Apex

Doughnut is pronounced "Churro" when it comes to N54 beamers.

Shesh, lucky to have no injuries from that, would be scary rolling a convertible let alone a 80's one.

Ha, my dad had one brand new in 96, even when a few years old half the car had been recalled and replaced.. But boy did it drive nice in 96, was the best car in the world by a long shot.

The best driving E34 is the second facelift model code named "E39". They fitted rack and pinion steering, a aluminum McPherson strut front end and great multi link rear, they then stiffened the body rigidity by 50% and massively improved driver ergonomics.... Then they went away and the accountants said they had to make the rest of the car out of blue-tac and Whitakers dairy 33% milk chocolate. After three hours in the sun they had the styling and durability done and the cake was baked. The E39 chassis was so good Holden used it to build the last Commodore on a decade or so later and it remains an all time great. But don't let that distract us from rear seat belts in an E34 and the Ronan chase scene. In and ideal world you would slide a E39 Chassis under an E34 and call it the best BMW ever made or something really pretentious like "the ultimate driving machine".

Two rogers don't make a right. E46 Manual = Connoisseur

It was a beautiful car the last time I had a quick drive and look at it, previous owner was a member on here and the car was/is amazing. Would be a great cruiser for someone, they are far from sporty, nothing like a E30 in terms of "fun" but can be driven by a 40+ yo without looking like as much a saddo.

But old dangerously hard tyres are better for drifting wet roundabouts and doing "one wheely peely" when leaving BBQ's this summer. The later model car has a different profile tyre and a slightly higher offset, so not an ideal fitment. Would say the older car would be easier to sell with the OEM wheels also.

Brother from another mother is more appropriate, well given the mother is responsible for the looks. Spotted a lot of gen 1 X5's in Tuakau. There are now classics IMHO.

I know in Dutch its "Rijst", and the Dutch themselves are almost "ricey germans" That's a Prodrive STI Z4. Not sure if that car is serous or an actual troll, if its a troll that is genius.

If you want to go real cheap and colorful look out for a 306 diesel, they are likley the cheapest car to run available, talking over 1000km per 60L tank, have comfortable (sometimes colorful) seats and are really really fun to drive if there are corners involved. 200km commute sounds punishing.

Thoughts on buying a few things now? I wonder how desperate people are to sell if approached with cash and a offer? We have had a few years of hyperinflated prices so it may be a mental hurdle to accept that your "rare classic" is not that appealing in a recession. I'm guilty. I turned down a good offer last year and now I cant even get someone to come and kick the tires at half the price. Would think if you have the space, keep the car for 5 years, or if you have the cash, buy now, enjoy and know you got a good deal that will appreciate, albeit a bit slower than they did a couple of years back. If you only make 10k its still more fun than money in the bank.

Cool car, very niche spec. Perfect for ski trips that involve a 1200km of travel and lots of corners. Or, a really long Police chase in winter. Or towing heavy things up the Bombay hills whilst sitting in the slow vehicle lane passing everting and giving them the troll face. Or just a cool looking white coupe. Well done.

Your first car has now been reclaimed by the earth and had the structural rigidity of a tissue box also. It is logical, the tax I mean, it could even incentivize people to ride motorbikes or scooters also if registration was next to nothing. sh*t, they may even walk 600m to the shops! Take 70c off per litre of petrol and add the road user tax on when you pay your registration, seems simple. Will be like the UK where it costs you thousands to drive your car each year. It will also help out the "he is probable just trying to feed his family'" shoplifting class who don’t register their vehicles anyways, what’s the point, run it into the ground and a new one will appear eventually. Also good if you own an old car. The future is bright, I’m getting the old Merc, will run it on chip fat and disconnect the speedometer, its so slow you don’t need it anyway.

Would make sense. Just include it when you pay your registration. I say base it on weight, say $1 per KG per year divided by millage traveled. I'm no engineer, but I would say the heavier the vehicle the more damage it does to the road, it would also incentivize people away from Ute's and SUV's and make Lotus an appealing proposition once again.

Most tires come out of Asia because that is where all the rubber is, my last three sets of Michelin Pilot Sports have come from Thailand, and they are regarded as the best tyre availably, so don't worry about the origin of the tyre. Sorry, cant comment on Pirelli themselves, I just buy Michelin because they win every test and are fitted to every car in the world worth buying.

Road user charges. That is a minefield that is even more complex than taking GST of fruit and vegetables. Seems straight forward with a full EV. They use the road they should pay full road users. Simple. Hybrid with non "EV mode", well they use the road but pay for it with petrol tax like other petrol cars, the leaser amount they use the lesser tax they pay. Plug in hybrid, complicated due to variability of millage done in EV mode. Easy solution would be to somehow deduct additional road charges any time the ICE is running as so you are not double dipping. I would think they would need you to keep a log book as you do if your a farmer or how they used to do back with diesel when RUC were introduced. Will be a sh*t show.

