E30 325i Rag-Top

Yeah, true. Wife's car is also overdue a service and new glow plugs as well, that's outside, and can't get it in the garage - and I'm not doing it in the pissing rain. Oh joy!

Nothing that flash really, bit of maintenance on the 'vert, cambelt and stuff, and playing with a 5-stud rear end on the race car. none of which is happening at any kind of speed really...

Walked into garage - looked at two works in progress and a pile of parts, sighed, walked out again. Anyone know the BMW part numbers for motivation and enthusiasm? I seem to be out of both at the moment.

People that put up a complete quote of the previous post to respond to it, aaaahhhhggg! It makes the thread twice as long as it needs to be, especially on a phone reading it. It it is NOT needed if it is the immediately preceeding post, only if you are replying to a post back in the thread somewhere. Driving me nuts...

Hey, is it manual or auto? Looking for a new daily for the wife, she is fed up of driving a manual E46 330d Touring in auckland traffic.

Actually it's not even that exciting, it's Confomity of Production. Which relates to the homologation and approval of the vehicle for emissions and safety systems. etc. To be able to "prove" that every car manufactured meets the standards passed by the original test vehicle one in every 100 or so built of the same model has to be pulled off the production line and tested to the same regulations. You will be able to see the two option codes 01CA and 8SP which both relate to the CoP which basically show the production team that this particular unit is built under the Conformity rules and can possibly be extracted for testing.

Good idea for a "grass roots" type series, but with the very crowded market place currently it would be extremely hard to get any sort of exposure and profile for such a series. Ssangg Yyong have thrown everything they have including the kitchen sink, into their ute racing series and despite managing to buy their way into some premier events the level of exposure, I would say, is well down on what you would expect from that sort of marketing budget.

A race series... hmm after the amount of money the last MINI challenge cost to run I don't think there's much left in the coffers to fund another one, even with stock cars. Unfortunately, the win on Sunday, sell on Monday is no longer true mainly due to the fact that race cars bear little or no resemblence to the cars on the roads. Homologation specials, like the E30 M3, we pretty much the last of that breed.

You should have kept it Bruce, you need more E30 in your life!!

The whole "the apprentice did it" BS it was really gets me. It's been a while since I been employed on the workshop side and not in NZ, but it always used to be that you had to be FULLY trained and COMPETENT to work on critical safety systems on a car - brakes, ABS, airbags, etc. For EXACTLY this reason. If "the apprentice did it" then the onus falls on the qualified mechanic to double check and authorise the work he has done, at the very least. I know these rules apply for HT vehicles in NZ, not sure about passenger vehicles, but it should do in my book. Too many cowboys out there that don't give a sh!t, need to be forced out of the industry.

As long as his ineptitude doesn't kill anyone in the meantime Glenn! For my 2c those wheels are 10 times better than any ACS, never been a fan of them, even in the 80s when they were fashionable.

I respectfully suggest you read up a bit more on the E30 M3 and get an understanding of the various models, editions, etc. From what you posted it would appear that you are referring to the White RHD M3 Evo that has been listed for a long time on TradeMe. Which is covered on another thread in here, I think I said "the seller is confusing an Evo with an Evo3" due to the price. Is it possible you are doing the same?

Hello and welcome to Bimmersport. True there have been a few more examples come on to the market in recent months to ride the price wave. Haven't seen any sitting for too long though, with the exception of the dubious car in the USA. Many have sold without coming to the open market, including the black one now gone from NZ. Yes there are possibly better "bang for buck" cars out there for driving, but do they have the same rarity / history / collectibility of the M3 SE3? In some ways it is a shame they have become the possessions of investors and collectors rather than drivers and enthusiasts. That is the downside of being such an icon.

depending on which exchange rates you are working off the price is a little below the international market for LHD examples in similar condition and mileage. E30 tax applies 10 fold on M3s and about 20 fold for the Evo3. The conversion would certainly have a negative effect, but it is still a genuine Evo3 and fairly easy to swap back to LHD if you can track down the parts. Fingers crossed it will stay in NZ and not go overseas as we have lost one glorious Evo3 recently already.

There is already one, the 2 Series Grand Tourer, F46, its just not offered for sale in NZ currently. Although strictly speaking it only adds two seats in the third row, not the three you ask for.

(Official Corporate hat on) The X7 will be larger than the current X5 and will sit at the top of the X-Range, as such it's natural competitors are the Mercedes GLS and the Range Rover so think of things in that size bracket, not the R-Class people mover. This is a big segment of the market that BMW have been missing out on by not having a model this size, competitors have big sales numbers in many markets around the world, such cars seem very popular in Russia surprisingly...

Ah, but is it an International quality track? it's not an accurate test if not and I won't bother watching in that case.

Paint'n'Paper Superstore in Palmy used to do all my personal and trade colour matching - were very good. Did spray cans, pens and pots.

Those wheels tho'...

Seems to be... VIN ZBADC88030BF92279 Type code DC88 Type 535 I A (EUR) E series E28 () Series 5 Type LIM Steering RL Doors 4 Engine M30 Displacement 3.50 Power 0 Drive HECK Transmission AUT Colour ( *) Upholstery ( *) Prod.date 1990-08-20

I think you are confusing the chassis number (last 7 digits of the VIN) and the full VIN number. An NZTA issued VIN plate, as in the picture, will have a different code on it to the orginal BMW VIN and chassis. There is no point typing the last 7 of the NZTA number into a BMW VIN decoder as it will give you the incorrect information. A BMW VIN will always start with WBAxxxx for a cooking version or WBSxxx for the M cars. Find the number that start with those, then use the last 7 of that number, not the local NZTA number.

People on TradeMe don't get it when I ask if their car is the Spanish version.. so many list them as being "Manuel"!!

The numbers on that site are purely the cars whose owners have bothered to give up their information and "register" with that site. It doesn't even fully cover the number of cars still in existence for each model, I would suggest more owners haven't bothered than have, certainly for the E30 M3 from recent discussions on specialst forums. But, yeah, build numbers are much lower for E30 M3, 17,870 total IIRC, including the 270 motorsport shells and the cabrios. Whereas the E36 would be into six figures across all three versions and two generations. Values are influenced by the rarity, but the E30 M3 was an Iconic road car and racer, the E36 not so much..

Just re-read the advert and noticed it's from Hawera, so my previous comment was wrong - it's actually very clean.. for Hawera!! and just because the buttons are on the steering wheel doesn't mean it's got "all the gear" for cruise control.

Would you not wash and wax your car before taking photos to sell it? Alloys are covered in brake dust and the whole car looks drab because they can't be arsed to rub a sponge over it.