8 Series in Top Gear Challenge?!

let's look at the bright side: At least - through Top Gear - people are reminded of this beautiful classic. So many believe that an 8 series never existed (the discussions I have... tsts)

Unfortunately, many of the top gear 'mission' cars are abused.

I remember the hand painted matt black Porsche 928...

The BMW 6er that was endurance field raced with a cardboard front bumper...

The Porsche 944 that had brass interior door fittings added...

The Alfa's that had a seat retrim with a leather jacket and a staple gun...

Worst of all, the TVR Griffith/Chimera that was de-bodied to make an electric car.

It's not looking good. Must remember its for 'entertainment' before I take it too seriously and get saddened!

Clarkson has banged on about how cheap you can get a V12 CL a couple of times. I bet this challenge is to see if you can get a used V12 GT and buy and run it for the same price and buying and running a new Mondeo - or something like that. They did it with £10k super cars a while back (or last week on Dave :)). I doubt it's a head-to-head as that wouldn't make much sense given the two cars. I guess we'll have to wait for next year to find out.

I like the fact that we're all worried about what might happen to the car. I'm glad I'm not the only soppy sod.

Semirelated to Top Gear and challenges; The Finalgear.com forum ("Official" Top Gear, Fifth Gear etc. forum) are planning another Ringmeet in August:
http://forums.finalgear.com/fi…ugust-13-14-2011-a-47767/

I will be attending in my 8, would be cool seeing some other folks

Naturally, they will abuse both cars. That's how it is. And, of course, we might hate to see somebody who's not sharing our passion speak badly of our 8er... That's how it is

But I know one thing: They won't talk about fuel consumption - like EVERYBODY else who looks down on our hobby

It'll be fun.. and painful.. but fun. I'm looking forward to it!

Boy, oh boy - even though they´re looking extremely cheap from here, E31 prices in the UK seem quite inflated looking at the C215 prices!
The cheapest 2000 CL500 can be had for a measly 4000 quid and the lowest budget CL600 goes for just under 8K. Considering that the E31 Lloyd found is also in the range of "just under 8K" it might end up in the comparison that Noggie assumed, only with a different outcome.

FYI prices for E31´s have gone UP over here big time. I have the feeling that the general pricing this year is more or less 30% up compared to last year. This is especially true for CSi´s where the cheapeast ones rarely touch the 20K EUR barrier from below.
Especially low mileage cars are skyrocketing - there is one M73 with less than 20k mls which is being offered for 42k EUR - a tag people were willing to pay for a B12 5.7 only two years ago

Get them while they last

Cheers
Reinhard

Unless it's a classic or unusual car, the market for large cars has really dropped here due to increasing fuel prices.

I was at the dealer the other day to collect some parts and whilst waiting, I went to have a look around the showroom. Now, this is one of the largest BMW dealers in the London area and the biggest car in the showroom was a 520i, in a sea of 3-series, 1-series and x1's etc.

(It's another story, but I was also surprised at how the construction of the new cars seems to have cheapened considerably. No doubt they drive wonderfully, but...)

Anyway, the CL (W215), as nice a car as it is, is not going to be a classic - too many of them around- and is percieved as costly to run and maintain and perhaps somewhat unreliable. However, for 4000 pounds, I'd probably give one a try.

Pity we have to wait until June/July to see the show!

Zitat von arnie;88819

Unless it's a classic or unusual car, the market for large cars has really dropped here due to increasing fuel prices.

The same goes for over here. Maybe not so much for the E31 but here, used car dealers have raised prices of small cars considerably. Unfortunately, the 8er is somewhat considered as going up in price (and, it does) but other big cars - and considerably newer ones - will continue to lose value. Which is a good thing (who cares for little cars?)

This month's Top Gear magazine gives a few clues. The cheapest new car is some Nissan pos which costs £6,995. They look what they can get for that. There was a pic of an E55, an e39 (possibly M5) and a big old Bentley. No sign of the 8 or the CLS, but they mention some cars are V12s.

There was a trailer for the new series of Top Gear last night - and the E31 was seen in a hanger next to the Mercedes.......

Correct, and this doesn't look good:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUvgOheLHqI

0:07, listen to what Jeremy says, and Richards expression :p

oh it seems to be just one of those "you don't know what you get if you buy a used car" things. They've done that before with different car's and found stuff like pubic hair, and other ghastly shit. It's ok. And the cars both seem intact and treated well.

If you pause at 8 seconds, the 850 also has extra lights around it on the floor to make her look nice and shiny....

I can't see Hamster driving an 8? so it could be the Merc that has pee in it. We'll have to wait and see.

I know we'll all be watching...........

Bob

Zitat von reinhard;88800

Boy, oh boy - even though they´re looking extremely cheap from here, E31 prices in the UK seem quite inflated looking at the C215 prices!
The cheapest 2000 CL500 can be had for a measly 4000 quid and the lowest budget CL600 goes for just under 8K. Considering that the E31 Lloyd found is also in the range of "just under 8K" it might end up in the comparison that Noggie assumed, only with a different outcome.

They should have come over to Ireland. Seen 850s for under EUR3000 here (£2300?), usually around EUR5000. Considering Ireland has a Import tax around 33% of the car value at time of import, that makes the true cost in Ireland spectacularly cheap.

Just caught the end of Top Gear - looks like the E31 came through with glowing colours. We may be seeing a resurgence of buying and rising prices! On the other hand, they did say they were going to run them for a few months to see if 'they go bang'. And we know how often something fizzles out - usually something trivial fortunately, so don't go mad yet......

Yes, surprisingly good but the straight line run should have had a CSi, it wasn't like for like.

All in all I thought the 850 looked great:)

Zitat von Nifty50;90462

Yes, surprisingly good but the straight line run should have had a CSi, it wasn't like for like.

All in all I thought the 850 looked great:)

Agree the 850 looked good and I think I'd have given the Merc a run for it's money in the CSi but sorry, its not going for under £6995

just watched it. There's no such thing as bad publicity. All I know is tonight ten million people got an eyeful of why my car is so beatuiful.