Top Secret

I test drove this car when he came to Tauranga not long ago. Drove very nicely. But, the rims make the car.

Bloody hell, so much misinformation in this thread. Especially from rjac001. Lucky it's a sedan, so as not to be a girl's car, right? I've owned 2 subarus. First one was dodgy, and bought off an Indian guy who lied through his teeth. My first car, so naturally it was thrashed day in day out. What went wrong? Oh, nothing. A bit of the common Subaru malady of the lifters ticking, but a bit of Proma MBL8 and Castrol Magnatec and it was fine. Awesome cars. That was an 89 GT wagon. Second suby was also a first-gen wagon, but this had close to 20g spent on it by a Subaru mechanic, over time mind you, and he kept most of the receipts. I blew up the gearbox, but that was totally my own fault (long story), and we managed to put in a WRX gearbox and diff in it for $300 ALL UP. Price up a BMW manual gearbox for that price? Other than that, the car was so so so perfect. Good power, comfortable, heaps of space. And very, very reliable. Hasn't left a sour taste in my mouth at all. Of course, if you get a car that was thrashed for years, then chances are it's gonna break on you, like any other car.. Nice car mate, make sure you service it and it'll treat you right

S14 Evo 6

Hey mate. This was the one off trademe not too long ago with those 18s on it right? Did you end up getting a wof for it? Was it just some bushes (or similar) like the guy said? Cheers Edit: sorry, I might be completely mistaken! Could you give me an overview of what might need doing?

The post 99 thing was already hard enough to stomach, but THIS is just ridiculous. As with DarkWolf, I can see how the greenies want to be eco friendly, but considering our emissions contribute to 2/10ths of F all on the worldwide scale, I can't really understand how the vehicles we were importing were making it much worse. If I'm being ignorant, can somebody explain? Australia actually seems to have a better importing system than we do at the moment, and their imports are of a higher quality. A bit more expensive, but at least you can get what car you actually want to (most of the time)..

Tell me, is that any better than wanna be gangsters that wear flat brim hats, cut the springs on their 318, and put on hideous chromes? These outnumber those Hondas by FAR. I'm thankful they chose Hondas, because at once they crash, the value of my car increases Also, I LOVE E30s, but I'm not about to debate about character, because that's so subjective. I consider my car to have character, as it bobs and weaves all over the place because of coil overs, but get it on a back road, open it up in 3rd gear 9000rpm, and it is a lot of fun. How much do you have to spend to get an E30 to that point? BTW, I'm buying an E30 Peace

I'll have to take some of you non believers for a spirited drive in my civic one day. You may not like it, but you might learn to respect it a little more. Gotta remember, 325i's aren't the fastest things in the world.

I think this thing circulated quicker than sars. On every car-related forum or blog I go to, BAM, it's there!

In saying that, if it's like my mate's E34 525i, it has an 80 litre tank, so 900km on a trip is easily possible isn't it?

Managed to use what's left of my natural ability to fluke my way through Classics yesterday, with about 6 hours study total. Oh well, will study harder for Accounting and Scholarship Economics, which I aim to pass. Frankly, the safety of those cars has nothing to do with him still standing there. How many people do we know that have been in rolled cars, or cars that crashed at some ridiculous speed, and they shrug it off as they didn't even get a scratch. It's all luck. I'm a firm believer in when you're meant to die, you die, so it must be their second chance..

Do you mean old school early 90s DTM? Which has the E30, or BTCC with both of them? I've got quite a few videos on my computer sourced from all over the place which shows all those early 90s races, including one where an E30 is having a duel with an old HDT Commodore Magical stuff. I think I know what I'm going to be doing today then!

Haha, it comes with standards. Saw your car the other day, when I was driving through some random back streets in Pyes Pa. Looks great

Looks very nice rolling though. Quite like it. Why not buy a nice 525i for $2500, leather, and then put some nice rims on it.

I understand what you're saying, just not your reasoning for saying it to begin with. Cars that were meant for Japanese domestic consumption being imported into NZ. Yes. So what? What cars are suited to our environment then? It's the prerogative of the importers what cars they choose to import. And someone in NZ must have wanted that car for whatever reason, because importers aren't going to choose cars that sit on a yard for a year depreciating. It doesn't matter if the parts needed to be imported. They're still going to be as cheap as new parts for the few cars we were assembling here. I never stipulated that you're going to have faultless reliability. As with anything, it's going to treat you how it's been serviced in the past, no matter of where it comes from. A mid 90s Jag, in England, is going to give as much problems there as what it is here. That car doesn't come from Japan as a cheap import. What has location got to do with it? Frankly that's all I have to say on that argument, as going any further is fruitless. How many cars from that era cooked themselves as they tried to get up the Kaimais? Or cooked the brakes on the way down? Plenty. Have a look in the Auto Trader from the mid 80s, and you'll see the biggest death traps for some extraordinary prices. Walking was a better (and safer) alternative. I'm not sure why this was a talking point anyway, it's obvious newer cars are safer, more economical, more eco-friendly (yes I just cringed), with creature comforts like leather, AC, power steering, ABS etc.

Eek, doesn't sound like it's the best buy then. Who drove it if you can remember? I wasn't going to offer anywhere near 4g for it, but regardless I don't want a nugget. Cheers

Best debate I've read in recent times. You have to remember, before the imports actually started coming in, we (well not me, I was probably not even a twinkle in the eye of my dad then) were all driving around in shitty Morris's and Austins, that struggled to make it up the kaimais in one go, and if they did, they probably overheated on the other side. Imports enabled us to actually have a decent level of driving quality, and safety as well. It just so happened that yes, at the same time those once very expensive German cars are now actually affordable for average joe bloggs down the road. So what if he can't maintain it? That's his problem! And if it ends up in the scrapheap, good! That means more cheap parts for "our expensive to fix cars" And if we had tried to keep our local manufacturing plants open (what a joke), we would have to keep pumping them with subsidies to keep them afloat. Doesn't that ring a bit true of GM and Ford asking the US Govt. for bail outs? It may not be completely related, but a company like that should be able to stay afloat of it's own means, not relying on bail outs ala. Ford and Holden.

Why do you say that?

Turns out it's got "new cam belt, water pump, tensioner, spark plugs", so it seems as if he has maintained it properly. The interior is very tidy also, and he described fuel economy with MPG, so he's probably not a young guy. (bar those disgusting tail lights, though he has standards) I'll have a think. Cheers

Thats some food for thought there. Wonder how bad the oil consumption really is then? Cheers guys

Thank you for the quick reply. What about headgasket kits? I assume those parts (headgasket + rings) are all I'd need to solve the oil problem?

Hi guys, I'm looking at this: BMW, but it uses a 'little' bit of oil. Now obviously that word is subjective, so in the worst case scenario, I'd have to replace the piston rings. How much do these usually go for? Will it be the standard M20B25 piston rings? Thanks in advance

S62 E30 M3 :o :o :o :o

Wow, the prices of these seem to vary a lot. Saw a motorsport 328i coupe with leather and BBS 18s go for $5500 a couple of weeks ago. Good luck with sale

Haha, quite expensive really! Wouldn't offer him over 5g for it. Then again I like making it up hills, so I'll pass

Don't mean to highjack, but Low, HOW DO YOU TURN!? That's crazy man!