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There's zero consistency here re wof, one place fails, take it to another place and they may very well pass it.. Probably the same with compliance..

yep no point bothering with M20 unless its for a specific racing class, you just want to keep the car "more original", or you want the cheapest option to get the car back on the road. M30 is dinosaur tech and boat anchor. was the engine of choice for decades when M5x engines were over 2/3k, but no point doing that now. i have done a bunch of M52 swaps, its easy to do and my engine of choice. just do plenty of reading, and read through a half dozen build logs and take the average of suggestions as the fact, dont rely on any one person. Bear in mind two things, 1/ most of the logs will be in American which means they are left hand drive (important when it comes to exhaust stuff, steering, and clutch control), the pinout tables are not correct for your car, and also 2/ most of the threads if not all are outside of NZ, where rules are generally a lot laxer and do not require the certification process we have. thus you will need to think about things like drive shaft hoops and bump steer tests, possible be forced to upgrade brakes etc. worth looking through the LVVTA Threshold guide as a starting point. also i recommend swapping to stock E36 steering rack at the same time, they are cheaper now than they used to be, and cheaper than having to make up custom power steering lines to adapt the e36 pump to the inferior E30 unit. use the holden barina / opel corsa linkage youll see mentioned, e30 nuckle on top and e36 on bottom. also means you dont need to recert later down the line when you do it anyway. having said all that, if i do another swap in the future, i think i will use the M54B30.

I had a M40B16 in my E30. After dealing with sourcing parts and noisy hydraulic lifters etc. I decided I needed to look at a replacement. Was originally looking for a M20 as well as the M5x swap seemed daunting. But as you said, they're also getting fairly rare and finding a decent low km one with a service history was even harder. So I Googled and Googled, stalked @Nick065 and @_ethrty-Andy_ profiles. Pulled the trigger on a lower km M52B28 E36 with a dodgy gearbox (ended up just being low on AT fluid) for quite cheap. Pulled the required parts from it that I needed. Sold parts off it to recover costs then sold the shell. Fast forward a couple months and I had a running car that surprisingly quick! Was pretty proud of the effort. Now, parts are everywhere at local scrap yards and new parts are quite cheap from the likes of FCP Euro.

i agree also

The 20 year rule is SUPPOSED to be from date of arrival in NZ, but I am pretty certain some people have held cars back until they have reached 20 years old. Track only cars don’t need to be complied, as compliance is only for road use, not track / unregistered use. There is also a targa / motorsport use category but that is quite hard to get through.

I'd agree with above, if you want to sell it, somewhere around 10-12 is probably likely value.

Most similar cars are listing around the $18-20k mark. (And is around what I'm insuring my touring for) I'd wager they'd be selling around the $12-15k. What wheels are you certed for?

have a e30 m20 manual kit for sale with fairly new clutch etc

I would say you are going to have to go the SIV route. Otherwise the E39 M5's would already be coming into NZ via the dealers. I'm also pretty sure you need to have SIV approval before the car reaches NZ shores. Good luck.

Took me 15min all up to do the initial flash (8HP) Tells you exactly how long it is going to take.

After 3 odd years off the road, it's back! Straight through the WOF, put the coilovers back in on the weekend. Also had a nice surprise when installing the vaders and found out they are heated which come in handy for winter. Although I can't figure out the airbag wiring for the passenger seat. This small connector is on the passenger seat but doesnt match the seat mat sensor. Any idea what it is for?