martyyn

Seeing as Im coming from a 5l v12 and 4.4 v8 background you can guess that fuel economy means sod all to me. However with the e30 320 is it really as bad as its made out ? What exactly is the difference between a 318, a 320 and a 325 in terms of economy. Are we talking a 5% difference between 318 and 320 or a 25% difference. Answers on a postcard please.....

A little shoe polish will do the trick as all you want to do is colour the 'inside' of the crack.Get yourself some of this. First clean the seats, then use the shoe polish sparingly and then use the conditioner to 'feed' the leather. You can watch the cracks fill themselves. Its brilliant stuff on old leather, not so good if you (or someone else) has already had a crack at spraying the leather with something.

Those are two of the finest looking cars I have ever seen.

I couldnt agree more Rog and the very reasons I want the boy to start with something that he can 'enjoy' driving.

Nath, PM me a price.Cant promise anything as I wasnt expecting to find anything quite so soon, but Im interested.

In all seriousness I couldnt agree more Damian. No matter how much I hate the Jap-mobiles you cant go passed their value for money.But thats the whole point of this thread. If I can get some help from you guys and get a half decent e30 then I will. 99% of the troubles I had with my first car were because I knew nothing about them. This time around I have at least a basic knowledge, great mechanics at Page, excellent mates on here for parts and advice, and a bit of money in my back pocket to do what I want.

Yep, have heard from Nath already and am waiting on him for some photos and details. Are there any photos on here ? Ive not seen any.I can understand what both yourself and Damian have said, but lets be honest, we are all here because weve chosen BMW's over Honda's....so lets start the boy on the right track.

45 mins mate....your slipping.

Right then chaps (and chapettes), Im looking to find a car for my nephew. He's a student and has just spent every last penny he had on getting to Holland for his grandads funeral so when I stress that the car needs to be economical and more importantly reliable, I mean it ! He doesnt have a licence either so it will be what Ill be teaching him to drive in, so it cant be a complete dog for me to drive either ! Obviously Im thinking e30 but I see there is a 2002 in Wellington on TradeMe which I would love to get, but after thinking about buying one around xmas and talking with a few people I just think the parts etc are becoming a little too rare for my liking and it may require too much work. I dont need a M325 or anything and Im thinking a nice tidy 318 could be just the ticket. Id prefer manual but I see plenty of you guys have made the switch so perhaps thats not so important. Im not afraid of buying something that needs a little work because I will at least know it been done properly rather than taking someone elses word for it. Never trust what the seller is telling you is my motto. I need it to be as cheap as possible, so what do people think I would have to spend for something like this ? Would any of the Wellington posse be up for helping me find something and perhaps more importantly help me fix it up a little bit ? When I bought my first car at 17 I was on my own. I knew nothing about cars and ended up buying a lemon from someone who I thought was a mate. He then dropped me as soon as I handed the cash over and watched the car fall to pieces over the first 6 months. But here I am with the wealth of information that you lot have, so Im sure I get start him off in the right way. All advice is very welcome.

Jim sorted me out aswell Paul, so get hold of him....come to think of it I need him aswell.....come on Jim where are you I need to tyres for the Scooby my friend.Ive got a set of Dunlop Sport 01's or something, VERY quiet, excellent ride quality on the longer runs, pretty good grip-wise but not as grippy as the 275/40 Falken FK451's I had previously on the rear, but Im now back to BMW sizing for 18's being 255 on the rear so the extra 2cm would make the some difference. A good price and half decent service, although he could do with offering his better customers a coffee....although to be fair he handed the lollipops about

No for the Bilsteins I have in the GT-b wagon.

