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Recent update: 135 Brakes, M135 Wheels and Manual conversion.

Have put circa 30k on my F11 535i MSport over the past couple of years, so here's my 2c. The N55 paired with the ZF8 is a great combo. Relatively good response down low, the small turbo means it runs out of puff up top if you're really on it. Mine is stock, however the facelift EWG models net a healthy gain with a tune/remap compared to pre-facelift PWG (which mine is). The ZF8 is a very impressive gearbox. In terms of ride it almost feels too soft for an MSport coming from a few different 3 series in the past, but it is very comfortable and quiet. I ditched the standard 351M's with runflats for 437M's paired with PS4s's - less road noise, better size/fitment, and more than enough grip for a big boat on the open road. I recently switched to an E90 M3 for daily driver duties and the F11 feels like a limousine in comparison. My wife is now driving the F11 with a newborn at home - nice to have the integrated door blinds and tinted windows in the rear for the baby. I had an Apple Carplay system retrofitted to the CIC system - worth every penny for a daily driver. In terms of reliability and servicing, main items attended to are: Rear suspension airbags - one leaked, so replaced both. RF lower control arm always had a bit of a creak going over speed bumps which bugged me, so had both LCA's replaced which 95% eliminated the noise. Boost solenoid. Gearbox serviced (recommended every 10 years or 80k from memory). Otherwise just standard items every 10,000km. You won't go too wrong with a well-spec'd F11 535i MSport at $20k (or 535d MSport if any are on the market). Bonus if you can land a facelift model for that price.

Also have an F11 535i and it has been great. Similar issues (front control arms, oil leaks, suspension airbags) which can be dealt with relatively cheaply if you can swing a wrench. No major fault just regular maintenance really. Confirm it is big car. Think of it like a 7 series wagon. They do handle pretty good despite the weight. Economy for me has been really good for a 3L turbo and i run on 95. On the Hamilton to South Auckland return trip i get under 7.5l/100KM. Current trip counter is at 11l/100km though as it has been doing a lot of under 5km trips in Hamilton. Basically, open road you will see something around 8l/100km and in the city 9-12l/100km. Wouldn't bother with a diesel, waste of money.

Still waiting on whatever useless NZ courier company that is delivering my package that arrived in the country on the 26th. 14 days in NZ.

Yes twin scroll turbo. I always run ours on 98, but understand 95 will be fine also. From memory our average consumption is circa 12L/100km - commuting into CBD, lots of suburban 50km/h zone stop/start driving, and the odd motorway. On long trips it will sit in the 7's/100km on cruise control on the motorway - our Auckland to Cooks Beach trips are usually 8-9L/100km.

The C-Tech kit come with a easy tether plug also. I just tell people my car is EV. Can say from experience that remembering to unplug it before driving away is recommended.

@Vass that wagon looks hot !! Thanks for the link, look like some really good options there and they ship international !

I came across these replica bumpers here in Straya. https://marsperformance.com.au/products?status=1&cid=231 https://marsperformance.com.au/M-Tech-M-Sports-Style-Front-Bumper-Bar-BMW-E46-4D-Sedan-Wagon

It was on sale not long ago at well under 2000. Bargain. And did we mention the mighty c-tek battery charger yet?

Monaco, 1979. Clay Regazzoni leading Niki Lauda.

Sorry... couldn't resist...

Spareto.com have been getting parts to me in just over a week. From Estonia! My recent order from chemist warehouse took 10 days from Auckland. Spareto.com does have various spring and shock options.

Sorry just seen I never replied, am on the shore yep Keen to come along to any local events and the Meguiar's Coffee & Cars etc so folks can have a poke around 👍 Got the new wheels last week and they look pretty good, just needs to drop slightly (10 in the back 15 in the front) and it'll be looking much better overall.

A followup with the new wheels on Really need to go and have glamour shoot some place !!

Finally got the new rims for the E46 from the land of the rising sun Also got the car up in the air and gave things a bit of an inspection and clean 👌

Spoke too soon on the rattle front, must not have been VANOS related as it re-emerged again at startup this morning. Pretty much out of ideas as to what else it could be at this point. Weirdly, the rattle either isn't there or isn't noticeable when the car's been sitting in the garage overnight or for a few days, only when it's been parked outside for even a short while. Absolutely no clue. It is only mild and very hard to capture on video so can't even convey it properly. Guess I'll just have to live with it and hope it's not terminal. Took the car for an alignment this morning, went with the closest shop to home this time which happens to be a Bridgestone Tyre Centre barely a km down the road. Oh boy... Brought it in having written down the specs to aim for: -2.5° camber at the rear, 0 toe and just a checkup of the front end. Also wrote down the torque spec for the trailing arm bolts to chassis - 77Nm - to save them the hassle of looking those up. Even left 24mm & 27mm wrenches that I had just bought specifically for the camber arms on the passenger seat. Pick the car up a couple of hours later, tech said he got it pretty close to what I wanted and all seemed to be tracking straight during the test drive. Took a short detour on the way home and noticed a feint clunk coming from the right rear when going over imperfections in the road surface so decided to check things over. Good thing I did. Left camber arm outer jam nut completely loose. Right camber arm inner jam nut completely loose. 5 of the trailing arm bolts needed a good 10-20° to get to 77Nm. The remaining one on the right side trailing arm was completely loose and needed a good 2-3 full turns. Don't think I'm ever getting over my trust issues at this rate. Thank f**k I'm mechanically minded and caught onto it having only driven 2-3km. I seriously shudder to think of how many cars might be out there in everyday use that are absolutely unsafe to drive. Aunty Sharon could be out there happily tooting around, oblivious to the very real possibility of one of the wheels on her trusty Corolla all of a sudden deciding to start pointing sideways at any given moment. Seriously, am I stupid or is this borderline criminal negligence? 2 wheel alignments in a row. WTF is going on!? I've now got a theory as to what happened the first time around when it was BMW, in that instance the loose jam nut was the inner one on the left camber arm - the one with the tricky access due to the exhaust pipes being in the way. When I picked the car up, I remember the fuel economy on the cluster display reading something like 17L/100km so they must have left the car idling the whole time they were working on it for some stupid reason. Then when the time came to tighten everything up, the exhaust pipes would have gotten nice and hot, they wouldn't have wanted to go near there so either just left it or forgot to come back to it. This time around it was simply incompetence/inexperience. Still a bit rattled, I tightened everything up and went back for a chat. Didn't really want anything but felt that this was f**ked up enough that I couldn't just leave it be without speaking up. Explained to the guy what I'd discovered and how this could have ended very badly had I not checked. He was genuinely surprised and offered to check it over again if a had a spare hour. I didn't. He said that he nearly refused to take the job on as he'd never worked on BMW's or cars with a similar trailing arm setup before but then got help from a more experienced mechanic who walked him through the process, checked over and approved his work. The trailing arm bolts he had simply tightened with a rattle gun and tightened the jam nuts by putting his whole body weight on the wrench, mimicking how he'd done it, leaning onto the wrench with both hands. He had quite a puzzled expression when I told him he also had to have a wrench holding the rod in place when doing so. I'm no mechanic but you really don't need to be one to figure out how these things work. "Wheel Alignment Specialists" my ass. Got a call back from them a few hours later offering to give me a good deal on tyres and a voucher for a hot drink or something to make up for it. Thanks. Don't even know what the moral of the story is here. Trust no-one...? Short drive going out to dinner with 3 passengers on board later that night, no sign on rubbing so far but don't want to jinx it. Longer test tomorrow with a day trip to Kaikoura on the cards. See how she goes.