The big, fast(ish), old estate car appreciation thread

When MG Rover went bust I went shopping. Came away with a ZT-T 260. Then I got it supercharged. 400bhp.

Didn’t keep it for long. Did drive to Italy and back in it. Great in tunnels.

My 2009 E91 325i might just qualify:

It’s getting on and reasonably rapid.

It’s only 217 Bhp but a rare manual and the engine sounds wonderful when you give it some revs. Very practical too.

I can’t face selling it, despite buying its replacement (Cupra ST 4drive) 2 years ago! I am far too emotionally attached to it for my own good!

My old Nissan Prairie bike bus – Stanza turbo engine swop, ‘race lightened’ (removed) interior trim and carpets. Used to speed weave when ragging it up the M74.
Had a sticker on the boot “Dont laugh – your daughter may be in here”
Awesome old fast bus/estate/MPV/Grandad mobile.

Lots of love for the old 3 Tourings on here! My remapped 08 325D manual is approaching 250k and still going strong.. can’t see me getting rid until it needs scrapping.

Not new not particularly big but 220bhp Stage 1. Had it 2 years so far so good

I really like the thought of another BMW estate and I’d be leaning towards a 3 series this time. Aren’t they quite small in the back though? I’m 6ft 2 so tend to need the drivers seat quite far back. Also electrical gremlins put me off after what happened with my old 5 series estate. Whoever thought running the wiring through the boot hinges was a good idea?!

RNP: Is there a modern version of that Prairie? Looks epic for MTB!

@frogstomp mine is a nipper at 166k…think it’ll hit 200k no problem. 😎

@painey, they’re not huge, no. And yes, mine hasn’t had a radio in years thanks to the boot lid-aerial wiring….!

RNP: Is there a modern version of that Prairie? Looks epic for MTB!

Closest I’ve found is a M59 (MK2) Berlingo/Partner for a cheap doesn’t take itself seriously fun little bus thing. Otherwise it’s Nissan Elgrans / Honda Stpwagon / Honda Odyssey / possibly Mk1 VW Sharon Ford Galaxy.

Many is the time I’ve swooned over the timeless wonder of a Legnum and their relatively low purchase price… however, the prospects of the running costs and the associated environmental catastrophe have always just about tamed my desires

They are just gorgeous cars. Face like a clenched fist, beautiful lines all the way to that slightly retro japanese rear end, still manages to be muscular without being cartoonish. I particularly like how just about everything you can possibly do to them cosmetically makes them worse

I have had 5 3 series,

2 x 320
330 CSI M sport
330d touring M sport
330i touring M sport.

The Tourings were lovely – fast , comfortable – just about big enough – and rapid if you wanted them to be.
If you want space, they are not huge – the 5 series seems much bigger for some reason ( I ahem had 2 of those).
The Audi A6 Avant is like taking a basketball court for a drive in size terms , unfortunately, it drives like one as well.

Ok I’ll chip mine in

MY12 Mercedes C350 petrol 301bhp 3.5 V6 and an astounding 38mpg

Looks like any other dull diesel C class TBH, goes quick in a straight line at least.

Try and find another, I dare you.

Try and find another, I dare you

You should probably avoid Autotrader….

The Merc 350 petrol are great engines. Powerful and economic. Although they can suffer with balancer shaft issues. Still used in the merc 400/43/450 engines with turbos.

I really want something more pokey than my f31 320d,and would love a 335d or 340i but the cheapest way is to remap my current car but I’m wary of the insurance costs and safety of RWD and more power – this mornings 5:30am London-Gloucester on a near freezing wet A40 being a point in hand.

(Re reliability, It’s been utterly reliable until the l/h front brake seized onto the disc today just outside Cirencester after i stopped in garage. A bit of reverse/forward slam on brakes freed it but I had a squeaky bum journey back to London).

What do I need to know about remaps…?

If you can find one – Passat R36, 300bhp V6, 4wd. I had the Sport 140bhp 2wd diesel flavour and that was a dream to drive

Loving my F31 335d. A remap won’t give you the feeling you get from a twin turbo straight six diesel. It’s so smooth & linear in its delivery. A pleasure to potter about in and relentless when you want it to be.

I’ve still got my 2009 E91 335i Touring with 81k on the clock. I think it’s plenty big enough (as long as you don’t want 3 in the back) and way faster than anyone needs. It’s a lovely car to drive and feels like a new car to me. Will be sold for an EV at some stage.

I’d post a picture but dont know how.

Woody

Regarding remaps and insurance, they don’t make that much of an impact on the cost in my experience. My somewhat standard looking ’09 S4 Avant costs me £330 a year, not much more than my wife’s Honda 4×4, and mine is putting out 170bhp more than it had from the factory.

A remap won’t give you the feeling you get from a twin turbo straight six diesel. It’s so smooth & linear in its delivery.

