E30 325i Rag-Top

The sent from address shows up as “New Zealand Transport Agency” on the Mail but when you look at the properties it shows it’s not (can’t remember exact e-mail sorry). Didnt try the links to see where they went, just deleted them.

My wife has just shown me two e-mails she has received today, pretending to be from NZTA for a rego renewal. Luckily she told me about it and showed me, as I know I have just renewed her car. Pretty convincing e-mail: Posting up here as you are all likely to have cars needing rego and I’d hate anyone to be caught out by it.

GBP68k for a 2021 D3 Touring - newer G21 based generation to boot, landed for about the same as he’s asking.

99% sure it’s completely separate, can’t find any Alpina models in ETK and the chassis number doesn’t pull come up. Most Alpina dealers are also BMW so usually wouldn’t be an issue, but with no official Alpina distributor in NZ, it might be interesting.

The “base” car is built on the standard production line, only because it isn’t going to be built anywhere else. Plus the car that comes off the line looks nothing like the finished Alpina vehicle. Lots of the “Alpina” bits are swapped over at their factory, the BMW production line is planned and designed to run at a very strict speed - you cannot stop the whole thing whilst assembly station 28b fiddles about with the extra tricky Alpina bit. Partly why it has a non-BMW chassis number, it is NOT a BMW. As your parts catalogue shows there are very many parts which differ, apart from the obvious wheels, interior, badges, bodykit, etc. In terms of parts support these are also outside the BMW network, and I wonder what supply and pricing is like compared to the normal 335d equivalents. Very different cars to “M” cars, but I would argue not better, more a very rapid luxury cruiser than a track oriented, sharp vehicle. The modern Alpinas are very well suited to long distance driving on smooth Euro highways, but both they and the M cars suffer on harsh NZ surfaces. Would I buy an old model Alpina - yes, a modern one like this, probably not - and definitely not at that price premium..

You might be surprised how much you can pull with a 1-Series! Whether it is safe (or legal) to do so, is another matter.

I wouldn’t blame the seller too much on that, and the other errors, on their listing. Most of it is regurgitating the yarns he was spun by the non-BMW dealer that brought these into NZ. I can’t remember what they were selling for when they came in, but yeah, he’s a bit optimistic on pricing.

Is it worse than you thought? Yes. Is it still a good project but at what you paid? Still yes. look in the bright side, it’s a good long term project for you. Every project car has hidden gremlins in it, so don’t beat yourself up over it. Lesson is: never, ever inspect a car in the rain. It hides too many possible issues and getting wet makes you rush and miss things.

There is a code of practice for Sex Workers, that might cover it? As mentioned above, an undertaking is intended to cover situations where there is no monetary payment involved, so there is no employer-employee relationship. So yes, it covers volunteers, etc. and not just in charity work but also the likes of volunteer Marshalls at a Motorsport event, or similar. It might even cover the case where you get a mate round to help you do something on your house…

@tech2bmw

It’s an E30, he obviously lost the back end and went down the bank backwards!! 😩

Used a six-figure plus BMW to take a selfie whilst stuck in the Newmarket Mall car park traffic jam… Isn’t technology great..?

There are a number of web-sites dedicated to the build quality of Tesla…

Considering the, arguably, best E30 318iS has been recently valued and insured for not a considerable amount more than this is listed for I think it will struggle to sell as a replica.

Model designation changed when the new engine series was introduced, to reflect the higher power and torque of the new engines over the old. This was prior to the LCI, so there are a few pre-LCI 340i around, but not many.

From the listing it does look like there has been quite a bit more work to change the other bits over to the iS spec, but yeah, asking genuine money for a non- genuine car...

Not difficult - 52 year old car, from a time before rust prevention from factory was a thing. Also looks like it’s had a pretty poor attempt at a restoration / re-spray in the past from the way the paint is falling off the filler / primer. If the rust wasn’t properly treated at that point it would have made it worse by just blowing paint over the top.

Previous post was hidden as it didn’t meet the forum rules. This one does, hence not deleted.

Nice car… but, yeah, that’s optimistic.

Those are not the right gasket for an ‘87 E30, for the pre-facelift it’s a large cut foam gasket shaped to fit around the mounting bolts. Different lights on FL so I think those are the seal for the later lights.

Very nice! Great that you found what you wanted, and great that another E30 is going to be given some love. Imho Lachs is one of the very best E30 colours but then I’m biased! The seats look well worn, but pretty solid, so can be sorted - not sure if that cloth can still be found, I know some of the classic BMW stuff is still around. Is your Tech I steering wheel original, I thought all the FL M-Sports had the Tech II wheel? If you do change it out you should get a good amount of $$$ back selling the Tech I. Looking forward to your updates, and seeing in the flesh at a future meet.

Wow, gotta be quick around here!

My advice would be to change your user name from your email address, unless you want to get swamped with spam in your inbox.

Land Rover people are a different breed. End of.

E46 330i Coupe M-Sport FL still a wonderful looking car even today, with decent performance to boot. I would have ticked the E30 box but I think I’ve got enough of those to work on already!!