E30 325i Rag-Top

I thought this was due to go under the hammer last week? Would suggest to me it failed to reach reserve, which from the little I know of Turners would be $8k as it always seems to be the middle of their estimate. If it failed to reach $8k there must be a few issues with the car, I would have thought? Has anyone been to view the car in the flesh, can they give an honest appraisal? How long does it take to get from Pukekohe to Turners? I might be interested in having a look at the week-end and bidding by phone / internet on Monday.

Where abouts in NZ are you based? I would be very keen on whole car, if you could post up a picture of the damage that would be sweet. Cheers, JTP.

For this type of car to fetch top dollar it would need to be collectable on the world-wide market, not enough demand or dollars in NZ.Unfortunately this particular car is missing either of the things that would make the real money. It is not original, especially the RHD conversion, and there is no interesting history, racing or otherwise. Still a real nice car, and worth more than I can afford but the GBP25k looks much better value at the moment.

Agree 100%I often refer to compacts as "poor man's BMWs" they were developed purely to move into new market segments, namely the lower price bracket. To reach this objective the cars were made to a cost and this just cheapened the whole brand image through cost-down engineering IMHO. Plus they look fugly and to me look like a Coupe that has been rear-ended. Each to their own, some people like them, but to me it is the antithesis of what BMW is all about.

A great photo of two amazing vehicles, side by side. From the www.classiccar.co.nz web site, after their E30 V E90 M3 article a while back. Got it as my wallpaper at work to try and motivate me! White one for the week, black one for week-ends please.

If that list wasn't so true it would be really funny! All countries have bad or inconsiderate drivers, I guess in NZ it's just the high percentage. Coupled with a lack of two-lane roads where you can easily overtake. I am surprised no-one has mentioned those "knights of the road" the truckies? Whose give way rule seems to be "you only give way to things bigger than you, or at a push things big enough to cause you damage" In the short time that I have been in NZ I have had so slam the brakes on, both in my cars and on my push-bike, to avoid trucks that have just pulled straight out in front of me, or failed to give way, purely because they were bigger than me. Absolute wankers of the biggest kind. Rant over!

To try and give you some more info and my experience:1) Bilsteins are often found on standard 325i, either fitted later or added as an option when ordered from the dealer. 2) ABS was again an option on standard 325i vehicles so can be found on non-MSport models 3) Discs all round I think was standard on ALL 325i models, not just M-Sports. I hope that helps. If you're trying to suss out whether a car is a fake or not, just get hold of the VIN number and check the build sheet. I think you can even do it on-line somewhere, as mentioned in other threads. To do it on the spot biggest clues would be 1) LSD - difficult but not impossible to add and 2) the black headlining. Good luck in your search!

I recognise her! Is she famous??

Hmmm, good one. In the 'vert, summer top down, it's Fun Lovin' Criminals - Scooby Snacks or Prodigy - The Fat Of The Land - especially Diesel Power, Breathe and Firestarter. In 320i no head unit or speakers - so try to get the exhaust to play different tunes to me every day - but normally just get bwaaaaaaap, pop, pop, bang!

And I see his Customer Service skills have not improved at all. Check out the answer to my question on this "OE" M3 rear bumper... http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=170330382

The rocker cover sold for $300!! I ducked out when the price went over $100, looks good, but won't make it go any faster.

Ok genius, which particular bit is a crock of crap? Having worked on a car with a different engine you obviously know all there is about carbs on Alfas. So please enlighten me, I am always open to new learning opportunities.

I have done quite a few carb balances in the past, and while it's not a hard job, there is a certain knack to it.If you get it very wrong there is a potential to cause damage to valves, etc. but this is most unlikely. Worst thing that is likely to happen if you have a reasonable mechanical knowledge is a little rough running under heavy load and poor fuel consumption! Is the 33 ti a boxer engine, with two twin choke weber carbs? Remembering the twin webers I used to try and balance it took a while as there are about three adjustment screws, idle, main jet and secondary jet, and four sets of them. So it can take a while. There are plenty of reference books and web-sites that will give you the basic procedure, and a piece of garden hose is almost as accurate as any carb-balancer that I have ever tried unless you have a CO meter. Good luck!

Edit: The Mrs said no to the purple Diablo.... Put your foot down Mark and show her who's boss! I only arranged two things at my wedding - the suits and the cars. Left everything else to the wife and paid the bill. Attached are a couple of photos of the cars... ..as you can see I like Bimmer 'verts. Silver one is a 323i manual, borrowed it from a friend, the blue-gray one is a 328i auto, from a prestige hire place in London. Luckily we had good weather on the day!

Please excuse my ignorance of 5-series models, but would these alloys fit on an older, 1990 E34 535i by any chance?? I know they are both 5-stud, so that's a good start. If not a straight fit, how much of a hassle is a conversion? Cheers.

