Allanw

Most likely the oil filter housing (nearly as common as the rocker cover), and the power steering hose clips on the bottom of the reservoir, and the oring on the reservoir lid. All pretty common.

With the VID, you have identified her, and she'll probably admit fault... in which case your 3rd party insurance should pay up and get it back from her or her insurance. If the Insurance company aren't helpful, find another one oafter it's all sorted. Also, dealing with a local branch is often easier and gives better results than the call centre does.

Holy sh*t! Who thought a Mistral could move that fast?!?!?! Nah, seriously, bummer about the car! I actually often leave my dash cams running in the carpark at work, on the days I drive. Just in case... although a modern car vs an 80's VW van... most people stay clear in case their car catches something! Scarily enough, someone using one of the Hospital "Pool" cars managed to do about $8K of damage... IN the work carpark Hope the cops sort her out - causing the damage to start with, but failing to give details etc too.

They don't make a V8 manual though I've studied the conversion though!

I won't be out of pocket - I just need to pay for the other wheel I got!

It's OK Jooles, You can still buy my steering wheel for less than you told me it was worth, if you want . It'll be in Aucks weekend after this one .

Some of the performance difference is due to your prefacelift 525i really being a 523i in disguise - for some reason (and BMW let them do it) the Japs stuck with the 525i badges. Our 525 i ( a "real", facelift one , the little brother of your 530i) actually goes really well, but if I could have a manual 530i, i'd be happy! The M54 is a very good engine, especially with the problem parts fixed (Vanos, DISA and vacuum leaks, Rocker cover and oil filter housing gasket, old cooling system parts replaced). They have a tonne of torque down low, and don't mind screaming either. They have a really good shaped torque curve!

Nah, as far as E38's go, the 730i and 735i are the least desirable - you have the V8 running costs, without it being a 740i with the associated grunt. the 730i V8 was hungrier and slower under most circumstances than the 728i (especially the 728i with the M52TU).

maybe the extra 10K is for the paint... "Metallica Blue"

I still fancy attempting a manual conversion on an E38 728i

Be honest... the "gentle" bit is from the lawn to the driveway!

Well, a cubby type thing - someone might have either. You can buy now on these - may get there in time: http://www.bidbud.co.nz/756592766

You can get a coin tray to go in there too. It's pretty much the same as having cupholders... since the cupholders never usually work anyway.

If you can buy the same stuff from the UK (or europe), the shipping will be buttloads cheaper... ... and usually faster by miles too.

30L/100kms rich???

Oh yeah... Attached a pic of my road from this morning biking to work... It was never repaired when it slumped 1 year+ ago (as already stated earlier), but it's getting mighty deep now!

According to the road code, you have to be able to stop in the distance you can see (minimum - backs you are supposed to be able to stop in half the distance you can see). If you can't stop in time for something on the road, you're driving too fast = careless driving. I did like this story though - these roads were TERRIBLE before the rain started, and are now causing some major damage: http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/rodney-times/10215123/Rocky-roads-in-need-of-repair

They probably all drive BMW's - BMW drivers are wankers.

My road is now down to a single lane, between 2 blind corners(!), because the massive sag that appeared about a year (or more!) ago was never fixed, and now the sag is about 3 times the length, and is quite possibly threatening to drop. all they ever did was dump hotmix onto the crack. They could have at least tried to level the road up a bit, as half the through traffic used to swerve out over the centre line to miss it. Normal around here.

This may be the most "liked" post ever now :-)

there's a pic called "funny-ugly-cars-fixed.jpg"... it's just that it looks like this: "." but a bit smaller. Googling the picture name didn't help either!

Any cars I've had from new had kms on them. Lowest was a VW transporter last year, that had 8 from memory. Just getting from the factory onto the boat will put some on, and they probably run them up at the factory on rollers... surely? VW used to with Beetles. In reality, I don't think a buyer would care if it's 0 or 8. Either way, it's nothing, really.

I found that too - pulling out of side roads in the wet doesn't get the traction light flashing like it used too, and even provoking it doesn't cause drama either (although with the traction off it's a bit different )

I could do a manual E39 525i (M54, not a 523i with a 525i badge), which is really easy to upgrade to a 3.0 M54 engine Motorsport suspension too

The intake boot (as Glenn says) is pretty common, and cheap as chips - I'd get one anyway if I was you - they can spring a leak anythime, if it's the original. You economy sounds OK..... if your mrs drives like mine. While our is a manual 2.5 sedan, the economy doesn't really change much between the M54 engine sizes (that's why you may as well have the 3.0, but I couldn't find a manual 3.0!). My mrs gets about 11.4L/100kms: when she was overseas I did the same run, dropping kids off, going to work just up the road from hers, and I got 9.5 ish L/100kms - it's a mix of light town and slow open roads (40 - 80 km/h stuff), usually averaging about 37km/h on the OBC. On a long run it'll get down to 8 with the family on bord, and I have acheived 7 on a run from Whangarei to Warkworth by myself. Have you done Vanos seals? It won't be related, but they are good to do on the M54, and piss easy.