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E60/61 m5 is a LOT of car for the money, but be prepared to spend to keep it. Really depends what you need, I would love a 1M but need a bigger car, and cant have 2 M cars at this stage!

They should have got a "proper" E38 and gone all out for the Protection version, the police would have had trouble stopping all 3.5 tonnes of one of those. There is a BIG difference between the double glazed windows (which are 1/2 inch thick and not bullet proof) and the bullet proof windows (which are THREE inches thick and in special door surrounds with protective coatings on the inside, which not surprisingly are), then there are the bullet proof tyres, steel plated armour, etc, etc. NOTE: This is not condoning criminal activity, merely pointing out they bought the wrong 7 Series for the job.

Digging up a slightly old thread to vouch for Express Keys. Finally got mine sorted after having my stereo taken last week. E46 Key sorted out today in 40 minutes for less than $350. Awesome guys there, I can see why Glenn said to just show up - the place is packed with cars.

Okay so the swap is almost complete.... I have the engine and gearbox in place in the Ti and all bolted up. Currently facing an issue with no spark or fuel, however will try a few more ideas for fixes tomorrow or will try find myself a red label 413DME. I can get the engine cranking over by joining 2 pins on the EWS connector, however I am getting no spark and the fuel pump isnt priming. Decided to call it quits early and will try again in the morning. This is a short update before bed, however a lot has happened and I have managed to get a few pics of it all in different stages. The engine from the donor car was taken out on the subframe and just dragged underneath the car and out of the engine bay. As seen here a few people just got under the front of it and were able to drag it out the back of the garage into the rear yard. The Ti was then stripped of its m44 and auto box and prepped for the 2.8L + manual box. The stuff that was swapped over was pretty quickly done, moving the hard line and slave cylinder over for the clutch and swapping the pedal boxes. There were a lot less issues gettting the 6 banger into the hole then getting the 4 cylinder out! The 4 cylinder didnt want to go, getting caught constantly on the steering rack, the 6 pot however went straight on in without any issues at all! Anyway that is all for now, I will make sure I post a comprehensive update when I finish everything off!!!

Hi everyone. Glad to join the community. I've purchased my first ever bimmer 2005 E60 530i Msport and I'm freakn wrapped. However, buying via a dealer in Auckland, this imported 104km vehicle has its, well challenges. I've taken a 3 year warranty out with Autosure and elected for the Extreme package under urges from a good friend that has a bimmer himself. Bear with me, After driving the vehicle down from Auckland on the Saturday, by the following Tuesday (4 days later) the transmission fault came on and I took it straight to Jeff Gray in Hastings (which by chance I had actually booked the vehicle in for a service that day!) The guys at Jeff Gray have said, there is slippage between 5&6th gear. "Requires a tranny rebuild" they said, BUT, Autosure got them to update the idrive and gave it back to me. So, I did some research and well it appears this car in prone to it, so I'm not overly surprised and very very happy I have a warranty. The Autosure guys have said, as soon as the fault comes back, it will go straight in for a rebuild. The car "bumps" when coming to a stop and has progressively got worse. Keen to know if anyone else has run into similar situation and did the fault come back? If so, when? Not regretting the purchase at all, but a tough start to my bimmer journey. Also, keen to know if there are any recommendations for a good independent bmw mechanic in the bay. *sorry photo is the dealers, but reckon it's the best one!*

Vht fabric spray from repco.

Went for a drive, new seats are awesome. Nice and snug without being full-on race seats. Would recommend. IMG_60961 by Christian Taylor, on Flickr

Both the zm and 1m hold prices well seems like the mcoupe is slowly going up in value. Saw a 1m put out higher torque and kW figures that BMW quote. It would be my pick

Everything. I am keeping mine well looked after but there are cheaper options if you want to go hunting on the net. Oil service $1000 New battery $600 Clutch / flywheel $5000 Throttle body actuator $1100 each New diff oil seals $900 Fuel $ all the money you have left!! All through JCBMW at this stage.

e9x m3 is just outside of your pricerange but a 1m is within it? What world are you living in? 1m's are 2x the value of an e92 m3 AFAIK, but for resale purposes would easily be the best choice. in 5 years they'll probably have doubled in price.

FYI perseverance is the answer. I sat through the alarm going off and for a further 20mins. Then went through the key initialization process about 5 times before it worked. Now have one key working at least. The manual is poorly worded, but accurate. Will post a picture of my NZ manual up later for future reference.

I found Jensen Button's casual as review while sideways on the McLaren to be refreshingly different; another one to add to the list of why not get that bloke to host instead of chris evans. The in studio hosting format seems quite awkward still...

The BBC have responded to criticism, and His Shoutyness has been busy on Twitter.

I did this swap about 8 months ago. In my experience bolting the engine and everything is all piece of cake. however you are adding an extra layer of complexity because you are using a car that is already swapped as a donor, the person who swapped that might have done things differently to "the way bmw would have done it" Three things i found to be careful around or that you should know: make sure you swap the EWS modules over BEFORE you start the car. this is the DME, the chip in the key, and one module either side of the dash. You want a loom from a manual car ideally that won't have all the automatic stuff in it. I know you said you are putting in an M52 manual, but are you using a conversion kit or is the car a factory manual already? The engine plug is the same regardless of manual or auto, but the secondary plug holds all the auxiliary stuff like traction and cruise control, ABS, and talks to the trans, and in my case was pinned differently. If you don't want any of that stuff then leave the second plug disconnected. If its a road car you will need to do a bit of research in this area and make sure it lines up as you don't want to drive around with a christmas tree on the dash. Oh yeah, you also need to put in the 6 cylinder cluster from your donor car, hopefully this is also 328 and not 325 The 325 exhaust is crap, hopefully they have fitted the 328i exhaust to the car. if so, the front section bolts in, make sure you fit O2 sensors if the DME is looking for them on the donor car. you will need to put a slight bend in the middle by heating a pulling it down so that you have enough access for your rear section. From there, the rear is custom. I am parting out my race car soon and going back to an E30 so will have a custom rear section available that will bolt in if you are interested. Have a look at my project thread here: http://bimmersport.co.nz/topic/50304-friseur-auto/?hl=friseur i will do another update on it this afternoon welcome to ask for more information if you need it

Would you like me to drive over there for you and ask them and then report back to you ??...... because I don't know for sure. You would need to check with them and they usually don't answer the phone as I said in my second post on here