E30 325i Rag-Top

Colour? interior? package? options? condition? FSH?? How long is a piece of string? And i'm pretty sure the 25i is an over-boosted 2.0ltr 4-cylinder, not a 3.0l six cylinder.

As you probably know the airbags, etc. are all tiggered by accellerometers, or "g sensors" which if you have a big frontal will set off the bags. In this case it was more a bounce off and skid along the top of something type of impact that didn't have the big decelleration, hence the bags didn't go off. It was certainly a strange one, and not where you would expect to get an impact, but the damage underneath from the skidding along the top was definately structural! I wonder what it went for in the end, was over what I was prepared to pay, so someone out there is brave...

Totally different car to the one in the thread you have posted. TradeMe advert clearly states its a Bird's conversion. Built 1987, one of 4 sold RHD NZ new in 1988, the drive of 4 M3's racing in convoy across Europe from the factory to "Birds"(UK) factory-authorised RHD-conversion is still a legend at Giltraps. Rarer than LHD there are less than a dozen correctly converted authorised RHD globally. Looking at his Buy Now price I think the seller has got his Evo1 confused with an EvoIII

Car has just over 5,000kms on it. The 14kms was taken from the last warrant, when it was registered. Like all cars that are written off, it's due to the amount of damage and the cost to repair. As you would expect Manheim have tidied up the car and photographed it very carefully to give the impression it is a car worth buying. Anyone who is seriously interested in buying it would be sensible enough to check the car out rather than look at the photos and realise what is required in terms of the repairs to get it back on the road. Not sure about the parting out, most of the valuable parts are M2 specific and as for putting them in something else... Will be interesting to see how much it goes for.

I'm surprised it's even as high as 3% in the USA.. would have put it nearer 0.0001% from my exxperience of US cars and drivers. Current market stats show just over 13.3% new registrations YTD have been manual in the passenger cars / SUVs / utes / light commercial segment.

Yes, a real shame he has passed away, a real true engineering genius, responsible for so many great things during his lifetime.

Do they come with the centre caps?

They did try to get a grid start, but Grosjean crashing on the formation lap probably put paid to that! Probably wouldn't have got much further than the third corner before a pile up in those conditions. The conditions, safety cars, red flags all helped to mix up the running order and create more overtaking and excitement. hamilton was in control for the whole race though, shame Verstappen pitted after getting in front of Rosberg and couldn't quite get back there.

Yeah, they look the same, and have got the 509 stamped into them. I can't be arsed to look up the part number tbh. A nice looking wheel, but no factory std. E30 M3 16" wheel unfortunately. I can't see the offset stamped on these, do they "work" on an E30 M3? Shame they are only 7" wide, would like to go wider especially on the rear, but if they are cheap enough I could be interested.

Yeah, photos have been changed. Those aren't the rims that were on that listing at lunch time. The new ones definitely aren't E30 M3 rims.

Thanks for the heads-up hadn't seen those. should go for quite a bit more than the 15s, if they are the real deal (which it looks like they are if the photo is correct).

Hard to put a price on them, but if they are straight and true I would put them in the $800-$1,000 range. More if you have the centres. not much of a market for them in NZ and not an easy part to ship internationally.

The auto in the E46 is a long way from the E38 you test drove, but yes you still need to drive one. Pretty sure later E46, if not all, had "steptronic" shifting through gears if you want to pretend you are driving a manual when you want a bit of fun, not the quickest changes but at least you can choose the shift point. Try a normal E46 auto, a coupe would be closest, to see how you feel about the drive in that if you can't find an E46 vert near you. If I were being honest any convertible is more a Sunday cruiser rather than a sports car, even an M3 convertible. Due to the extra weight from stiffening the body and the blunted driving dynamics from the loss of rigidity they aren't as sharp and focussed in the handling / performance stakes. As such I would say that a GOOD auto is more suited to a convertible, plus there will be more choice to find a good one and better chance of selling when you want to move it on.

Where are you based Phil, happy to let you try my iPhone 4 adaptor if you're local?

GoBabyGo is a chosen charity of BMWNZ, have worked together for a couple of years now.

Hey Vinu, I have got a 325i centre section sitting in my shed, no idea what condition it is in inside but it seems intact from the outside. Yours for cheap if you're interested?

What wheels does it come on for that price, and what does it need to pass a WoF? Rego on hold or needs re-compliance?

Glad to see you're still using the laid back / she'll be right attitude to racing Andy. I'm hoping to get my sh*t together for Taupo in November so can watch your antics from up close, always good for entertainment.

Anything over 20 years old can come in without the need for the low volume special, even if it is LHD. I know of one very nice 320iS in NZ, and I don't mean my replica! Prices on them have shot up in recent years on the back of the huge spike in M3 prices and the fact it has the S14B20 motor in it, they are great cars though especially the 2-door with the MTech II kit. E30 cabs are too common, too many built, the rarity value has a big effect on the price - hence why the wagons are so highly priced. things like Alpinas (real ones) Hartges, Schnitzers will always be in demand and good prices. Of the "factory" models I would say M325i are the stronges bet.

"Turn Indicator rear left failure" - no sh*t Sherlock!

Many of these processes in the vehicle manufacturing industry look to be very wasteful, but when you work out how much it would cost to have a process that re-introduced the parts back into "used parts" stock then it doesn't stack up. Even if the parts are 99.99% brand new and have never been driven / used they cannot be re-introduced to the production line unfortunately. If you are lucky you might get to scounge a few bits for your or a mates car, but quite often everything has to have a hammer put through it to make sure it doesn't get re-used by some devious method.

Clever chap, got his priorities right! If I owned an E30 M3 then I would keep it in the house all the time. Probably in the bedroom tbh.

Please excuse my confusion, when they are shown in a For Sale post!

Is it not an M3 then..? LOL at all the keyboard warriors quoting laws and stuff. All goes back to the ridiculous amount of freedom people have when registering used imports. Write what you want on the bit of paper and the lady will type it into the computer.

Prices needed on the other stuff.