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When ever my car starts feeling slow I get a mechanic service. They give me a loaner and after 10 minutes driving whatever pos that might be my car feels awesome again.

Agreed, its all relative. The trick is to not buy faster cars, go get yaself a 2006 Toyota Ractis :D .. then the 130 feels like a supercar. Even the Skoda, it pulls harder mid range and feels faster after initially putting ya foot down.... until its properly rung out and you run out of revs and turbo runs out of puff, but if you jump in the 130 its noticeably actually faster as it keeps pulling up top (and has WAY more steering feel, sounds much better, grips harder etc).

TLDW; Keep the 130

https://www.facebook.com/share/1BVWT6Fd7R/?mibextid=wwXIfr

At some point you will find yourself with a cracked windscreen. This is a recommendation to NEVER take your car to Smith & Smith Wairau. For the past 10 months I have experienced the most appalling workmanship and customer service that is so bad I have decided to go to the effort of writing about my experience so hopefully no one else has to go through the same thing. If anyone knows someone who works at a Smith & Smith, or their head office, please send this to them because I am fed up with trying to deal with them. A little back story… Last year I was driving my (at the time) Skoda Fabia VRS when I got a cracked windscreen. This was a car that wasn’t necessarily valuable, but I was very fond of it nevertheless as I had spent the best part of an entire year restoring it. I booked my car into my local Smith & Smith branch to have the windscreen replaced. While the windscreen was out their recommended panel beater tidied up the apertures (as recommended) and I got them to respray the bonnet, roof, rear quarter panels and boot spoiler (as I planned to have this done anyway). After about a week my car was ready and I picked it up and took it home to discover a myriad of issues. For a start the paint match and finish was, well, only acceptable from a distance… but that’s no fault of Smith & Smith technically. (Although you would expect that their recommended panel beater would have a higher level of workman ship) Issues: I first noticed my wipers weren’t on properly - obviously that’s an easy fix for me. However, I would like to note that its still unacceptable as if I was someone who wasn’t into cars and didn’t have any tools, I would have had inoperable wipers which could be dangerous in a sudden down pour etc. This serves as a mild taster for the sloppy workmanship… To fix my wipers I pop the bonnet to realise the paint shop had broken my plastic release tab and replaced it with a badly cut piece of metal with some electrical tape on the end. This was eventually resolved by them, but once again adds to the awful experience I had. With the bonnet open I first adjusted the driver’s wiper and then went to adjust the passenger one. That is when I noticed what ended up becoming a frustrating can of worms. My windscreen VIN plaque was gone! Naturally I was very annoyed. Now I had a car that looked like it had been stolen with its empty VIN plaque in the windscreen. The following day I contacted Smith & Smith with the list of issues and of course they first questioned me on whether my car even had its VIN plaque there to begin with. (Which of course it did). By a stroke of luck many months before I had taken a photo of my rego label which was the proof I needed to prove to them that my VIN plaque was there. I was expecting an apologetic business intent on putting things right and getting it sorted, but what I got was the opposite. The manager of the branch thought it was ridiculous that I would complain about them losing my VIN plaque. After all, it was “just” an old hatchback… However, that is no excuse for a blunder like that. If that was one of my Porsches, or my M Coupe, that’s an issue that would genuinely impact the value of the car. And beyond that, on any car, if you are obviously missing a VIN tag, that would raise eyebrows if you wanted to sell the car. Plus, it's just plain ugly. So with that reasoning in hand I demanded the car would get another VIN plaque at their expense. The counter offer I received was absolutely laughable. They were happy to print me a label with one of those cheap portable label makers and put that where the VIN plaque used to be. Like WTF?! Seeing that this was going nowhere I contacted Skoda NZ myself who informed me I was 367 days too late to order a reproduction plaque, as that was something that had been discontinued the prior year. Now I was stuck but still determined to resolve it. I requested I sort the plaque myself and got approval from Smith & Smith that I could invoice them once I had it sorted. So I sourced an OEM plaque cradle, and then had a sign writer make a Vinyl overlay with my VIN in the OEM font. It was a perfect replica. Smith & Smith then removed the glass to fit it, and I sent them an invoice of a whopping $240.40 to cover the costs incurred by me to source and make the VIN plaque. That invoice has been sent to them over 5 times by email, and dropped off in person. They still haven’t paid me... That REALLY annoys me. Yes, it’s a small amount of money. But regardless, it is owed to me and clearly they think they can get away with just ignoring me. So here I am, writing this, recommending that you STAY away from Smith & Smith Wairau. Personally, I will never take any of my cars to any Smith & Smith branch ever again. Some photos for context: My 2003 Skoda Fabia VRS. Originally the NZ demo car for the Fabia VRS so had an Oettinger tuned ECU from new. Incredibly rare to have the tune. In fact, I couldn't find another tuned one anywhere on the internet. Had the bulletproof 1.9TDI engine and was a torque monster. 150hp & 360Nm! 6 speed manual. Was destined for scrap until I saved it. Will write an article on it one day. Was a great little car. The paint match... 1. Wipers that weren't even on the windscreen and would have been unable to move. 2. The bonnet pull tab with some electrical tape on the end so the roughly cut metal wouldn't cut you when you opened it. 3. A great way to make your car look stolen - when there's clearly meant to be a VIN but now there isn't! My VIN tag that I had made. Was very pleased with how it came out.

