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Zero tolerance makes little or no difference to the repeat offenders either. As far as I can tell - watching Police 10-7 etc - is that the punishments for drink driving are simply not strong enough. If you can loosely prove that you need your car to get to work or whatever you get to keep your license. If you were so pissed you can't walk and could definitely have killed yourself - or worse - someone else, you get 6 months with no license and a small fine. And a lot of people hop straight back in a car anyway because no-one's really checking that they don't drive for that 6 months. In the UK, you avoid drink driving because the penalties are rightly harsh. Extended loss of license, criminal charges for reckless driving, big fines, etc - and they follow up and check that you're paying your dues, not driving, painting the community centre, etc.

A supercharged 530 doesn't push out much more power than a stock 540i though - and will cost a lot more! EDIT: Would rather wait for a wrecked M5 to cannibalise or get a 540i and supercharge that!

Yeah, there have been a couple. One was pretty tidy from memory but I don't think it's listed anymore. TBH if we ditch the Mazda I need a car that I can drive in the short term - still got to get the kid to school and the dog to the park!

Would only buy an M5 from south of the Watford Gap. Roads only get salted about once every 10 years down there! If I did it, I'd try and use as much of the compatible stuff from the touring as possible... I don't know that much about this stuff but it sounds like it would be a fun project. Just not one I'm certain I'd ever finish! That wagon's pretty cool but we wouldn't be able to fit another car next to it in our car port! Think it probably would be quite pricey - but fun! I have put a lot of work into the 540i but I'm not so wedded to it I wouldn't pull it apart to make something better! That said, I think it might make more sense to just wait for a decent 540i touring to pop up.

Yep, very cool. The problem I foresee is one of patience. It would take a long time to do (both to afford the donor parts and pay for the help I'd need to do the conversion)... And I just don't know if I have the patience to a) wait that long b ) drive around the 530i after the V8 (which has just been tuned BTW) for the foreseeable future. Thinking cap. On.

Going to have a look at a 530i touring on Wednesday. It has alcantara seats and they look fine... The more I think about getting rid of my beast though, the more I don't want to! Hoping for an Xmas bonus so I can find an engine to go in the 530i straight away so I've got something to look forward to!

I know... But it makes the missus think I'm making an effort to get rid of the Mazda Had another interesting idea... Buy a half decent 530i motorsport touring. Save up and buy a cheap M5 from the UK and ship it over and swap the S62, brakes, gearbox, suspension, etc... Now that would be fun!

Thanks mate. Will be sorry to see it go... But if I can find a decent m-sport 540iT or, even better, build an E39 M5 touring, then I'll still be very happy and if my better half's got a big grin on her face rolling around in on oversized, underpowered muscle car she won't notice when I spend our savings on car parts!

Is this still for sale?

I know! Pretty awesome, love those 80's Camaros - so brash! I looked for the 540iT listing... Couldn't find it. Maybe it's sold.

She's a bit of a bogan... She claims I forced her to sell her old Commodore and buy the Mazda when our son was born and that it's unfair I get to have a 'weekend toy'. So I said if I can find a decent 540i motorsport wagon I'll give up the sedan and she can buy one of these - http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/chevrolet/corvette/auction-657413786.htm or even better, one of these - http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/chevrolet/corvette/auction-657024156.htm Although personally it'd have to be one of these for me... http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/chevrolet/camaro/auction-657301388.htm - if we could find one cheap enough.

I'll add it to the watchlist... Probably need a cheaper 'shell' if I'm going to do an engine swap as I'd need to buy in a fair bit of help to do the swap! EDIT: Plus I don't really want to swap all of the suspension parts, etc if I can avoid it... but I guess I could...

Or a cheap Motorsport shell that I can put my engine into. My wife wants to get an old Camaro now that we've got a garage at my office and we can't afford to 3 cars. We still need a wagon for child/dog/etc so I would have to sacrifice my sedan... But I don't want to sacrifice the V8!

Looks like fun... Great to get the track pretty much to yourselves!

Wanted to look at this car but the listing was gone within a day... Anyone here buy it?

A couple of weeks ago. Took a bit of sanding to get them to fit perfectly but pretty happy with them. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ha! She'd just had a bath so possibly... For all of 10 minute! EDIT: A bird (nesting in our eaves) has already shat on it this morning. FML! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A tidy silver E39 530i outside my house. Looks good next to it's big brother

No worries, he seemed a good dude. Hope the tune's good - hard to tell at the moment but it feels better. Will wait til it beds in but will be keen to get it on the dyno again sometime!

Josh just helped me out with a bit of fine tuning on the 540i. Had no idea it was his birthday. What a top bloke for giving up his time on his birthday so he deserves a bit of acknowledgement! Cheers Josh, enjoy the rest of your day!

Get a used but undamaged bumper from Brent or Ray - they may even have a motorsport one - and repaint. Should still cost well under a grand.

Aha... Picked them up cheap and was told they were from an E39 - probably should have checked. Will amend my post to suit E36!

Oops... Added.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=657358910