E30 325i Rag-Top

Nope, you take ownership of the car on delivery at The Welt, so the car is shipped to Munich. Owner is then responsible for getting the car home, hence the extra costs. Which is why it's not a problem if all you have to do it tootle down the Autobahn, but if you have to ship to NZ, different story.

The VIN number is available ages before it goes on the boat - as soon as the car is locked into the bodyshop schedule, about 2 weeks before the "production" date the VIN is allocated to the bodyshell, then you can track your car through the factory on the main BMW.com web-site which is pretty cool.

Yeah, it's amazing what you can do with an E30 and a sh*t load of cash eh? Check out Josh's (Hybrid on here) E30 with an S50 swap and a heap of other mods, one of my favourite E30s and probably a car that can hold it's own anywhere in the world. S50s are getting down to reasonable prices now, with all the later engines that are available.

I didn’t write that very well, the next car behind the silver thing (Yaris..?), not quite in the photo.

There’s a way, it’s just the extra cost puts most NZ customer’s off.

Works ok for new owners that can drive their cars home in Europe, unfortunately works against anyone that has to ship their car home, I.e. NZ

If you took that this morning, just after 8 o'clock, I was the next car in the queue behind the Z4 M40i - lol.

Yeah, as Dave said, much more difficult to get anything into Aussie due to their stupid rules. With an E39 M5... snowball in hell's chance, sorry.

@Modz please can you add photos of the car and parts listed for sale, as per the forum rules. Thanks.

S54 /endthread

@Kodachrome I don't suppose you would be interested in a E87 116d 6-speed manual as part exchange would you..? Fresh WoF.

Tare weight on the coupe is 1,890kg - so meets the criteria, just. When @jeffbebe is around to bring his E31 850i to the Sunday meet I will try and borrow the coupe M850i so we can do some back-to-back comparison tests photos.

^^^ See above Dan and follow the link to NZTA, it does not mention anything specifically about arrival date on the web-site and I'm pretty sure it used to.

Ok, interesting, that’s changed then. I had to wait for my vert to get to 20 years before I could ship it over.

The 20 year rule is SUPPOSED to be from date of arrival in NZ, but I am pretty certain some people have held cars back until they have reached 20 years old. Track only cars don’t need to be complied, as compliance is only for road use, not track / unregistered use. There is also a targa / motorsport use category but that is quite hard to get through.

?

There are a lot fewer compliance centres, and the rules are a lot tighter so there should be more consistency. That said there are cars that should not be complied due to emissions, etc that are still coming in, so make of that what you will.

When I imported both my cars the person I spoke to was the compliance guy in the testing station - he was the one at the coal face and knew what he was talking about, and he was the one that was going to sign (or not sign) the paperwork at the end of the day. In terms of upgrading the emissions controls on an engine can it be done..? Yes. Can it be done easily - not unless there is a later version of the same engine that has the higher emissions rating. How do you then prove the engine is now a different Emissions level - very difficult. I don't know of anywhere in the NZ that can run a full ECE test regime emissions test. Do you have certificate of conformity for your actual vehicle, this will have all the relevant EU standards for your actual car. It could be possible that your car is EU4. Due to the massive range of options, wheels, engine specs, transmission, etc. a BMW model, such as 530i or M5, will only be listed to the LOWEST possible standard - ie the worst case for the model. However, it is possible that the configuration of your car can pass the higher standard. This is what I had to do for my 330d, as the 330d could be either EU3 or EU4 at the point of manufacture. If your car is not to the right emissions level, then you could look to go down the Special Interest path, or you could wait until it gets to the 20 year old stage.

It's 20 years from first registration IIRC. If you are looking on the NZTA web-site that will only show you cars that have their registration details listed as public, and not those which have their details withheld from public viewing. If so you should take that as at LEAST 39 in NZ. Special Interest, there are only a certain number allowed per year, and last I heard there was a long wait for a quota. May have changed recently.

Should be all good then.

The very early E39 M5 could just scrape into the 20 years old category, however, if this is a later car then it will need to meet the current regulations. You would need to have driver and passenger air-bag as a minimum (not sure if standard on E39), but the main area would be the emissions regulations - I would wonder if an E39 M5 would meet the EU4 exhaust emissions requirements? A quick google has it listed as EU3, but this could change for later models and specific options. MoT check is very different to a compliance check, which itself is very different to a WoF. Cars that would pass a MoT or WoF will not necessarily pass compliance. You can buy a car in NZ that doesn't meet EU4 emissions (which is a lot of the current NZ fleet...) but can't bring one in. Seems odd, but the logic is that anything coming in should be an improvement. Brakes can pass an MoT, but still fail compliance if the discs are below manufacturers min thickness, or pads don't have a recognised standard written on them. When you checked it with NZTA, did you give them a VIN number and the Certifiate of Conformity, or a generic question? Did they give you anything in writing? If it is your own car, which you owned in the UK for 12 months, then you can bring it in as an Immigrant's Vehicle, which means none of the above applies.

The info I saw definately mentioned 100% can be sent to the rear if / when required. My reference to the M5 was more that you can select which mode you want - RWD, AWD, Rear-bias AWD, etc. I would like to see this feature in the M135i, fingers crossed!

Not unless it's over 20 years old.. Still quite a few compliance centres that will pass it though, if you pay the right staff members.

Externally, it is only really an evolution of the F30 design, with a little more of the current design features - bigger grilles,etc. The major development and changes have gone on under the skin, not so much engine / drivetrain, more the suspension and interior - which includes all the driver assist functionality (which thinking about it may not be a standard feature in Canadia like it is in NZ). Would be good fun in the snow - if there's any left now, RWD, traction control off... whee!

IIRC the issue with SAIC was that they had done a deal with an importer, to bring in Great Wall and LDV vehicles, and then decided less than a year later they didn't need and importer and would do it themselves. Which didn't go down too well with the importer that had signed up as you would expect. This is the advert for MG... that Iconic British brand.. hmm.