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Spotted this today and had to laugh. Not sure what you are going to tow with your Cayman!

Yes, it will need to be repaired. I have an album of photographs I can link to those interested. Couple of spots in the floor, one on the roof and the driver’s side a-pillar. There was rust in the rear where the drains come out, but I cut this out and treated it ready to weld in new steel. That’s about as far as I got before I got sick. Good project for someone that knows what they’re doing, but if you can’t do it yourself, I got a range of quotes from mechanics and panelbeaters to do the work once it became apparent I wasn’t going to be able to do it myself, from $2-5k to get her to WoF standard. NZ new, factory manual 325i on the road for $7500-10500 in today’s market seems reasonable to me. I’ve had a look at / driven plenty at that price that were just as rusty, but covered with bog. I bought this because there are no nasty surprises like that. Nothing hidden. I have the carpet but it’s not fitted so you can see everywhere that would usually cover. Interior can be pulled out in no time for a closer look too. Definitely needs work, but not hopeless so I’d rather keep her in one piece. Save them all 👊🏼 Cheers.

If the E46 was made today...

Sharks, poisonous snakes, poisonous spiders, ridiculous heat… or did you mean with the 130i..? Good luck with the move, I hope it works out well for you.

A bike rack, maybe

Having a black car is a pain at the best of times and I have had too many of them. But my current has the additional issue of road rash everywhere under the half way line as everything gets picked up and smashed all over the side of the car with parts of the car in the line of fire looking grey, it's that bad. It has annoyed me for quite some time as it looks nasty up close or in full daylight. So I thought I would give a black car polish a try and purchased Turtle Wax Hybrid Solutions Ceramic Black Liquid Polish. I gave it a go today and damn, the results are fantastic. You can almost forget the rash is there anymore! Results speak for themselves but additional benefits over amazing rash coverage: Easy to moderate effort to apply and remove. Cheap. Cost me $20 as it was on special, and I got a voucher. Good slickness. Good shine and depth. Doesn't dust white or leave white residue like a lot of other polishes, which is super annoying on a black car. Can be used on black plastic trim, it restored my mirror arms to black from the grey they were. Will see how long it holds up and I might go over it with Meguiars ceramic wax one day, or I might just use this alone, or team it with the Turtle spray wax. There's probably better products for depth and slickness but for what it has achieved in my scenario it gets a solid A. I'd recommend to anyone with a black car.

PM'd.

@Contrails make sure waterpump and thermostat are done. engines are sound otherwise albeit a bit leaky

G’day, I am thinking of getting a high kms manual 130i - https://www.carsales.com.au/cars/details/2006-bmw-1-series-130i-sport-e87-manual/SSE-AD-12464183 Yes I am moving to Perth. It will be my daily. Any tips as to what things should I watch out for?

Another one I just discovered today. More aimed at the design aspect, quite a few cool videos on Bimmers in there. Dude analyses and redesigns some classics and a few modern models and such, been binging on it all day. The Sketch Monkey If you ever wondered what an E39 M5 Coupe would look like for example..

There's an E30 316i on TM at the moment proudly sporting a tow bar. Probably pretty handy if the dog has a greasy stick stuck somewhere.

Needing a bunch of parts for my second gen (e28 chassis) sixer bumpers/boot lid among other anything out there?

Nice. Tempted to try the black spray wax, but it's a bit pricey. Also I think it's possible that adding another coating on top of the black wax might actually pull some of it off. I did a Meguiars hybrid ceramic pass after a Turtle pass and some of the black was coming off i think. May just need to be careful which products you layer. Also bought a SCA DA polisher and that made applying the stuff mucher easier.

And repeat, then probably go to the red light district and top it off with a quick smoke..... WTF Netherlands, you crazy.

Car has been very stable after last round of maintenance. a great trip to tokaanu for the BMW car club annual meet up at Braxmere. Aside for a stone that was lodged in the back of the rotor hat for half the trip all was performing perfectly. Off up North this week for the Autumn fling again with the BMW car club. 3 days of northland B road bliss. In project news I’m on the hunt for a single style 66 front wheel.

My F31 330D I went from Bridgestone to Continental, to Michelin PS2s, and definitely found the Michelins better from a comfort point of view. My M340D Touring arrived with Bridgestones, which aren’t great, although the car is much better than the F31. I’m awaiting an ETA on PS5s, and if the launch in NZ is too far away, I’ll run with PS4s. As others have mentioned; if it’s really an issue, try non-RFTs. The difference isn’t that great these days as it was when they first came out, but it may be worth trying. Ultimately; it could be worse - it could be an X3M Competition! I test drove one and kept pushing the comfort button, but it was already in ‘comfort’, which really was a misnomer. They are AWFUL. It has a hard no from me about 2min into the drive. BMW really need to take a leaf from Porsche’s book on how to make a car handle, and still ride amazingly.

I can't see them going back to pre covid values, the extra tax that's going to hit petrol/diesel vehicle so they can hand out the refund for buying EV's is going to reduce the number of vehicles coming in and increase the costs, so used vehicle prices will stay high. Dealers are already scrambling trying to get cars already here registered by the due date. It's surprising the increase in prices on some models almost 80 - 90% in some cases.

For cars - Vice grip garage (similar to what Roadkill used to do). No desire to own any old american stuff, but i like the get it running and drive it 100's of k's back home home format.

Worth a watch ...