djvinylsofa

Welcome to the forum. Nice one, you'll enjoy driving it.

So, I flagged getting the one on the wharf which I thought might be an Alpina (but wasn't). Found this car on trade-me and got it instead. Has service history filled in from day one in Japan plus in NZ. It drives like a silver bullet and looks like one too. I'm stoked. Hopefully I won't be here needing mechanical advice any time soon... looks pretty well looked after to me. So now an E46 318i Touring and E39 525i Touring household. Conversion complete.

Well, checked it out early and it was in fact a 'Racing Dynamics' badge. The car was not for me so will probably end up on a lot/auction somewhere.

Derek, I'll update after the weekend once I've seen it in the flesh. Cheers.

Neal, Thanks for that. Will do.

Riiiiighhht. As easy as that eh... Well if it's a fakey but still rocks as an E39 I'll get the badge changed before buying. False pimping is like cleaning your tongue with a toilet brush. It might feel good at first, but its a shitty thing to do.

Thanks for the reply. These useful FAQs were also on the link you provided: http://www.thealpinaregister.com/faqs At least arms me with some knowledge when I go to view... will be interesting to see how it stacks up.

Hi all. I'm new to BMWs (ex Saab). I live rurally, north of Auckland. First addition to the family has been a 2002 318i Touring (below) which is my girlfriend's. Now I'm looking at getting a 2003 528i sedan. It's still on the wharf, but from the one blurry pic I've seen it seems to have an Alpina hood badge. I couldn't find much info except on wikipedia. Can anyone please tell me about Alpina? i.e. differences/pros/cons/tips that a newbie might not be aware of? COuld this affect price and/or maintenance later on? Or is it possible someone has just put a badge on it for no reason? Cheers.