E30 325i Rag-Top

+ Fit new stereo, steering wheel and manual conversion??

+1 Sorry Jamez, the reason lots are rocking RS's is because they look soooo good. Different is not necessarily better. But fair play for not being a sheep.

Wow, I must be the luckiest BMW owner alive then. E30 Convertible (even worse for rust than coupe/sedan) 1987 ex-Uk total owned for over 10 years, spent on rust $0.00 E46 Wagon 2004 ex-uk, owned 2+ years, total spent on rust $0.00 (unless you inclulde touching up stone-chips before they went rusty due to sh!t NZ roads - something often seen on NZ new, fronts that have been hit by shotguns!) When it comes to cars, especially those over 20 years old, there are no golden rules. Each and every car has a different life, and can be chalk and cheese even if they were built on the same day and lived in the same country all their life. Once more for the hard if hearing... look at the condition of the car, not where it came from!!

Bingo! Someone had to say it, any thread on imports someone has to quote this! Salt on roads, etc, etc. On a 20+ year old car, rust is dependent upon more than where the car is from.Ignore where the car came from, look at what it is now and the condition it is in. Any history in terms of servicing and work done, that can be authenticated, is a good pointer. But the overall factor has to be the condition of the car, i don't mean shiny paint work.. get underneath it with an inspection lamp, pull up carpets in the boot, etc. Get it up on a hoist an look at bushes, ball joints, etc..

If it's the CIC hard-drive system then yes, the UK version can be converted over to work in NZ. However, it's not an easy process, and does require the purchase of an activation code from BMW NZ, plus the data and knowing how to do it. Unless one of the real clever guys on here, (Hybrid, Jochen, Hotwire) have worked through it all, I would suggest you talk to your nearest dealer and prepare to part with a large wedge of cash I'm afraid.

Photos and more deets of your car, engine, coupe / sedan / wagon? Mods? Welcome btw.

Another great find Josh cheers. I had seen some of the highlight clips from the race but this vid is the whole race in HD , commentary is in German but I managed to understand some of it (not that difficult really). Great race, and a great finale for BMW, for not one but THREE championships after all those years away: Bruno Spengler (BMW Bank M3) Drivers Championship BMW Team Schitzer - Team Championship BMW Manufacturers Championship. The last one is all the more remarkable as BMW only had six cars in each race versus Audi & Mercs 8 cars. A huge achievement after all those years away from DTM. Roll on next year with another BMW team and two more M3s in the mix!

My guess would be that you are getting some interference to the signal from somewhere, I remember my set up was prone to do similar things when the DTv signal was corrupted. If it's all plugged in how you had it before it's unlikely to be a new source of noise from another signal, possibly some power wires or speaker wire laying across a "signal" wire or aerial wire?

Sounds like a lovely chap! Might explain why there have been no claims on their warranty....

Saw this 850i on TradeMe.. what a lot of car for the cash. http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/...n-523016934.htm Still showing the UK plates, so possible compliance issues? Possible race car project ?

I like this part of your post, whilst Jaguar is a competitor of ours, and doing pretty well through both MDI and Beacham I might add, my views on imported Jags are the same as those on imported BMWs.Have come across a couple of cases recently where customers were on the point of buying a Jaguar from the UK (can't say 100% if through Beacham but chances are it was) and the sale was stopped at the last minute by Jaguar UK leaning on the dealers at their end. He is being a bit of a tool spouting off about things like that on the internet, it makes it very easy for someone, if so inclined, to send a link to the article to a friend at Jaguar to raise his profile even more. Jaguar have come a long way with their product in recent years and this new 2 seater sports will only improve that further.

The E91 320i wagon in your list of possibles is certainly the best looking of the options you have there. However, even my biased viewpoint would probably have to admit the Golfs would have better performance and look to have a better level of interior spec (which is probably more important to your Mrs) for the same money.I would suggest you look at a 320d E91 if you can find one for similar money, the 2.0ltr petrol engine is bit of a slug in the E9x models and the diesel is a strong all rounder in terms of grunt and economy. My 2c.

The great thing about databases and computer systems is that all the information is in there - it's just a case of knowing where to look and how to find it. It's quite amazing the amount of info that can be stored and tracked, especially with the newer vehicles. Latest developments are in the field of doing it wirelessly - drive past your local BMW dealer and the car will "talk" to the servicing computers and it will work out if it needs a service or got a problem!! Big brother stuff??

Is the first aid kit all complete, has it been opened at all or still sealed in the original plastic wrapping? I guess you're selling the ash-tray thing that goes in the cubby-hole in the back of the arm-rest / console thingy as part of the whole thing? I seem to be missing the lift out bit.??

