Karter16

Yeah quite possibly I am - that's why I posted to see what everyone else thought. Don't see a CS come up very often in NZ so was genuinely interested to get peoples' thoughts and impressions ? Didn't mean to come across as negative or picky - although re-reading my post I can see why it came across that way. There's a wide range of asking prices for E46 M3's of various conditions on the market, this one is a bit special being the CS so I was interested to see how people interpreted that against the asking price and the condition/mileage of the car. Cheers for your input ?

173km, $35k buy now. Subframe not inspected or addressed and VANOS not done. Rod bearings are surely well on their way out at that mileage as well. The 'CS' badge is surely a bit of a drawcard, although not sure if that's offset by the fact it's an import??? If it's a UK import, which I think it must be if it's a CS?, then there's underbody rust, etc. to possibly worry about. https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-1903106984.htm?rsqid=0132df325a1c421cb268290aebf785da

Yeah that is exactly what we did with some friends a few years ago. The coast road has some great scenery. The bridge where the scene in "Boy" was filmed is pretty scenic, and the lighthouse is worth a trip as well. As you say the wharves are good fun to visit as well.

Yeah they're a weird design. Seems like you should be able to slide them off the rails, but you can't. I was actually tricked by the first one I did in that it popped off relatively easily. The second one took a lot more time and careful attention to get off!

Update #25 The last week I've found an hour here and there to get a bit more done on cleaning the car up. I've removed the wipers, windshield cowling and side repeaters, and done a preliminary clean up. Today I had a couple of hours and removed the rear lights to clean them up. Everything was super filthy from all the pine pollen that's accumulated on the car. I've done a preliminary clean on the shell around where the lights mount. They'll get a second deep clean in a little while. I then got stuck into cleaning the tail light enclosures up. I removed the foam rubber seals and the black trim pieces so I could clean everything up properly. Some time spent with soap and warm water, a toothbrush and a cloth and they cleaned up very nicely. The foam rubber seals are still soft and in great condition - they've lasted well considering they're 13 years old. While the boot is disassembled I'll take the opportunity to go through and remove the extra wiring that was added when a previous owner had a tow bar on the car... Til next time.

Congratulations - look forward to seeing some photos!

Don't forget to check whether your vehicle has previously had the structural epoxy (foam) applied (BMW did the rear mounts as part of a service bulletin) before welding. You wouldn't want to be welding onto the RACP anywhere structural epoxy has previously been inserted. Bummer that your car has cracks, but not really that surprising. Fortunately it's a well known issue and there's lots of info out there about how to best address. Hope you can get it sorted out!

Congratulations - Imola Red is a beautiful interior colour. Hope the checks all go well - looking forward to following your progress!

Update #24 Last night I did a quick test of cleaning auto wax, dirt, etc. off the black trim on the boot handle mechanism. Before: To clean I simply used hot water with some regular liquid hand soap in it and I carefully scrubbed the black plastic parts with a toothbrush. The heat and soap helps soften and lift the wax. I then used a cotton cloth soaked in the hot water and soap to wipe away the remaining wax. Had to go over a few spots a second time, but I'm really pleased with how well this has cleaned up. After: I've got lots more to clean, and I want to go through and remove the extra wiring from when the first owner of the car had a tow bar installed. I'm also still trying to decide whether I attempt to restore the surface of the reversing light enclosures or whether I just buy new ones. Looking at them it looks as though the plastic may be started to fracture and degrade beyond the surface layer, so may just be better to buy new ones. I've also got a couple of bits and pieces on order from Milland for the front of the car, so I'll update when they arrive.

Update #23 Today I finally got a chance to make a start on getting the car cleaned up. As the previous posts show my focus so far has been mostly on the mechanical aspects of the car. Now that it's garaged and properly out of the elements I figured I might as well make a start on getting it cleaned up. Back in August our old property was swamped with that horrible yellow pollen from pine trees. That stuff gets in everywhere. I clean it out of both cars every year, but haven't got round to it with the M3 until now. It's horrible stuff. I started with removing the interior carpet/card/trim stuff from the boot lid so that I could remove the reversing lights, handle, etc. from the boot lid. From there I started removing stuff and doing a quick clean/wipe down as I went. Now that I've got the bits off I can spend my time properly cleaning them and the boot-lid. I'll take the opportunity while all the bits are off to properly clean, polish and wax the boot lid before reassembly. I'm also going to clean up all the bits of the boot handle and licence plate lights, etc. The reversing light assemblies are clouded, as plastic gets. I'm tossing up whether it's worth having a go at refinishing them, or whether I skip that and go straight to buying new ones. I'm also keen to get a new M3 badge at some point as the one on there looks pretty faded. Really needs a new roundel as well as the one on there is starting to delaminate around the edges. Oh and the gas struts will be being replaced as well - they make an embarrassing groaning sound whenever you open the boot, which isn't in line with the well-maintained sports car vibe I'm going for. I'll post an update soon with my progress on cleaning up the bits and pieces.

