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This one's not a project so it lands in the showroom. Although I do have some small projects on the way. For those that don't know I've been casually looking for a 130i for a few months, I say casually but I have put a fair bit of time and effort into checking around 7 out. Including putting 5 up on stands and taking the under-cover off. None were ideal, all were filthy underneath, only a couple were briefly tempting. I was disillusioned tbh. I was one of the first people to view this one (mine now) at a dealership and liked it immediately, interior 8/10, exterior 7/10, mechanical 9/10, extras 10/10 - all based on my scale of needs. Drove it home to look underneath and there was almost no oil so I did a deal for $8.5k including 12 months of AutoSure which I was very happy with. I've looked at $11k cars that are in way worse condition than this one. Been in NZ since mid '16 and has ~$3k NZ receipts in the glovebox. It's been covered by mechanical insurance since arriving in NZ and has had all the top end and vanos gaskets done recently with BMW parts. It's had the oil and filter replaced every year with great synth since it's been in NZ... 😍 It has an aftermarket stainless exhaust and coilover suspension which, amazingly, has been LVV certified in NZ! The springs are Eibach and the exhaust and shocks are from a bespoke Japanese tuning house 'Orange Wolf' - try finding that sh*t on Google! I had to search in Japanese to find them. The suspension and exhaust were installed in Japan, suspension obviously not detected upon import seems to have been cert'd before the first non-dealer NZ owner. Edit: also has an LSD... 🤯 I like both the exhaust and the suspension, it's got a real bark without drone (unless you hold it at revs too low) and handles like it's on rails. Some wouldn't like the exhaust for a daily but I don't mind it. It drives and feels way, way more stable at speed than the stock suspension yet doesn't bang and rattle around at all. Totally stoked. And it does a rev-blip in sport mode on the downshift, lovin' it 😂 (however pointless that might be in an auto). The wheels have been cheaply painted (whilst on the car! 🤨🙄) but that doesn't concern me at all and the body has a few scrapes and proper sun fade on the bonnet and roof but I'm okay with that too. The front bumper has had a poor respray but in the end it was all these (aesthetic) factors that I was looking for to drag the price down. Perfect. It is my new daily (leave anywhere) car after all. I'll have to replace the aftermarket (real) carbon fibre front kidneys because (unfortunately) they look like crap after too much sun. TL;DR - New car, very happy. Picked it up today, hope to wash it and take some proper pics tomorrow. December 2019... June 2020...

Looks like I'm sorted for an engine and some other parts from Brent/BMWorld

Just got my first BMW. So glad to see there's an active community in NZ. I know nothing about them so will be asking for help at some point. Cheers. Bill

Not really cheap in my opinion. Many can be had for less than 20k even with the big ticket items done

Score! "Casually looking" is the new Tui billboard ?, top marks on self-depracating humour.

Orange Wolf 130i exhaust...

Happy Xmas to you?

Doesn't seem like the Turners copy writer follows the e60 m5 market either: "Don't worry about losing those pesky hub caps. This BMW has alloy wheels fitted."

I had a pdf copy of pre lci 130 somewhere, most of the functionality with the coupe/2 door hatch is identical though. Have the paper copy for my car if its on any use.

Huge shout out to @promo. The dealership wanted to take out my radio and install hardware to get NZ stations on my 525i import at quite a cost, but Promo was able to do it fast and at a excellent rate with his knowledge of coding without having to install or remove any hardware. Give him a shout if you need some coding done!

Nice 12 year old thread dig.

Can do tomorrow (FREE) for the scan. Ring me in the morning. (09) 2722546 any time after 6.30am