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Happy to report the headers are now fully welded !!! Check out the pile of twisted pipes Managed to stack some dimes from time to time ... but probably only enough to get a sandwich Next up I'll be making a jig to secure the tubes to the garage floor so i can lean on them and see how much tweaking is possible.

Ask for a pay rise at work, or come up with a ways to make more money to offset such fuel increase. Everything is getting more expensive, so you have to respond in kind. Smartest thing to do would be to buy a straight 6, V8 or V12 and enjoy yourself, paid for by new revenue streams. At the end of the day it's the journey that counts, not not the destination. I have three V8s now and a one diesel. More will be added in due course. Life is good. That would be a very large no. Generally from what I've seen an electric version of a car is 500-750kg more weight than it's petrol or diesel equivalent. Cars have gotten heavier with more tech over the years, but on top the the batteries have added huge amounts of weight that will be harder on the road, and wear out tyres faster. The instant torque if used repeatedly on the same piece of road would likely rip it up faster than what any petrol or diesel car could do. Electric cars should have the weight factored in as well at lack of fuel taxes they are paying when calculating a RUC I suspect car crashes are also going to be much more catastrophic in future too given the extra weight and potential for a battery fire that can't be easily put out. Perhaps ACC levies for electric cars should also be higher. There needs to be some redirected funding that would need to go to the fire crews having to learn new methods and buy new equipment to deal with such lithium blazes, as well as be trained on the electrocution risks

I'm on board with Toyota and the reasoning they gave for not signing the Glasgow agreement. https://www.autoblog.com/2021/11/11/toyota-zero-emissions-climate-pledge/ The same goes in NZ. Our infrastructure is terrible for EV's. My town only has one charging station. And during the winter months Solar is not a viable option to power both a house and a car on it's own. Hoping the Hydrogen tech keeps the ICE alive. Even running around in a Tesla Model S on the East Coast of the USA was still a little bit of a hassle. Whilst it did all the work telling me where to stop and for how long on a road trip. It still meant extended stops in the middle of nowhere for up to 45mins. A model S is affordable in the US. It isn't here. And our lease options are not even worth looking at. I feel NZ IS one of the countries Toyota is talking about.

Not 100% true, mine is charged by power from the solar panels on my roof, which were manufactured in a factory in China powered by the tears of slave laborers ( or something similar)

Agree with the first part, you gotta pay to play. Personally the price of petrol doesn't really affect me at all. The rest is exaggeration and scaremongering. Passenger cars have a light footprint regardless of their power plant, it's trucks that f**k the road to pieces. I'm not against EV's paying RUC but they aren't going to impact the roading any different to existing passenger cars. NZ society needs to stop commuting for work in passenger vehicles. It's a colossal waste of time and resources. I used to spend 2.5 hours a day in Auckland traffic and spend $150 a week in petrol and I now do the same job remotely and live less than 1 km from all essential services (Supermarket, doctor, day care, school, takeaway, service station, hair dresser). I get that not everyone can work remotely, but you should be able to live close to your location of work enabling you to travel on foot or via public transport. This ideal is currently out of reach for many people in the main centres due to out of control property price increases and that's a real crime. Thus i suggest abandoning Auckland and Wellington for other more sustainable cities.

There isn't a single street in the country where the gas station is up to the task of everybody trying to fill their car at once. Its a bit of a pointless argument as there is no scenario where everybody in the country will plug their car in at the same time, mine uses about the same amount of power to charge as boiling the jug or cooking some toast, and I don't HAVE to charge it every day. As for the commercial users, hydrogen will take care of most of that. (Eventually!)

Did a little refurb on my Mtech 1 wheel - disassembled and re-dyed the original (good condition but faded) leather and centre section with Colour Lock Leather Fresh which came up fantastic - retained original texture but evened out wear and colour fading etc. Finished off crispy OEM roundel and ///M colour badge - looks great for only $100 or so spent. I do like the Tech 1 wheel but Will be keen to trade up to a 370mm Mtech 2 in near future however as I believe that is what was originally optioned on the car (although not sure why someone would swap out on a Tech 2 M325i?)

