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Hahaha... did that in the E39 years ago, with a Ranger behind me... At a roundabout, I changed down to second in preparation for the exit, but didn't slow down, took the roundabout at 55km/h and booted it as I exited (only a 525i though!)... Ranger tried to follow... he mounted the footpath behind me as I blitzed off into the 80 zone 🤣 He kept some distance after😋

Good E30 325i owner fap material - amazing to see it keep up with a 340i (tyres make such a difference).

there is a perfectly good wall behind that dining table with an unnecessary picture frame, surely the BMW logo could be hung there.. silly silly

under-priced! surely worth a minimum of $30k.

If somebody could sell me their touring, that'd be great

@Jacko Jeez. That car looks so cool. Love it!

I'll add this to the list of a '71 2002 Tii, an '87 M535i with new crate engine and dogleg box in excellent condition, another '87 M535i, an E39, an E60 540, a 1986 E28 528i from the UK with all the options and an E12 and probably other models of BMW things that I will regret getting rid of at some point all for the want of a 7 car garage 🙂

Hit me up if you want to code the lcm

I've got the caravan set up and ready to go... soyou have somewhere to sleep (again) now

Its listed wrong on their website, fits the aero spoiler fine, its on my pre lci

Hi Sam @Sammo, taking advantage of free/discounted selling on TradeMe today and seeing if I can get a reasonable offer on this and then refocus on pursuing a manual later in the year. Also going to be selling the GP after April-May too, as three cars and two garage spots makes for a dirty Golf. Starting the process of disappointment early lol 😂 @adro mentioned he maybe selling his at year end perhaps which could be a good replacement down the line, or something like that, lots of water to go under bridges of course.

I'll take it, I can make it fit in my man cave !

So, latest WOF was a bit of a disaster, LCM decided to pick that day to sh1t itself so failed on about 8 lights not working and cracked rear subframe bushes, which I have bought but apparently having them in boxes in the boot isn't good enough!! I have a spare LCM lying around ( I mean, who doesn't) so I just have to get it coded and thats done, then fit the subframe bushes. Oddly they put the red stamp on the checksheet about not painting rust repairs until they are inspected but didn't fail it on any rust! On a more positive note repaired ABS module is now in the car and working perfectly! The old girl gives and the old girl takes away....

M5 Low/Mid 20's is my guess...

Utes are so ubiquitous now it appears all the cocks have left their Audis for something higher riding ("command position") and more tax friendly.

Not specifically utes but tailgaters in general - Turn a tight corner at the or near the speed limit without braking and continue. They will always drop their balls, disappear well back and get mad they their pos couldn't do that same. Then its usually speeding just to get back to tailgating you. Always gets a laugh out of me.

I do have a bit of hate for the Ute down these ways. Every 2nd vehicle is a Ute here. They are the fastest, best handling and most capable vehicle in the world. We call it Ranger Danger. Because you just know the one sitting 2m off your bumper in a school zone is going to pass you in a dangerous spot using all of their 1500hp and F1esk handling. It's funny because it is the behaviour that BMW drivers usually get blamed for.

Every UTE IMO. Most are incredibly impracticable too. Builder with all his tools in the back seat because he doesn't have a hard top for the tray and his tools can/will be stolen.. Seems to be the average punters dream vehicle at the moment. The Ford Ranger. 70K+ worth of yuck.

So a fair bit of progress to report lately, mainly due to having caught covid and being in isolation downstairs with the rest of the family upstairs. Lucky for me the garage is conveniently located ... downstairs Also very lucky I've had a mild case and that it looks like we've managed to keep me from infecting other family members. So essentially all of the Nissan power wiring is complete in the engine bay now along with sensor wiring needed to power up the engine (electrically speaking only). Thats things like the gas pedal, fuel tank temp sensor, OBD2 connector, neutral switch etc. While in isolation I've also managed to get my Arduino happy with 2x CAN bus shields attached so I can pull from Nissan land and push to BMW land ultimately. Now that there is power on the engine I've also been able to start capturing CAN messages from the engine ECU in preparation for coding up the translation. Just today I found an awesome resource with all of the PID's and byte representations from a 370Z so that will be a massive help. Also have been progressing the transmission mount by 3D printing some mockups and checking clearances etc. Waiting for a new hotend for my printer to try and get the ASA filament printing properly (more temperature needed i suspect). I've constructed a thermostat controlled 'hot box' for the printer also to try and solve warping issues using ASA. Its a little on the sketchy side so will be a 'print while we are home' only solution. Onto the pics ...

