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Hi,

I've got £4-5k to spend and am thinking 10yr old 528i or 10 year old Merc E320i, I know all about the 528i, top motor in my opinion,what do you think about the e class circa 1996-98, were they still good cars then?

Or... do i go crazy and pay £1000 for a '95 w124 280e, and see how long it lasts me, theres a few on auto trader and they just look so right, i could throw the rest of my budget in a savings account for another car when the merc expires. what do you think?

Mr Ruppert,any thoughts on the w124 would be appreciated, i only do 20 miles a day so it wont be doing many miles.  

90k miles fsh, £895!

Go crazy!!  The W124 was / is a brilliant car and a genunine Merc to boot!  You will get a real satisfaction of ownership from this car.

The E320 circa 96 is going to be something of a risk.  This was the period where Mercedes kicked out the engineers and let the accountants run the company.  Subsequently the quality and reliablility went down hill. 

As you rightly say the 5 series will be a cracker, personally though go for the W124.

 Lots of time for the W124 and they are fairly unbreakable too, but as you know I do like my E34s. The one I'm giving away, next Saturday actually, didn't have a lot to recommend it when I bough it with 6 previous owners, no recent history and metric tyres. In two years though it was faultless. W124s though are pretty much the same, not so nice to drive though and I'd said the petrols ones drink more than the BMW equivalent as I always managed to get around 30mpg. THe W124 though I think still looks very classy indeed, far better than the modern stuff, plus there aren't too many black boxes on them either. A golden era for German cars. Buy it.

Cheers James,

I know the E34 was a good one,it just hasn't aged well,it's perfect for full on bangernomics but the W124 with it's imposing front end gets better with age.

James,

If you're struggling for a worthy recipient of the E34, give me a shout, i'm downgrading  from a clio 172(outrageous to call it downgrading,it was my first,and will be my only french car!), to try something big and old and to sort my finances out( i wrote the book on living beyond ones means and now i've seen the light, if there is someone more deserving of the BM, what engine is best in the w124,i'm thinking 2.8 or 3.0 if i'm lucky and get a coupe(my 5yr old son isn't happy because he wont have "his own" door!)

I ran a W124 coupe for a year or so in 2002-3. It was a genuinely great car and I have fond memories about it. However, there did seem to be no cheap way of keeping in on the road. For example, the multi-function indicator stalk went awry and the cheapest fix I could get was £300. Not really bangernomics.

I have owned both a W124 coupe (low mileage brilliantly constructed car) and a 145,000 mile E34 which cost me nothing to run in 12,000 miles of fun ownership- I sold it for £100 more than I paid it for too.....

I am lucky that in Gloucester where I live is a brillliant Mercedes Specialist - Robin Lamb. he is a former Mercedes workshop manager and many of his customers have newish cars which they prefer to take to him rather than the faceless local Mercedes dealerships .

my BMW z3 similarly goes to my local indy who again can be relied to do a proper job at a good price.

I like both cars, but would be wary of the later E class due to poor bodywork. If you are buying one carefully check the front wings, bonnet, doors and bootlid for signs of corrosion coming through. it is not unheard of for 3 year old cars to have had replacement panels due to poor rustproofing.

Right,

I've sold the clio, took a bit of a kick in the nuts on the price,but i had the feeling it was going to rape me(financially)again very soon.Anyway, I've just ordered a dax125 monkey bike for getting to work and arsing about,this leaves me £1500 to get some dignified wheels! As mentioned i'm thinking w124 merc,or e34 bmw,but they are few and far between,any other suggestions? how do 850/v70 t5's hold up?

The car needs to have a bit of poke, be reliable and spacious for camping trips.

thanks,marcus. 

bangkok eaters:

any other suggestions? how do 850/v70 t5's hold up?

The car needs to have a bit of poke, be reliable and spacious for camping trips.

 I'm in a 196,000 mile V70 (albeit not a T5) and I get it serviced at the main dealer for £130 per service, which I think is a pretty good deal.  Mine's got a fully stamped service book (only one stamp from a non Volvo dealer), has a good range of independent specialists for the odd jobs that appear every so often (abs warning light when the battery went flat, brake pads and bits) for a reasonable cost.

 There's a reason that T5's are the police man's favorite... they do steller mileages,  and are uber comfy.  I've just done 2 x 1000 mile in 24hrs trips and have not felt dead when I got out; I challenge you to find a car that lets you do that, and still returns upto 35mg with a kayak on the roof, and 2 peoples paddling kit adn camping kit in the back.

 If you go for a V70 have a look on www.t5d5.org (sorry if I'm not allowed to link to other forums, the ones that I normally post on allow us to link to areas that might be more specialised) as that's possibly the best bet for the low down on T5's that's on the web at the moment... and have the knowledge to give them enough poke to scare most other cars on the road...

Got the W124 today, travelled 125miles to nottingham for it,metallic blue/black 280, Nreg 1995,3 owners, fmbsh(16 stamps in 95000 miles),immaculate inside and out!

All this for £1120, just need a nice honda st70/dax for the short trip to work.

Thanks all for your advice.

1st test for the w124 on thursday,got 2 part worns put on yesterday(matching continentals for £30 balanced and fitted,now i've got to see if the boot will swallow a monkey bike, going to halesowen to collect it on thursday,taking my 5yr old son with me,he loves the car! told all his friends his daddy has a kings car and made me promise to keep it for ever!

Anyway, hope the st70 fits.