E30 325i Rag-Top

Only if they have more than 55kw/litre apparently...

That's why there are laws and processes in place for the sale of motor vehicles by dealers, to give you better consumer rights. If you buy from some random guy outside of those regulations then it's down to you. The complaints tribunal would find in the consumer's favour on all of those faults, especially for a car costing that much, and listed as a brand new car. If someone sells a car as "brand new" then I expect it to be exactly that.

The BMW International Warranty as you call it works very differently for an imported car as opposed to an NZ new BMW, and the process to claim against said warranty is also different, but that is only a small part of it. As for what it doesn't cover I'll give you an example... so you buy this car, collect it from the seller, drive home. Next day you notice - scratches in the paintwork, kerbing on one of the wheels, the removable tow hook is missing from the boot and a small tear in the rear seat leather. As a buyer of a car advertised as "brand new" I would have a few issues with this and look for them to be corrected. How would you proceed.. Do you 1) Contact the guy you bought it off, 2) A BMW dealership 3) BMW New Zealand..

There is a difference between auto-dipping headlights and fully adaptive. From the spec of the car (no options) and the pictures it doesn't look like it has adaptives. Provided you can still dip the full beams through the indicator stalk then it won't be a WoF issue. As above, send it to a BMW specialist for a full pre-purchase inspection so you know what you are getting into.

First recourse is always to the seller of the vehicle, second is then to the importer (in this case that is not BMW NZ). Consumer Gurantees Act also refers back to the seller and importer of the goods. Lots of faults and issues are not covered by warranty, plus the 2 year warranty kicks off from date of first registration of the vehicle, so the clock has already been ticking for quite a while. If you buy from any company / LMVD rather than some random Joe on TradeMe you have much better chance of getting something done if there is an issue as they will be looking to preserve their name and good-will.

Very rare colour, most unlikely they will have anything in Dunedin. Nice car, shame it's an import through what looks to be a private person - check to see if they are a LMVD otherwise you have very little recourse to them if there are any issues.

From a fairly extensive survey in the local traffic I find that guys tend to be more talking on their phone rather than texting / checking facebook / taking selfies (saw it this morning, young woman in the car behind at the lights, incredible), but yes there are a few younger guys that do the same. Howwever, if there is a car sitting at the lights when they have gone green or not keeping up with the queue 99 times out of a 100 it will be a young woman on their phone that is causing it. I know people have grabbed keys off of tourists due to their sh*t driving, I might have to start doing the same with retards phones..

Young women (I was going to say girls but that really would have made me sound like a grumpy old git) on their bloody phones while driving. What is sooo important on your Facebook that you want to risk an accident? Half the traffic jams are caused by silly tarts checking their phones and not watching the traffic or the lights. going to go postal over this very soon I think...!

Why use power? Torque is what makes the difference in terms of acceleration.

My tongue was a little bit in my cheek for that one, but reliable, BMW and $6-7k don't realistically fit in the same sentence. Being serious I would suggest an E46 LCI with a 6-cyl engine that has been well looked after. it would still need some on-going work, but much better looking than the E90 and drive better IMHO.

For that money you can get a good condition E30 manual. go for one of those. Heaps more fun, if anything goes wrong much cheaper to fix, and so much cooler car. #E30FTW

Yeah, but TXTing an offer and paying the cash are two different things. I am half tempted to send him a text and then waste most of his day driving it and pulling it to pieces, but luckily I have better things to do with my time at the moment....

ABS v non-ABS would be a difference in parts, also the thickness of the shaft varies between axles. I would suggest you get the same as the one the other side or it might cause some weird vibration / loading / drive issues.

Interesting way to try and sell a car! He clearly has a high opinion of his car, whether that is true you can only find out by going to look at it.

You keeping the JB4 unit then..?

You would be amazed at the standard factory spec for 7 Series, tiny steel wheels and cloth seats with bugger all toys and tech. I'd guess that it's for the countries like India and Africa that sell 7s and all the buyers want is the size and the badge. The New Zealand "standard" spec is usually much higher than the factory - the current 7 Series list of additions is nearly two pages long.

Now there is a money pit if ever I saw one. Such a shame as it would be a great car for an enthusiast to keep original, but if the trans has gone then thats megas-$$$, plus changing the god-awful wheels, let alone all the other bits and pieces that are most likely to need doing.

Thanks, time to count the pennies...

I've got all the bits if you want them, glass, regulators, handles, etc...

What centre bore are the RGs and do you know what they weigh roughly?

Car had spent a lot of time at Hampton Downs, and test drives, so it was well used. Traction control still works with worn tyres, even when wet..? Targa cars still need a WoF and rego to compete, so would require full engineers report and approved repair process.

The main issue is the damge underneath the car, to the sub-frame and suspension in the front. As Brent correctly said, the back end went out and the nose grazed the concrete dividing wall between the carriageways, but when the wheel hit the kerb it launched the car up onto the top of the wall so it slid along the top of the wall with the front wheels either side. I'll see if I can find the photos of the damage before they stripped it down.

Just enjoying a good game of "hotter colder" with all the guesses.

Close, but not quite. And you missed quite a bit of the damage from your list. Wholesale on parts alone is $35k and I doub't you'd find any second hand as they are mostly M2 specific. You would have to keep it for a while for people to forget about it being damaged and re-reged, although that shouldn't really matter if the repair is done properly.

That's a pretty old article, the figure of 75% manual quoted are from October 2013. I would wager that figure has changed significantly in the three years since. When I was back in the Uk last year all the new-ish cars I drove were autos or DCTs