E30 325i Rag-Top

The Amercians are always keen for a scapegoat, they love having someone to blame. Be interesting to see the results of this case thought, sounds like there is some damning evidence. If it has been a case that they knew a long time ago, then that is a whole nother level of screw up as its such an important safety device.

First part - very true. Second part - also true.

Whilst i agree 100% with your views on the race to the bottom - having worked for Ford for a number of years I know how that turns out, I would say that categorically that is not the case here. Takata were a major player in the airbag supply, approx. 30% of worldwide supply, but for specialist parts supply that figure is not uncommon due to the huge investment and testing costs. Try and estimate the number of airbags that means, in terms of total numbers, numbers made per day, plus varieties and versions of those airbags. The amount of time, effort analysis and work that goes into trying to predict and plan for failures (Failure Mode Effect Analysis = FMEA) is staggering, none of which is really seen by the driver and unfortunately can never foresee every single eventuality.. The designs of the bags that are being recalled WERE tested thoroughly, and deemed to be safe when they were put into place. However, these airbags are now 15-20 years old and guess what? In that time the way they perform has changed due to the nature of the chemicals used to generate the "explosion" to make the airbag deploy rapidly. Many airbags are recommended to be replaced every 5-10 years for this very reason. Would you keep a big firework for 20 years and then expect it to work perfectly after all that time? Very similar fundamentals behind both pieces of equipment. Some of this chemical deterioration is BELIEVED to be due to the way the bags were manufactured at the time and some down to the environments in which the bags have been used, mostly linked to high humidity. Whether they knew of the issue and tried to cover it up is conjecture, however Takata are still going - being propped up by the car companies because if they fall over there is an even bigger problem, they have just taken out a legal position in the USofA. The reason for that again is not the race to the bottom in terms of price but the fact that are having to replace millions and millions of products free of charge - which would cause financial problems for any company from McDonalds to Apple to Takata. Fingers crossed there is a way through all of this relatively quickly. Disclaimer - personal thoughts and opinions only, from general observations and experience of the Automotive Industry over 26 years.

Everything and anything I post on Bimmersport is my own private, personal opinion, it is in no way meant to be representative of BMW Group NZ or any other branch of BMW. I am often caught between giving out information and my position and I always have to err on the side of safety, there are very strict guidelines on this subject area. The answers to your questions would change from minute to minute and hour by hour, so that again that is why I would not post such information even if I had it. So all I can say, is if you are unsure, then please contact your local dealer, with your chassis number, and they will be able to give you the current situation for your vehicle. Peace out.

therein lies the problem, "a service advisor" at the dealership reads very differently to "BMWNZ told me.." The handling of such massive recall(s) is difficult enough for all concerned even before internet rumours. Ps - boomshanka.

Dion, he is not that often on the forum any more, I suggest you send him a message so he gets a notifcation to his e-mail.

It is all dependent on which vehicle you have, due to the overall scale of the recall(s) and the fact they are all from the same supplier and the same part of the car they are all getting talked of as one single "Airbag Recall" which is not the case, there are lots of different cases. Which is why the responses you get from the dealer may vary, some cars will definately need replacing and be waiting for the airbag part, some cars need a check. Due to the massive world wide scale of the recall Takata, the manufacturer is drowning under all the claims and has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy I believe, and supply of parts is an issue. The number of BMWs affected is many millions, let alone the Toyotas, Hondas, etc in this world and they are all screaming for parts.

Only just seen this so apologies for the late reply. Either you are paraphrasing the response or the person you spoke to doesn't know what they are talking about. ALL vehicles in NZ that can be traced, if affected, will be recalled. The list of affected air-bags and hence cars is changing almost daily as it is on a car by car basis. I thought you had burnt all your bridges with BMWNZ staff after your little tanty over not being invited to M Festival? Clearly you are still bitter.

Ois To Men is a piss take out of Boyz To Men i take it? Oi was a very short lived evolution of Punk / Skins in the UK, it was hi-jacked by the Far Right and basically came to an end after all the bad publicity when the 4 Skins concert in Southall sparked the Southall Race Riots. After all the negative publicity it was impossible to get anywhere to put an "Oi" gig on due to all the Police / Anti-Nazi League objections. Not all of the Oi bands were right-wing, but they all got tarred with the same brush as the crowds all looked pretty much the same! If I can find it anywhere I will put up a link for the News that they did on the 4 Skins after the riots, and "Evil" one of their best songs.

A few more press shots of the Z4 Concept car that's just been shown for the first time. Again, I am just hoping that the final design is very, very close to the concept shown and not diluted as it becomes a production version.

Ok, looks like that's fixed then!

Can someone try again for me please? Tech support think it's fixed but I'm on mobile..

Testing, testing.. Failed dismally, will see if I can find out what the issue is.

