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Hi all, just joined and thought I'd make a brief intro. Have always loved BMWs and a real soft spot for the e28 model. Over the years, have really grown on the e24's and in more recent years e30 M3s, but to be fair, nearly the whole range from BMW! ? I've had my 87 535i for nearly 7 years, drive it frequently - some weeks, all week! Have done trips all over the South Island, a few times and a fair bit of the lower north island - for a 30 year old car, it really does hum, rarely has it let me down! Anyways, keen to see your cars out and about, mine is - frequently I'll be parking in and around the Wgtn CBD near Midland park - if you see me, always keen to meet other BM owners - say g'day (I will), maybe grab a coffee sometime. Cheers, Aaron.

I'm probably going to give the auction a nudge and hope the missus doesn't complain

While the 6-series appears to have gone quietly into the night, there is hope. A new 8-series looks likely. More news on May 26th.

And a high riding 4wd coupe looking type 5er... must have as many odd permutations as possible! #beatingmercedesattheirowngame

Based on my experience (and there are more engines in the 8-series than I've driven) the 840 was more sporty, while the 850 was more cruiser but still ultimately faster. I felt the same was true of the 500 and 560SEC Mercedes. The slightly smaller engined car was a more sporting drive, and while both were grand tourers, the bigger-engined car was more so.

Thanks all, had a great drive down the country yesterday with no traffic and perfect conditions. A few things to tidy up - the alternator belt was a bit squeaky, I'm pretty sure the tyres are plastic by this point, and there are a few electrical gremlins. Realised the cluster lights weren't working as dusk fell at Turangi, so got through the desert road and taped a pen light to the steering column cowl. Other than that, and a memorable incident with the back of the drivers seat collapsing right down on the Auckland motorway, a pretty uneventful trip.

Hi all After my introduction to bmw was cut short by finances and common sense, I have bought something with live plates this time, a 1984 320i. It looks nice and tidy, and the vendor tells me it has been brought up to a nice condition after a period of storage. Driving it home to Wellington from Auckland this weekend - any advice for tools to pack (other than roadside assistance!) or things to check before I set off would be welcome. Cheers CJ

speaking of sway bars, when I went to the 17" 194's and 225/45 &Z 245/40's from 205/55R16, I spent a good deal of time cruising the Search Tricycle™ and learned up on antirollbars, reading much of what was written here, and discussing with @Herbmiester I found that the increased grip - and (to my mind) the increased leverage the road has on my suspension (through the wider tyres and shorter sidewalls) - brought roll to the fore. I'd already renewed shocks, mounts, ARB bushes etc. So I searched out part numbers for fatter ARBs in the online parts catalogues, and sourced some from Brent @BM WORLD and bought new bushes to suit. Serious transformation for not much coin. Something to consider, though as yours is a 330 you probably already have reasonably beefy ones and 17" already yeah? Whatever you do, if you go staggered rims, don't put square tyres on. It feels nasty in comparison. HTH. EDIT: PS, @Herbmiester hopefully one day you get a chance to resample my e46, it's come a long way since your last drive.

You can never have too many options... unless you are the customer... or the person trying to plan what stock to keep

I've stopped bidding as the Auto bid by 'Rick' from the north shore with minimal trade history, just seems a bit suspicious when the vendor is 'Richard', also from the north shore with minimal trade history, feels like a Shill... if a FPO pops up i'll be even more suspicous.

I.... I don't know, I feel like there is room for a 5er coupe as well as a hyper car.

Its the same reason I no longer own my M5, M3, X3, 535i, 525i, Senator and Adventra - Life happens and you move on But who's to say that I won't own my 8 series (or any of the above) again in the future... cos life happens back to the OP - with its cosmetic faults, this is a nice example IMO

You missed without cat http://www.bmwmregistry.com/model_faq.php?id=6 DC82

If anyone asks, instead of saying you replaced the front end, just say you took a sedan and chopped the end off cuz you prefer the look of hatchbacks. That will raise some eyebrows for sure.

Let 's agree to disagree on the looks of this vehicle. Comes down to personnel choice for me it looks like any other coupe or sedan from the front. The Ti shape is a stand out and made it a feature of this model in the e46 range along with the sport variant just made it look better.

225/45 and 245/40 , just put them on the wifes wagon just before it got written off cost me around $1000 for the tyres

As does the E30 even. Whether the bulbs still work or not on most of them is a different story

Mostly done just a bit a aligning to do on the bumper etc then some paint

Hang on Kyu, you kindly set me straight a while back; the rear size on e46 is 245/40R17. 255/40R17 is the e90 spec. Shane, if you use the search bicycle there's an excellent post from William @3pedals that covers "why staggered". A great alternative to Style 68 on an e46 is Style 194 from the e90, gives you 8 inches on the front, a little more offset at the rear profiding slightly wider track with the same tyre sizes, looks awesome and they're plentiful and inexpensive. That's what I run, no issues with rubbing/fouling etc. Hope that helps.

http://www.bmwstylewheels.com/bmw/68 the wheels are 7.5" front and 8.5" rear. They are supposed to be staggered and you should run it this way. The reason you see non staggered sets is usually because people buy two sets and steal the two pairs of 8.5's and on-sell the 7.5 fronts. All of them have the little m sticker below the centre cap. the size difference is fairly easy to spot if you put them side by side there is a clear difference. Most noticeable give-away is different tyre sizes but dont trust this because you could technically put the same size tyre on a staggered set which might *hide* the obvious stagger. normal tyre size for these wheels are: 225 45 17 front and 255 40 17 rear also beware of fake wheels but I havent seen any fake style 68s yet..

So a couple of weeks ago I was approached by a media company asking if Rusta could be used in an Ad for a fairly big beer company supporting the English Lions tour coming up. This morning was filming for this, I'll upload the videa once it's completed and ready