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Sold the 530i to a bloke in Christchurch. He is an enthusiast too, so it has gone to a good home.

It's all peachy until you get to a corner. The handling ruins the car.

Fairly certain this is the one that crashed on Ian Mckinnon Dr. Guessing they were coming down from Piwakawaka and lost control, demolishing a road sign and a traffic light. Drove past the place a few hours later and wondered what'd happened and then saw a post on fb with some photos. Walked my dog there the next morning, crap was all over the place, picked up an M5 guard grille as a trophy

The only car faster for the money was my old E55 ?

Its a shame the one he reviewed is so poverty pack. He would've lost his sh*t with a fully loaded 750il, so many quirks and features.

I think he means speed bumps, at crossing and car parks....

I wonder how much it cost per kilometre driven....

I agree with EVERYTHING he said about the E38 It's always been one of those iconic benchmark cars. Once again I'm thinking of buying a cheap 728i to tidy up and cruise around in for more daily activities, perfect for putting Soarer parts in that big boot!

I forgot... they don't have to pay for any Treaty claims, either. What is the opportunity cost in terms of hospitals or roads of that money that iwi now looks after? Meanwhile the farmer bashing has started up which is just odd, I know the data moves around a bit but is clear NZ has some of the most environmentally friendly dairy farms (the sheep and beef farms are tops too) in the world. If you cut production or move to introduce other limits, the market won't accept having less product but will turn to more environmentally damaging sources. Any talk of NZ dairy not being "sustainable" is misuse of the word. What this country needs is less government, not more. A monolithic bureaucracy like the UK is not a path to success. We cannot tax ourselves to success, Norway only works because of their oil. The Taxpayers Union figured out government manages to waste 30c out of every $1 they are budgeted for, before they begin to do whatever it is they are supposed to do; National rightly identified huge scope for bloated ministries to tighten their belts. Socialism can only work if it limits itself and lets capitalism get on with it- that is my theory anyway, socialism has failed every single time it has been tried so I can't be sure. Anyway bed time for me... busy day tomorrow, I am training the cows to all line up backwards and sh*t into the river at once.

It is a bargain... but I have 4 cars, and a 5th would entail divorce! Not quite sure why this hasn't sold yet, but good luck.

UPDATE Here are some more photos that show more detail. Firstly the powerflex control arm bushings pressed into the lollypops. Here is an image that shows one of the control arms mid polish. I taped one side so you can see the difference. Steering rack cleaned up and painted (even the metal lines). This is before the boots were replaced. Anyway, the front 330i spindles were sandblasted, painted and installed and I started fitting the front coilovers. This is the other side with the springs and sway bar links installed. Here is the old sway bar link next to the new one. Quite the size difference. I got xyz adjustable camber mounts from a friend, but the colour just wouldn't work with the clean, minimal look I'm going for, so I stripped and painted them in satin black. These were installed, but not before the strut tower strengthening plates. Most people just sit the plates in loose, but I siliconed them in so it will be easier in the future should I need to remove the coilovers for any reason. Then the 330i discs and reconditioned calipers were installed. The discs were just sprayed with a rattle can to resist rust, but I will remove the paint from the contact patch before the car is moved for the first time so the brake pads don't get compromised. The calipers were sandblasted and powder coated, and then had all new seals, boots, bleed screws etc installed. I got some goodies from garagistic. Really excellent quality at a reasonable price. The brake lines are Teflon, wrapped with a stainless steel braid and stainless fittings. They are burst tested to 6000 psi and have a lifetime warranty. They really add the finishing touch to the strut. I got e46 m3 front and rear swaybars secondhand for a good price, and these were prepped, painted and installed with new rubber bushings. The m3 bars are 26mm front and 21.5mm rear, compared to my old msport ones which were 23.5mm front and 18mm rear. I used my Christmas money to give the steering rack new inner and outer tie rods and new boots, and can be seen here attached to the 330i spindles. Fronts are all done now, so now I just have to finish off the rears. I'm really happy how its coming together.

UPDATE Progress has been slow, mostly due to finances but slow and steady wins the race. Engine bay was smoothed with a bunch of unneeded brackets and metal removed. A bunch of sanding, then its high build primer and more sanding Then its time for bmw black sapphire metallic followed by clear. Thanks go to @325_driver for a good deal on his leftover paint. With the engine bay ready to receive some parts it was time to work on the front crossmember. The stock crossmember has a bit of a weak spot where the engine mounts afix so I wanted to strengthen that. Here is the crossmember upside down - I cut some 2mm sheet steel to fit inside the two 'pockets'. These were then welded in and other pieces were cut to fit on top And then these are welded in too (above picture of the left side, below picture of the right side). Then it has a hole drilled in it so a socket can still be inserted to bolt up the engine mount. Then undercoated in zinc primer ready for topcoat. For those interested here is the comparison of the e46 crossmember with the e39 v8 crossmember. It was then painted with the same paint I used on the engine bay, and then installed along with the steering rack which was painted in satin black to match the powder-coated suspension parts. New msport control arms were purchased and I spent quite some time polishing them. They were then clear coated so the polish doesn't fade and partnered with new lollypops which I also polished and clear coated, and some alloy and polyurethane powerflex bushings.