The news this morning has had me looking at frugal diesels for longer trips. I have access to a Smart Fortwo for around town activities which it handles superbly. However, on the open road you do feel a bit vulnerable in a Smart car, especially with the quality bumpy roads which make it hop and shift around the road like a grass hopper. Wish I had bought the manual 320D touring that was for sale a few weeks ago! Can't seem to find many decent modern(ish) manual diesels for under $7K. Have noticed the price of hybrids and electric cars going up too. I remember when BMW i3s could be had for under $30K. Now the cheapest is a little over $30K... I'm about to buy a battery charger because I can see my 540i getting minimal use this year. Last year it wouldn't sit for more than two weeks ever, and was usually driven a couple times a week (as it is stored away in a garage away from my house so I would swap cars and keep it for the weekend). I did over 5000km in it which I thought was pretty solid considering the lockdowns and what not. I also wonder what ramifications of the petrol prices will be seen in the car market. My guess is that really desirable and rare stuff (i.e manual 911s, e39 M5s etc) will remain at their current prices or continue to appreciate, but more common stuff like W204 C63s which had been regularly seen doing daily duties in the past, will soon flood the market as people can't afford to run them, and don't see the value in having them as a weekend toy. I think people may also think twice about buying a weekend car as they struggle to pay for fuel in their daily drivers. Although on that vein of thought; desirable weekend toys like M3s etc. may become more desirable as more people switch to super mundane daily drivers like Leafs etc and subsequently crave a really special and engaging machine for the weekends. In which case your average daily driver that isn't particularly fuel efficient will potentially be worthless. Only time will tell though! Without getting too political it doesn't take a genius to understand that minimum wage rising is just going to boost inflation further. Costs of production will increase for firms that are already on their knees, and of course that extra cost will be largely passed onto the consumer. It does not take a genius to interpret that minimum wage rising is going to hurt low income earners more than benefit them! I would not be surprised if we have protests very soon pertaining to the cost of necessities because it genuinely is out of control. Let's just say I'm counting down the days until the next election.

The cost of fuel at the pump has increased dramatically over the last few months. There was the usual big money-grabbing increase before Christmas, sustained through New Year, and a slight drop in early January. Since then though, it's been an inexorable increase. 1c/litre a day looked to be an average at one point. Lots of the usual noise about how bad the NZ govt is at managing this, and the tax they're taking. Yes - it's a significant contributor, but if the fuel companies didn't increase price, the govt percentage wouldn't compound the problem. I've said elsewhere that a cap on govt taxation would be a way that the public can be helped. Take a time and price - let's say $2.50 per litre - and once the price of fuel reaches that, the government doesn't take any further tax. However, that doesn't address any transparency issues that the public may have regarding what the oil companies are making vs govt taxation. A better way would be a fixed amount. Without going through all the tax take calculations, let's say the govt takes $1.50 tax on a litre of fuel. A huge amount of money to be sure, but we could expect the govt to be able to say that 30c is spent on x, 27c on y, 2.6c goes towards wrestling mats for one-legged black lesbian mothers of three or more children, 40c goes towards... whatever. Fix that figure. Any change in fuel price is purely and simply at the behest of the oil companies, and is clearly calculable and obvious. It's also far, far simpler for the govt, the filling stations, and so on. It can 'hide' any cents/dollars per barrel taxation, but the public won't care about that. They'd have a clear view of the tax take. Refineries... Lots of fuss and blame being laid at the govt feet for the closure of Marsden Point, a privately owned entity. All the fuss about that, and the offshore barges - all private owned/used. No govt involvement. Should there be? Maybe. Australia is nearly 30x the size of NZ, and has 4 refineries for the entire country. From an Oz standpoint, an area the size of NZ doesn't warrant consideration, and certainly not it's own refinery. Finally... Profit. Oil companies are raising prices at a time when they are making ever-increasing profits. Oil companies are also taking subsidies from governmental institutions... And they're not paying a 'reasonable' amount of tax on the profits they are making - lots of offshore obfuscation around ownership and finance. Clever move by the petrol stations. Announce a price increase, empty the filling station tanks so they can fill right up while they can still get fuel relatively cheaply, and then hike the price up to what the new barrel cost is. There's a LOT going on in this area. A lot of behind-the-scenes long-term planning, all the way down to individual and corporate profiteering with taxation somewhere in the middle. It's incredibly complex.

Made up a little plate to fit my three rivnuts to mount the fuse and relay box ... worked a treat and saved having to buy an expensive tool. Credit to @M3AN for the initial inspiration in the tools for hire thread Got the box mounted up all good and have started terminating wires into it !! Once this is done I can jig up some temporary power and validate I've not stuffed up anything fundamental.