.=20

Such a car (service history is the least of their worries) would fetch=20 around 2000 UKP here.

Tom De Moor

Hey: perfect description of the Opel-badge ;-)

No seriously: BMW was/is not interested in creating competion to its own fleet by delivering state-of-the-art engines to other makes except if they own the make.

So older (in design) or downtuned motors are sold.

I guess it will be some time before BMW buys GM.

Greetz,

Tom De Moor

But Doki doesn't have to conform to that list if he does the intelligent thing and avoids being lumbered with a repmobile. He can spend a year being comfortable and relaxed instead.

Heh, the dreaded Cav CDX was when I worked for Avis.

Brother Timo, we're singing from the same sheet.

Everyone has the occasional moment of fiscal embarrasment.

The /new/ large modern diesels are pretty damn good at motorway stuff, agreed. The older stuff isn't so wonderful. The A6 V6 TDi I had was on the borderline between "not bad" and "why did I buy this", the CDi Mercs are pretty good but they're more expensive to buy than an older but near perfect S500.

Diesel stuff only really got any good around 99-00. Big diesels built from then have kept their money pretty well so you'd be looking at over £6k for a large 00> diesel car capable of say 30k a year for a couple of years with no major issues. You can pick up a pretty immaculate S500 for less than half that and it'll be much nicer to drive.

Meh, it's only done 25k and doesn't make any odd noises so I'm reasonably confident it won't die. And as of this morning it has working aircon and a much more secure undertray as well :-) Whoever it was who was asking about aero and smooth underneaths of cars, I have one.

Do they rust? I really like cars to be galvanised...

Accompanied by the sound of a chisel on slate Doki, managed to produce the following words of wisdom

Not really.

I've just spotted a slightly scruffy S500 on fleabay not far from me. At the moment it's on £800.. I'm tempted, as someone is coming to buy the Golf in the next hour or so.. hopefully.