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Found this quite funny but annoying, picked up my new car from Coombes Johnston a couple weeks ago and was told the car would be in my name by the time I got home that day. Low and behold I received a certificate of registration in the mail yesterday for a 2010 Rav 4.

Date: 1 Aug 2020 Distance: 261421kms 1. Rear Brake Refresh This plan had been underway for about a year. Nick sourced the ideal rear trailing arms for a pre-prepped rebuild, and I collected these at e30 Mega Meet last year. What a guy! I ran short on time, and Jon at Auto38 stripped them down for me. They were media blasted, etched, and powder-coated, though this got caught up with Covid-19 lockdown. Shaun at Plateau Sand & Soda Blasting in Upper Hutt is excellent to deal with - recommended. I re-shaped (damage sustained in my boot on the way back), prepped, and painted the disc backing plates with good old Rustoleum (satin this time, to match the powder coating). I stripped and painted the calipers and carrier brackets as with the fronts last year, with VHT Caliper Paint. I plugged the holes/threads with polystyrene packaging noodles as I couldn't find the foam ear plugs! Brake parts painted with VHT Caliper paint, baking above an oil column heater. (paint run evident - the price I paid for rushing the job). Some parts, a few weeks back. New FAG wheel bearings, and new genuine BMW retainers, clips, bolts etc were used. Corteco outer brake hoses (OE), ATE parking brake hardware, Febi parking brake shoes, ATE caliper slider pins. Not Pictured: new slider boots, new caliper pistons, outer brake hoses. With all the parts in stock, Jon built up the new trailing arms during downtime. The project was planned to have the car on the hoist for the least amount of time. The danger in a workshop is for cars to be stuck on a hoist, awaiting parts though preventing other work from moving through! Lemforder rear trailing arm bushes were pressed in. (Photo Credit - Jon Begley) BMW spring pads/bump stops - replacing the thirty year-old items I'd overlooked last time. Eventually the trailing arm assemblies were ready to go, the job was booked into the workshop schedule. Ready to go (photo credit: Jon Begley) I arrived yesterday morning to find Doctor Jon had prepped the surgery ready and was ready to proceed. Surgeons tools organised ready for the operation (photo credit: meeee!) Just think about it. No time wasted on the job, working out which tools are needed. The surgeon knows the procedure, knows exactly what to expect, and which tool is to be used for each step, and prepares ahead of the operation. This is efficiency and professionalism. Jon rebuilt the callipers with new seal kits and pistons. Installation went pretty smoothly, in part due to the pre-build, and that the arms had only been out just over a year ago (for the new bushes). Brake Parts ready for assembly (photo credit: meeee) And when the patient was out of anaesthesia, rear brakes refreshed! Rotors match the front - Zimmermann Z-cote sport rotors, with Hawk Performance HPS pads. We've stuck with the existing axles. Patient in recovery (photo credit: Jon Begley) Verdict? I've only had a short drive home, so far. The pedal is much firmer. It's more like a (relatively) modern hot-hatch, than a thirty year-old tired car. It's better than my old VW A2 GTi 16v. The feel is improved tenfold over how it drove in. I'm looking forward to a longer drive to give the full rotor burn-in, and to get to know it better. I noted the rear suspension seemed a little quieter; I guess this is driving on supple spring pads rather than 30 year old hardened frisbees! Overall, this is another large step forward on my plan to iS replica/tribute. At home, subtlety personified (photo credit: meeee!) As ever, the best independent in the Wellington region for your BMW is Auto38 in Newtown. Big thanks to Nick, Barry, Shaun at Plateau, and Jon at Auto38 for helping realise this part of the dream! Next Steps: Get M42 onto Engine Stand Cluster - tacho Centre console - clock Driver's window - fix in regulator to address wind whistle wheel alignment (last done 259342kms) - it's over a year, and I think it's settled a little. 15" Basketweaves and tyres

Conspiracy theories.

https://www.bmw-m.com/en/topics/magazine-article-pool/the-first-bmw-m3-touring.html