Engine is out of the car, only ID to go by is engine number. Would like to know the general condition of engine before pulling it to bits, just in case it doesn't need it to save time and money. Simples.

Bad. Very, very, bad.

The good news is the 323i did leave the factory as an M-Sport car, with the 337 M-sport pack built on it. This would by why it has the M door trims, etc. they weren't added. It would have had a 2.5ltr detuned M52 in it, the previous owner may have got a bit confused about the M-Power engine?? Again, this is still a pretty good specced car, for an E36. With the E34, it left the factory as a 520i. Whilst Schnitzer are a post-production "tuner" and add their bits on outside of BMW, I believe that they would tend to start with a fairly potent model, ie 540i and add their parts onto that, so it's unlikely they would have started with a 2.0ltr to build on. Plus it looks like it was a car that went to Japan where they have a fondness for sticking Alpina / AC Scnitzer / Hartge / Racing Dynamics badges on anything with four wheels.

It is very easy to get the rego sticker to "lie" about what the car is, you can write any old crap down on the car details sheet and that's what goes on the sticker.There were a lot of E36 models produced as "M-Sport" versions which had a very similar body kit to the M3s and "M" badges in the trims, etc. There was a 323i M-Sport in the UK for a while. Not M3s, but still nice cars. Quickest way to tell is the first three letters of the VIN number Hybrid mentioned, is it "WBA...." or "WBS....."

I would suggest you get these things clarified before people do the "trial", you could be leaving yourself open to all sorts of problems if it is not clear of the arrangement beforehand. Something in writing would be a good idea. You can pay a "training rate" which is less than the minimum wage per hour, but you would have to pay all the hours worked at that rate. This would require a clear training plan which includes tasks to be learnt, how it can be shown the task can be carried out correctly, etc. Could be worth talking to an employment law expert, or failing that check out the Department of Labout web-site, it's full of good and well written information.

Your best bet is probably to nicely ask someone who works for BMW ?

Agree 100%, well done that man.Now I am having an internal battle with myself about whether or not to buy it off you John, thank god I am not in Palmy any more and I'm further away, otherwise I would have been round already!! GLWS.. someone from BS please buy & restore this before I do.

This +1

Always wanted a 325i Tech 1... wish i had some cash at the moment. Nice score there, looks tatty but pretty straight from those pictures. As you say, all the important bits are there. Provided the bodywork isn't riddled with rust it should be very saveable, mechanicals are pretty straight forward. Please let me know if you are at the stage of wrecking it.. would be shame for it to be broken into parts.

VIN long WBAAB320X00859106 Type code AB32 Type 325I (EUR) Dev. series E30 () Line 3 Body type LIM Steering RL Door count 2 Engine M20 Cubical capacity 2.50 Power 0 Transmision HECK Gearbox MECH Colour DELPHIN METALLIC (184) Upholstery SCHWARZ LEDER (0203) Prod. date 1987-04-21 Order options No. Description 206 FUENF-GANG-SPORTGETRIEBE 209 LIMITED SLIP DIFFERENTIAL (25%) 215 POWER STEERING,DEPENDING ON ENGINE SPEED 288 LT/ALY WHEELS 300 ZENTRALVERRIEGELUNG ELEKTRISCH 314 HEATED WINDSCREEN WASHER NOZZLES 333 M TECHNIC SPORTPAKET 339 SATIN CHROME 350 WAERMESCHUTZGLAS GRUEN, RUNDUM 401 SLIDING/VENT ROOF, ELECTRIC 410 WINDOW LIFTS, ELECTRIC AT FRONT 464 SKIBAG 481 SPORT SEATS F DRIVER/FRONT PASSENGER 510 HEADLIGHT BEAM-THROW CONTR. F LOW BEAM 562 MAP READING LIGHT 704 M SPORT SUSPENSION 708 M-SPORT LEATHER STEERING WHEEL II 812 ENGLAND VERSION 845 Aggr. untersch., vorn 850 ADD FUEL TANK FILLING FOR EXPORT Has all the right option codes selected, the black headliner would be part of the 333 M Technic pack. I can't find model codes going back this far right now, and not sure if the M325 was a different model code to a normal 325. Looks pretty kosher to me though.

Most of these collection agents will have to be at least half decent and abide by a set of rules and the law of the land. There are other types of collection agents that don't operate within these confines, and are much less fun to deal with... a couple of friends from school ended up dealing with these types thanks to some very risky borrowing, didn't end well for either of them.