That shed though 😍

New Years polish, at least the paint job looks consistent from 3M’s 😉 Finished with a sealer and a couple of long drives

So basically people shouldn't travel around and only get hired for jobs within a small distance of their home, tough luck if theres no work in the area? You might have got lucky but its far from typical, especially given the layout of Auckland city. If someone wants to work 20km from where they live that's their choice & maybe the only option, they shouldnt be told it's bad or not allowed because of time and resource use. Every human activity uses resources. If there's going to be a discussion on not wasting time and resources for whatever reason for people going to work and such then there should also be no holidays, no sports tournaments, concerts or any other large human activity. You could go on and on. Think of all the resources and time we could save!

Not saying that everyone can or should do it. But what if you could live within 5km of both of your jobs allowing you to walk or scooter or something?

I agree that there's very few if any affordable locations in NZ anymore. But for sustainability I was meaning more around the issues of poor design that have compromised the cities. Specifically in Auckland poor infrastructure, poor land usage, council bloat, overpopulation, lack of transport. Very tough or maybe impossible issues to solve. Spread some of the load to other cities to allow them to grow, alleviate some of the pressure. For off shoring. Sometimes yes, often no. Depends on the job and the company ethos. Issues with offshoring: Poor communication skills. Culture clash. Time zone issues. Outcome quality. Other stuff...

Yeah thats not going to happen, my job is specific to the company I work for, so not like I can just go somewhere else. Same with my Wife. Public transport is also a have. It needs to be more reliable, available and cheaper. At the moment its cheaper to drive, I get free parking at work, and I dont have to worry about some drongo with covid/rabies licking me on the train/bus. There is also no direct train link from the hutt valley to porirua, so thats out. I will go PHEV once I can afford to, just because most of my commute can be done on EV alone, but i still have the range if i want to take a trip up the country and not have to piss around charging it. Hydrogen is the future I hope for though, along with synthetic petrol replacements so I can keep running classic cars.

I wish those that are proposing being involved in hydrogen production (on a commercial scale) would get their proverbial fingers out and actually do something instead of just talk!

Looks very similar to my old Supersprint?

There is not a single street in the country where the electrical infrastructure is up to the task of everyone coming home and plugging in their EV. Couple that with the government wanting to get rid of gas how are factorys supposed to supply steam to their process? It's not uncommon for a small factory to have a 5MW boiler. And that's not even bringing into the question the generation side of it.

Nice car, perfect colour, and welcome, was good to meet you by chance today! I think you mentioned you imported it from Australia? The "BMW Edition" could mean any number of options but according to this (Au) page (https://www.carsales.com.au/cars/details/bmw-1-series-2013/SSE-AD-7262669) it's "top of the range" (but that could still be below "Motorsport" spec). If you've not done so already plug your VIN into something like this: https://www.mdecoder.com/ to check out what factory options it came with. Looks like you may already have "darkline/blackline" rear lights and if so, that's one of the expensive cosmetic upgrades already sorted. Most E8x's came with body coloured mirror caps, not sure if that applies to yours but if so, they've also been replaced. This thread, albeit about 130's, also has some info and insights about the N52 and will give you some appreciation for the love given:

Hey Team, Quite new to the BMW scene. First Euro car I’ve owned. I have a 2013 E82 125i BMW Edition. Had her for just over a year, looking at putting some money into her this year starting with a tune and dyno. Any information on mods etc would be very much appreciated.

Glacier Blue E30 325i with beaucoup'Hartge kit - wheels / spoiler / dash plaque on plate E30H27, so a stroker kit as well I suppose.

Nice nice ... good call on using mild steel !! Could probably have ceramic coated mine twice for what I have spent on argon alone 😭 Other things I've learned to be REALLY useful is good lighting (i use a mountain biking light on my hood) and a way to hold the tubes in all / odd angles. I made do with blocks of wood, the vice etc which was not ideal ... would have been a much tidier job if i was really comfortable and had some sort of (non-existent) arm you could clamp the work piece in and move it in 360 degrees etc.

I dunno, at least that is M-Sport, and the later M-Sport at that. Makes it so much better looking, inside and out, to me. Colour is a bit boring being silver but it’s not as love it / hate it as the other one. There are quite a few aftermarket additions on this one that I would have to take out and go back to factory, or better integrated after market. And, yeah, still not worth anywhere near that asking price.

Fixed (or something grammatically close haha)! Do like this example though 😊. GLWS!