It's summarised here as 5.8% direct impact https://www.tourismnewzealand.com/about/about-the-tourism-industy/. Indirect contributions of 4% should also be considered but not in their entirety. Regardless of whether it's 7% or 12%, it's a contributing industry, not a dominant one in NZ. For example 80% of the Cook Islands GDP is from tourism, they're royally screwed on that front but their economy is so relatively small that they can be bailed out by NZ and Aus if need be. I'm not denying there is pain and businesses are failing, just that it won't be the end of the world for our economy. And realistically, irrespective of the action our government takes, we're not going to benefit from international tourism for quite some time, local lock downs in NZ aren't going to change that. Organisations that rely entirely on international tourism can't expect to survive I'm afraid. ?

The core statistics are infections and deaths. Regardless of any other noise, we are doing remarkably well despite the lapses mentioned above. It also appears like we're learning and improving all of the time, and faster than elsewhere. International tourism accounts for <7% of our GDP, unfortunately some businesses will suffer and fail but our economy will not.

Shouldn't you be asking that question to the people handing out Firearm Licences to Terrorists and Gang members like hot cakes? There was a youtube video showing how easy it was to get a Firearm Licence in NZ just after this massacre had happened. Might have been taken off cos it was a proper caught with your pants down moment.

Something to consider... it never left the ‘community’. As @Olaf said, its about time they started managing and stop trying to eradicate.

It's not a failure? The whole thing has been a farce with a govt making it up as they go along. Reactive not proactive. IF this is the first case of community transmission, the authorities are bloody lucky it has taken this long... US film crews isolating in a Wellington hotel that was being shared with domestic tourists on holiday. The countless number of people who escaped isolation. The amount of people let out of isolation early. The amount of people let out of isolation without being tested. The number of people entering isolation and mixing with others in there who were about to be released. The whole thing is a f**k up and every kiwi that has sacrificed so much this year has every right to be pissed off at the most incompetent Govt this country has seen. Remember the two infected women that drove Auckland - Wellington for a funeral. Supposedly had 300 contacts, yet no community outbreak. That, or there are a whole lot of people out there infected and they don't know. To top it off, it took me 1 hour 50 minutes to get from Ramarama off ramp to Bombay Caltex this afternoon. Only for a cop at the Bombay off ram to ask me where I was going, who then ushered me back towards south bound motorway. I didn't have to show my ID, wasn't asked why I was leaving Auckland or why I was there in the first place. A complete waste of time. Forgetting the fact the govt gave Aucklanders a 9 hour heads up to leave the place, they still haven't put proper measures in place to prevent this spreading to other parts of the country by interrogating those trying to leave.

How many terrorists and gang members hold a FAL in NZ? How many firearms offences are committed by FAL holders yearly? How many firearms offences are committed by gang members yearly? Perhaps we can reflect on how licenced firearms owners must be one of the most law abiding segments of society. And how, just maybe, targeting them with more legislation and restrictions will change none of society's problems... Because they cause none of them.

Need to get on with protecting the vulnerable and at-risk; get a decent pandemic response plan in place (eg Taiwan); get on with managing this rather than valiantly trying to eradicate it. And punish those being f@#king idiots or flouting rules/spreading disease. Most Australian states (as they’re able to do their own thing) aren’t doing eradication. So by extrapolation, we’ll never have an open border with Australia under the new edict ‘we won’t open our borders to any country that hasn’t been case-free for 28 days’. We led the world in free-falling our economy in 1987 with our stock market collapse after a tumble that the rest of the world recovered from in a couple of months. NZ took more than 5 years, and entire fortunes - public, private, corporate - were wiped out. Nobody noticed outside of NZ - the rest of the world re-started their party. That’ll happen again shortly; everyone will soon forget our ‘world leader’ status as quickly as it was gained, and we’ll be standing on the sidelines wondering how we got this so wrong while our pockets and bank accounts are empty and the economy is crushed. Don’t mention the debt. /rant

Looks like a rolling Aliexpress "this fits your car" catalogue.

