One of the nicest cars I’ve driven recently was an old 540i BMW touring. Lovely ride very fast and surprisingly not that bad on fuel for a big engine.

Hey Edward2000 glad it’s not just me! So glad I did a 12 month lease and didn’t buy it!

I loved my old 335d coupe with remap and towbar. Why did I ever sell that?! Grr.

So far this morning it’s only been E350’s, E250’s estates and mk1 TT’s, assuming the back seats fold.

Love a v8 but nervous of fuel! Saying that, the Lexus IS V8 F is a good used buy and the rear seats fold, I think!

pondo – the twin turbos on the 335d honestly almost makes lag become obsolete. It’s quite remarkable. Not quite NA petrol but seriously impressive.

But fantombiker said ‘remapping transformed it, no turbo lag’, etc – maybe I misunderstood but it reads like it had lag but mapping stopped it.

This morning’s musings….

Keep my E91 and get the T6 Tsi 4-motion…..

Keep eyeing up T5’s or Transits…but I know I will miss the handling of a car and the nice 7 speed auto.

Or a Defender 110….and something electric as a run around

It’s not just you OP

I loved my old 335d coupe with remap and towbar

Hey, who hasn’t had their head turned by a sweet sweet towbar?

After years of fairly decent new company cars, went to car allowance with no age/ car type restrictions.

Now driving round in old bangers and the excitement comes from wondering if it will make each journey or not. Practically zero depreciation, 45p/mile + car allowance means I’m making money every time I get in it.

I’m finding older cars have much more character than new, plus you don’t worry so much about scratches, where you park it etc.

$&*^*&! I just got it together to make a firm offer on one I liked, got the money ready, was just looking for a time to go visit and… sold! Back to the drawing board.

Big Merc estate with a fast lump in it should provide fun comfort and bike carrying ability. An AMG 6.2 V8 will make you giggle everytime you use a slip road.

Yeah, until you fail to see the car with the blue flashing lights coming along behind. Then there’s the 17 to the gallon thirst, £1000 for a set of tyres, maybe three sets over three years, road tax, insurance…

Why does anyone need a chuffing great car for commuting? All it needs to be is comfy to drive, and I’ve driven a number of fairly large cars that were no more comfortable to drive than smaller, cheaper cars. Having driven over 200 miles back from Cornwall on many occasions in everything from a Smart fourtwo and Skoda Citigo to a Maserati Ghibli and any number of Audi, Mercedes and BMW, the Smart is more than adequate for a ten to twenty mile commute, in fact it’s more spacious than some cars twice the size. If it’s a fun and exciting drive you want, buy an MX-5, and go out at 3am on a nice twisty A-and-B-road jaunt. My commute now is fifteen miles each way, either at 7am and 4pm, or 10am and 7pm. In my old Octavia, that can take between twenty minutes and forty-five minutes, without exceeding speed limits. It wouldn’t matter a damn if I was driving a Smart or some bloody great high-powered Merc, other than the huge difference in running costs, the time taken would be the same. And frankly, I’d rather have the Smart, having had 95mph out of one uphill on the M4, it’s more than fast enough for any reasonable person.

Crikey Countzero, it’s just a bit of fun this thread.

Anyway, currently swaying towards a 2008 Mercedes C320/c350 estate, had a couple before and they’re a decent blend of comfort and pace.

Or… a jaguar x-type estate auto with a 2.5/3.0 petrol, circa £2k nom nom.

I’ve always had a “thing” for Smart ForTwos, ever since hiring one in Austria at back when the first gen 500cc ones came out in bright green.. there was this large glass and aluminium cylinder tall shaped Smart Dealership just outside of Vienna and it was full of multi coloured ForTwos.. just like a Matchbox garage but bigger..

Anyway, Smart we’re hiring them out so the wife and I hired one and blasted around the mountains and fell in love with them..

F’fwd a few years and the 600cc second gen came out and I was running the companies CarPool/lease for the employees as part of my then role…. and I leased 6 out to the guys and had a Pulse myself, and I loved it. I had a stage 1 map on it for the simple reason to make it breath a bit easier and to alter the slow gear changes.. and it was ace.. park anywhere, massive mpg and huge fun. I could get my roadie in it with the front wheel off and life was good (I did have a BMW530d sport touring as well, for towing the yacht/dinghies) so the Smart was a play thing.. sold it to a friend at my sailing club and it’s still looking “Smart” and well looked after and has just clicked over 100’000 Miles…

And I still have a thing for them, but now I’m tempted by one of these. I have test driven one, a black one and I didn’t like it in black.. it’s a lot of money though.. but I do keep an eye out for ex-demos but they’re really hard to find.

ForTwo Brabus..

I was starting to worry my life was empty and meaningless until I read this thread

Yes, I’ve just replaced my 2000 Passat after having it only 14 years. Chances are I’ll be bored with the replacement but the end of the 2020s.