25km would be fine for most people, us included, I really like that concept, not only does it save on fuel costs it reduces unneeded wear and tear on the ICE motor with repeated cold starts and short distances. Great concept. A shame they don't do a touring. Regarding performance, what I found was the following, please correct me if I am wrong. The 330e can do 0-100 sprints in about the same time, 6 seconds or so. But It can only do it a few times before running out of "electric motor assistance", and at that point its a 0-100 in 9-10 second car. Same for a back road blast, if you were to leave Bombay and drive "enthusiastically" or "performance", you would have no "hybrid assistance" by the time you hit Mercer and essentially be driving a 330i with three Samoans in the back. A 535i on the other hand can floor it all day with consistent performance and its only hinderance is having to recharge for 5 min every 400km.

MPQWER? I wouldn't've have thought a ICE high performance BMW would have been Chlöe Swarbrick's first choice as a Green MP but there you go, always a surprise! Real treat yesterday, 40 Ferraris, old and new and then 40 odd Porsches heading south of BP Solar. So cool seeing clubs in convoy on the Motorway. I did spot a BMW yesterday too.

Bargain. I can hear that accelerating up a hill from here. At the bottom it linked to this: https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/318i/listing/4409852676 Am I missing something? 318i on fake wheels?

100% agreed, very tempting, we actually looked at one yesterday, the Calais V model with all options and low kilometers, at circa 30k they are great value. My only concern as it will be like my currant vehicle when something goes wrong, ie, zero dealer support, parts support and limited supply (if any) of trained specialists. Have been through that the past decade with my other cars and its a PITA, especially now its a family vehicle. I don't want the responsibility of that. Have owned a couple of new Opel's (Holden) in the past, would consider a new one if they imported the wagon and could sell them at a competitive price. Have only taken day road trips in my 3 door hatch back and we managed fine, even with the dog, so I can make most stuff work. Grew up with a family of five in a small Ford Laser so i'm not unfamiliar with the clown car concept. Sorry, I did read my comment and can see it may have been misconstrued as aimed loaded, I was just meaning in general people say "drives just like a car", even about ute's.. My cars are non BMW so no need mention them on a BMW Forum, its like revealing you like House music on a forum of hard core rockers, all it does is open yourselves up to ridicule, generally one eyed fans are incapable of using that eye to see things from another persons point of view. We looked at a few BMW's on the weekend but all were Jap imports and smelled like cigarette's, non had service records.. will hold out to see a good NZ new car at some point.

Thanks, I had done a similar comparison, its one of the strong points for the Chrisler product I have is that it makes good power (280hp) from its V6 running regular fuel, compared to say a 2.0T or 1.6T vehicle making less power yet having to run premium. It saved a substantial amount over a year based on 35-40,000km, it sounds better and is simpler in design, ie, less components. It’s the German gearbox that is letting it down, ZF 9 speed FML. It does seem simple non turbo motors that run on regular are no longer though, well unless you buy a Toyota/Lexus, but what would they know eh. We have looked at the C350e and 330e or Lexus hybrid but neither made much sense, the technology is already outdated in them and you essentially end up with good car hindered buy a 300kg battery and electric motor nearing the end of life cycle and taking up boot space, I figured I may as well just fill one third of the boot with I-Phone 5’s for the same effect. If it wasn't for modern safety standards I would likley be happy with one of these.

Thanks for the input. I already have a SUV, have had a couple actually and can say they are less practical than a wagon or even a hatch back in many cases, problem is the roof line protruding down at the rear door point, it impedes on ability to load the car .. the same way many "seven seaters" have seats eating into cargo space. Dynamically SUV's are compromised also, maybe not a problem for some but I am a little picky, I take the back roads. You notice how compromised SUV's are when you hop from SUV to car. To argue that they "drive just like a car" is only really just revealing your helmsmanship XP level. The seating position is nice though, easy on the back to get in and out or load the baby, so they do have advantages. Basically just want a proper long roof wagon that drives like a car again, I would like something that I actually want to take on road trip. I did spot that, looks nice. Thanks for the input.

Thanks for the input. Sounds about as expected for economy, our currant SUV is doing 10.8L/100 average, we only fill once a month so no big deal. I can throw a wrench, mechanical stuff is ok, and I don't mind replacing the odd sensor or coil if needed. Its the hard to diagnose gremlins that give me the shits, especially if they can paralyze the car for seemingly trivial reasons leaving us stranded or stuck. I started looking at wagon's last night and there isn't much available that is simple anymore, maybe a VF Holden Commodore SV6 and that's about it. Kind of stuck as to where to look TBH. I know its ignorant to say modern cars are "too complicated" and I am aware they are more reliable than ever, but I am aware at how useless specialists are these days and what they cost and I have blown literally tens of thousands with dealers over the years so I'm a bit skeptical. Id buy new with a warranty but it seems even basic sh*t is 70+k these days and my brain cant justify new cars prices.

Thanks for the information. The 535i is the one that appeals to me, guessing it has a twin scroll turbo and will run fine on 95? What sort of average consumption are you achieving? The claimed consumption seems to good to be true.

The C-Tech kit come with a easy tether plug also. I just tell people my car is EV. Can say from experience that remembering to unplug it before driving away is recommended.