Would you buy an automatic JUST for the engine?

[munky]

EDIT>>>>>> Ignore all this travelling b*llocks. Skip to the last page and lets talk slushboxes...

After too many long weeks without a car its looking like next week everything will be in order for me to get the 5 series.

I'm being very fussy about what trim, options and engine I want and am more than willing to travel for the right car.

But how far is too far? Obviously I will do everything I can to make sure the car is as advertised, arm myself with breakdown cover before I leave, buy a return ticket in case its a lemon etc etc.

There's a gorgeous 540i in inverness... its a manual too so very rare.

But inverness is 500+ miles from plymouth

Its not too bad, I can fly up for around 150 quid. Then its only 6 hours drive home.

Or there's a lovely 528 touring in Leeds...

Or quite a few in london and the south that don't meet all my needs... but would be a lot less hassle to buy. I've previously travelled to gloucester and dorset to buy cars and its been worth every ounce of effort... but doing a cross country epic journey does seem a bit ott. But for the right car...

Your thoughts?

[C2K]

I drove 270 miles from Preston to Fleet to buy my GSi Turbo and then the return leg, they don't exactly grow on trees.

If it ticks all the boxes, get your a$$ on a plane. Bit stuck if he's hidden something, but banter for the right price then.

[calibrax]

But inverness is 500+ miles from plymouth

Its not too bad, I can fly up for around 150 quid. Then its only 6 hours drive home.

IN
YOUR
DREAMS!

6 hours? That's an average speed of 83mph. There are no motorways north of Perth. Even if you cane it, I highly doubt you can do it in 6 hours. I regularly drive up to Warrington, about 240 miles on a route I know very well, and 4 hours is the fastest I've ever done it - that was in my old 620ti with almost no traffic, and motorway all the way. Average speed worked out to be about 60mph. You just can't sustain an average of 83 over 6 hours. Especially on a route where you don't know the road. And the A9 from Inverness to Perth is a biatch!

EDIT.... in fact it's 643 miles from Inverness to Plymouth.... so you'd need an AVERAGE speed of 107mph!

In any case... for the right car? I'd travel pretty much anywhere in the UK.

[dave-mg]

Ive traveled just over a thousand miles(there and back) for a car before.lol it cost me more in fuel that what the car cost but kept it for five years and sold it for £50 more than what it cost me and it wasn't running so i suppose i cant complain.

[munky]

But inverness is 500+ miles from plymouth

Its not too bad, I can fly up for around 150 quid. Then its only 6 hours drive home.

EDIT.... in fact it's 643 miles from Inverness to Plymouth.... so you'd need an AVERAGE speed of 107mph!

In any case... for the right car? I'd travel pretty much anywhere in the UK.

yeah I worked that out when I put it into routefinder... 11 hours!

Its not actually in inverness, its halfway between inver and glasgow but its still a hell of a drive.

Still... I've done similar distances in one go before and it is a very nice car.



I'm all for doing it but the wife seems to think its a bit excessive.

[Din]

Do it..... ive done Alford to Swindon in 9 hours with two short stops.

But it is all depending on traffic as it took 11 to get there

[empsburna]

250 miles to pick current car up (well, train down to Plymouth then drive the 250 miles back)

[mg-richard]

surely those bmw's arent exactly rare,
personally i dont like going over 100 miles from home, i have sold a couple of cars on ebay one lot came from london yes london, the other guy from wolverhampton. both idiots who didnt realise how far away i was

[munky]

surely those bmw's arent exactly rare,
personally i dont like going over 100 miles from home, i have sold a couple of cars on ebay one lot came from london yes london, the other guy from wolverhampton. both idiots who didnt realise how far away i was

E39's are not very rare.

But using the autotrader website as a guide.

National search for 5 series under £2000 gives about 200 results.

Tick the manual only box and it goes down to 100.

Of those 100 only about 40 are either black, blue or silver.

Only half of them have cruise control, a/c and cd multichanger.

Half of them again are 528's or above.

Only one is a 540.

And its a manual 540, which is rarer than rocking horse sh*t.

[420gazza]

i went all the way from brum to aberdeen to pick up a 620si that i won on ebay (all because i didn't read where the car was before i bid on it )

by the way that took 6 hours to get back

[Null_Byte]

I went 970 miles in one day for the GSI left at 6am, got back home at 3am.

I did 600 miles in one day for a gearbox.

I'm a little crazy

[Vard66]

Feckin' go for it. You've been so picky, you've been so stingy, you've spent so long debating it, and cast off all the other options because your heart told you you wanted THIS EXACT CAR, so feckin' go for it.

Oh, and stop ignoring me on MSN. It only makes me bitter and full of excess bile to throw at you when you're offline.

[gib786]

I agree, go for it! Just make sure the seller aint hiding anything though. I travelled down to london by train to check out a prelude, spoke to guy for the best part of an hour the day before going through the history etc making sure it was fine. Get there an he had "forgotten" to mention the bill for pretty much a new front end, plus the fact he had no license, he only mentioned that after he had driven me about in it! Scarpered from there, few days later went to brum to check out another lude which turned out to have a dodgy gearbox, again which the seller failed to mention

[Dom]

Yeah - do it, fo' sure.

Let him know that you are coming up a LONG way by plane - and will be SUPER PISSED if it turns out to be not as advertised, and give him another chance to tell you any details he may have "forgotten to mention"...

Then take a couple of days to enjoy a nice easy drive home, IN YOUR NICE NEW CAR...!


Dom

[munky]

'Surely they cant ALL think its a good idea?!' she asked....

