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To take a bigger pircure view, this is the natural and sadly predictable progression of the optimal economic strategy in late stage capitalism. Everything is moving towards a subscription model instead of just selling products, whether overtly or inadvertently. Apple and such were notoriously blatant and shameless with implementing it at first, but now all industries seem to be moving in that direction, wherever they can. If you're not pushing planned obsolescence into the design of your products, it hurts your business in the long run. All sorts of stupid sh*t that does not need to be a subscription service, now is. To stick to BMW-related examples, even something like the Carly app. I was looking into it for my E46 to have some powerful coding features without having to resort to specialist software on a laptop and such, but you can't just buy it and be done with it, instead it's a yearly subscription. Why? There's nothing you're going to develop any further when it comes to working with my 20 year old car, so how is a subscription fee justified on something that isn't going to be improved upon from its current form? Can't remember the finer details of it anymore but I often recall the example of some Swedish military equipment company that produced some sort of armoured people mover. The product was good, the sales went really well, they took all the profits and reinvested them into R&D and improved the product even further. When they rolled out 2.0, they could not get any repeat customers because the original product was so good, so reliable that it didn't break and did not need replacing, so the company ended up going bankrupt. Out economic system just does not reward building things to last anymore. I'd actually argue that it never has, it's just gotten to a point of very high market saturation in most consumer products that it's become blatantly obvious. You can't even blame the companies themselves, these are the incentives baked into the core of the economy. It literally incentivises the inefficient use of resources. Economic efficiency prioritised over technological efficiency when it should be the opposite. It's utterly perverse and quite frankly disgusting. And then were ever-increasingly bombarded with the notion of 'sustainability' at every step, when quite frankly, any kind of notion of sustainability within the framework of an economy fully dependent on cyclical consumption is nothing more than a marketing slogan or an empty platitude. Being sustainable means consuming less, and we can't have that in an economic system hopelessly addicted to infinite growth. How that is supposed to be compatible with life on a finite planet I'll never know. The only way I see myself coping with it all mentally is to just care less and less. Sorry if that's a bit doom and gloom, I've kept myself up at night a few too many times mulling over this topic lately. To get back to cars, this sh*t is the reason I'm rebuilding my E46 almost from the ground up, and I honestly don't see myself ever buying a car much newer than that. At least not an ICE vehicle anyway.

New Zealand new, factory manual 325i in Bronzit Beige. 4-door. 1988 pre-facelift. Complete car, rust in the typical areas. On lowered springs, have a set of factory springs. Starts first time, runs well and brakes work. Registration is on hold and last WoF expired 18/08/2018. 248,380 kilometres, drives well but due for a replacement cambelt (previously done on 16/03/2009 at 225,800 kilometres) and service. Service history from new until 26/05/2010 at 238,676 kilometres. My partner and I have recently had a baby, I’ve had some health issues and we’ve been renovating our first home. I’ve lost my storage and the E30 fund has gone on the house. Reluctant sale, but genuine reasons for it. Good project for someone with the time for it. Car is located on the North Shore, Auckland. You can contact me on 0275317041 for more information. $6,000

I feel this is the perfect time to temper the road rage with some soothing commentary from Ogmios and his school of zen motoring

Changed out the Biarritz trans wiring loom over the weekend, in addition to a new genuine filter, gasket, and Penrite ATF FS fluid (LT71141 compatible) Went on a Club run up highway 22 yesterday and can report transmission is happy, as is the rest of the car, and owner

This thread makes me REALLY like sedans

Ahh bugger, I just looked it up and E46 coding is on the road map for it though (apparently some things work - join beta program on google play store). It gets regular updates and devs still very active

+9000 Grab yourself Bimmergeeks protools by the way, its like Carly, but good, and a one off purchase.

Good looking car 👍

My Ebay service inspection reset light arrived - so much nicer to see the dashboard light up green instead of red when I start and have no lights on. Have not seen my intermittent ABS light for a few days either, perhaps the E30 God's will smile on me. I have been feeling a faint stutter under steady light load at 2100-2200rpm at times but I suspect (hoping) that may have been related to a half tank of Gull 10% Ethanol fuel I put in without thinking that made the car run like a bag of dicks for a few days. Fresh tank of Mobil today so hopefully sorts itself out before I go hunting for vacuum leaks (idle is fine).