I dont usually get into my real bugbears but as a Hunter and firearms owner I am so disappointed by the Police over the granting of a Licence to the Christchurch Terrorist. I do admit to having a Dog in this fight so to speak, and I personally know the previous Police Inspector in charge of firearms. He had backed up everything that Stuff published last week regarding the poor performance of Police in checking Tarrant's background. He should never have been given a licence yet Minister Nash keeps coming forward and saying everything was done correctly. Firearms ownership is a very divisive and emotional subject with people having very strong opinions either way, I get that. What annoys me is that internally Police would have know pretty quickly if things were done correctly and the Government would have known as well. I guess we will have clearer indication when the Royal Commission reports but I am convinced someone is telling lies.

Remarkably lucky. I think we are kidding ourselves if we think periodic lockdowns and restrictions are not going to be part of life until a vaccine. Well. I discovered this morning I have a grand total of 4 rolls of toilet paper in the house. Hopefully people have not panic bought all of it when I emerge to go shopping on the weekend. Otherwise I’ll have to use a leaf or something! ?

It's because if they can trace the contacts and locate the source they will make a decision based on that. The reality surely is that we are not going have just 3 days of level 3. At this stage there are in excess of 150 people designated as 'close contacts' (although this is a very broad term) of the current cases. One of the cases went to Rotorua on Saturday, broadening the blast radius to who knows how many. Agreed, the data just isn't in yet on the next stage, that will become apparent by end of the week. It's very much a remain at 3 or go to 4 in my mind right now. This isn't a failure of anything IMHO, this is the system working as best it it ever can in the face of a highly infectious virus like this. My homeland the UK has the highest excess deaths in all of Europe and looks to be on course for the worst recession of most European countries (currently showing a 20% drop in GDP ...20%!!). To date here in NZ we have paid with minimal human lives and the impact the the economy seems to me to have been managed as best as possible. Simply 'carrying on' Australia style is somehow seen to be a way to save your economy...it's not true given the global nature of things as countries like the UK and Australia are finding out. I'm very curious as to what the source of this new outbreak is, given that it's been 100+ days, surely it's must have come via quarantine or some lapse in border control? Either that or there is something more going on with COVID than we yet understand.

Panic buying, again. FFS people we aren’t going to run out of milk, like ever!

Remember to breathe before pulling the trigger.... on the submit reply button ?

Congrats? I guess.

My question is.... WHY? Hard to tell if its coming or going!

I suspect a lot of bleating in the news is pretty much campaigning. but I digress. on the US politics side, he chose his very own Judith Collins, Biden did, as a VP.

If you'd consider MFactory, I believe Speedfactor in Tauranga distribute them at a decent price (assuming they make a 335d version).

yeah other than a little nick on the edge of one, they look new.

I had a saloon E60 530i and a wagon E39 530i. The e60 has the N52 engine and the e39 has the M54 engine. Ive heard in other chassis that M54 is well liked, but man it was slow (*sedate, objectively it wasnt slow like say, my E28 is ) in that E39. The E60 530i was no rocket, but it was a much, much more interesting drive in both pace and sound. Both were slushboxes and again the newer 6speed (vs 5speed in E39) in the E60 was miles better.

Usually pretty easy to spot NZ New isn't it. Old man color combos like Green with Cream comfort seats and a towbar. ?

@adro with the hook-up

Just finished installing an MHD stage 1 tune on Boyties M135i. MHD tunes never cease to impress me with the performance improvement. First efforts resulted in a blown charge pipe but we fitted a CTS pipe which looked quite well made and we were rewarded with a very noticeable increase in power. For those that have done this (including myself) the torque increase is really noticeable but on Boyties car the hing that got me was how good that ZF8 speed box is. The close ratios keep it at near max power for each change and the little blue hatch just keeps accelerating. Very impressed by that gearbox.

its the claim of being the most open and transparent gvnmt and "not going to lie' and "we're the source of all truth' re covid that gets me. there are some serious questions over the timelines of this and who knew what when. not that any of that matters we just need to get it done now,/rant there are some amazingly good studies now on 3 common cheap drugs that are proven to work, except facebook and youtube takedowns control the narrative.but you will be tarred and feathered if you mention them. Guess theres no money in it for them so shut it down quick