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Hi and welcome @Angelo, I think a 130i is a good place to start a BMW journey, even if you never go further. I think you'll struggle to get the 9k one down to 8.5k, let alone 7.5k, just based on the description alone (and that the seller says price is "firm"). The prices for these things remains quite stubborn but I wouldn't pay 9k for an auto pre-LCI (pre-facelift) version. On the other hand I quite like the second one at that price and reckon you might get that for 6.5k which would leave a grand in your back pocket for maintenance. Or you might be able to put that grand into a 1-2 year mechanical warranty (check first) to ease your concerns. Every BMW leaks oil eventually, you just need to factor that in but it's not a particular 130i thing, in fact the N52 is incredibly mechanically reliable compared to some of the alternatives. A PPI is a good idea if you're not mechanically inclined and BM Workshop are unlikely to steer you wrong. Just don't be too concerned if they say it's leaking oil, as long as it's not dramatic you should be able to live with it for a while. It's important that they also plug it in, retrieve any fault codes and provide you with a print out, you can potentially use that to negotiate price further. The belly pan or sump will almost certainly leak at some point and it's a labour intensive job but I'm sure it's closer to a $1k job than it is a $2k job... although I stand to be corrected on that. These days maintenance is more important than mileage, as long as they've kept up with maintenance then you needn't worry too much about miles. In fact a 114k car probably has more stuff soon to need replacing than a 167k car, typically once a car has gone beyond about 120k then arms, bushes, brakes, suspension etc, etc have already been replaced and could last another 120k. Test drive a few, including on the open road, before you pull the trigger, in my experience some feel fantastic to drive, others awful and that's normally an indicator of the health of the suspension.

I drove my donor diff to Auckland from Napier for Kayne to do my conversion. It's awesome and I've never looked back. You want a good diff, take to Kayne... Shipping would have been way cheaper but it was a good drive 🙂

Any investment in this area will be painted as subsidising fossil fuels. The real problems we face are ideological. There are many waste to energy schemes overseas and we ought to produce enough waste to make it work. We have terrain just crying out for more dams. Sadly the focus is on planting pine trees on the worlds most efficient farms, and importing a mix of very expensive new and half worn out 2nd hand electric cars. The Minister responsible for energy spoke of building 4.5 wind farms per year, this has proven to be all talk. Plans to upgrade the distribution network must be a state secret, because so little is talked about it. And still we aren't allowed to say the "n" word.

The system UI is very easy to use in Japanese. But you can get it converted to English, was around $600 when I looked for our GS and I never got around to it. Even in Japanese it's better than early iDrive 😁

Learn Japanese? 😉

Given I got similar parts for my car a couple of years ago I suspect these parts will easily be available from BMW. I got the coupe door seals and top window ledge moldings for a 1992 E36 - they had to manufacture them and it took 3 months but I still got the factory original parts. Yours are for a much newer car and should be easy to get by comparison. Given the age of my car and the fact they had to do a specific manufacturing run to make the parts + ship to NZ the cost was actually pretty darn reasonable.

Done, gone-burgers a week or so ago. The bits are still sitting on the drive next to where I park my car. Rubbish day tomorrow so I night pick them up and put them in the bin to go out... Actually, I hope you don't mean the car ?? 😉

I can't resist. Right.... a 32 year old car with 111k kms on it.... I'm sure it's been driving in the winter..... NOT! Also, it's very, very cold in Alberta, so cold they don't use salt on the roads, just sand, so even if it was driven it hasn't been exposed to salt.

I wouldnt touch BM workshop personally, had too many issues. Basic sh*t being butchered a few times there. Id totally recommend http://www.pandsauto.co.nz/ - P&S autos know 130s well now, they apparently look after me and Matts cars and I have zippo complaints. (also one of the few places Id go for an alignment... they know their sh*t). I also wouldnt bother with mechanical warranty on a 130, there isn't much that's particularly expensive to go wrong, provide you dont start with a lemon that has something like chewed out ledge seals.