'Have a look' I replied.



It would involve a 4 hour flight, the only one that goes from plym to glasgow arrives at about 6pm. Then a 4 hour train journey to inver.

So I'd need to stay in glasgow overnight then train up to the car in the morning to drive home in one go.

Anyone live in glasgow with a spare room? I don't smell and make a mean cup of tea....

[Vard66]

Even the alloys look good.
Stop flapping your mouth and buy the ticket.

[agw_01]

Me and my Dad went from North Manchester to Tamworth to get the 420.

Set off at 10am, returned home at about 7pm.

Went to Batley in Yorkshire for the 214.

If it's the right car, it's worth it my eyes.

[C2K]

Me and my Dad went from North Manchester to Tamworth to get the 420.

I go that far just to get to work.

[agw_01]

Unlucky

[MarkCoupe]

For the right E39 V8 ? To the end of the country. For an E39 528i? The end of my road.

[Null_Byte]

It would involve a 4 hour flight, the only one that goes from plym to glasgow arrives at about 6pm. Then a 4 hour train journey to inver.

So I'd need to stay in glasgow overnight then train up to the car in the morning to drive home in one go.

Pussey, all you need is red bull, pro plus and cd wallet full of death metal.

[munky]

Its not so much the drive back, its more that I'd be turning up to buy the car at 1030pm ish...

I'd happily do it that way and drive back straight away, probably with an hour or so rest halfway but if I was the seller I wouldnt want to do the sale at 1030. And as a buyer I would want to see the car in the daytime to give it a good look over.

[220Si]

How much is the flight?
Surely you could go upto somewhere near where the car is and stay in a travel lodge? about £30 a night then go see the car in the morning and if it ain't no good you've got all day sunday to come home.

flight should be more than £100ish and room £30. for the right car its a small price to pay

Si

[Sheaf]

Personally I wouldn't travel that far... not because it's not worth it for the right car, but because you could turn up and find it's not quite what was advertised then be severely out of pocket.

One Accord I travelled to see was 'only' 120ish miles away, but wasn't as good as I thought it was, so I left it. Even at those distances it's annoying having lost most of a day and 3/4 of a tank of fuel for nowt.

If you're positive it's perfect then sure, but if there's a chance it's not right I'd wait til one was closer myself.

[radddogg]

I was offered a free 827 vitesse mkI off the 800 yahoo group so paid £35 for the flight to GLASGOW and drove back with no tax or mot as the car had been sat for a year. As the car had been sat for so long with an empty tank it had formed a layer of rust which disolved slowly after being filled with petrol and gently blocked the fuel filter so that by the time I was going south by the lakes it came spluttering to a halt. After a rest it restarted and drove for about twenty miles and kept cutting out at shorter and shorter intervals till we got to brum at 4am. That car cost me hundreds to put right - filters, injectors, relays, leads, exhaust and when I went to get it mot'd the subframe was rotten so it got scrapped.

[a19undertaker]

listen to your heart not your head i've gone to the corners of the earth (well, nearly !) for the right car

[radddogg]

listen to your heart not your head i've gone to the corners of the earth (well, nearly !) for the right car

I'd listen to your head over your heart. When we bought the signum we were very methodical about it and told the dealer over the phone exactly what we would and wouldn't accept. He kept his word and the car was A1. If I'd followed my heart we would have got the Vectra SRi and regretted it.

[Roboscot]

There is no distance too far in the UK for me for the right car - got my coupe in workington which was only about 3 hours away (although it was 5½ hours on the train to get there on a sunday), and flew down to brum for my girlfriends car.

Between glasgow and inverness you say? Would be some nice driving roads if you came back the interesting way

[ravinder]

I drove 430 miles from Fife to High wycombe to get my coupe turbo and not one regret! And the seller was such a nice guy as well. Got the plane down, just over an hour and drove up which took a while but was worth it. to be honest distance doesnt put me off. If you think its the right car and the seller seems genuine then go for it. You wont always find what you're looking for local.

[trogti]

i traveled 600 miles to get my coupe turbo, from birmingham to scotland and back in one day lol

[Punx0r]

Make a long weekend of it? Take your girlfriend for a break and get the car while you're there. If it's junk then book another flight home and at least it wasn't been a wasted journey.

Much of scotland is very nice and well worth a visit IMO if you've never been. It'd be better in the summer, but you can't have everything.

[munky]

Two problems with that idea... the kids.

Anyway. Been looking into the flights and travel possibilities a bit more and found the best way to do it.

Train from Plym to Bristol airport then a direct flight to Inverness. The train is £47 and the flight £33 so its cheaper and it will get me there for 3 in the afternoon so makes it a lot easier to do it all in one day.

[radddogg]

Train from Plym to Bristol airport then a direct flight to Inverness. The train is £47 and the flight £33 so its cheaper and it will get me there for 3 in the afternoon so makes it a lot easier to do it all in one day.

[IrishRover]

I have flown from Ireland to various places in England to buy my four Rover 200s. Count yourself lucky you can drive straight home without having to get a boat!

[618ireland]

Me and my Dad went from North Manchester to Tamworth to get the 420.

Great days out, went to Dublin (320 miles round trip) for my 600 and Wicklow (less miles but a bastad of a spin) for my smelly diesel. My Dad is well sound, yours is too as we all know.

Considering that car is effectively a 200 / 1 horse (that wins if it's as you expect) in a tight handicap (excuse the weird comparison) it is defo worth the hassle Mr Munky. Wouldn't fancy paying for the petrol though.