Apex

I love the "don't believe everything you see on social media" argument. A. I don’t have social media. B. I am capable of looking at actual data and making a decision based on that C. I have spent time in the US and experienced what it is like. D. Did I mention the actual f**king data? Now, I’m no math expert, but even if you do some “kiwi’s can do anything, let use per capita” math on the situation it doesn’t look like a great place to raise a family vs New Zealand, there have been over 40,000 people killed with guns in the USA this year alone, over 650 of those actual mass shootings. Call me a pussy, but I don't like the idea of unhinged people having multiple guns around my family. Myself included.

Oh cool, its a underrated place for sure, most people just stay in the airport. I think it may be a while before Monitor Lizard curry is available in Auckland? Did you go to the Zoo? Was probably the best Zoo I have ever been too, mainly because they let you into the enclosures and I had the chance to see a white tiger up close.. and Speaking of Lizards, there was one enclosure that had us standing next to a Comodo dragon, I was scared. Glad you had a good trip, and you are right with the lack of vibrance, Kiwi's seem to mostly occupied with what their house is worth and then never leaving it unless they are going to a shopping mall or McDonalds.

Good for you! Maybe getting active and eating less processed foods was the key, cant say I have ever lost weight geographically other than a dose of food poisoning or some people get gastric bypasses abroad. Did you explore further than KL? I spent a month there in 2015 and was awesome, the roads into the highlands were nice, way better than here, and that’s ironic when you look at their poverty rate vs ours. Its just a shame they really only have Protons. Also visited (one of) the worlds oldest rain forests, Taman Negara and hang out with their aboriginal people, was humbling. I found KL is almost a country in itself, like Singapore is, the rest of Malaysia is so different, no alcohol for example as everyone is Muslim.

Still, id rather it animals than humans. The amount of guns in América scares me more, or the automatic weapons Police carry everywhere in France, or the people sitting in windows on quiet streets in Brussels and hand signaling each other.. or being followed for 6 blocks by Somalians everywhere in Italy. Safety is something we take for granted here in NZ, it seems a majority are upset because someone has some colours on and uses bad language, or a 13 year old does a wheely past on a dirt bike or ram raids a shop that sells tobaco, vapes and meth pipes...

I found deleting all social media and not having a TV helps... Also, once you get out of main big cities life improves substantially. Aside from being on holiday itself, I would be interested to hear about what is better in other countries though. (have travelled the world and noted pro's and cons) At this point Australia is the only country I would consider moving too, and that based purely on earning 20% more and paying 20% less to live.

its almost like your immune system is weakened... hmmmmn

Maybe try E30Andy? He is closer to you and might know where too look? I know he has had a few X5's. I think you have made a good decision shutting it up. More so these days that there are so many EV's around. Somewhat embarrassing when a 75 year old women in a MG can walk away from you at the lights in silence.

Thanks David Assuming I cant find anyone then I will have to give it a go.. I normally do have a go but if I wreck this unit there are no replacements available is all so i would rather give it to an expert and pay them for their experience, tools time and skills.

Who do you go to when there are no replacement parts available? I have a climate controlled blower motor fan with a burnt out resister that needs repairing. The resister is built into the unit. It can be repaired, they fix them in the UK, but local auto electrical guys are not too interested. Any help appreciated, there must be some clever people around!

This NZ new one is nice with lower millage, has had 6k knocked off the price. I think I would look here for a representation as to a good one is worth. https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/435i/listing/3468066661 As Gareth touched on, cars are not selling, and especially sports cars, it seems people are buying on quantity vs performance. Also, who is the demographic for the "personal luxury sports segment" that the 4 series falls into?

Honestly, its great to see you out using it, love the van also, I was always against them and preferred tenting but now we have a baby I can see the appeal! Like you, the family (wife) has an SUV as we have a big dog and a small human, Kayaks, awnings and like camping and adventuring. We had a Land Cruiser but it was too big for urban stuff and TBH it was uneconomical to run, so we down sized to a Jeep Trail Hawk, but in three years we have only off road a few times, one safari and a bit of overland and beach stuff. The Land Cruiser was awesome at the offroad stuff though and I miss its dependability vs the Jeep, would love the upcoming new Prado but have been told they will be over 100k. I have a few interesting cars for specials occasions, Sunday drives, track days, Targa, but these days I mostly walk, well 28 days of the month. I am a motoring enthusiast in the same way people own a horse for recreation.

Stoked there are three Graham's with correct spelling around here, I feel we are some times out numbered by all the Graeme's and people relay don't know the struggle of having every other email received starting with "Hi Graeme" even if our actual email address has Graham@ in it. I know there is a lot going on in the world at the moment so I can see why these real issues are overlooked. Well done on the X5 I think, I would love to hate on it but it seems you are actually using it as "sports utility vehicle" so kudos to ya, keep being you boo.

Agreed. 10-15k service maybe cheap insurance for the cist of a service, or just do it yourself. Had a Ford diesel with that service interval period, serviced at Ford from brand new, blew up on us a few months out of warranty at just under 100,000km, Ford charged near 15k to fix it because there were no second hand motors available at the time, they refused to accept that it was a manufacturers problem... then the next year they extended the warranty from 3 to 5 years. FML Guess who never purchased a new Ford ever again.

Its only for stuff he has done recently though. So Free Air at the gas station, a jump start and about 6$ at the self wash from the looks.... adds to watchlist.

