E30 325i Rag-Top

But, but, but every car from the U.K. is a rust bucket, because they put salt on the road. Every car from Japan has sat in traffic for millions of hours and has been clocked. And every car from Singapore has electrical problems because of the humidity..., etc. Because the internet’s says so. Short term, the country of origin and hence known history, would probably be more important. Longer term things like the kms, no of owners and general condition would become more important. An import of any brand from any country is always valued lower than a similar car (all other factors being equal) than an NZ new, by any vehicle dealer and by the majority of the market from my experience.

Performance parts before carbon fibre was a thing..!

@chrise how much driving is planned to be done on them? Any skids or burn-outs etc? I have a set of 17” Alpina reps that I would consider hiring out, have brand new tyres on them that I wouldn’t want destroyed.

Not able to order new now, production of the CS finished late last year, IIRC. NZ had an allocation of one car, and this is it, hence the “1 of 1” in the TM listing. There were a number of other interested buyers but they missed out. Bringing one in from overseas would look to be the only issue, but then it wouldn’t be NZ new.

Whilst they are asking a fair amount over the original RRP there is a story behind this and the guy did not buy it to flip it.

It’s was also a manual trans according to the second page of that decoder list. 🤣🤣

“The extras added” then proceeds to list a whole list of items that are standard on NZ new cars. As for the carbon fibre, yes, there is such a thing as too much. Same on the asking price. Min grey with bi-colour wheels is still my favourite combo on the F80, so still has potential.

Really, how long ago was that? I can’t remember seeing this car before, and I haven’t seen any E30 M3s under $80k for a long time. The black modified one “88 M3” is being flipped as well, change of front seats and the asking price is +$10k.

I was going to add all the BEV / PHEV SUVs but I think you are combining that segment in with 'passenger cars', so have left those out. In all honesty it is the light commerical / SUV segment that is most suited to battery electric power currently, as these are big heavy vehicles in ICE guise, so the addtion of a load of heavy batteries to give a decent range keeps it in the same wieght v performance category.

3 Series is designed (intended?) to be a sports sedan. The 5 Series is more of an Executive cruiser. And the drive and ride of both fits those descriptions, so a lot is down to your personal tastes and driving style. Service history, even on a jap import, should be stored in the iDrive information. If it’s not there then take it it hasn’t been serviced and judge the car accordingly.

Any chance of a link for the lazy..?

There is an argument that this approach is better for the planet... no added emissions for the manufacture of a new vehicle if you keep the old one.

Market stats tend to show two things about Kiwi buyers (as an overall sweeping statement) they tend to buy Ute / SUV vehicles or performance vehicles (STi, HSV, AMG, M, etc) in much higher numbers than most other markets. Combined with the fact there is no feasible public transport in most areas, and the spread of the population across large areas (=longer distances travelled by car) as you say Dan, equals very high fuel usage for the population at large. It will be interesting to see if the number of vehicles (cars, SUVs, Utes, Light vans) exceeds the number of people in NZ for the last year. It was getting close to parity in the last figures that I saw. Most houses have two or three cars (more for bigger families with kids that drive) these days (not to mention, boats, quads, jet-skis, weed-eaters, etc) so again more kms travelled and more fuel used. The age of the average car in NZ is also an issue, in terms of both safety features, and emissions / fuel consumption levels. Now you could argue the number of vehicles in NZ v the number of trees we have it isn't an issue, but I guess every little bit helps, which is what the government is aiming for here, especially when we have renewable generation of most of our electricity so EVs are a viable alternative here. With this type of legislation the intention is always to improve the age of the fleet and get the "old dungers" off the road, however, it is questionable as to whether this works in reality. The type of owner that has the "old dunger" is not really going to be able to move up into a newer clean / efficient vehicle, and the vehicles that are slightly better than what they currently have are going to be fewer and far between. So the outcome is often that they stick with what they have and patch it up to keep it going, which has the opposite effect. Only time will tell...

Now that Winston Peters is no longer in a position to block the idea through Parliament the Government have resurrected a revised version of the "clean car" scheme. Details are a little vague at this point, in terms of incentives to the consumer, and the emphasis is on the importers (new and used) to balance the numbers on what they are bringing in. In the immediate term, I would say this would impact mildly on the new car buyer and would take a while to flow through into the used car / classic part of the market. Interestingly the current 20 years or older excemption for emissions is looking to be extended out to 40 years and even then only for certain vehicles. This would have a more direct effect some modern classics, E46 M3 for example. Details of the proposal can be found here.. https://autotalk.co.nz/news/how-will-the-clean-car-importation-standard-work

Yup Dutchy’s (Hans) old car, don’t think it’s him selling it from the user name on TM. Granted, Not everyone’s cup of tea, but the fact that he had the skills to design and make all of the bodykit parts still blows me away.

Bigger wheels + no low = Monster Truck ride height.

Didn’t Keven Mosen just put one up on TradeMe..? I seem to remember a fuel tank in amongst his latest list of items..

@BMTHUG post needs photo as per forum rules please.

From what I have seen there is definitely a shortage of young (0-3 years) low mileage (<50k kms) stock in New Zealand at present. This has lead to prices increasing slightly, as dealers look for cars to sell. Whole host of reasons, many coming out of the whole Covid situation around the world. The upshot of it all is, that yes, you could maybe get a better price for your car, however, if you are looking to upgrade to a newer / better car then the changeover will probably also be larger.

Not strictly my car, but I took a little bit of BMW history in NZ down to the Festival at HD. Good old school motoring.. most of the time looking at the temp gauge and wondering if you’re going to get there! Zero mod cons, not even a radio. Have to ask yourself if you really NEED all that stuff? Could have done with a 5th gear and some aircon though.

@Bonto can you please add the prices you are looking for on the windscreens, glass, etc and also the motor and gearbox. Appreciate its a “wrecking” listing but if you’ve listed parts can you please include a price as per rules? Thanks.

I do hope that wasn’t this forum Andrew, if it was can you pm me the user details?

Spark trigger and timing is running of a signal from the crank as the normal dizzy has been removed. Later DTM engines ran four seperate coils and Bosch Motorsport ignition control I believe. Very nice, on my list of “if I win lotto..” items to buy.

Posts were removed by Admin as they had not made any contact with the site before posting, which is a direct breach of the site rules. If they cannot be bothered to do that simple task you have to wonder how good they are. Part of the reason we ask for contact before they post is to check them out to determine if they are genuine so members don’t get ripped off. My personal suggestion would be to stick to known and trusted vendors.

Don't have high expectations of the reporting in NZ, especially the Motoring stuff.