Mark

That car is owned by a member on here. "Kento", he's a nice bloke, has many very nice BMW's.

You're selling? Nice Z BTW.

There are a few ways: Speedo as mentioned (however that could have been swapped out as HT mentioned) There may be stickers under the bonnet in Japanese... or on the toolkit in the boot. Sunvisors may still have stickers written in Japanese. If it's an auto it will most likely have the Jatco gearbox - crawl under the car with a torch and look for JATCO stamped on the side. Also, check your build sheet which is stapled under the rear seat bench. From (my very vague) memory, if your car is Japanese it should be stamped "OK" with a Japanese marking.

I'd get the dent in the right rear door fixed first before you worry too much about wheels and suspension!

Car looks really sweet Nick... and some nice shots too... can I suggest you brighten some of them up? Dark and moody shots look cool, but you still need to be able to see the detail of the car. First parking garage shot is my fav... well shot, well lit and great desktop material.

Haha Pjay, I just Rickrolled the entire office! There's a cacophony of Rick Astley blaring from every PC! Brilliant!

Looks like a fun project! That boot rust doesn't look too bad.... is it mainly surface rust? What about the rest of the car, how much more is there to tackle?

Those wheels are awful. Sorry. Find a nice set of basketweaves and lower the car tastefully on some quality suspension components.

An E28 M5 would cost considerably more than $25k My list: E30 M325i with S50 engine swap. E46 330i manual coupe E28 M535i in black on 18 inch Style 5's E38 750iL Top end E30 series race car for some fun on the track.

Drool!

If you decide to modify anything, make sure you don't cut into anything and keep all the original parts so you can return it to stock. It will be worth more in years to come if you keep it completely original and mint. Very jealous of your find... welcome to Bimmersport!

Please post the commercial once it's finished! I've thought many times how sweet it would be to buy some tasteless boy racer BMW and crush it in front of him!

This has been discussed before... do a search for "BBS". The 5 series wheels don't fit 3 series cars without quite a lot of modification. The guys in the states do it a lot... here's a thread on the subject:

A new switch shouldn't be too expensive. You never know when you might need to double park!

Protecta Insurance. They've been excellent and paid out on all of the claims I've made. Had the driveshaft reconditioned and the water pump replaced while the car was in having the auto repaired. Total cost was over $2500. My cost was just $750 (excess on three claims as they treat each problem as a separate claim)

Bump - I have the car back and my original post has been edited with job description and costs.

Are the rear wheels different to the front? Oh yeah, nice car yada yada.

Nice car. Is this the same car that was on Trademe recently for $3500 with 195k's on the clock?

Hmmm... have to say I like the CH's better. Sorry!

It's stamped on the side of the gearbox... crawl under the car and have a look if you like!

Thanks for the info Jochen, very useful. However, I was told that Japanese BMW's were sent as complete knockdown kits from Germany and assembled in Japan due to laws that required all cars to have at least a certain amount of Japanese parts in them, hence why we have the Jatco transmissions. Otherwise, wouldn't all cars have the sturdier ZF trannys installed?

Don't you work at a BMW dealership? Just get a written valuation from them to give to your insurance company.

Insure it for market value... chances are you won't find a replacement car for under market value if it gets nicked and you'll be out of pocket.

OK, just had the call from Aceomatic: I'll need to clarify some of what he said when I go to pick the car up as it was all a bit too technical for me... but here's the gist: The vibration was in fact nothing to do with the transmission and was in fact seized universal joints in the driveshaft. They have sent the driveshaft away to be rebuilt with new joints. I'll edit my original post to reflect this. The transmission issue was a "shiny drum". Apparently the "steel bands" that aide in changing gears grip to the sides of the drums to do so. When the drum is worn it gets shiny so it can't grip and has to be refurbished or something. (I might try and get a written explanation cos I don't really understand it!!!) The mechanic mentioned that this happens due to wear and tear and perhaps has something to do with repeated use of the 1st to 2nd change in gridlocked Japanese traffic rather than an inherent problem with the transmission. Costs still to be confirmed... I'll keep you updated.

Yeah, but the Prius was being driven flat out... the M3 had to just dawdle behind to keep up!