a trip to the darkside ..???

[flagstaff]

here goes: i just bought a BMW. it's been nothing but Merc for years. let me explain. i'd arranged a trip to the world cup in germany this year, with my two boys. they're getting to be lanky teenagers, and the 220 coupe is tight in the back. so i was looking at a big S-class for them ol' autobahns ... and d'you know what, for the money i wanted to lay out (i'd be selling whatever purchase was made when we return) my options were either the W126 or the W140. the W126 is a lovely chassis, obviously, but i didn't want to pay high-side for a mint example, and the older ones all seem to be dogs with rust and shaky motors etc. the W140 is, in my humble opinion, straightahead downhome UGLY. so. what to do?

what i did was buy a 1998 735i, with all the gizmos and goodies. let's hope it makes the trip without incident. i will report back here with findings as to driveability, ambience etc.

bear with me. it's only an experiment.

 

[television]

Good luck with it, those things shift, are you keeping the MB.

malcolm

 

[flagstaff]

cheers tv. the beemer is just for this trip; no way am i letting go of my coupe! over on the bmw forum they say once i've driven the 7, i'll never want anything else - strange how these partisan affiliations take hold of people. i knew from the second i sat in my first MB, a battered 190D, that i'd be an MB man from then on. so this is going to be a big test.

 

[Myros]

they aren't that bad really

we had three, one of which I ran for 16 years. probably ust as reliable and well engineered as the Merc ( the old one, anyway, it never let me down). They arejust a bit more direct in their overall feel. I think there is less between you and the road in a beemer, but's it's not that much of a difference, and it probably won'y sway you long term.

 

[Sprint'n'Go]

and d'you know what, for the money i wanted to lay out (i'd be selling whatever purchase was made when we return)

You seem to have far too much money burning a hole in your pocket,
maybe I can help you with some of it

and to think, you accused me of extravagance for putting Mobil 1 in a Sprinter.

 

[Blobcat]

A coincidence, I'm taking my BM to Germany on the 18th. However mine has only 2 wheels and I'm not going anywhere near the football so there the similairty ends. 6 of us are off to the Blackforest for a week, sans spouses .

 

[flagstaff]

You seem to have far too much money burning a hole in your pocket,
maybe I can help you with some of it

and to think, you accused me of extravagance for putting Mobil 1 in a Sprinter.

without wanting to prejduice any future legal action against me, let me just say that certain assets are (so i am led to believe) allowable against company profits ... and besides, i won't see any of it back until (unless?) i manage to sell the car when we return.

mobil 1 in a sprinter? whatever were you thinking? ;-)

 

[flagstaff]

A coincidence, I'm taking my BM to Germany on the 18th. However mine has only 2 wheels and I'm not going anywhere near the football so there the similairty ends. 6 of us are off to the Blackforest for a week, sans spouses .

nice! not sure whether you'll be able to avoid the football, though. just out of interest, how much does it cost to take a bike across? i managed to get a crossing for 43UKP open ended return, which i thought was astonishingly cheap - considering the football and all that.

 

[Myros]

do tell with whom you got your crossing?

surely not P&O out of your home town, they seem to be a bit more expensive last time I looked.

 

[psmart]

Just dont take the beamer near snow and ice.......

...at least the 5 and 3 series, which leave the road at the slightest coercsion, winter tyres or not! Hopefully the 735 is far better designed and built.

It dropped to 9'c last week in Dusseldorf, and its snowing in the Alps... so this may not be as lame duck a warning as it first sounds :?:

 

[Blobcat]

nice! not sure whether you'll be able to avoid the football, though. just out of interest, how much does it cost to take a bike across? i managed to get a crossing for 43UKP open ended return, which i thought was astonishingly cheap - considering the football and all that.

I was late booking the tunnel, it's costing £80 for out mid afternoon on 18th and back lunch time on 24th. £80 for 1hr 10mins on a train ... Ferry would have been cheaper, but others had booked tunnel already.

 

[flagstaff]

surely not P&O out of your home town, they seem to be a bit more expensive last time I looked.

damn no! not the ferry out of hull - they wanted hundreds of pounds and all kinds of locked-in meal/cabin deals. bollocks to that. crossing is dover-dunquerque - lots of driving ;-)

 

[flagstaff]

update ...

picked up the beemer, drove it back from london yesterday. i've gotta say, i'm well impressed. a guy i work for sometimes has a current s-class, which i've driven on plenty of occasions, and i feel bound to say that the '98 7-series is in the same league, dynamically. impressions of the bmw engine (V8 3.5l) are that it is a tractable and powerful unit. one of the gauges even reckoned i was getting 37mpg at sensible speeds (light throttle, obviously), so it may actually be tenable as an everyday car. (note to self: stop being silly.) comfort-wise, it is excellent. in fact, when i was driving the thing along, i was put in mind very much of the whole merc ambience and experience. like a clinical approach to luxury, that shouldn't hang together but does.

anyway. that's first impressions out of the way. gonna take it to germany, see how it fares as a cruiser.

 

[Sprint'n'Go]

Burn the witch........