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With the planned sale of the Baur, Mrs M was in need of a new set of wheels. Sh'ed kind-of enjoyed having a Mazda Tribute 10 or so years ago; I was less enthusiastic. Doing some hunting we did decide that a medium/large SUV might be the answer. One of the issues we've been having is that on those rare occasions we want to tow something, we encounter a problem. Borrowing a ute isn't an issue but I don't like asking for the same thing over and over again. So, the hunt begins. X5? Too big. (Or so I'm told.) The 3.0 diesels have held their value well and until recently, were more than we planned to spend. (Been offered a couple at under $3.5k in the last week!) Explored numerous Mercedes MLs. Older W163 270CDi is solid-as, reliable, economical, and easy to work on. The W164 320CDi is another good'un, very economical and huge scope for tuning (although that was a very minor consideration). Doing the sums though, a W164 ML500 (lovely car) works out very little more expensive to run over 12 months than a diesel... Regardless, prices for all of the above have gone up considerably in the last 12 months. Land Rover Discovery? Range Rover? Too expensive (for what they are) and while easy enough to fix, do seem to turn up a large number of issues. They also tend to be treated like sh!t. Land Rover Freelander? Maybe... But insufficient towing capacity. (Not a bad vehicle though, despite online reports.) Big Nissans and Toyotas are just silly money. Smaller Toyotas and Nissans lack the towing capacity, or just don't seem available (for sale) in a spec to suit us. (Did seriously consider an XTrail diesel.) So... We bought a Lexus RX350. NZ new, 2 owners, full service history, 12 months WoF, 6 months rego, 3 months unconditional warranty. Cheaper than an older LR Disco TDi or TD5, or (at the time) any similar spec BMW X5, and barely more in price than a 5-year-older and much higher mileage Merc ML. It's really quite nice. Takes some getting used to but that's to be expected. Rides well, handles well, very comfortable. I suggested to a fellow forum member (who knows about these things) that if we look after it, it should be good for at least 400000km. I was advised that if we only wanted 400000km from it, we needn't bother looking after it.

Ari Pettigrew absolutely hauling ass at the Ashley Forest Rally Sprint.

Accord euro wagon, the older ones are better if you were thinking of putting an exhaust on (newer ones the manifold is intergrated). Cant beat a K24 for reliability either... https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/honda/accord/listing/3771558344 There are some white ones too with a bit more ks

Plenty of value in those and their toyota cousin, Highlander as no one wants to deal with the fuel bill on them. We just grabbed a 2012 Highlander for $7500 including shipping

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/holden/commodore/listing/3761163791 take one of these for a drive, there euro economical 9 speed 2.0 or v6 and go like a cut cat when floored, handle well, comfy and roomy, aussies didn;t take to them but there better than a mondeo and hugely underated, the car has the same floor plan so hatch is large too, can swallow 3m lengths of wood and sheets or ply easily

A co-worker seems to love his Terrano with the QD32 engine. Just convinced another co-worker to buy one for 4k, mainly for off road use so assume they tow ok.

Just to close the loop herel. I finally got hold of Prahmod and while he said he was pretty busy he put me onto a guy called Aaron at https://a1-auto-tech.business.site/?utm_source=gmb&utm_medium=referral Apparently Pramod and he work together -- Pramod does the stuff like download firmware, flash ROMs and Aaron does the actual work. Anyway to cut a long story short Aaron managed to replace the module, get the immobiliser going and program the key. If I had known about his service I would have had my car towed to his workshop in the first instance. So the car is back to its normal state now. And now for sale 🙂

I wouldn’t bet on it, it will take more than the sun coming out to change the current car market, and economy in general. Plus all the hipsters are buying Teslas to “save” the planet.

It’s a hard comparison at this stage as owned and drove the e46 m3 about 130,000 km / 11 years verse 2000 km so far on the f80. The e46 felt so connected to the driver and the road. Ergonomics are great and s54 is such a great sounding engine and a nice level of progressive power. However, the F80 is more modern and I do need a 4 door these days. Power wise my M3 was around the 180kw at the wheels mark verse somewhere between 310 -330. There is a massive difference and it’s easy to have the back brake traction off the throttle.The f80 is a very stiff car to the point where I do have trouble with wheelspin coming out of my driveway. Ive had time do a 3 point turn and reverse up a couple of times. What I do like is 3 settings for suspension, engine and steering weight and having two steering wheel buttons with saved settings, M1 commute, M2 … smile 😊 Still getting used to it and trying to stop those e46 things you do but looking forward to a track drivers day to explore my new limits. I didn’t keep the e46 as budget wise I’d made a refresh list that was similar to the cost difference of the F80 and I’m guilty of have a couple of other vehicles that just don’t get used ( or finished )

Grey M140i. Ok, so less exciting than some cars out there but I felt it looked really neat.