Oft, this thread is becoming more and more difficult to read, if it were an emotional decision, rather than a practical one, I'd keep mine for sure. It's hardly relevant but both my M3 and M2 are objectively better cars than my 130, but they're in different universes price-wise, and also have their own shortcomings. Unfortunately the 130 now feels slow, even in day-to-day traffic, the M2 has ruined that part of it for me. 😒

I know most have already seen this but I will post it again anyway. https://youtu.be/2cyBMqT-LNQ?si=x4v7yn4jkTHANSMH

Careful. Someone may ask this thread to be removed due to messing with AI 😅

New muffler went on today and new rear twin section added from resonators back - looks much better and tips far more OEM (dual 2.5"). Did seem a bit loud on way back from the shop but I'll give it a few weeks to bed in / get used to it - its definately a deeper and less raspy tone which is good. Sadly however, most likely car will be being sold in spring. In the process of a seperation and highly likely a more modern all-rounder type BMW (M235i?) and will be replacing it in the future.

M3 is heavy and can be high maintenance, the M2 is overrated in my opinion and I also don't like turbo cars ( I also could never give up hydro steering so m2 is out ). Besides either of those car you would still have to put 20k into them on top of the 40-50k purchase price to even get close to making the most out of them. I have been fortunate enough to drive a good few cars and still haven't found anything that puts a smile on my face as much as my 130i. I'm only 18 as well so much easier to buy a 9k car and slowly drop 45k into it. I'm not a fan of financing a depreciating asset unlike most people my age so would have only just got the M2 or M3 now when I have already enjoyed my 130i for a year. Also try to get insurance for an M3 or M2 at 18, you would find the the cost laughable. Sorry for the rant but that's just my opinion on it.

So true, and I've enjoyed such an experience. When I relocated back from Europe to Aotearoa I had mum's Swift for a few months and loved it. You don't need much horsepower to have fun.

Another one for S&S Wairau, they messed my old man around very recently with a screen for his Mercedes, and completely f**ked the wiper linkages. It’s not exclusive to them though, I’ve had a horror story in the past with S&S Penrose personally.

The LS7 was more like $12k upwards as a crate motor. Double the torque, nearly double the horsepower and about 25-50kg heavier (depending on what you read.

The 130i's are great bang for buck, for well under 10k you've got a great handling rwd manual with 190kw so it's very attractive as a base for a project.

Where's the fun in that ? Why does anyone build a project car ?

I have my M3 with Swann under "Classic" cover (currently "laid up" so it costs almost nothing a year) and the M2 under "Modern Classic", they just asked me for the value of each (edit: and photos) and set the premiums to match, no arguments. They have great benefits too, agreed value, first refusal on write-off, choose your repairer, track day uplift, roadside assistance, etc. The M2 is insured for more than I paid for it and they were fine with that. Edit 2: I had to select an annual mileage option, I think I had 3 choices, <5000kms, 5k - 10k, 10k+ IIRC. And they were literally 60% of the cost of State, AMI, and half the price of Star Insurance who are recommended by Hampton downs but seem uncompetitive across their product range. Might pay to see if they'll cover your 130 under their modern classic coverage, agreed value. All said and done though, I think much more than $12.5k for a 300kms 1 series will be tough, regardless of how well sorted, and looked after, it might be.

I don't know about that. I've had good experience with Toyotas in general. Been reliable family cars.

Has to be OEM for Merc. I'm trying to find the independent mobile dude that fixed my E30. But none of the ones I can find ring any bells. Was in like 2014...

Good warning- I bought a brand new c350e earlier this year and was about to take it in to SS Wairau (being closest to me) for a screen replacement due to a small chip apparently not being repairable. Currently trying to get insurer to cover cost of an original screen.

Ah that sucks man. The paint would drive me nuts. When the people can't see the value so do sh*t work. Smith and Smith Wairau also did the most sh*t job on my old E30 I have ever seen on a car. Broke all my window trim and tried to replace the seal with the cheapest Universal seal ever. It whistled, it leaked. They pooed up any gaps with copious amounts of sealant. Another company fixed it all up and my insurance company paid for it. I think my dad also had trouble with them. Replacement Merc windscreen was of such poor quality he ended up claiming again and had Mercedes replace the screen with an oem one.

Indeed, miracles can happen. But the UK registered M2 is very unlikely to be insured as the 'ring is explicitly excluded and very few people pay the 1,000's of Euro required to get day insurance at the track. And unfortunately, under German law, the BMW driver will be either fully, or mostly, culpable. There will be vehicle "recovery" costs, medi-vac costs (they will always deploy a station helo in these circumstances), track repair costs, potential track exclusion costs (if the track can't be used by others for a period), and then the replacement cost for both an M2C and a GT3 RS. That's going to sting no matter how wealthy you are.

Blew a head gasket (cyls 1-4) so spent the past six months sorting that and coming up with a better expansion tank solution (from a Merc A180). Did chain guides and OSV at the same time and now it runs perfectly and not a drop of fluid leaking anywhere (probably for the first time since either the donor or the wagon left the factory!!). Gave it a wash to celebrate.

This old gem has been discussed somewhere on these shores previously but worth bringing up again as the same old unchanged ad keeps getting relisted with the same outlandish asking price for several years now. A dereg, supposedly M3 shell with next to nothing left intact and random non-M body panels thrown on - at a bargain price of $7.3k... https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/car-parts-accessories/bmw/other/listing/5405301354 What the actual hell is this guy playing at? Is there anything there that's worth even a fraction of that? I personally can't see it. Only conceivable use I could see there being is to cut out the boot floor and rear arches for a touring M3 conversion or something, but even then the RH arch has very obvious damage to it... The sheer, unfiltered delusion to then put this wibble in the description too: