NZ BMW

#1 - I like to own my cars with a warranty on them.

Exactly, I notice the comments above all saying “yes” but I am not convinced that if the sidewall is compromised you can drive on them safely. It appears you can in some circumstances but I don’t know how confident I would be in some tyres and in certain types of damage: https://www.boston.com/cars/car-guides/2018/07/30/can-i-still-drive-with-a-damaged-run-flat-tire https://f30.bimmerpost.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1398649

So if you get a gash in the sidewall of a run-flat can you keep going? I have gone the conventional tyre route with a kit of goo and a compressor (which I don’t even know works). I must admit when I went down to the west coast a couple of years ago and saw no cell reception in a few places I got a bit nervous...

https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-2566790363.htm

If you can spend a little more you’re in E70 territory with the 4.8 and 355HP. Might be something to consider.

Yeah... 19” was in the original post but okay.... There is a pricing configurator on the Bridgestone website if you want actual information as it relates to your situation.

Above - I realised I fat fingered my phone keyboard and made it sound like those were not the sizes I purchased.

I’m no race car driver like a lot of people like to think they are. I’m sure something with was OE on some Ferrari’s will be fine for my 320D! They were 19 inch - 225/45 and 255/35 or something like that. There is sale on for another week of buy one get one half price. So basically a 25% saving so a full set should be somewhere in the region of $1750 if my early morning maths is correct.

No idea - I just asked for tyres for my car and specifically did not want RFT ones. I knew it would be more but I just shook my head. The emails I have suggested that they have a warehouse full of tyres somewhere which surprised me too. They seem good tyres and BMW are using them in Australia as the tyre for their M-cars on their driver experience days.

I’m getting a set of these tomorrow. For what it’s worth Auckland City BMW wanted $2800 for a set of 4 with a wheel alignment. Bridgestone direct was about $1300.

I was in China end of last year - most car plants running single shift and not a full week. The market was stuffed. Lots of companies were suffering double digit downturns.

I had a Mercedes which came in from Singapore about 15 years ago and it had been repainted from metallic black to silver, including the engine bay. It was actually pretty well done in the sense that there was no evidence until I dinged up a panel and found what was underneath...

No iDrive is the big winner in these cars IMO. The one in my old X5 was just so out of date and so slow it was pointless.

I would rather own the other and with much lower kms personally, although a wagon appeals to a lot of people.

I’ve owned a couple of Mercedes. I actually think they are more durable/reliable than BMW. For example none of my Mercedes ever had a cooling system failure at around 100k kms like all my BMWs have. I’ve also had a lot less suspension work on them, I assume owing to being less sporty. I think fun depends on what you’re looking for.... AMGs in my mind are more muscle cars than sporty.

https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/mercedesbenz/auction-2636844968.htm It’s no M3 but hard to see how you could get more for your money. There’s a lot cheaper than this but with higher kms.

No. I say “yeah that’ll take six months after all your smoko breaks!”

They are good. I went with Nest as I brought in all the alarm and smart locks from the US. High def recording, facial/person recognition and all backed up to the Google Cloud is pretty hard to beat. One thing I didn’t like about Arlo was no mains power (I know you can buy adaptors) although means you can place them anywhere. Also I think the Nest ecosystem is more complete.

Pretty much the same thing isn’t it?

Yeah I can imagine it’s a hard life being a non-franchise dealer right now. I get the feeling that a lot of them finance the stock and rely on a constant roll-over on thin margins to make a living.

Do we rent anything good (BMW) in New Zealand? Rather ironically I arrived back at the office this week to my new Hertz Gold Status card or whatever it is. Not that I will be using that any time soon!

Yeah, it's the rest of the car (interior etc) that always worries me. I am somewhat more interested in this thread because I am dipping my toe in the market for a SUV again - I can wait though... I am interested to see what prices do. That would be my advice - if you don't need to make a decision right now, wait. I bet prices (especially on E70's) will come back a bit more.

It’s not really far off at all. The 5.0 has more torque than anything except the M50D but both those top end models seem pretty hard to find. I dunno, I have a diesel now and they are great but a lot of the stuff on the used market seems to be really high mileage and pretty clapped out.

When the blowback is worse than the original “crime”. ?

Really rated my 4.8L E70. Only reason I flicked it on was that the warranty was running out. If it’s a secondary car I would go for the petrol and even the V8. On long runs they don’t use that much fuel and the cost/km differential when you buy.... that’s a lot of petrol money.