Yep I stand corrected ? - 2000 M/Y imported to NZ in 2002. Missed it as wasn't expecting to see anything under the year 2000, will go back and have a look at what else is in that year.

Thanks man - appreciate your kind words! Hope that the right car comes along - sounds like you're going to take great care of it when you get it! The Topaz one does look nice - amazing that so many have come up in the space of a day! Would depend on it's maintenance status, rod bearing, vanos, RACP, etc. but it looks like a nice car from the listing (not a fan of the carbon (wrap?) trim, but oh well!). Good luck with finding the right car - look forward to following your progress!

Yup 1x Alpine White coupe and 1x Alpine White convertible. Those are the only two currently registered in the country.

yup that looks like a nice example. Cinnamon is a lovely interior colour.

I've tried out the radio and, subjectively, it does seem a bit better than it was before. Really hard to tell definitively, but it does seem to be less patchy around Auckland than it was before.

Yep I've kept a pretty close eye on the E46 M3 market over the last few years - definitely going to need to wait for the right car to come along. In terms of lower mileage, fully appreciate that might be desirable from a collectability point of view, but probably worth keeping in mind that at this age even a lot of the lower mileage examples likely need significant maintenance at this point (if they haven't already had it). Sounds like you're probably already aware of that, but thought I'd point it out. Good luck with finding the right car!

Only Alpine White E46 M3 Coupe in the country - that would be a very nice example to own...

Haha - just started out with me wondering how many were sold in NZ. Then I found the NZTA data which was cool, and then when Jon came up with the winning info I realised with the two datasets it would be possible to work out the vehicle loss rate. I'm in IT and data gets me excited ?

Hi guys, Thought I'd combine the data from Jon along with the current NZTA data. Which gives the attached picture. Note that this is reliant on the accuracy of the NZTA current data and categorisation of vehicles. It probably isn't exactly right, but it's close. I've sighted the source data and made sure the numbers look as right as possible. The notes section lists my main assumptions/describes the data. Essentially the chart below gives a view of how many of each year/type of vehicle have become deregistered (accident, exported, etc.). Big thanks to Jon for providing the sales/registration data for each year.

Thanks so much for this - really appreciate it - basically exactly what I was after!

Yeah absolutely - appreciate that it's not an exact science. If you are able to dig any info out around registrations of E46 M3's that would be awesome. If it's no trouble to do coupe and cabrio that would be awesome. - thanks very much!

I kind of, not really, answered my own question. So thought I'd post back here. I don't have sales data, but I do have data of E46 M3's currently registered (as at Sept 2018). So it won't give me actual sales numbers as it doesn't account for vehicles taken off the road, exported, etc. But I thought it was still interesting to see how many E46 M3's are around and what they are. Note that I believe that the attached includes CSL's as well, as NZTA don't appear to separate them out separately. Still interested to see actual sales numbers for NZ, but suspect that the below is about as close as I'll get. The raw dataset is available here : https://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/new-zealand-motor-vehicle-register-statistics/new-zealand-vehicle-fleet-open-data-sets/ for anyone else who didn't know about it/is interested. Matt

Hiya, Just wondering if anyone has any info on BMW NZ sales of new E46 M3's by year. Not sure if the info is in the public domain (I haven't found any info in my search so far), but would be keen to know how many E46 M3's were sold new in NZ each year they were for sale here, etc. Cheers, Matt

I haven't actually tested that yet, but next time I drive the car I'll do an assessment and report back.

Update #22 So now that we're in our own house and we have a garage it meant that I was able to remove the tints from the car. I've been keen to get rid of them for some time for a couple reasons: I'm trying to get the car as stock as possible, and the tints give it a different look. I almost knocked someone over reversing down my parents driveway in the dark - couldn't see ANYTHING out the back window so was relying on wing mirrors (with the front windows down). But I've held off doing it while the car has been outside as the tints provide excellent sun protection. Now that the car is safely garaged I was able to remove the tints. I read up a bit on the process first and used a clothes steamer to heat the tint. The idea being that the sticky stays with the sheet of tint rather than remaining on the window. I have to say it worked amazingly well. I removed the tints on the driver and passenger windows, the rear quarter panels and the rear window all in the space of an hour and a half. I think the fact they were quality tints was helpful when it came to removal as well as the sticky stayed where it should - basically no residue left on the windows at all. When I got to the rear window I thought my cunning plan had come unstuck, as a thick layer of sticky was left behind. Turns out the sticky wasn't left on the glass, it was left on the clear sheet of the SECOND layer of tint that was on the rear window... No wonder I couldn't see anything at night. Some muppet had tinted over an already tinted window ?. More steam, and lifting up the remaining sheet and it all came off beautifully. No damage to the heater/aerial strips and no residue left behind ? I'm really happy with the end result. The car looks awesome - I much prefer the look of it without tints. I'll get some photos up as soon as it's a decent day and I can get some good pictures.