Leaderboard

Not quite today, but removed rear spoiler and m3 mirrors and clear lights back to original spec recently:

Exemptions; scratch built vehicles and modified vehicles certified by the Low Volume Vehicle Technical Association Incorporated. Good to know my coilover & manual swap cert will make me exempt - maybe I'll keep the E46 forever 😎

Ours doesn't. Took a bit of work, but she's like a sewing machine now.

My insurance is up for renewal soon, what do you guys think mine is worth ?? 325i Convertible. Facelift which is very rare for a cabby. Kiwi New Im the third owner other than BMW dealers. 125,000km Calypsorot Metallic - never been repainted or damaged Manual conversion using Getrag 260 Perfect dash. Tartain sport interior F&R, M Tech2 Steering wheel, 370mm type. Map light mirror retrofitted (not available on cabby from new) Tech1 Spoiler Garaged entire life. Only non-OE mods are the wheels and eibach springs, though the originals are still here, as well as the original sport auto and all the bits that go with it. *Edit: also has a "RyanG" lip/splitter fitted under the SE lip. and has a Clarion period correct headunit, with a small under seat all in one subwoofer. all of this edit i completed, in such a way all can be removed without a trace. * New Roof March 2021 Minor pinhole paintless dent repairs completed shortly thereafter after. All new ignition system in 2018 Oil changes yearly, only year missing is 2019 as i was in Canada at the time and car was layed up. Sales brochures and original purchase reciept, as well as all maintenance receipets from new, incl fuel receipts from the second owner. Never been crashed and never had any rust repairs, ever! there would be evidence of it, or at least a reciept to go with the rest of the history, if there was.

Miss M's new car went through it's WoF. Headlights needed to be adjusted (we knew this) and a wheel alignment and rotation was recommended, so that's been sorted too. It'll have an engine oil and filter change, the diff breather checked, and diff fluid changed. I've ordered a transmission service kit for it, too. In other news, the venerable E46 318i went for it's WoF too. Failed on a 'missing' rear seatbelt receptacle (it was under the seat) cloudy headlights (cleaned them with some reno kit), a brake pad wear sensor not being connected, and the RH lower ball joint being 'tired (ordered two new arms, and the rear bush). Not a bad result.

I just purchased this for Wifey. White Opal Pearl metalic paint and black leather interior. Pick up next week after PD , tinting all windows and GardX package https://www.honda.co.nz/jazz/jazz-e-hev-luxe/

145,500 kms. Finally got around to getting something up on here. In September I bought this little weapon. It's a 1998 E36 328i Coupe in Montreal Blue. Originally a Japan car, but imported and sold by Shelly BMW as an Approved Used Import in 2004. This car clearly has been cherished - it is in fantastic condition. I have been fond of the E36 for as long as I can remember. Mum bought one in Hellrot Red to replace our big and unreliable Mitsubishi Pajero when I was about 5 years old. It was a 1996 318i saloon, automatic, with the standard cloth seats. I think the only optional extras it had were power windows, fog lights, and the digital clock. We had the car about 10 years and did well over 200,000 kms in it. I recall everything falling apart on it: headliner falling down, cloth door cards falling apart, and the clear coat peeling off the front bonnet. But mechanically, it was stupidly reliable. I don't remember it causing her any major issues. My sister, mum, and I took that thing all over the country and it only let us down once (a failed water pump I think). Finally, at about 300,000 kms, it had some major engine issue which wasn't worth fixing. Anyway, that car was my first taste of the BMW world, namely the E36, and I absolutely loved it. I remember cleaning it just about every weekend because mum would let me drive it around to the back of the house where the hose was. Back to the 328i. When it came up for sale I instantly fell in love with it. The m contours looked epic and were a huge upgrade over the stock 16 inch wheels. The test drive only confirmed my love. The straight six sounded mean, especially with the golf tee mod. And the steering felt massively better than the steering box in my 540i. So, I bought it. And I love it. And best of all, it didn't have any clear coat peeling, or headliner sag, or door cards falling apart. Temporary two-car garage... It certainly wouldn't beat the 540i on a drag strip, but that isn't the point. It's a cliche, but the 328i is a far more involved driving experience. While the 540i was comfortable and muscular, the 328i is peppy and engaging.

X

You want original, reinstall the parts that he's carefully stored in the shed. You want to enjoy the manual experience, leave it as it is. What next: "it's not the original top" ? 😊

Manual conversion using Getrag 260 Not my definition of all original.

I think the main clue with @_ethrty-Andy_'s vert is 125k kms, never had paint, all original - or with parts to put it back to all original. This in contrast to cars with moon-and-back distances. It's around collector quality, and is likely the best in NZ. In my opinion, as a good tidy SE 4 dr is now at ~$30k, how can a primo cabrio be worth less? Of course, anything's only what someone's prepared to pay. How much to replace? I'd be expecting a valuation of circa $35k on this car. For someone who must have a cabrio, and wants the best, the one (linked above) on FB marketplace is not going to cut it. There are a few particularly tidy examples around, but they're not for sale. If you were that person, and this car was presented at $39,780k ($10-25k below a *good* M325i coupe), would you hesitate?

I love the appeal of those, such a classic. Now is a great time to get any interesting older car, they are never going to get cheaper!

^ it would be a complete rebuild, i bet.

'Before significant maintenance'... Kinda depends on your definition of significant!

i think @qube was looking to sell?

This one has enough pep to keep Miss M happy for a while!

These little 116i's love a remap

Cool thanks. I've been looking for months and people keep sending wrong parts from overseas. Surely someone has something

Give Gavin a call on Monday, or send him an email. He's good at replying. Ph (09) 444-9817 | email Euro-Italian Car Parts Ltd

4v preouts too, those C33 and CD43 units are grunty things.

