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and are happy to leave them to rest between outings, so they recover and hopefully go next time I remember reading an article about a new model launch a few years abck (I believe it was the S-type) where they got up and spoke about how their well known reliability issues had been overcome, with the help of Ford ( ). I don't recall the exact numbers, but something like: Of the 10 cars that were there for the press, 2 never left, and only 5 came back.....

A cheap new one will have a waranty. A used old one won't..... but they're reliable and easy to fix anyway (usually). It really depends on the money you want to spend. I've got a big belt driven Ingersoll Rand from the very early 80's?? Dad had it in his Boat Worshop for YEARS... 15+ and it's been at home for 15 ish. I don't know it's size, but it's a big single cylinder with a 3/4 HP I think I've since used it to "paint" a number of cars (badly - I'm crap at painting). rattle guns, undersealing, texture coating a van roof, sand blasting and spot and blasting and a 750NM rattle gun a cuople of times, plus tyres and all the usual stuff. It's never had any work done to it, but is probably due a set of rings - Surely by now it must??? At another job, we had a supercheap type one, which cracked a head and was replaced no questions asked - the replacement was fine and never had any issues in the time I was still there, but it's probably not going to be with you for life. I don't knnow if you can even gets parts, like rings etc???

Often... people pay more in beer than they do in cash I fixed a fax machine for someone, that would normally have been a $40 fix at a shop... He gave me 4x 24 boxes of beer He insisted I take the lot! I can't have too much beer anyway..... I already have 2 beer bellies.

I'm sure something could be arranged I'd have to talk nicely to the Mrs though - it would have to be on a weekend! And I'm always worried about screwing up someone ELSES car!

I did mine, but that's kinda the stuff I do (Medical Equipment). It really not hard, if you have a good guide, some patience and a low speed, very light/small drill. DON'T try to use a 18V Makita or similar! I used a small electric die grinder and awesomly sharp drills, I made a small hole, checked to see I was centred, and then just ate away the sides of the holes just enough to get the screws out. Be sure not to fold the gauge faces too. The rings are a piece of piss - you'll already have the front off whle doing the ribbon, so it takes about a minutes to squeeze them through the holes, and clip them in.

A mix to eclipse all others...

True... That is a picture of a tractor though I do remember the 90's... Didn't like the wood then either. Even Honda had been doing it since the late 80's... In their old man cars like the Legend. I remember painting it on a few Hondas too. A nice bit of colour looks great... body colour looks way better than fake looking "wood" though. I really like the picture Jeffbebe showed with the red. Not for my car, but looks cool.

Especially if it starts working properly, after the brackets are repaired

Nice - looks OK black on a dark car anyway - might look a bit cheap on white or something. Dads 325i SE has them all colour coded in Glacier Blue, along with the bumpers (the top and bottom parts) and looks awesome - quite modern really. Is that sealer you used a urethane type product (paintable etc?). Or silicone? Silicone has it's problems of course - causes shitloads of trouble with paint (ask a car painter!) - but is often acid cure for masonry use, and will make steel rust REALLY fast. Worth checking!

HAHA! I was going to take the piss when you posted the thread with the red paint on... I thought it was just the primer I do like that look above though. I REALLY REALLY REALLY think the wood is hideous, cheap-looking gash. I can't believe people paid money for it! I realise some like it, but I really don't know why I've seen a few painted body colour, but black would be too dark with all the other black interior probably.

It really depends on the car and colour. I got brand new Hella Halogens for our E39, but actually thought the clear corners looked cheap and nasty on our colour (Steel Blue), and the BMW Xenon retrofit kit I fitted came with Gingercators, which I think look way better. They'd look ghey on black and some other dark colours though.

Originally, your car had S705A M sports suspension II, which has the 15mm rear bar. Same as mine. I see no reason why it would have been changed previously.