Honestly. I feel this guy has been told its a classic by someone and now he is too far into the facade to turn back... Its like when a kid finds something in the garden and brings it in to show you and you pretend its gold because you don't want to hurt his feelings and tell him its a 1991 10c coin and neither rare or valuable at all. Also. In that 3 years they should have found time to colour code the bumpers, fit some basket weaves at least, maybe a IS or SE lip? Maybe then we could maybe see the price through the cloudy meth pipe as being even remotely reasonable?

Group buy? I wonder what reserve is?

WHAAAAAAAT is that thing! https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/528i/listing/4434283986 So keen on this as a Sunday drive car, or even to fit some decent brakes and troll people at track days. lucky its not local.

Arguably they are not. A guy I used to work out with around then had a black 88 M3 and he paid 18k for it and used it as a cheap daily, he never even cleaned it, was just a car. Old enough to actually go back to being a kid in the 80's when my dad made an enquiry to buy a new RHD converted one and was quoted around $150k, about three times what his 320i cost him, and the 320i had more cylinders, an auto and more doors, was a hard sell at the time. Just think, if you purchased a E30 M3 new in the 80's and accounted for inflation it might be worth that again some day at the rate things are going. To be fair, 120k would have brought you a nice house a good area in Auckland at the time so maybe not the best investment.

As a previous BMW owner I am all too aware of how hard they are move around when they are not running so you have to appreciate that he picked it up and moved it. I have also pushed a car in jandals before and it can be a high risk game, especially if you catch a foot on the open door when trying to steer it. The guy who dumped them has some space back and this car is now someone elses problem / liability, he is now likley having to deal with tyre kickers. Can we give him a 3/10 for effort? He's doing more than sitting on a forum complaining. Cant say I could be bothered doing something like that, I'm all for a flip if it means taking something and improving it, better still if you can enjoy it for a bit before on selling. Most of the time I feel I have saved a car from a wrecker.

I feel Beanie, Singlet, Socks and Jandals guy is the brain child behind this flip, I can tell he is a "hustler that is street wise" from the outfit, an entrepreneur when it comes to filling out "occupation" in forms. I trust him more than any car dealer I have spoken to recently though, outfit aside, he is putting in some effort.

Nice find. How good does a pre-facelift car look with a Tech-2 kit though, so good! Can this be in the 10 commandments of E30? Thou shall not mix facelift and pre-facelift. Also ironic.

Agree with generalizing, but like everything else in life, when the stereotype fits the narrative 95% of the time you can only really laugh and if you get offended you are likley the stereotype trying to justify your decisions. I’m happy to judge and throw generalization around, I happen to own a Ozzie stat right off and a Japanese import too, both are sh*t boxes but I love them, I have seen springs break on UK cars that are only a few years old thanks to road salt, I have had to grind parts off cars because they were rusted on. NZ are the bottom feeders when it comes to used unwanted imports, we let nearly anything in that the rest of the world wont, or simply don't want, the importers make money off them. No one who can actually afford a better NZ new car chooses the import because they prefer cloth seats and Japanese labeled instruments, they choose them because they are cheaper and readily available. Repainting a front bumper and replacing the front control arms is no big deal to me vs replacing a transmission or wondering why my car has tyres that a 10 years old... hint, tyres don't wear out when your car sits in start stop traffic for 10 years. They should really put an hours timer on them like a digger.

I have three well maintained NZ new cars with service history books etc. Its no mystery or a new thing and is common knowledge that Asian imports are not maintained to high standards because they will be exported and dumped after a few years, they have no records and spend a lot of time sitting idle in traffic vs clocking up millage. Like UK cars are full or rusty bits and Australian car were written off. There is a reason NZ new cars demand a premium and are more desirable.

I sympathies, I won’t ride a bike here in New Zealand traffic, I feel safer in third world countries where everyone is on a bike TBH, they have a sence of whats going on around them and motorists know how to play. At least they drive fast in Italy, explains the statistics, here speed is attributed to less that 20% of fatalities, so that means 80% of people just suck at driving even slowly. We are so backwards as a nation that entire car loads of people die simply because they don't wear seat belts, don't maintain their cars, or still think its ok to have 7 drinks and drive. On topic. I am also in the same boat, looking at a family wagon that is fun to drive for around 20k, yet practical. Its slim picking, I would hazard that your currant car is as good as any TBH. My list was.. Skoda Octavia VRS : Reliability issues, even from new these are commonly reported as being disastrous and has been confirmed as so by friends who own and work on them. A shame because they tick so many boxes. Holden Commodore VF SV6. Great chassis, cheap parts, reliable. My wife thinks they are for bogans and wont drive one. I do agree there are many shitty Commodores on the road and they do attract equally shitty people, but they sold so well for a reason! Holden Commodore ZB. Great price, lots of car for the money... but German built so may as well buy a BMW if your going to be that committed to maintenance. At least BMW have parts support. 2.0T is thirsty in real world and has to run 95+. BMW F11. I haven’t seen a good one for sale as yet in the past couple of months, lots of jap imports in crap spec’s, smelling like cigarettes or just really average condition, ie, trim falling to bits, rubbers all crumbly, paint average.. Look forward to seeing a NZ new well maintained one, happy to pay a premium for that. Wild card for me is a Ford Mondeo Titanium, it’s a curiosity as I know they handle really well and go way faster than you think, like the BMW, it would come down to finding a good one. Good luck with your search, it seems you are doing thorough due diligence so that’s a start, with the amount of F11 specs I can see where you can get lost. In the mean time, cleaning up your currant car may rekindle the romance, its not a quantum leap forward to a F11 after all.