I have a not so secret desire to buy a 60s Lincoln Continental , but all this stuff does mean i cant see the value in the $60-80K Sticker price for most of them in NZ. thats a lot of cash to have tied up. as much as i dont like to admit, now is probably the best time to get out of classic cars here in NZ and europe. they have a way to go in the states yet though.

These climate change zealots will come for the petrol and diesel car, especially older ones we love with the ferociousness of how they've gone for privately owned firearms. There is also a notable trend of this anti-freedom movement, some people hate the fact you can drive anywhere at anytime, instead you must use public transport, if it's not good & doesn't get you where you need to go , tough luck. We saw how they celebrated the lack of cars during the height of the covid lockdowns, they will cite how there was a reduction of emissions during this time, it's so obvious they will try play that card again to have climate lockdowns and probably bring back the careless day policies. That is such an expensive solution and totally destroys the appeal of a car as originally built, I can understand how some type of person might find the appeal but I am not one of them. What good is an E34 M5 without the howling straight six, a Shelby 350 without the thumping V8, a Honda Type R without the 9000rpm redline or a Ferarri 512 without it's soulful engine & manual transmission, the list goes on. One of the only reasons I'm interested in cars is because of the sound the 1000s of different engines make and the way they produce their power & torque.. A silent mostly maintenance free electric motor makes it so boring I'd rather take up new hobby if that was were it was at. An electric car being fast or not isn't even relevant to me either, fast cars aren't really on my radar. I love the joy of a slow straight six or v8 that takes 6, 8 or even 10 seconds to get to 100kph, at least you can hear all the soul stirring noises on the way up to that while changing a gear or two. What a joy!

Manual electric classics will be an option for those who can afford it https://electricgt.com/mission/ We best enjoy those induction and exhaust noises while we can!

The welding on the rise to the tailpipe is a bit messy. Probably effective, but could be much tidier. I think the pie cuts are there to deal with heat expansion and possibly a change in material (different expansion rates). This one isn't perfect, but it's much better.

X

Added an oil pressure gauge to go with the boost gauge. MOV_1017.mp4

Went for a spin down the road and it ticked over this, which i thought was pretty cool 😎

153,800 kms. Bit of basic maintenance today. Oil + filter change and new spark plugs. The spark plugs definitely needed replacing! Seems to be running very slightly smoother, but that could be a placebo - it ran really great before. Also got around to installing a factory head unit I've had lying around. I bought it off a guy from a Facebook group who had installed a Bluetooth unit in place of the tape deck (the Bluetooth plays over a blank CD). It works great - love the factory look. Before: After:

Sorted the low rpm lack of boost issue, new pressure converter and some new vacuum hoses, an hours work and hey presto! Also found the bracket that holds the vacuum canister was broken so it was just rattling around between the chassis rail and engine mount, so stuck it back together withe some extra high temperature hot glue

Purchase price for 325i\328i 6 cyl manual and repairs id still go with the E36 myself, last BMW with glass headlights too. The E36 Ti is the closest BMW ive driven that felt like the E30.

Fair enough. Curiosity satisfied. I guess I struggle with the pricing because I have had so many E30's. And I just don't see them being worth more than about $15K. Well I feel sorry for those that missed the good old days when they were sub 10K.

PS: because the 80's are in again, and who really wants to be seen driving an Audi.

Out of interest how many E30 Baur were built? How hard / expensive is it to get the Baur specific bits for the roof etc?

I hate that Bronzit E30. It is everything I don't want an E30 to be. M10 - Check 4 Speed - Check Bronzit - Check Brown Interior - Check 4 Door - Check Hub Caps - Check Keep-Fit Windows - Check Sunroof - Check Ripped Drivers Seat - Check

Anything thats manual and has a mint dash =$15k

So, with the new budget there seems to be a $300m+ pot of money to be put towards encouraging buyers into EVs, which can be used once the government has worked out what this will be and how to apply it, and what cars it covers, etc. It will probably be a while before we see anything from that in the market place. At the same time, there were a number of plans / suggestions / reports, that were released specifically related to the government goal of being "carbon neutral by 2050" which whilst it may sound a long way off, is still in most of our life-times. In amongst these blue sky dreaming documents were a few interesting little gems for private transport, buried in amongst all the non-specific "we need to do this but we don't have a solution of how it will happen" type objectives. Transport, and in particular, the private passenger vehicle (ie us driving our cars / suvs) has been identified as the largest generator of CO2 emissions that can be dealt to (other big areas of emissions - trucks, ships, cows, etc seem to be being ignored as there does not seem to be any easy solution) which means it is getting a lot of direct attention. The common theme in all the reports is that the vast majority of us will be driving fully electric vehicles by this point in time, so not producing any C02. However, in order for this to be possible without the need for more CO2 to be produced from the electrical grid (apparently even geo-thermal production emits CO2, who'd have thunk it..) the overall number of journeys by private car is planned to be reduced massively, by upto 75% in one case. So what happens to those other three out of the four journeys that are being made currently, the plan is that whilst there is some reduction in overall number of journeys - more working from home, on-line meetings, etc, the biggest reduction will be achieved by people using public transport. Hmm, interesting - a bit of work to be done on that side then. That way with many fewer journeys being made, fewer electric cars will be required, and the country will have the infrastructure to cope. Very quietly, one report even went so far as to suggest that a TOTAL ban of ALL internal-combustion engines would be needed to get to the carbon neutral situation. So whether you want to or not, your only option would be to drive an EV. The proposal of what will happen to the current (and growning) NZ fleet of over 4 million private ICE vehicles that would effectively become paperweights was not even mentioned.