Loved the E30 as soon as I rode in and drove one, waited nearly 20 years to buy my 'vert as it was owned by friends and family from new :love: . When the E36 came out, I much preferred it, more modern looks, better specs, more power, quicker, etc. But now the E36 has been up-dated by later versions, I feel the E30 has now achieved a cult, classic status and the E36 is an in-betweener, it's not a classic and it's not the latest and greatest. So it's E30 for me, even if you offered me a mint E36 325 (or even 328) convertible, with all the toys, I would not swap it for my E30. But if it was an E36 or anything of equivalent market value, it would have to be the E36!

Xhibit sure has a lot to answer for!Goes to show, money is no substitute for taste!

Not usually in my nature to help a Gooner, but as it's all in the name of BMW I can make an exception! How many tyres do you want storing, and when are you likely to be up around Palmy? I'm not due down to Wellington for a while. I have room for a few tyres in the garage, but commercial quantities might upset the wife a bit! Cheers.

Don't read too much into the stock production figures, the power would be severly wound back to make sure the engine is rugged enough to survive any punishment in service. There's a 3-year unlimited Km's warranty to get through.One of the biggest frustrations in automotive design is to have to turn things down to reduce the risk of failure and warranty claims to satisfy the bean counters. There would be heaps more power available, even from ECU mapping alone, before you have to worry about changing the hardware, the good old "safety factor" coming into play. When Cosworth worked on the original Sierra their target was 100bhp / litre the only problem they had was keeping the figure LOW enough to satisfy the risk managers - one for engine reliability (even stock 2ltr cossie good for 300+ bhp and reliable for years) and insurance risk. It's still the same today, which is why people like to tune their cars and all the aftermarket boys are out their - shame it voids the manufacturer warranty!

You don't happen to know the towing capacity on the 320i Touring do you? Any idea on cost to fit a towbar on this, with the kit, etc. Cheers, Jon.

Bugger! Just bought all my oils for the car, could've got it cheap!!

Fair point, unless your name is Shumacher you are unlikely to be able to push either car to its limits, even on a track.The noise with the top down is a big selling point, and with the wind, etc. it would probably seem like you are going faster than in a coupe as well!

I saw the BMW NZ demonstator outside Jeff Gray's on Saturday morning, dark grey / black (not 100% was raining hard) with the dark red interior. Looked like sex on wheels in the flesh. I have often wondered about an M3 cab, if you want a sports car to drive hard = M3 coupe, if you want a convertible to cruise in, top down, why have all the performance blunted by the extra weight and lose stiffness by chopping the roof off? A tin top would help with the stiffness issue, but still not as sharp as an M3 coupe I would guess. ...would still have one if you gave it to me though!

The hardest part would be finding and checking the car out, easy enough if you have friends or family in the UK who know a bit about cars. From NZ you could still get an AA check and report done (about $250 if I remeber right) which would give you lots of info, you can haggle on the price from here also.Shipping is relatively straight forward, my quote was $4,500 for the car on its own, you could probably get that a bit cheaper through a specialist car shipper. The sting in the tail is the GST when it comes into NZ, I was lucky that I didn't have to pay any as it was my old car I was shipping, not a new purchase. It is still 12% but it is calculated on the NZ market value NOT the purchase price! So if you bought the M3 for $13,000 the GST would be nearer $3,600 (12% of NZ value of about $30k) not $1,560. Compliance is relatively straight forward and there are lots of people that will do all that for you at most major ports. Steam clean, VIN check, compliance and Rego would be about $1,300. A trailer and / or dealer plates are very handy at this point. Adding that up, total cost for the M3 would be about $22,400. There is lots of info on the LTNZ web-site which is very useful and details out the process. The thing to watch would be making sure the car doesn't need lots of major work (air-bags, etc) to comply, BMW can advise which models can be imported. Like I said, it would have to be model fitted with both passenger and driver air bags to comply. In these days of the internet and cheap phone calls I think it can be done quite easily, most of the car dealers selling imports wouldn't have set foot in Japan or Singapore. If you know what you want, are prepared to search and can devote a little time, I think it is very possible for anyone to do.

Older cars are already worth next to nothing in the UK, due to the pressures to own the latest and greatest and stigma of driving anything remotely old + extravagant insurance. I looked at what I would get for my low mileage (76,000mls) '87 325i convertible before deciding to ship it to NZ, reckoned it was worth about 2,000 - 2,500 pounds, even with an exchange rate in favour of the pound that is still only $6,000 - $7,500. Couldn't find anything near the condition and spec of mine for less than $12k.I often look on www.autotrader.co.uk to compare prices, currently there are over 30,000 BMW listed on there for sale, with over 1,000 M3s alone. Doing a quick search I just found a '99 M3 Evo coupe manual, for under 5000 pounds, at current exchange rate that is just over NZ$13,000. Would just need to check it has twin air bags for it to be eligible to come into NZ. Might be a dog, but there are loads to choose from for less than 6,500, still only NZ$17,000 And this is BEFORE the government starts to tax the older perfomance cars even more. So yup could be some good imports coming this way...