Totally same thinking here @GorGasm

I don't plan to buy any time in the near future but my next car will almost certainly be electric as fossil fuels are going the way of the dinosaurs. I might keep my weekend toy for a while though. If I was buying now I would probably just get a cheap petrol car to last a year or two as I think we'll start to see cool stuff then. I live in a city which isn't a complete disaster from a transport perspective and also have very little need to commute or travel more than a few km's at a time. I encourage everyone that can to move out of Auckland and work remotely. Auto manufacturers are coming up with some real next generation cars these days.

Who cares? The thread is about cheaper running, not feeling good about where the fuel comes from (in which case you wouldnt be running fossil fuel either, get a bike). This argument always comes up whenever someone recommends an EV, just like people flogging the whole "but Hydrogen isnt green so its a waste of time" when people talk about the potential for Hydrogen FCVs. 91 octane is a false economy too, most cars get better fuel economy on higher octane... so with 91 you spend less to get less KM per tank.

Low k's but maybe high hours, either way it's still 15 years old and probably on all original parts.

Something the government is keeping very much on the down low is the introduction of RUC on electric vehicles. Currently there is an “exemption” for these vehicles, but this is only for a period of time (and most unlikely to be extended again) and then the charges will be payable. This, along with how much you are paying for your electricity, will make a big difference in your calculations.

I always thought the majority of NZ power is generated from renewable resources, wikipedia states 82%. Not sure if geography plays a part as to where your power comes from specifically ... from memory generation in the South Island could not be transferred over Cook Strait at any higher level than it is currently etc.

Went for a bit of back-road driving on the way home and ticked over 420,000 km's...

Bicycle Edit: I was serious. Obviously its situational and distance dependent but i save about 1-1.5k on fuel + all the other running costs when biking 16km per day, 4 days per week.

Revealed a hairline crack on the subframe floor awhile ago whilst cleaning (the usual L\H crease). I was planning on dropping the subframe anyway so went ahead. Luckily it didn't appear to be any additional failed welds or cracks, but Redish V3 plates will be going in anyway once Fedex Australia sorts their sh*t out. New subframe bushings and inner control arm bushings done whilst its out. Inspected the clutch\flywheel. Very little wear so must of been replaced not too long ago. Re-used the flywheel and installed a new clutch kit. New winner for the hardest job on this car. Not something you ever want to do on axle stands with standard floor jack with a cramped transmission tunnel to boot. Unfortunately the refurbished slave cylinder was weeping, probably due contaminated fluid from wear given the marks in the cylinder. Seal still looked ok so honed the better spare cylinder swapped it over and bled it. Appears to be holding for now but will refurbish the old one again for insurance. Cleaned all the solenoids, drained all the fluid and flushed some new stuff thru using the pump so hopefully cleared it out. Driveshaft nose bushing, Meyle HD flex disc and Febi center support done. FAG front wheel bearings, replacement rack and new Meyle HD control arms also done while everything is apart. Just need to do install rear wheel bearings, put everything back together and parts cannon along with the operator can retire for awhile.

Hey Team, Mat here from Palmerston North and currently building an 1984 E30 323i into a drag/track car. Have been swapping the m20b23 from jetronic to motronic and now in the process of turboing her. Should have another m20b23 engine soon that I will be doing a full rebuild on but finishing this one to just get her going and learn the drag tree etc. Also still trying to learn more about this car etc one of the old owners had a cage and xyz adjustable suspension put in by speedfactor in tauranga but have no paperwork nor any other info on what has been done of modified before me. Cheers

Considering it was on FB marketplace at the end of Nov for $9,700 asking, no. Sorry, mid October with 71kms.

Swapped over the complete toolkit from pick a part, resisted the urge to include the spark plug tool to make it totally complete!!

😳 I had no idea. Thanks

Is that US or NZ octane? If its US 91, its about 95 in NZ.

Found an awesome 2nd hand book in Napier today, Bathurst 1985, loads of great BMW photos included such as this one.

I used to work with a Volunteer firefighter, and they were told that any Hybrid or EV that crashed and was seriously damaged, they had to wait an hour before they could touch it to save an occupant. They literally have to stand there, watching the car burn as the occupant screams at them for help. I cant see that happening, but thats what the bigwigs have told them to do. There is no standardised way to disconnect the HV side of the battery and make it safe. Manufacturers do make the information available, but who is going to sit there on their phone, watching someone burn to death, searching a site looking for the required information on each and every car?