E30 325i Rag-Top

Not bad, especially being a manual. I might have a fog light that would fit in that hole in the front bumper…

There does seem to be some good buying in the E46 at the moment, prices seem to have pretty much bottomed out (even E36 are going up now!) and they are still a great looking car - especially in that spec, LCI with M Tech II body kit. A bigger engine would be good if you want to zoom, but if it's just pootling around town the 2.2ltr might be adequate. Wagons are nice, but of the options given in this thread I would take the M-Sport sedan over the non-M Sport wagon but then that is my personal taste. Quite often regret selling my wagon tbh. If you are not too fussed about the lack of modern tech - or want to fit aftermarket nav, etc systems then they are still great cars. I'm now off to browse TradeMe, dammnit now look what you've made me do!!

Well, clearly the E30 316i, why? Because E30. If it were easy to predict which would be the cool / collectable / valuable cars in 30+ years time then we would all be storing up cars when they hit the bottom of their depreciation curve to pull out in the future and make wads of cash. Ferrari, Aston Martin, Lambo, etc aside unfortunately there seems to be absolutely no rhyme or reason as to what becomes a collectable classic and what becomes an old lemon.

There are differing punishments for different crimes I guess, so it can be argued that the penalty for one (theft) should be different to the other (speeding), although if that M3 CSL owner was speeding at 100kph past a school at 8.30 in the morning then the crushing penalty would be more than justified. It's the different cars should be treated differently bit that I struggle with, what car the criminal owns shouldn't come into it, whether it's a rare collectable car or a common or garden shopping hatch, the penalty should be the same. Would it be unfortunate if a rare car got crushed because of a criminal, yes, should it still be crushed - hell yes, would I be sad about it? No. In this instance I think the crushing of the vehicle is down to the non-roadworthyness as much as it's dubious past. In other parts of the story it is referred to as a "cut-and-shut" that has been poorly executed and was deemed unsafe.

You’re assuming that the owner who had the car taken off him and crushed was the thief of the cars or knew parts were stolen. Story has now reached Driven, with a link to Instagram story, the fact that the judge ordered that the car should be returned and police had to pay out suggest the owner had no knowledge of or part in the thefts. As is often the case innocent buyer has lost out and the criminals not. Why should that make any bit of difference? Both are crimes and the punishment is the same. What the car is shouldn’t matter either, whatever it is, someone has it as their pride and joy. Interesting that the In the crushing video it looks like a lot of valuable parts have been removed - no engine / box / diff / wheels. Wonder if the scrappy is allowed to sell them as they were stolen..??

Well, that's good news. Apologies @gjm I was referring to the NZTA web-site rather than your post (which I must have missed).

That’s not how I read it - if it has a rego and it expires you’re still all good to use it, but I thought I saw a section about must still have a WoF to register (as is normal) ? Go to the online bit and try it there, should tell you one way or the other..

To cover the massively un-wide wheels. Mind you I was out when I saw the number plate moved to one side... and the screw holes left behind.

Over pressuring from the turbo due to a problem with the waste gate maybe? Combined with an older cooler causing it to rupture.

Yeah, I'm not sure what those sides and rear are but definately not Tech I, makes me wonder if the front spoiler is a genuine Tech I front, interesting the lower vent openings are blocked off. Rear spoiler looks like it could be genuine. I am pretty sure the Tech I kit didn't come into production until the 325i had replaced the 323i in the E30 line up, and checking the vin shows that this wasn't fitted with any M Tech bits ex-factory so it looks very much like the bits have been swapped over from another car at some point. I don't think I've ever seen a genuine four door Tech I, even though the bits should fit as the 2-door and 4-door are the same width and wheelbase. Sill a pretty good looking car, a few little niggles to sort out by the sounds of it, in today's E30 market it should go reasonably quickly for near the asking.

It would depend on which tyre pressure monitoring system you had on the car - if it is the runflat monitor (which you MUST have to use run-flats so you can't just put RFT on any car) this is sensed off the ABS system in the wheel hubs, nothing in the rim itself. However if you have the optional tyre pressure monitoring system (2VB which gives the read out of pressures at each wheel) then yes you would need to swap the sensors over into the new rims - I believe these are contained in the valve assemblies so should be easy enough for any tyre shop to do. Glad you have found a reasonable solution, without too much expense.

Shame you don't get any extension on the new Rego, gets backdated to when the old one ran out. I've got a car that's been registered but not gone anywhere near a road for a whole month, but I can't claim that rego back, nor get it added on to the new one. I suppose it's better than nothing though..

@aramoana great to hear you bought the car and that another E30 is being rescued and brought back to life. I have your thread into the Projects section for you now it is also a build thread. Keep the updates and photos coming!

Life was so much simpler when tags were held on with two rivets and everyone was honest... 🤫

@David Bradley might be better to message the poster as this thread hasn’t been updated for many a while.