NZ BMW

So like most BMW engines then?! ? Guess we will have to go and look at a couple of 130i’s to see if we like what we see. I’m away on a work trip for the next couple of weeks somehow I can’t see myself getting to this before Christmas...

How unreliable are the 4 cylinders really in these cars? There seems to be a lot of them on the road.

I have been concentrating my search in Auckland. I’ll be honest, I don’t see the extra $5-7k in them from the previous generation. I don’t care for the idrive on a car which is just a commuter vehicle. I prefer to have leather and power seats over that if I can find them.

Yeah, I have been looking at those. I find the spec on them to be pretty underwhelming to be honest for the money. In particular the no steering wheel controls which I use quite often.

Hi Team, we are looking at getting a hatchback for the household. My wife largely takes public transport to work and as a result the X5 is our only car. She’s keen for a car to use a couple of days a week for any meetings and after work activities. On the other days I may take it to the office rather than running the 4.8 in traffic (although I average 13.3L/100km on my motorway commute which I think is pretty good). in terms of vehicles I’m looking at about 2007-2009 and sub 100kms. I naturally lean towards the 130i as a better drive but I’m sure the 118i and 120i’s are probably more sensible. But I worry about the reputation of BMW’s four-pot engines from the period. Thoughts and comments from the group? What should we look out for? Thanks guys!

This looks like one of these scenes from CSI where the guy works out how the brutal murder unfolded based on the blood splatter. glad you’re alright.

I use Tyre City just out of Newmarket. I don’t think they’re the cheapest but apparently they do a lot of overflow work for the various dealers (BMW, Mercedes etc) and I’ve always had good experiences with them.

Do ceramic pads wear the rotors faster? There’s so much conjecture out there. I’d be interested to hear your impressions @Olaf.

No, that’s not how it works at all. Dealers are on the hook for repairs and cannot have the owner use the warranty, even if they offer to pay the excess.

Given what these can be picked up for these days in good condition I don’t know why you would want to tackle this job.

The OEM camera on the pre-facelift E70 is useless at night, it’s actuslly pretty embarrassing that something like that ended up in such an expensive car. Its bizarre that in spite of the rear camera quality the one fitted to my wing mirror to find the curb is very chrisp and clear. The US forums are full of people complaining about it.

Makes sense, it wouldn’t have changed anything in this case except being better for the guy who had no insurance...

That sucks, sorry to hear it.

Nice, I have been eyeing these up - I love the interior.

You need to find a good GP you can trust and have health insurance. I had cancer a couple of years ago and was referred to a top specialist very quickly and I honestly think that either saved my life or at the very least made my recovery much quicker and easier. it was certainly a wake up call for me as if never really given what my exact coverage was much thought and always assumed that all doctors were created equal. Another one for people to check on their health insurance is to make sure it covered non-Pharmac drugs. Pharmac is a great system but it can’t find everything people may need. The more I see of health and the like, the more I think it’s like any other profession, with good and bad and most somewhere in between.

I had my navigation changed over to NZ - bit of a waste of time IMO, the interface on the early iDrive whist impressive 12 years ago is pretty primitive by iPhone standards today.

Always amazed me how they got such little power out of some of those engines. Still, guess they were quite tuneable if you wanted to pump them up.

In silver or black this will look the business. Besides, it competes with the Golf and that’s a FWD platform, RWD was wasted on people buying a 116i to pop to the shops in.

The lesson here is make sure you get a reasonable piece of the company, rather than working your guts out for years and leaving with nothing like this guy did.

Kids...

Drivers airbag, new fuel pump and a wash at Auckland City BMW.

If they replaced the valve stem seals then that’s great news.

Apple TV, come on, don’t be a cheapass.

Cable ties to hold a coil together on a M5.... some people. My thinking has always been that the plugs last about 100k kms or slightly less so I don’t mind paying for coils at that time. I guess the M5 might eat plugs faster than normal though?

I’ve started changing coils whenever doing plugs for that reason. The heat destroys the tips of them and particularly on the larger engines, the ones at the back of the block are difficult to get out without damage.