All good @Angelo - the only price to pay for our advice is to share your journey with us if you do proceed to purchase. You'll probably need more advice after you purchase than before! (In a good way). I'd have no problems recommending BM Workshop, they know their stuff and even better if they can facilitate a warranty for you. If they're local to you and you have a good experience then building a long term relationship with them will pay you back many times over. The "aero" rear spoiler on that one is a bit of a bonus, most don't come with them and they vastly improve the look of the rear end. (Makes note to self to get off arse and get mine sorted.)

M3AN - you are a true gem ! Thanking you very muchly ..... totally appreciated.

1985 e30 coupe.... 9k.

Or better yet. https://www.caraudioworkshop.co.nz/lexus-conversions

Id send it to Auckland for Kayne to sort

The electric range jumps up on the G20 330e due to the later generation of battery pack, real world I’m getting 45kms in stop start around town driving. In another thread I mentioned I did a long trip - Akl to Napier - in the holidays, total of 415kms of which 75 was electric (not fully charged at the start only about 28km range) and average of 5.9ltr/100kms. Wasn’t an economy run either.

EU figures from 2019 claim that the transport sector contributes 30% of the total CO2 emissions. In that sector 72% is attributable to all forms of road transport. Cars account for 60% of the road transport emissions. So when looking at the big picture, cars are responsible for 60% of 72% of 30% of CO2 production.... FARKKKKK !!!!!! That's awful !!!!! lets take the big stick to road transport and force them to reduce emissions Let's force everyone into expensive battery powered cars But wait... 60% of 72% is 43% and 30% of 43% is 13% so cars are only producing 13% of CO2 emissions in the EU. That's not good, but why not do something about the evil bastards that produce the other 87% of CO2 emissions ?? Hey what do you do if you are a politician ?? Be like trump and kick the sh*t out of the little guys while turning a blind eye to your rich pals. Choose the easy options, ignore science and obfuscate hard. QED. Now, any more questions ? Cheers...

Parts #7 (and possibly #8)? https://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=VA92-EUR-07-2008-E90-BMW-M3&diagId=51_5740 You'd probably only get them from BMW, and the cover (#7) will need to be painted.

all these ideas are grand, but it requires a "big" government that is not beholden to boards of publicly traded companies, nor can it operate like one. the notion that everything must be done for profit has resulted in the mire we find ourselves in.

Hi @Angelo! There are several common oil leak locations, main ones being sump (as you said), oil filter housing, and valve cover gasket. They're all easy enough to do but a tad labour intensive, particularly the valve cover gasket, which can require the whole valve cover to be replaced if it's the later plastic one and it has gone brittle. Other common failure points as they get older are water pump and starter motor, plus coil packs can start to fail but they're cheap and easy to replace. Ideally you can find one that has some history of at least some of these items being addressed. Otherwise, they don't all happen at once but just be prepared. Plus as Dave said, there's lots of general wear and tear items that need replacing as they age, just like any car. For reference on the sump gasket, I had mine replace at East Auckland BMW (main dealer) and they charged something like $750-800ish (I can't remember exactly). From my experience with BM Workshop, I wouldn't necessarily expect them to be cheaper...

Hey guys! Abit of a newbie and looking to purchase my first bimmer and found this perfect listing (for me atleast) although i only have a budget of around 7.5k would you think this seller can decrease the price down? also as you can see closely they have included invoices and can be seen how much they ahve spent on repairs/fix biggest cost i've seen around $2k and i believe they factored it in the price hence sitting close to $9 grand. i guess my main question here is, if bring this car over to BM Workshop (AKL) to do Pre-Purchase inspection check, i'd rather pay them for any extra maintenance or any soon repairs that needs to be sorted. soo if there are any repairs to be done to the car hopefully soon, it will work out under/around $9k including repairs/replacements only if i can get this car below $8k I heard from my mate "expect the oil pan gasket to possibly be starting to leak" may cost alot to as it is labour extensive and may cost around $800-$1800 nzd .. I could factor that in the price if the seller is willing to sell it beyond their marketed price. https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/130i/listing/3437441195 Apologies for my long yarn, just a keen enthusiast looking to get their first bimmer. btw side note, also was looking into this car and seems like a good price if i can offer him around 6.5k but just worried about its age (167km) as if i wanting to keep it for another 2-3 years. https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/130i/listing/3463560428 Thank you in advance!