Yeah, I kind of knew this when I posted it goes without saying really – I owed an e46 330i previously. I’ve soon to choose a company phev/electric so the BM will remain for the weekend, so I probably need to choose a toy car replacement – a 335d or something else – hence watching this thread closely 🙂

Loving my F31 335d. A remap won’t give you the feeling you get from a twin turbo straight six diesel. It’s so smooth & linear in its delivery. A pleasure to potter about in and relentless when you want it to be

Slight hi-jack
On the subject of remapping , I would like to get my x3 35d done. Who is a reputable reaper to go to?

Thanks

I like estate cars. My 3 previous cars were all estates
– 3.0 V6 diesel Vauxhall Signum. Strange car, was trying to hard to be german and not pull it off. Very barge like. I suppose it was a big hatchback than an estate really
– BMW 525d, but most importantly it was a rare manual. Took me a while to find one. Was strangely nice to drive
– E class estate after that. That was huge inside, much bigger than the BMW. The only thing that was more practical on the 5 series was the rear glass opening separately. I loved that feature on it

With 3 kids and a dog even the biggest estates are too small for family life. That’s a real shame. You’re generally left with MPVs (I still have self respect 🙂 ) and SUVs, which we really don’t need. We ended up with a T6 Kombi, more practical than an estate and I love it. But estates are still so cool! Funny how saloons are less of a thing now than they were, particularly at the smaller end of the spectrum

I always loved the idea of an

@mrmoofo there are loads of places around the country that will do it, probably easiest to go to one near you in case you have any issues. Or if you’re IT savvy you can get bootmod3 and do it yourself. I’ve used Evolve in Luton to get my cars remapped and have not had any issues on previous cars.

Prefer it to the 320D which it replaced and cost less than a bike.

i honestly cant tell what that is.

Avensis of bland?

Absolutely! Bland XS Mk 3 GT Turbo.

You should probably avoid Autotrader

Haha sods law, they do come up for sale once on a blue moon.

Re remaps, they’re so common now that they usually barely hurt your insurance (I think also this is a result of how invisible they are, if they charged more then less people would declare it). Varies a lot from car to car, with my mondeo i only got a little more power but the difference in drivability was phenomenal (they’d basically gimped the stock map to make it “easier to drive” because it had a bucket of torque and no traction control). But it was 100% benefit- more power, better economy when cruising, better drivability. Don’t think it even paid for itself but that’s a bit beside the point.

Not all cars will take to it as well- on a standard car it’s more or less a case of “how good is the stock map” and these days that largely means “is it intentionally less good than it could be”, for emissions or reliability or ease of driving or model differentiation.

budgierider67
Full Member

A remap won’t give you the feeling you get from a twin turbo straight six diesel.

True but then almost nothing else will except from sitting on a Falcon 9. I love that about fat diesels, even if they’re not actually spectacularly fast- like my old mondingo- it still feels like being shoved forward by the hand of god, because it just feels like it never ends or changes.

I forgot to comment earlier. Big sleeper barge – W8 passat estate

It’s just a boring old passat to most people

True but then almost nothing else will except from sitting on a Falcon 9. I love that about fat diesels, even if they’re not actually spectacularly fast- like my old mondingo- it still feels like being shoved forward by the hand of god, because it just feels like it never ends or changes.

I’d love this. Looking around today I’ve found a couple of 335d Xdrives of the same vintage – 2017 – that could replace my 320d albeit they are higher mileage. But thats 7-10k of cost, vs £450 for a remap from 187 to 235bhp / 400 to 550Nm (all approx.) Plus of course the drivability issue.

But it was 100% benefit- more power, better economy when cruising, better drivability.

Probably worse NOx emissions.

isnt there a forum member who has some actual expertise in engine mapping? i’m sure he’s been on here and scathing in the past about the aftermarket remaps.

maxtorque?

just avoid the tiprontic auto thing in the w8 passat, I went manual and its loads better and more useable

I wish I never started reading back up on remaps – my engine can be mapped to 821 torques and recieve 100 extra horses for less than the cost of a base SRAM groupset. Saying that when it goes bang and the warranty is invalid or more likely I boot it in the wet and end up in a ditch…..

I think @maxtorque (or whoever it was) was the one working for an OEM on stock engine maps.

My car has 204bhp from 2.1l. People on forums say ‘wow I wonder how much power I’d get if I remapped it!’ and the answer is not much more. The reason it’s such high specific power is that it’s already had its balls tuned off and Merc have fitted two turbos.

That said I think it’s an air-air intercooler so there’s still room for physical mods.

molgrips
Full Member

Probably worse NOx emissions.

Still had all the emissions gear functional- no EGR delete or anything- so I’d be suprised if it made much difference. As a non-city car it’s not really a big concern.

Saying that when it goes bang

I’ve a concern about the auto box / drivetrain, is it designed for the extra stress?

Still had all the emissions gear functional- no EGR delete or anything- so I’d be suprised if it made much difference

As far as I can tell the only way a remap would increase fuel economy and engine response is by advancing injection timing and reducing the amount of EGR. Which would increase emissions.