Welcome, lovely car. Pics, anywhere that you have had a little drive to get to aka an adventure.

After almost 3 months, 2 windscreens, a windscreen moulding, a flooded workshop, another failed WOF, and a pair of new shocks, my 540i finally has a fresh WOF. My streak of never passing a WOF first try with this car continues 🤣 Took her out for a little drive to celebrate.

I was thinking it was much less scary viewing on a screen than it would be from underneath a vehicle...

Close but no prize. Armed police go about their daily duties with a holstered gun on their utility belt. That way they are able to defend themselves when ambushed by armed thugs. Cheers...

Make me an (e30 market) offer, you too can be timely. It's the next big thing in e30 accessorising - rarer than a cluster with a tacho...

I've managed to stay out of this so far, but dipping in here to point out that this is factually incorrect. All police vehicles have firearms in the lockbox in the boot. Officers can access these if needed.

Serious value here!

https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/125194882/i-can-still-get-to-you-bank-payment-references-used-to-send-thousands-of-abusive-messages

I got a $150 ticket from AT for travelling in a bus lane, on an empty road, on a Sunday FFS. I'm a bus user, I appreciate the intention of bus lanes and wouldn't have used that lane if a) I'd realised it was active on a Sunday when there was no traffic, and b) I wasn't trying to be a good boy by using the leftmost available lane. The photos they sent, which covered about 200m, show my vehicle as the only one on the road in either direction. SMH. AT didn't care but told me I didn't have to pay until the fine had been transferred to the debt collectors and as long as I paid upon the first notice from them there would be no extra charge. So I set a reminder after receiving that letter and waited until the last day. I was not complimentary to AT in the reference field for the transfer (not that it was likely to be seen).

Got a speeding ticket on from a Sunday morning country drive a few weeks ago - 77km/h in a 60km/h somewhere in the sticks out Riverhead Coatsville - I can't recall it at all but I'm guessing it was an 'open' country road where a section dropped from 100 to 60 and they put a camera right there and I was still slowing down / missed it. Technically my bad I guess but give a guy a break? Fortunately for the coffers I'm a good boy, not a gang member and I will studiously pay (after my reminder notice).

WOF failed on control and tension arms. Quoted $3100 to replace haha. Going to order from ECS or FCP tonight for $800 landed. Cars eh.

TO be fair, i commend them on driving correctly regarding the speed. A space saver is speed limited to 80kph.

Got my Whanganuis and Whangareis mixed up. 🥴 20 years or so ago now, but we were able to buy every part for a W123-series Mercedes (end of production in 1986) from the dealer. Including a bodyshell (which we were offered at a MASSIVE discount! Wish we'd bought it...) I know that parts for the Porsche 928 are now NLA from Porsche, and that there are no official plans to reproduce them. Third party only. Manufacturers can't support vehicles indefinitely, but it seems that the need for that support is happening sooner. Stuff just seems to wear out much, much faster than it used to. Built in obsolescence?

A bit south of Auckland actually. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/whanganui-chronicle/news/toyota-corolla-serviced-in-whanganui-surpasses-two-million-kilometres/65OLV5QLKCI5T3Y3UQEJWWNX74/

Three x E36 M3 Compacts

I'm scrolling ... hanging out for those after pics

I assumed it was a resonator of some kind, but it could have been a cat/ dpf of some kind ( if old diesels had cats?) Its not a major problem as its just a couple of quite rusty bolts to the turbo, what could go wrong?

Updated pics.

Looks like Euroconnex will be having a group buy of Karbonius E46 boot lids in our winter.

A mate bought an Italian scooter end of ‘14, did 5000kms on it. Stopped Nov last year, ignition coil had died according to the dealer who had sold and serviced it. “Can’t get those anymore, it’s scrap, come and get it from our workshop.”

Back when I used to work in the automotive supply chain I was amazed that in many countries the time period a vehicle had to be supported by law was very short. 7 years from end of production was about par and even as low as five years was common. Now, not all companies work to that legal definition, but some definately do. Imagine going and asking for a part for your five and a half year old car and being told “sorry, we don’t supply that anymore, and there’s no alternative”! This has probably worked it’s way through to the design parameters for various components, with refurbishment and/or replacement out of the question. Throw-away society now.