I like your use of "" around investment. All classic cars are speculation. Some have reasonable odds, but it's still not an asset, nor is it one that produces a return during ownership. Much as I love my e30, I'd not mention it as an asset in any statement of position. It's clearly a liability, soaking up coin for storage and maintenance [edit: and insurance] It's a Hobby - the kind of dirty secret the Govt currently has our bankers running around digging up the dirt on. "what's this $200 worth of lube every six months? Kinky."

Wow, more than two years since my last post… *trigger warning - children/babies & medical stuff* A few weeks after my last post my son fell extremely ill. After several long hospital stays he was diagnosed with post transplant lymphoproliferative disorder, in his case caused by the Epstein-Barr virus. At his sickest there were 16 million copies of the virus per millilitre of his blood. He thankfully completed a course of Rituximab (kinda like a chemo drug that wipes out all the T cells in your immune system). By August he was home, and after a couple of blips he has been largely okay since. If things stay good for another few years his doctors will declare victory over the PTLD. In September of 2020 we found out my wife was pregnant with #2! Our second son was born in April 2021 at 32 weeks, following a rough pregnancy. He spent 5 weeks in NICU before joining us at home. 4 days later he was rushed to Starship with respiratory issues. He got a tracheostomy about a week later (which has been amazing) and then spent 47 long days in PICU battling infections and myriad issues that couldn’t all be tied back together. He finally made it up to the ward, and then a few days later started having seizures. Over the course of a few days we watched our little man lose all ability to move, turn his head, hear, and interact with us. Since then it’s been a long slow journey of improvement for him. After a couple of weeks he started looking at things, and us, again, another few weeks later he started responding to sound again, by the time we got him home at the end of September he could turn, but not support, his head. Another 8 weeks later and he could fairly well hold his head up, and today I took a photo of him sitting, propped up, in his hospital cot (he’s been in this week fighting a nasty virus) playing with a toy. The teams at Starship have been incredible. The head consultants from a bunch of different teams have been heavily involved in my son’s care, and their skill and the wonders of modern medicine have been life-saving for both of my children. I’m forever indebted to them, our public healthcare system, and, by extension, taxpayers of New Zealand. Wow. That was cathartic to write out. Not very on-topic, but cathartic. Thus concludes the explanation of why it’s been two years since my last post… I only drove the M3 a couple of times in 2021. For most of the year I wasn’t even sure if I was going to keep it (hard to make plans or think about what’s fun when you’re constantly in crisis mode). But the last few months as things have trended towards our “new normality” I’ve been enjoying driving the car on occasion and making some more plans for it. A couple of days ago I ordered a new OE steering wheel. The current wheel is quite badly cracked along the top, and the paddles and trim are in very poor condition. I looked at options like getting my current wheel rewrapped and buying new trim, etc. but for what that was going to cost it made more sense to order a brand new wheel. I found one for a good price, and, importantly, cheap shipping and pulled the trigger. It’s coming snail mail (hence the cheapness) so, given the current state of global logistics it should arrive sometime between the beginning of April and the end of time. I have a bunch of other items I want to get as well, but they’re all significantly cheaper, so I figured it was best to buy the expensive thing first, so I don’t keep putting it off! I also have a couple of little projects in mind to keep me busy as well so will hopefully be posting those up here soon! Matt