NZ BMW

This is very cool, I see some kind of prop/mac operator/industrial design skills in all of this. When I was little a friend and I had toy rifles made out of off-cuts of wood and dowel which were at least in our minds better than anything you could buy.

Dispute the credit card charge with the bank.

I saw this parked across from the pools this morning, the red trim looks great. I stopped for a sneaky look through the windows whilst walking past.

Where did you get the windscreen gasket from?

There is also a aux water/coolant pump which kicks in when it's cold to bring the car up to temp faster. Mine is buggered and it takes about 7 minutes to bring the car up to the 12 o'clock position on the temp gauge. If you get someone to scan the car and they delve deeper into the system it will throw a code, Ray up at HellBM found that on mine. Unlike the V8 this pump is not a "must have" for the car so it does not cause any visible issues. My car get's about 10km/L on the open road or better and around 7km/L around town so not so great. My average speed including the odd bit of motorway over the last few months has been 32km/h according to the computer...

I'll tell you everything you need to know about Hiace: 1. Purchase only in white 2. Always drive too close to the car in front of you 3. Always park on yellow lines or half mounting the curb Here ends the lesson.

You've got them set to rain sensor - my understanding (and it's certainly true in my case) is that the sensor, despite being firmly attached is not really that great. They work most of the time, however on occasion it does get confused and takes a bit longer to wipe in heavy rain or wants to wipe at a shorter interval in light rain.

Agree, I usually end up with a Ford Edge when I'm in the US and they're a good SUV. I think it's FWD and thus has not much off-road capability but if you're like most SUV drivers and stick to the roads, it's a good car. IMO Ford USA's products are actually superior to the GM ones. The Ford Fusion is another good 4 door they make, I actually thought it was a falcon of sorts when I drove one.

Sadly customers are often muppets, they don't mean to be, they just are. I'm sure our suppliers think we're muppets sometimes too. I think you should also meet them face to face if possible. Let them unload their anger on you then offer a solution. It sounds like you have their money or some of it already so you are in a strong position. Say you're sorry and committed to the project and then offer them something to smooth it all over. Extended warranty and free future support is often a good thing to add in as you can preserve your margin on this project and price it back in in any future work if you're inclined to do that. We mainly deal with large B2B accounts, a 5k software/hardware project with MYOB sounds like it could be a small to medium size business and you're dealing with the owner, it's their money and they take it personally they're the most difficult sometimes.

You have to give them something ($'s discount) customers don't always have to be right, but they do have to win.

I think based on distribution of heights in the population you'll find that a tiny minority of these cars being sold are owned by those 6.4 and above. So yeah...

Ah, that makes everything so clear to me... I always thought it had something to do with too baggy jeans and flat-peaked caps also.

I don't know what goes on at BMW HQ but I would have an account manager for each dealership who carries a big stick to keep their sales team in line. Sending a complaint on does not a resolution get. It would also be interesting to see how much training BMW NZ provides to the dealership teams - if you want a distributor or franchise network to really embrace your core values and culture, you need to bring them into the family and train them. And no, that's not just sending everyone for a boozy weekend once a year in Queenstown. Sadly for me my phone is connected directly to our centre sales line - our team in the field should be the first port of call for customers/prospects yet I still get phone calls about people not following up leads or clients who need help. Most of the time these people just want to vent and know they've been listened to. It's like the example above: - Visit to showroom (low/no cost) - Giveaways (less than $100) And then the person visits the BMW forum to tell everyone how great Porsche is = WIN.

Yup, that's true - they probably (or should have) raised it with them. Speaking from experience it's very difficult to control exactly what your distributor does. BMW NZ cannot order the salespeople at Team McM or anywhere to do anything. They can raise it at a management level and make their displeasure known. But are they going to tear up the franchise agreement which is working for them over this one issue? You'd be better off raising it with the MD of the dealership you put your purchases through. Losing customers comes out of their back pocket and if they're worth their salt they should care about that and give their sales team an ear full.

That's really the dealers job I would have thought - they should be purchasing X number of tickets to official BMW events and dishing them out to prospects/customers. Do the sales people/managers at dealerships just wait by the phone for orders or something?

We've just done this for our business with about 20 devices. Honestly, if you're a MS based business just go with a Windows 8 tablet. It will drive you nuts trying to get everything to work properly otherwise. We tried with Android during the testing to get apps to replace MS Office but when you can't open some formats, use macros and some formulas etc etc it's just a PITA and not worth it.

As said above made into a "race car" promo vehicle for a mechanics or similar it could work but otherwise it's a bit much. I always have a bit of a laugh that that cars with the most outrageous paint jobs and wings are always the ones with the smallest engine.

How is 1999-2003 annual production? Or is that the average which they take. If it was just one year then you'd easily be able to import the last production model year of pretty much any car as they wind down the lines.

It must only meet three of four requirements, you'd probably be okay.

Haha, I had one of those boxy S-Classes, I liked it but I know lots of people don't. I reserve a special bit of hate for these: The 2nd one is usually clapped out and driven by large families at 80 in the fast lane of the motorway, or by tourists who don't know where they're going.

I saw that episode, of course the first car to break down was the E39... FML I did think at least when they cut the hole in the door "well that will make repairing the window regulator easier".

http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/...n-555243016.htm ? Slightly over 100kms but working Nav is a plus. Also the interior will make Jeffbebe jealous... Also I guess there is nothing like an M3 but for that kind of money you're getting pretty close to 335i's in the newer body shape with the same amount of km's.

I don't know why you want to change the wheels that are on the car. They look great and are period correct. I'd get some new centre caos though.

Lol because BMW is so superior with our exploding cooling systems and our own dodgy electrics? W124's are supposed to be one of the most robust Mercedes ever made.

Boot, our police don't have shot guns from what I understand. I must be honest I think this whole thing has been blown out of proportion. Yesterday I think TVNZ did a live cross all morning from a dark beach before the sun came up where you couldn't see anything and there was no news as such. Only that there was going to be a service/group swim the next day. I have a pretty low opinion of the media in this country as it as and that didn't help. I have no idea why this continues to make headlines days after the event and even if it does require more reporting it's certainly not top of the news stuff. FFS more people will probably be killed by Carl's Jr opening in Queen Street than sharks... A tragedy for his family to be sure but not an important story for the media to keep following.