Two of the guys I know are both diesel mechanics - one was his Mrs car, and had multiple injectors and a clutch, he bought as a demonstrator and sold it at about 50K, when it's 3 year warranty was up. Other guy had a set of injectors when he pointed out he was more qualified that the Toyota tech, on how to do the job correctly, and it had multiple injectors and 2 prior clutches with the last owner, who was also a local business owner known to my mate. He brought at just under 90k from the dealer, previous owner was selling before the warranty expired too. If you look at the reliability sutdies, they all vary a bit, and Toyota does hold some spots, as does Lexus and the US Toyota brand, Scion. There are Citroens and Volvos rated higher on some tables, and in the US studies, toyota commercials don't rank - the US made stuff is better it seems. Over all, you CANNOT define a specific brand as reliable - but you can with specific models, to a point. You do have to be careful reading the studies though - some use average repair cost over a time period, some use faults per 100 cars etc, etc. They tend to look at ALL repairs too, not just major or minor. So a 7 series BMW will have trouble competing with a Corolla, as the corolla has half as many parts (probably less!) so if a soft-close motor on a 7 breaks, it's a fault, where the corolla doesn't have them. We had a rental fleet of old crap a number of years back, and the cars where mostly 90's and early 2000's models. Of those, Nissan and Mazda had marginally lower cost per km as far as repairs went in our fleet (about 120 vehicles). The Mazdas only really lost out, as cambelts popped up a few times, where the Nissans generally had chains.We didn't really have major problems, other than a few headgaskets, transmissions and minor issues popped up fairly often, Oh yeah... for common models - BMW parts don't look too badly priced when you compare to toyota (or other japanese) genuine parts.

VERY VERY true - they've made sh*t diesels for YEARS. Mitsubishi probably have less trouble with their diesels! Toyotas 4 cylinder diesels are renowned for cracking heads - the "new" D4D engines *MAY* be the only one to change that. Plus our 2006 Hiace is SO SLOW.. it SHOULD go forever, but it won't I'd rather drive my 1984 VW transporter. handles better, drives better, rides nicer and is bigger. Current hiluxs have several major, repetitive issues : Injectors and clutches are very common (I known multiple people with multiple warranty claims on both of them). Toyota hasn't been at the top of a lot of car reliability studies for YEARS, plus anything that performs so averagely SHOULD last longer. A new BMW is so complex, that it SHOULD have more problems than a car with no goodies.

The sway bar mount brackets are known to break on E39's: They can break at either end. New ones are available easy enough, and it is possible to get stronger aftermarket ones - Beastpower apparently... not cheap though. New genuine ones are cheap anyway. Plus, if the bracket is too strong, the mount can crack off the frame of the car

Gingercators.

E39 facelifts and E46 are nice. E60... still ugly. More so on the inside.

Oooof... that's ugly! I think I'd get a Tribeca instead: It's like they've taken one of them, fitted the biggest kidney grilles they could fit, and cable-tied on a bumper off something else. Ugh. The E70 will hold their price now, no-one will want the new one - just like the change from E38 to E65. They sold a shitload of E38's when they were being done away with.

I'd do all except the sump. The sump is a total pig of a job, and he only says possible - the others are likely to leak - fairly common problems, the sump is a rarer issue. The rocket cover can start to leak onto the exhaust, cuasing burning smells and smoke. Once the others are done, you may find the sump has nothing wrong. The oil from the oil filter housing gets everywhere - made my sump look quite wet.

Holy crap - I couldn't leave a car out in that! Looks seriously cold!!!

Yeah... I quite like some mercs too... thought the older ones are more my thing. I was joking about the hairdresser thing. I wouldn't have been, if it was a SLK I had a Suzuki Cappuccino, remember... Who am I to comment

Looks nice - awesome design. One of my mates is building something along the same lines (bagged trailer anyway) to carry his E21

get vinyl stuck on. Less lumpy.

Saw an early E39 parked in a paddock at Kaukapakapa yesterday. No pic though - dash cam has turned off It's gone absolutely straight off a corner, cleared a huge drain taken out fence and stopped. Wheels still straight ahead...