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People think that taking a car for a 1 yearly wof and getting new wiper blades and a headlight bulb = regularly serviced. end of story.

146,800 kms A couple weeks ago on my drive home from work I hit 10,000 kms in Jane, and what an enjoyable 10,000 kms they’ve been. Last night I was driving home from work at 3.30am. In my daily commute, I blasted down the motorway from Petone into Wellington city; climbed up the twisty hill to Kelburn, ‘She Talks to Angels’ playing in the background, air con keeping me cool on this hot Wellington night; got to the turn off to my flat, decided screw it and just kept driving. Ended up at Makara Beach at about 4am. Just my car and me. Literally no where else I would have rather been. My first 10,000 kms, in review.

As the title says, Castrol edge 5w30 is $45.49 for 5litres at the moment https://www.supercheapauto.co.nz/p/castrol-castrol-edge-engine-oil---5w-30-5-litre/299206.html?cgid=catalogue-onsale#segment=1&page=1 They seem to do this once a year, and I stock up. I don't work for Supacheap.

definitely read this comment wrong the first time round..

I always assume people that like the x3 haven't had the misfortune of driving one

Speedfactor NZ (in Tauranga) can supply the MFactory LSDs. Easier than importing and their prices are actually reasonable.

Im certain you still enjoy it much more once you refresh the suspension and get some good rubber on. I did about 10,000km also when i first bought it for a daily driver into the city, it was fine for that as it was all slow placed. Once i changed job and started a long commute with a good twisty section of road near the end, i had to either sell it or refresh the suspension felt like driving a truck. Granted yours probably isn't as bad as my 230,000 old parts at the time but its one of those things you never regret doing.

^^this Plus this X3 is a 6-cylinder petrol version that drinks like grandad at happy hour. Save a few more $$$ and find a better condition diesel version. This one is a money pit if ever I saw one.

BMWs transition of low end models becoming Japanese eco boxes is getting more and more refined by the Germans. Soon they will come with hello kitty accessories!

comment fixed ?

I have opened the bbq thread and found watches. I would not bbq a watch, atleast i certainly wouldnt eat one.

There’s a handful of them. Be cool to convert one to M5 spec and supercharge it.

Better flash the cash if you really want one. There are only a handful of really good ones left and of the two owners i know, the phrase ‘from my cold dead hands’ comes to mind.

I used to love those..!!! .... If you couldn't tell already ?

Thanks Eagle, I agree. It’s something I will definitely be doing this year. I am considering doing the vanos first though. When she’s been sitting for a day or so, the cold idle for the first 30-60 seconds is slightly rougher than when she’s warm. From the reading I’ve done online, it sounds like a vanos refresh could remedy this. If not, it’s still a sensible item to tick off that will probably be rooted anyway @Olaf took mine for a spin earlier this month. I think his words were something along the lines of ‘it certainly is tired, and would benefit from refreshing, but it certainly isn’t f**ked either, yet.’

Hmmm, I still think referring to something as a "haldex system" is a bit of a sweeping generalisation as there are now a variety of different systems, electronic, mechanical, electro-mechanical, FWD bias, RWD bias, etc all being shoe-horned in together under the same terminology.

Dunno if you have driven a regular E-LSD hard, they are awful. Like properly awful. Im sure Mclaren is in a different league due to hardware/software driving it, but in a 1/3 series its just crap, even on the road. If you're buying groceries E-LSD is fine, if your enjoying even a slighted spirited drive on a B road though its going to drive you crazy, particularly if it starts raining. Dash lights up like a christmas tree and nanny steps in and ends all fun. With E-LSD still enabled and a proper mechanical LSD (Quaife in my case) it is epiccally more tractive when grip drops off, and is 100000% more predictable when it does. Also nanny on the dash remains very quiet, whatever algorithm is controlling the E-LSD must compare wheel speed before axles speeds step in under the stability control, its possible to get much more sideways even with full nanny turned on (and without it sucking power away). To give you an idea of the difference in traction levels off the line, My 130 apparently did 0-100 in 6.3s when new, now my 130 which has 250,000km on a totally stock engine etc does 5.8s and would go lower if I was was being meaner to the clutch! If your serious about getting an LSD, Hit up Birds in the UK, its not cheap (cheaper than BMWNZ!) but they know their sh*t.

Im liking the replies and they're so true! Some good sound advice and observations coming out! For clarity im not, and never was, contemplating purchasing this - i agree in that this is most likely a money pit and you would be better off paying extra for a 'good one' i you were in te market I now have a car buying strategy that im going to be sticking to and an X3 isnt included haha

yea i have run these cars with pretty much no exhaust system , just the down pipes and they are not that loud

Im a big fan of seikos because you can still have all the fun but at a lesser price point compared to the much more expensive brands of watches. still looking for a seiko blue spark tho..

I don't think there are many people in the world that have drilled carbon fibre door panels to fit speakers around their cage... Will be good to listen to a bit of "getting your race face on" tunes when sitting on the grid. It's like a real life one of those Hot Wheels Tuners cars where you could swap bits in and out, only a whole lot more epic.

Turbo's baffle exhaust noise, purely because of function & design

"new"

Get a receipt for the ‘new’ gearbox then you wont lose money if its junk and you part it.

I'll post up a couple of pictures over the weekend of the boxy Bavarian.

I see, so it's not really an LSD at all, it just emulates what and LSD does (and apparently outperforms one). On face value it seems like an inefficient use of torque but I suppose, if you have more torque than you can practically put through the rubber, there's no need to be particularly efficient. I assume though that that logic would not translate to lesser cars... if you have "100 torques" to send to the rear wheels and you send some of that to a slipping wheel, even if you prevent that wheel from actually slipping, you've robbed the other wheel of that potential twist. It'll all be electronic when we have motors driving each wheel independently and a central control module regulating the power each puts out based on a bunch of sensors... so we better get used to it! Sigh. Thanks for the info, it is interesting.

Scored this wee gem at pickapart yesterday

Hi Matt. I don’t have a BMW you’re after, but I do have a late 1980s 560SEL in good original condition. If you only find a decent E32 or E34 they might make a nice 1980s couple. An E32 750iL would be a good companion. I would like to have both in my garage. Disregard if you’re set on BMW only. These aren’t to everyone’s taste?