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A number of our neighbours got together and contacted the police about cars speeding down our road a couple of months back. The police responded by placing a traffic car at the bottom of the road with a speed gun (see it does work, you don’t need to be a dick and report non-existent weapons). One of the first people caught was my Mrs! 🤬 All of my dealings with the NZ police have been positive, from both sides of the (of)fence as well. Try the U.K. if you want an over-stretched force that cannot police lower level crimes.

@Sammo we have also been considering swapping out dads F20 116i for a F31 320i or 320d wagon but at around 20k it seems like a bit much for what is now a 10 year old car. I think the prices will drop further to around 15k. I have seen some quick sales around 16-18k but plenty still being listed for 20-25k. All of them seem to be around 100k kms so expect a lot of gasket leaks and potentially annoying/costly repairs on top of the purchase price. I would be happier to find one with 130+kms and more work done but nothing much available on the market. Plenty of things to go wrong in cooling system, suspension, bushes, etc in typical BMW fashion. Timing chain issues are definitely something to keep in mind with both the petrol and diesel engines on these so service history and listening to the engine sound will be very key to finding one that is hopefully not going to cause drama. Frequent oil changes are a must. The petrol version will be fine but the diesel with much higher torque would be nice. I think if doing short trips then petrol probably the safer option, diesel if more open road long distance driving which will make up for the RUC too. Electric steering is fine IMO. It doesnt offer the same feedback as traditional steering but for what it is, it is easy to drive, and in sport mode offers slightly more weighted feeling which is good enough for a 2L wagon. Im a big fan of the F25 X3 but imo must be M Sport otherwise it wobbles around like a boat on corners. Decent prices on these but exactly the same issues as above. Just comes down to preference on wagon/suv. (you should have convinced the wife to buy my M135, I basically had to give it away 😢)

They are solid. certainly better than that Audi she has at the moment 😜 PFL has N47 engine - some stories of timing chain problems so get one with reasonable history. factory intervals are 2 yrs / 33k km - a bit longer than I'm comfortable with. The Jap import ones are all RWD, NZ new 320d's all Xdrive so potentially issues with transfer box around that mileage. Japanese ones virtually all have alcantara interior and rear PDC only so if you want leather it would need to be NZ new or ex-UK. X3 is also sound but worse fuel economy and not as nice to drive. The F3x platform is markedly better for ride quality than the E9x but steering feel is average at best

Through some kind of miracle I’ve managed to convince the wife to offload her Audi A5 for a wagon. Thinking an Msport F31 320d as a great all-rounder? Most do seem to have 100-120kms - a little wear and tear isn’t a biggie as she does not tend to pamper her cars like I do 😂 Any red flags or tips with these? I know they won’t go and sound like a 335i but I imagine the 8 speed and the low down torque will make for very solid real world performance. Does a similar X3 offer anything aside from weight and complexity? Sadly it has to be black 😑

Why can you pick up a pre LCI F01 730D for less money than the equivalent 530D ? It can't just be because the bleeding edge electronics and gadgets go wrong thanks to planned obsolescence surely? On paper (where everything makes sense) an F01 with under 100,000kms and a diesel looks like quite a thing, they appear to be from the first modern generation where BMW started to get things together on the reliability front. Is this a case of previous generations set the assumed poor reliability trend and getting out of that perceived funk doesn't come easily? I'm sure that a fully spec'd to the hilt limo variant has 100x more gizmos that could go wrong, but a fairly standard spec seems to be like an interesting proposition for anyone wanting a big barge that runs on chip fat. The engine is the same as that of the 5 series, with a ZF auto behind it (please correct if I'm wrong), I-Drive is the same, there is a lot of cross over but the 5 has a higher asking price than the 7 ? No, I'm not trying to talk myself into buying a 730D. Just interested to know what I'm missing in the man maths.

On the topic of the police, I just got pulled over randomly and out of the blue about 20 minutes ago. Was not speeding so was curious as to why they had stopped me. Two officers got out, one went to the passenger side of my car, the other to the driver's side. I got asked for my license (as per usual), and I gave it to them. It was then photographed and handed back to me. (didn't seem to have been put through any system check etc) Was expecting the obligatory "any alcohol tonight", but the driver's side officer simply said "drive safe" and then they both quickly walked back to their car before I could even ask why I had been stopped. Ummm wtf..... Surely if it was a "random" check (which my 540i seems to get me occasionally) they would have to run my license through their system, check for alcohol etc. Even more puzzling is I was in my Peugeot 207 GTI which just generally blends in. Not even sure if its a legal stop because even for a license check they would at least run it through the system to check for demerits, disqualifications etc. And usually these random checks use checking for alcohol as the reason for the stop. And then to have a police officer either side of my Peugeot hatchback.... its not like its some dodgey blacked out slammed Commodore. Just seemed a bit suss... Anyone else had this happen?

@Breaker Thanks for the input, love your car and that plate! If I was looking at a daily these seem to tick boxes all over the place. After I started this thread I went out and bought some well deserved Pizza and dropped into the local Bottle'O, parked out front was a F01 730D M Sport - and it's for sale.....I laughed my ass off, was so tempted to chat to the owner. In the flesh they have some presence wow.

Always been the case. I paid $2500 for our 1989 Mercedes 500SE. That was $200000 in 1989. In the UK, most new cars could lose up to 40% of the screen sticker price just by driving off the forecourt.

Having had a F10 M5 and now an F01 750i, the seven is bigger but not overly so but has more presence, same chassis even. Definitely quieter and a more refined ride but we’ll balanced and can cut corners way better then you would think, but really they aren’t hugely different. I prefer the look of the 7 over the 5 when it’s in mSport SWB guise and particularly in LCI. You get a lot more bang for your buck in the 7, depreciation is definitely your friend buying second hand. Seats are way better (M5 excluded) Harmen Karden system is amazing!

What? I took the name from somebody who claimed M cars were all no good as they had been abused by "young thrash drivers", and therefore his base spec 330i was a better car and worth moonbeams. A view almost as ignorant as advocating lying to police. The ends do not justify the M3ANs.

Oh, the irony.

Yeah I'm waiting on tardme to have another free sellers day and I'll list it then. I'm loathe to pay their standard listing fees.

*555 does actually work if the driving is dangerous. I *555'd what im sure was a drunk driver who was all over the road, and sure enough they got flagged down by a cop car that was waiting for them further up the road.

Yes, but in Belgium where they have guns. We had a loose rear jack stand on a trailer that was trailing on the road and sparking. Porsche 911 Targa, they moved up both sides of the Transit tow vehicle and banged on both doors at the same time. We would have been scared if we hadn't just had an awful channel crossing. They got us out of the van, motioned us to follow them and pointed out the loose jack. Big deal, but they weren't being friendly... Went on to lose 2 out of 4 trailer tyres on that trip and hoon down the Eifel mountains in the fog. Only scary when we drove back up in daylight...

$80 I believe, but should be $54 if you buy between late April and late July. The steering is very heavy in sport. I believe you can adjust this

@balancerider haha - its a low bar but yes, a quick search does not reveal too many issues with these. No issue with the 2WD / Alcantara, doubt electric steering will be an issue for her / when I pootle in it - presume it has variable weight / settings. Edit: FFS RUC is $76 per 1000km? Car would do 15k or so a year, maybe a 320i would do

I would say that applies to most luxo barges. Feature aside, the added weight and dimensions of the 7 are more a negative than a positive over the 5 to me. Unless you are in the back seat or care about passenger leg room etc then you are lugging around extra weight which generally costs you. Body parts are usually less common so harder to source too. Thinner is usually the winner. Im sure the 330D is more popular and may cost more than the 530D in the used market.

New battery, few more clicks of soft in the suspension and road trip ready...!

Gold I'll happily let them park in the drive way and setup a comfy chair for them along with a supply of tea and biscuits for an all day stake out !! Then we can half any cash payments as a side hustle woop.

I used to build/assemble drones when they where not fashionable and buying fully assembled was still inferior. However after CAA rule changes and DJI really making great products, I just repurposed my drone camera (which are actually just action cameras) to the cars. Most of the action cams can be programmed to start recording when you they get power, then power down after. I think most action cam are pretty good, my really old Xiaomi action cam is still working. Actually bought a replacement battery for it recently as I noticed old battery has a slight bulge already. Xiaomi, Mobius and SJCAM (real ones, lots of fake ones listed) are pretty good cameras most of them are at par with Go-Pro or better. I think the dedicated dashcam are sleeker in design and some have the both front and reverse cam, however you can use your action cam for other things. I have also put them on the Skyline's bumper when we did our South Island trip years ago. You may also want to use not 4k, so you can have more footage on the sd card. I only use 1080p, so I can get like 8 hour footage and select from there. I only used dashcam once for an accident (it wasn't even us), a footage of an accident. Most of the time I just hyperlapse it post-process or take cuts for from it and add them to our trip video. Low-light performance is probably a better quality to look for. All those local cameras are manufactured and designed in China. Some of the Chinese products are the best you can buy, case in point DJI.

I think its about $40 for the cheapest trademe listing. Not a huge dent when and if you sell for your asking price.

Jesus Dave. Don't do this. It feeds the police narative of increasing firearms crime which directly leads to punitive measures against licenced firearms owners, and likely will end up with someone being shot. Grow the f**k up.

When I was selling my S6 I had people arrange to collect the car multiple times. One of them even offered to pay a deposit and I stupidly trusted he was being genuine and told him we could just sort it the next day all in one go when he came to get the car. Sent him my address and he said he would text me when he was leaving the following day. Never got a text. Never showed up. Then I had people offering less than half of my already fair asking price, with one guy adamant his 2K offer was doing me a favour. Could have taken the near new intake manifold off (which looking at the receipts was 4.7K for the part), and there would be more than 2K just in that part alone. Listed the car on trademe and it sold for my asking price within 24 hours. Trademe still came with its own special set of time-wasters but way less severe than Facebook Marketplace. Only other place that might be worth a shot is a BMW Facebook group like "Strictly BMW New Zealand".

the wheels are a very clever marketing ploy. like selling a house, you leave something for the next owner to make their own - like that slightly off colour in the bathroom. it makes them want to buy so they can put their mark on it. The wheels are exactly that, though meanwhile they keep it rolling and are more worthwhile than either metrics (oh god I can't afford those tyres, that puts me off) or fourteens (oh god!). Clever stuff eh? PS - they'll sell in a flash to Commodore owners. Easy money.