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As unappetising as, say, '05 Nissan Latio 1.8?

Yeah technically you need a cert. But VTNZ is pretty dum, didn't even notice my M52B28 in an e30. YOLO

+25% increase in power needs cert Different block needs cert Different head needs cert. Different number of cyl needs cert. Costs bugger all when you consider not having one may void insurance claims eveb if it gets a wof. And will make it much harder to sell. Also despite being 100% factory items dont be surprised if they demand a drive shaft hoop or two

If you've done everything right and take it to a VTNZ or similar there's every chance you'll never need a cert. Plainly put most inspectors have no idea what they're looking at. But by definition your car will need a cert as the E36 ti was never sold in NZ with the M5x engine. Same thing for me if I was to straight swap an M54 into my E36 sedan. Never had it from factory, must have cert. A lot of the E30 guys get away with it cause they bull$hit the inspectors and tell them the M50 was released in the E30 chassis. It does rely on getting an inspector that knows next to nothing about Bimmers, but it happens often Edit: Since you've gone through all the hard work you should really play by the book. Would be horrible if you had a prang and then found yourself in a whole world of pain with your insurance because the car wasn't technically legal!

If you increase the power more than 25 % over standard you need a cert. I dont know how your mate is getting away with that one!! (Actually i do, the testing station guys dont know their jobs!!) It will be pretty straight forward if its all factory parts, but they will do a brake cycle test etc. Good luck.

All rightt, I'll say it. 18's dreaming.

I am just curious how many of you have shown proof to local dealership parts supplier the overseas pricing and ask them to see how close they could match it? I can honestly say I hardly buy stuff from overseas now and support the local suppliers. Wait till you have a bad experience and struggle to get your money back on an expensive item despite knowing all the ins and outs of how to do it - or have a part break within the warranty period and realise that you have little to no come back against the o/s supplier (or the cost of sending the item back outweighed the savings many times over). I recently purchased a shut-off valve that was $140 (about $20 more than trying to import it from o/s) ... luckily I purchased local as the first 2 that came through were of the incorrect length from BMW Germany and had no chance of fitting at all - it was only based on the fact that there was direct communication from the official channels to tell BMW that this part has been manufactured incorrectly (probably a whole batch of them) that I was finally able to procure a correctly manufactured item. Try that with an o/s supplier - you'll get no where.

also at BM WORLD 021433600 [email protected] papakura

360 at supercheap. For a whole hub unit. Sent from my GT-I8160L using Tapatalk 2

economics isnt quite that simple. or sinister. lets look at exchange rates. 5 years ago 100USD = $198NZD today 100USD = $117NZD see where the discount is coming from? Buying with foreign currency in the us is now great unfortunately buying with USD is now terrible because its not worth anything. SO you might think hey who cares we dont live in the US so we dont buy in with their money, problem is many countries like china will only accept payment in USD as their currency is to unsteady. so anything we own that comes out of countries like china or india or south America have gone up in price massively. That would be ok but guess where the factory is getting alot of their OEM parts from now days? bearings, rubber, glass, plastics. alot are asian even on high class cars. local costs more than foreign but both are a sh*t load cheaper than they were a decade ago. And again economics of scale. if you are buying brake pads that every car goes through reguarly then its likely that repco or supercheap will do tem at a good price. if you want a thermostat housing or similar that isnt common then dont expect them to have a great price. #1 complaint about euro parts in big stores is "why dont you carry stock"??? answer. someone suggests an item. big company has 70 stores, decent stock levels dictate two per store as the restock time is 3 months. So you have to buy 140 units. 140 units might cost you $6 each. add your freight and overheads. $14 each.total outlay $2359 add Margin $19 each. Add gst $21.85 each sale price good business dictates that you should sell cost price worth of goods every 12 months at the absolute minimum. so you must sell 108 units every year for it to make economic sense. and you still havent turned a profit. full profit of you sell them all? $700 VS online supplier. Buying 500 units. $4 each. Has their own container so freight per item is possibly $0.05, overheads are for a single warehouse vs 70 stores so maybe $0.20 each. outlay $2125. Sell price is $17 . to break even in 12 months 125. full profit if all sold? $6375 So each will have to sell similar amount of stock to break even. both taking similar risk but one is earning almost 10X what the other. And then theres the target market. bmw usa sold 347,000 new cars in 2012 bmw NZ sold 1646 new cars in 2012. and if you want to include it 2180 bmw imports in 2012. and then people say but why dont you keep this little part i need. even the dealerships dont bother anymore. If the consumer insists on buying cheaply overseas, they have to recognise that they are getting a discount in exchange for. . no consumer guarantees act. . no same day supply. . no face to face knowledgable service (i.e. no one to say you might actually need a different part from what you are ordering.) . no warrenties if the part fails (many overseas will exchnage it but you have to pay $50 to send it back on a $30 part, plus another month wait) . expect the gst threashold to come way down (aus is already dropping theirs to $50) . expect our tax dollars to pay for the $10 of labour it takes to enforce a $2 gst charge . and most importantly if the exchange rate goes back up and the online price doubles what happens if the little nz retailer has gone bust in the mean time. its the same story everywhere. feel free to go into the "ray from hell bm is amazing" thread and explain how the guys at the local polytech charge less, see how that goes. its apples and oranges. every purchase buys you a range of things, try not to focus on the physical ones.

Torque is your friend