Car for euro road trip

[st4]

Me and a few mates are planning a road trip in Europe this year. We have decided that rather than go in my nice 211 we may try bangernomics.

This has 2 plusses.

1) we intend to go to some more dubious places, poland and kosovo being one and I'd worry too much about a 211 purely due to its financial value relative to my income

2) There is something more satisfying about doing it bangernomics style. A 211 will easily do 7k miles in 14 days no sweat but a more elderly car.

However with 500 miles/day driving over interesting roads I need something comfortable, rapid, relatively efficient and relatively modern.

A 124, 210 or 202 fits the bill perfectly. I want to spend no more on the car than £1500 and probably keep it as a "hack" after the trip. A 300TD 210 would belnd the efficieny/performance/space/comfort very well

Does anyone have any other suggestions. I'd consider a 140 but would I end up with a shed that will break down all the time, I need it to be reliable too.

Ta in advance.

 

[davidjpowell]

You have got the merc choices nicely. For that money you could look at a Saab 9-5 or even a non leggy Rover 75. What about an Omega?

I think £1,500 is out of bangernomics though. From what I understand the purists view anything more than £250 to be excessive!

 

[st4]

Want a RWD car ideally, did consider an omega. Think the mb choices are the best unless a nice manual petrol 5 series E39 comes along because thats a nice exec with some power comfort etc.

Is a 140 an unfeasable option, or even a 126?

 

[davidjpowell]

A140 like this you mean

Mercedes A Class 140 Avantgarde Semi Auto london enfield London Cars

I'm not the best person to ask on the older mercs. I guess you need to be looking for reliability and availablility of parts in odball places. You don't want to need a part that is located 1,000 miles away...

 

[Howard]

123 280TE ( if you can find one ) ..

Powerful , spacious and easy to work on yourselves if you need to. Will be fairly inconspicous too if you get one in a plain colour.

Or a 124 300E , cheap as you like and will do all you want and more.

 

[jaymanek]

I could do you a deal on a lovely W210 E300 TD for £2K.. can be run on veggie oil too.. actually if you collect it pretty sharpish i could do it for £1800..

otherwise buy a 190E or a W124.. easy to get parts out there for these.

 

[Will]

Me and a few mates are planning a road trip in Europe this year.

Crikey, better get going - not long left!

On a more serious note - £1500 is crazy money for a 'banger'. My old 300TE cost me £320 about 18 months back and has been all over the place in the UK, never missed a beat. Just under 200k presently

£1500 will buy you a posh banger! Mate of mine has a lovely C280 Elegance - straight six, leather, air con, NO rust at all (really weird!) and had under 90k on the clock - that was less than £2k about 2 years ago.

If you're planning on covering 7000 miles, fuel economy could be a bigger concern though IMHO. You could end up spending the same budget as the car costs on fuel almost.

Will

 

[stevesey]

I'd keep it simple and go for a 124 300D - not that spritely but quick enough and big enough for criusing around europe in comfort, and probably the easiest to fix.

 

[Stratman]

Considering the places you intend to visit I would stick with an older Merc. Spares and local knowledge shouldn't then be a problem.

 

[LTD]

Rental ?

 

[buccal]

Ls400?

 

[Will]

^^Good shout.

Surprisingly economical as well

Will

 

[Ade B]

At 500 miles a day for 14 days are you planning on seeing anything other than motorways and service station forecourts

Having done a few long trips round bits of europe I'd go +1 for hire car. It will work, you can insure it against damage and you can give it back full of the litter of 7k miles of insect splats, crisp packets, crumbs, melted chocolate and spilled drinks. You can even pick it up from a convenient airport cutting out miles of dull driving (motorways in Belgium/Northern France)

If taking a banger I'd consider less miles per day as it'll be more relaxing fun and gives you the space for things to go wrong.

Ade

 

[will9871]

Id plump for a diesel 124. These and W210s and 11s are the taxi drivers vehicle of choice out here so plenty of spares, all those cabbies cant be wrong.

