Morgan

I couldn't possibly comment.

And unless they are bonafide classics, cost pennies to buy. Having had a less than satisfactory experience with a "newer" car (the newest I've ever owned, in fact), I reckon I'm going to slip back into my old habit of buying old barges. Oh look, I already did.

Old cars ROCK.

Same as with my Bimmer, a car made *cough* a few years ago *cough*. Gotta love old school motors.

For the GTV/Spider, I think Alfa can be forgiven. For all the other car manufacturers, knocking out saloons, hatchbacks and estate cars, there's no excuse, other than cost-cutting. In some cases, the cavity under the boot floor has room for a full-size spare, which the dealer will flog you as an optional extra. Cheeky bastards.

Back on topic (Morgan's new toy), I noticed one of my tyres was losing air last night. Cue rolleyes smiley. Thankful that I'd spotted it that evening, rather than when I got in the car to go to work the next morning, I set about changing the wheel. To my delight, I found a full-size spare alloy under the boot floor. Proper old-school Take note, makers of modern cars (that includes you, BMW) - spacesavers and cans of tyre weld are rubbish!

S-Line trim is available on ALL Audis, no matter how poverty-spec the rest of the car is. I have nothing against Audi doing this, BMW (M-Sport) and Mercedes-Benz (AMG) do it, too. In fact, if I did have anything against Audi doing it, I would be a hypocrite, as my BMW has M-Sport alloys and steering wheel. The rest of the car is pure old-man 5-Series Touring.

S-Line is an Audi trim level (seats, steering wheel, bodykit, alloys, badges). S and RS badged cars are proper sports cars. So... An A4 S-Line is a photocopier sales rep's car with fancy alloys and bucket seats. An S4 is a competent sports saloon. An RS4 is a mental, snarling beast of a car.

The top one is an E38 740i. I used to have one of those. It was bloody lovely, but drank like George Best. Previous-gen S-Class (an S320 CDi) was on my hit-list when I was looking at a more economical car to replace my old Alfa 166 V6. In the end, the fact that it was still a large-capacity V6 (DERV or not) tipped the balance in the favour of the Golf. Now I'm working a few miles up the road (rather than the 100 mile round trip I had previously), and the Golf has thrown all its toys out of the pram, I'm back in a big old barge. And very happy I am, too. PS: Good shout on the S60R. Always had a bit of a soft spot for those, but I'm not entirely sure I could bring myself to buy a motor from the same marque as my Dad's favoured firm (he's got a V70 2.4).

Styling-wise, BMW really dropped the ball with the E65, in my opinion. How the hell did they go from this: To this?: A mate of mine had an E65 7-Series, and said it was lovely to drive, with a great interior. He ended up getting rid of it because he couldn't stand looking at it from the outside any longer!

What's the big secret?

Agreed. A bit like the Peugeot 605. A very capable car in its own right, but looked far too much like a slightly scaled-up 405. In fairness, it's the main reason you can get a Phaeton for £4k. If it was an outstanding beauty, you'd be looking at £15k up. In some ways, the perfect car for those who desire luxury, but don't want to appear vulgar.

Eh?

Oh, and I know the Phaeton is limited to 155mph, but it has a speedo that reads to 200mph. One would imagine that a W12 could hit that, if de-restricted. Very cool.

The good people of Auto Trader tell me that petrol Phaetons (3.2 V6) start at £4k, though you'll need to find another £1.5k on top of that to get yourself behind the wheel of a V6 3.0 TDi. The cheapest petrol V8 (4.2) currently listed is up for a shade under £6k. The real bargain, however, has to be the 6.0 W12. Auto Trader have a low mileage W12 up for £6.5k. That car was £80k just 10 years ago.

Funnily enough, the VW Phaeton is on my radar, and has been ever since they started appearing on the used market for less than £10k. The V6 diesel looks potent enough for a wafty old barge, though the V10 TDi would be bloody EPIC! I'm off for a trawl of Auto Trader... Cheers Gaz.

"You've done WHAT to your Alfa? Now you listen to me, son..."

Uh oh, everyone's getting a horse-head in their bed today. PS: Smaky - my Bimmer's totally factory... Honest.

That picture was taken in Ty's house earlier today.

In fairness, that's because you're the same height as an 11 year old schoolboy.

Looks like I spoke too soon, man. Check this out: http://www.alfadriver.com/forum/index.php/topic/4239-the-golf-saga/#entry116966

Every day's a school day!

Morgan's fought back. I've written the original winning bidder off as a timewaster, so made a second chance offer to the next highest bidder. He's picking the motor up on Sunday. PS: Sorry for trashing your thread, MrsA.

No, you're thinking of Lexia, the Peugeot/Citroen equivalent of Alfa's MultiECUScan.

"Hello, is that AlfaDriver?"