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Ordering new genuine parts for your 35 year old classic car and not only are they still available, but also in stock and they arrive on your desk next day.

Let’s be honest - they’re a dime a dozen

Imagine how unremarkable that would be to drive. All the maintenance of a 530 without the benefits of being a nice car

Door trims arrived today. Been looking into more details for front door components. Looks like enough room to mount crossovers within door card which is promising. Also looking at active speaker options. Looks like F series only run one set of speaker connections to door, but it looks like there is a spare socket available on the front doors to put in two quad lock sockets and pins in. So if I run another set of speaker wires from boot location to doors I would have the option of running active front speakers. Ironically the quad lock connectors / sockets will only run .75 mm cable which at 4 meters gets a bit marginal at 60 watt RMS at 4 ohms. I’m debating this in my mind as there is also an area in the door connector that a speaker wire could run through. Front door speakers would will either be 3 or 4 ohm 100mm components rated at at least 60 rms. Compared with e46/ e39 / 38 BMWs which are wired for active 3 way speaker cables and have a decent mid bass speaker wire gauge the F80 wiring is quite underwhelming.

dont worry, summer is coming, all the hipsters will have thier wallets open again shortly.

That's worth 17 grand, right?

Saw a 2021 420i coupe this morning. I'll not pretend to be a fan of the front end treatment to begin with, but plonking a rego plate across the middle of the grille just finishes it off completely. 🤮 Not so much a concern for those inside. I'm sure it's a lovely thing to drive.

Very good condition, well-optioned, E30 coupe 325 automatic with extensive (and in parts, expensive) history offered at $15k no reserve. Well presented, detailed listing. Received no bids and no questions. I suspect this is more indicative of the true E30 market at present than the four cylinder cars, and 320i 4-doors being offered at $20k+.

VWAG can't go wrong tbf. https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/320d/listing/3673080549 https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/skoda/superb/listing/3770053502 https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/volkswagen/passat/listing/3725542822 https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/volkswagen/passat/listing/3731390197 https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/volkswagen/passat/listing/3772738853 https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/volkswagen/passat/listing/3762845153 https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/volkswagen/passat/listing/3499675454 https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/audi/a4/listing/3756942745

The earlier 3rd gen Mazda 6 diesel is not a good option. DPF blocks easily as the re-gen programming is crap, leads to oil dilution and engine explosions. A petrol one would last a lot longer. Avoid a Subaru Levorg, terrible things. Edit: the answer is Lexus CT200h.

2.0L Passat TDI Wagon or Audi A4/A6 AVANT 3.0 TDI? Don't think they have a ton of issues. My friend's father has a diesel Passat with 200,000+km, it's had no issues and he loves the fuel economy. I wonder if the savings of a super economical diesel euro will offset the more expensive maintenance of a Euro compared to a petrol Japanese equivalent. Examples: NZ New 2015 Passat TDI Wagon (80,000km) https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/volkswagen/passat/listing/3765391258 NZ New 2012 Audi A6 Avant TDI (120,000km) https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/audi/a6/listing/3768398160 --EDIT-- Another one I've just thought of, and I think they look rather swanky is a newer Mazda 6 diesel wagon. Example: NZ New 2018 Mazda 6 Wagon Diesel (60,000km) https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/mazda/6/listing/3729051182 I think they look really smart. Haven't looked into long term reliability, from memory older CX5s suffered from turbo issues, not sure if that was in diesel or petrol engines though but would be worth looking into.

CLA180/250 Is the Levorg really not a good handler? Surprising.

Petrol https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/ford/mondeo/listing/3758294339 Diesel https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/ford/mondeo/listing/3752948445 Lots of space, drive good, enough grunt and pretty sure they had sorted any gearbox issues by then, which mainly seemed to be maintenance driven.

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/523i/listing/3314731371?bof=LKijDPLK 3.5 star fuel economy, but should be less rattly than a Ractis! Or something a bit different... https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/toyota/crown/listing/3693693621?bof=LKijDPLK I hate myself for saying it, but this is probably more suitable and there seem to be plenty around https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/toyota/corolla/listing/3761413987?bof=LKijDPLK

Mine was doing this when the heater motor hedgehog resistor failed, the fan was staying on and stopping the car from sleeping, easy enough to unplug it and see if it changes anything.

hit a pothole in the Frenchie, the momentum and my weight caused the drivers seat angle ratchet mechanism to fail, i think the teeth have sheared short, as well as rusty springs. have had to use a prop and a cooler to keep the seat propped up. damn is it uncomfortable. le sigh

They seem to be hitting the age where timing chains are becoming and issue, just like the N20 and N47.