Thing is, speaking as a man who owns a 100k mile w210 and drives between Hungary and the UK regularlyish, the newer w210s have a lot more that can go wrong with them.

If you are at the banger end of the market you will I imagine be picking up a high miler and possibly one with a potentially chequered past if its going real cheap. Id say it's better to go for something that is straighforward to fix. The w124 just simply has a lot less potenital for failure due to simpler engineering and its generally bombproof reliability reputation. Also a grand and a half should get you a pretty damn fine w124.

Honestly, there is nothing more unsettling than driving across the European motorway system hundreds of miles from home or destination worrying about that ****ing ecu *beep* 1 malfunction, see previous post of mine regarding this year's trip from Budapest to Middlesbrough. It can drive you bananas as getting stranded in Europe can get very very expensive.

Being cheaper and simpler to fix in most cases I'd plump for a 124 (if it ever goes wrong that is he he )

 

[Seamster15]

For that mileage and budget how about Volvo s80? You should be able to get an old 2.5tdi which would save you a bit on fuel and be a great cruiser.

 

[d w124]

Lol,Steve:How are you planing to go to Kosovo?Is it drive all the way

 

[SilverSaloon]

i'd be worried about going on such a trip with potential car problems which you will quite likely have with buying something at the lowest end of the market...... but i agree it would be great fun.

a W123 would be great. Yes you can get a merc for £350 (wont be a 123 though) but would i want to go around europe in it shortly after purchase? no. £1500 is going to get you a decent merc though. if it were me and we are talking purely mercs, i'd be tempted at a W123, W126 or an early W124.

otherwise i'd stick with the W211 or buy the car 6 months in advance and run it beforehand to get rid of any niggles and get to know the possible issues with the car.

 

[blondebier]

i'd be worried about going on such a trip with potential car problems which you will quite likely have with buying something at the lowest end of the market...... but i agree it would be great fun.

a W123 would be great. Yes you can get a merc for £350 (wont be a 123 though) but would i want to go around europe in it shortly after purchase? no. £1500 is going to get you a decent merc though. if it were me and we are talking purely mercs, i'd be tempted at a W123, W126 or an early W124.

otherwise i'd stick with the W211 or buy the car 6 months in advance and run it beforehand to get rid of any niggles and get to know the possible issues with the car.

Tip top advice... I'd also put a 190 (W201) in the mix - I'd prefer a diesel if I were doing the miles you are doing, but I think they're pretty rare these days.

When are you going? Sounds like great fun. Take a video camera and make a "Top Gear special" type diary of it.

 

[st13phil]

Having ridden lots of miles touring Europe on a motorbike, I can see much logic in AdeB's suggestion of using hire cars rather than an old, potentially unreliable, car of your own. The benefit of being able to phone someone up and say "your car's broken, please deliver me another so I can carry on my holiday" should not be underestimated. He's also right about the 500 miles a day guaranteeing you will see little more than the motorways, motorway service stations & main roads of the countries you visit.

If you are going to use your own older motor, then like SilverSaloon says I'd run it around close to home for a few months before heading off on the jaunt. Don't underestimate how much strain big miles in high ambient temperatures can put on less-than-perfect cooling systems either, and that weakness is unlikely to show up in the UK.

One last thing is that most breakdown companies are introducing an age limit of 10-years on vehicles for European breakdown cover. You can take the view that if it gives up the ghost then sod it, we'll leave it there, but you still have the cost of getting you and your mates home and there can also be issues with not re-exporting a UK-registered vehicle from some countries. My view is that it's altogether easier if you have European breakdown cover that will repatriate you, your mates and the vehicle.

 

[BTB 500]

I'm also with SilverSaloon.

I've driven across Europe with a vibration from the car that gradually went from nothing to severe, and it's not funny at all. After pulling over to visually check the obvious (wheels, tyres, wheel nuts) we got to the destination by not exceeding 60 mph. Garage at the other end couldn't find the fault so I had to drive all the way back worrying about whether we would make it.

Not recommended.