A bit more aggressive and edgy than the X1, but unfortunately not close enough to the original X2 Concept that was shown previously for my liking.

When you said open slather I thought you were talking about the lights fitted to cars on the roads in NZ Hotwire.. I see all sorts of crap when I am driving around town, blacked out lights, blue headlights, red heahlights, bongo vans lit up like Christmas trees, etc. Just buy any old cheap sh*t of TradeMe and slap it on your car, don't worry about the rules. Probably all still get a WoF though.. Back the original post, I can't see anything immediately obvious to make the lights illegal, the blacked out backing is legal from the factory I think so you should be Ok, used to need to be made to meet certain standards. Your average WoF inspector would probably not notice as long as they are correctly aligned and have the right beam pattern.

Managed the "grand slam" over the week-end, got to drive all of my Bimmers, a very rare feat as they are hardly ever all running / legal at the same time. F30 company car - poodling about town, etc. Took the wife's E46 wagon to tow the E30 race car to Hampton Downs and back, then pulled the E30 'vert out of the garage to blow the cobwebs out as it was such a nice day on Sunday. Overall quite happy, a few little niggles to look at, but nothing too major.

Totally agree, the early stuff is so much better, Love Song is a great track, plus The American and my favourite New Gold Dream. i don't think they would have been so popular if they stuck with their original name - Johny & The Self-abusers!!

Yup, 490 is the code for the fully individual paint colours, where you have to specify exactly what colour you want so it doesn't have a standard paint code. It was a BMW NZ fleet car at the start of it's life, which is strange as it is well outside the usual company colour scheme! Very nice looking E46, but not $17k nice.

Sounds like i've been sleeping on the job and missed something...

There is one, but it doesn't appear to be automatic, so has to be enforced by Admin, which is a bit of a pain in the arse. If you have details of a particular scammer please pm them through.

Festivals used to be good for seeing lots of diverse bands, but usually you never got the same sort of experience as most of the crowd were not "big" fans of the bands but there to listen and chill. Biggest exception to that had to be Reading in '88 (or was it '89) when Half Man Half Biscuit reformed after about six years and were scheduled to play the Melody Maker Tent (a big marquee for those who don't know..) late afternoon / early evening. There were hundreds of people waiting to get in before the previous band had finshed, as soon as they were off, everyone poured in and it was rammed. As it was a good weather year for Reading it was absolutely steaming (literally) inside a tent with no air conditioning before the set even started! The band were brilliant and ripped through a high energy set list almost without a pause, to a bouncing, heaving, total mosh-pit of a crowd. A totally surreal moment when a guy emerged through the crowd to offer up a 6ft tall pot-plant to Nigel during the middle of "I hate Nerys Hughes". Only downside was nealy losing my boy parts on the poles holding up the roof of the tent during a particulally strong and sustained surge in the crowd. A level of energy, and noise, and euphoria harldy ever matched for the rest of my life.

Fixed that for you.. Mainstream / pop music these days is just noise to me, back in the day even the popular stuff had meaning, a point and was well crafted and played music. Stock, Aitken and Waterman ruined all that in the late 80s unfortunately when any talentless dick with the "right look" could become a "star". I never got into the Cure, only came across them late on when they started going all happy and mainstream, their earlier stuff is worth a listen though. The Damned though, now there was a band.. I was very fortunate to see the full original line-up reform for a gig and go through the back catalogue. Shame the crowd was mostly uni art students. i would almost argue that "New Rose" was the first punk tune - before The Pistols. Talking of crowds, one of the best ever atmoshperes at a gig was The Pogues in Frindsbury Town hall, but it might have been because it was St Paddys Day, Shane McGowan was so drunk he could hardly sing, luckily the crowd knew every single word to every song!!

Yeah, they were unimpressed to put it mildly. To start with they were thinking there had been an accident due to the traffic building up (even in the middle of the night) then they were confused as to why all the lanes were coned off and sending all cars off at the junction, after checking over their radios they then kind of twigged and started looking for who had done it. I know how frustrating cones can be for drivers stuck in traffic, but having spend a little bit of time working on the other side of the cones can see why there are so many of them and having looked at what is required for an NZ traffic control plan I totally understand why they put them all out and don't move them as the work progresses. You know those bloody great big trucks with the big flashing arrows and all the flouro signs, and stuff that they use to protect the guy putting the cones out - I saw a lady driver come within inches off driving straight into one of those at a closing speed of probably 50+Km/h, she only missed it by a last ditch swerve into another lane almost taking out two other cars. Amazing...

Bring it to Aucks with you, park it up and sleep inside!! Will be worth 10 times as much and go up in value.

Was it the dealer you bought it from that did (or organised) the service? Ask them what they used, and if you're not 100% satisfied, then yes, put some decent oil in it. It won't be cheap but worth it for peace of mind and better long term reliability.