E30 325i Rag-Top

Finally got around to putting the ‘vert in for a WoF check - and it passed, yay! That should make it piss down for the next three months..

All it’s done is push up the wholesale price of half dead Leafs (Leaves?) at the auctions in Japan. So the consumer gets zero benefit.. And dickheads get to ask if they can buy a $115k BMW EV for $80k so they can get the rebate…

No need to presume, read the official info on the NZTA web-site if you don’t believe the info posted above. Details have just been changed again, with less than four weeks to implementation, gee thanks ministers. Apparently it’s not a tax it’s a “feebate” according to the legislation. But yeah, most people would call that a tax!

Sounds about right - I’ve never used a shock that has an adjustable body like that, but explains the thread and lack of spring perch - pretty cool. In terms of the set up I would suggest the the spring is installed with the adjustable perch (top left of your photo) and set where you want your ride height - then the shock is set so that it’s stroke is in line with the spring compression & expansion, rather than the other way round.

Pretty cool time lapse of the old V12 going together on BMW Classic insta today..

Hard to tell from that photo alone, have you got a picture of the full set of parts you got? Many “coilover” sets run true springs over the struts on the front but then revert to the seperate spring and shock on the rear for BMWs. Lots of body strengthening required to safely change from the factory set up to coil overs in the rear.

Pretty sure there’s a tracker on the main BMW web-site that you can enter your VIN number once it’s allocated, definately used to be.

@Vass that is true for the factory standard spec, less optional equipment = less weight. However it was possible to add back in some of the stuff that was taken out, like radio and AC, if you wanted a little less lightweight and a bit more practicality. From what I have read, very few were built without them both, as a black (less popular colour) with no radio and no air con is the holy grail (rarest) of the CSLs. I’m sure our resident CSL expert can confirm exact numbers - calling @M3_Power

The rights of salvage part is correct, what I was meaning was that there would not be anything worth salvaging. From the photos you could see large areas of the ships sides that had melted from the intensity of the fire, so you can imagine what the inside looked like. 1,000s of cars crammed together in open decks (not many vehicle carriers have fire control walls I believe) just becomes fuel for the fire with all the plastics, oil, fuel, Lithium-Ion batteries, etc in a confined space. With the decks being open even if a car was stored well away from the fire it would still have been subjected to a lot of heat and smoke, then finally water damage on top of that. Again the photos showed how extensive the damage was - from bow to stern and top to bottom. Salvage laws change from country to country, I think in some of them the original owner has the right to buy back the items. Manufacturers work with insurers as well to repatriate vehicles, even down to single crashed vehicles if the car is rare / valuable enough and deemed to be too risky to repair. I’m sure the doom merchants will blame it on EVs, but regardless the fault there clearly needs to be changes to the ship designs and fire suppression systems.

There was never going to be anything salvaged from that vessel. Plus Porsche, BMW and the like take any mass-damaged vehicles back to their recycling facility and strip them down to raw materials for exactly that reason. Surprisingly car companies aren’t always as stupid as they may sometimes seem.

How genuine is that web-site though, lots of errors in the info - it’s not a 92, it’s not auto, wheels aren’t 18’ and if it is a 6 cylinder than that explains the price! They have two others listed, a red one sold at 250k (NZ$100k) and a black one still for sale at 200k (NZ$80k) which does make the white one look like good buying. Yes NZ E30s are a bit over-priced on world market but you are taking a punt on buying overseas when you can travel to see it!

Never seen one of those in the wild, and I’m pretty sure I would have noticed it and remembered!

Not wrong, payment of the “tax” has to be made before car is first registered. This already has plates on, so no payment to be made. Very disingenuous of the dealer to word it like that, or quite possible they don’t actually understand the new rules as it’s been implemented pretty slap dash.

@Hellrot 325Ti 2016 has just called about your motor…

Interesting, might be specific cars the Castrol oil is still used in. Certainly all the factories have been first fill with Shell for a number of years, and I believe that all the BMW network is on a supply agreement with Shell as well. Pic for attention..

FTFY…😂

This should be compulsory for all Akl drivers! I miss driving in London, where the vast majority of drivers are considerate of others - that was before the electric scooter knobs arrived though, they seem to be a different breed the world over. Wish I could be that chill when driving nowadays!

At least those parts are rare and desirable items which justify a reasonably high price. Listings for factory E30 springs for hundreds of dollars are the ones that get me.

The hex mesh on the iX grille is a large sensor array for a number of the vehicle systems, it probably wouldn’t work if there were any form of slat in front of it. As much as I enjoy the renderings of vehicles, the practicalities of the engineering and manufacture do not feature. As can be seen from how concept cars develop between design and production - there are always compromises to be made.

@First Timer sounds to me like you should take it back to the shop that did the retrograde as you call it. Give them the chance to sort it out for you as it sounds very much to me like they buggered it up.

From my experience the main issue with EGRs is they get gummed up with a combination of oil and soot. Nothing a good clean an a scrub can’t fix. Apply a vacuum to check it’s opening and should be all good. Regular maintenance combined with a high quality oil - and a good long hot run now and again to blow the cobwebs out. Pretty much the same for DPF.

Hmm, those Z4 M are nice. Been thinking about surprising the old man with a Z4 for his 80th Birthday, I might have to do a bit more research on the M version.

@MilesP all emissions equipment fitted to a vehicle is already part of the WoF check, it should not be removed. Currently this is often missed due to the multitude of different items. Going forwards the legislation will only get tighter so hopefully one day there will be proper emissions checks.

Yes cars / transport is the easy target, it’s always easy to go for the soft option even if it doesn’t give the best improvements. The availability of supposed better options - public transport, e-bikes, electric vehicles, etc make it even easier to be seen to be doing something about the problem. In reality, unless there is a huge shift in battery capacity and charging performance, then electric is only a stop-gap with something like hydrogen fuel cell the longer term solution. @jon dee in case you missed it, RUC exemption for electrics runs out next year so that’s when the government starts clawing back the lost taxes.