64.9% pure

There is no way this would stand up in court if someone where to challenge it.Without fully calibrated equipment this will be a disaster to manage. Dont get me wrong Im all for the 'hoons' getting done for an excessively loud exhaust but honestly, this is pathetic. Oh and Tane, Id pull you over and give you points just for having a dirty car in your sig pic

Definately rebuild the Bilsteins, cant get any better than that in my opinion. As Sparkle says there is a guy in Auckland who can take care of it, although Im surprised Vijay or Bho didnt tell you where you could get it done. I dont think its all that expensive either. I have been quoted around 100 a piece if memory serves me right.

Im no expert on these matters but I seriously doubt you can convert a GSM phone to CDMA, they are rival technologies. The simple fact is that Telecom is and always will be a monopoly until the government stops protecting them and opens it up to everyone. There have been two chances to do that in the last two years and neither has been taken. The simple fact is that at present Telecom is too big and holds too much clout with parliament. Telecom in general makes bugger all profit with their call plans and broadband rates etc, they make 95% of their profit for doing jack sh!t and thats your line rental. The only way Telecom are going to make any changes is if everyone dropped them and took their line rental somewhere else. Anyway, IMO Telecom's phones and CDMA network is a joke, without really knowing what it is you want to do (Ive read some of your recent posts Ollie along these lines but not really paid too much attention) you may well be better off trying Vodafones 3G network. Telecom is still trying to cling to a mobile techology that the rest of the world dropped 10 years ago. Dont be fooled by the cheap prices, they are cheap for a reason....unless of course all you want a mobile phone for is to make calls

Ill just add the links here as I find them....Socal7 Oh bollox I cant find anything else right now, but go to bimmerboard and search through the e38 stuff. There are several people who have done it, Socal7 above was the first I think.

So there we are cruising in the 7 today and the wife turns and says.....'You know what we should get for days like this ? A classic BMW' I nearly crashed ! For years she has been ridiculing me for washing the car most weekends, meeting you lot (and the lot I was with in the UK) and now she comes out with this bombshell. So my mind is immediately off....we could sell the Scooby wagon and get a 325 wagon as a run about and a 2002 for the weekends, leaving my 7 as the daily driver Then Im thinking sell both the Scooby and the 7 and get an E30 M3 for me, an e30 cabrio for the weekends and an e30/e34 wagon for the hard yards. But very quickly Im reigned in as she has been reading the latest Dixi (BMWCC Mag) and has seen a 'cute' 2002 for sale. I wasnt aware she even knew I was getting it never mind her reading it. So does anyone know anything about these cars. I have tried (and will continue) to try for an e30 cabrio. Im thinking fire engine red, with black top and 16' alpinas with a nice skirt kit :pimp: But I know the 2002's in the Dixi mag have been available for ages and have not been sold, so does anyone know anything about either these two cars, or 2002's in general. Im looking to spend a mint, but it needs to be sound for cruising the family around on the good days.

There are alot of versions in the States that have been put into E38's. All music, video, internet access, rear vision camera etc run from the headunit screen.Ill try and find some links in the next couple of days for you.

I see a recurring theme. Good service if you have bought a car from them, crap if you bought it elsewhere.Ive twice had Shelley's do work that wasnt authroised and on both ocassions they refused to hand the keys over until I had paid. No phone calls, no apologies, nothing. Whereabouts in London are you Neal ?

Its given me RSI !

My understanding from having S, E and M in the 750 is that the M mode will simply keep you in the gear that is currently selected. From take off its third from memory, the snowflake on Andy's is the give away. Its for when you dont want to change gears whilst driving on snow and ice....at least thats the reasoning in the UK. Im sure I read all this in the manual.

B*stard I wasnt in my teens until 84 !

11.02 - 216.9kph :pimp: [edit] 11.01 212.8kph :pimp: :pimp: [edit][edit] 11.00 212.8kph Come on.....

Oh please, the article clearly said they didnt have a full id on the vehicle other than it was a 7 series BMW. Dont you think the best way of getting witnesses is to say that in the article to jog peoples memories ? Talk about paranoid !

Mate that sucks....if there is anything I can do let me know. Cheers Martyn