Yamahoo

I've just emailed my local National MP, and John Key, to inform them that I will not be voting for them ever again, due largely to the implementation of the ridiculous ETS scam that is to be introduced tomorrow. Just remember when you fill up your car tomorrow at the new increased price, that of the billion or so this tax will raise annually, $64,000,000 is going to the Harvard University Endowment Fund in America because they own a share of the trees in the Kaiangaroa Forest. This $64 million increases to well over $100 million in a couple of years. NZ cash exported offshore to wealthy university professors in the USA because our govt has figured out how to tax us for breathing.

Can someone please explain to me how my diesel ute - a good old Holden Rodeo 4x4 - is somehow more dangerous and therefore needs to pay more ACC levies than if I had bought a petrol one? Exactly the same vehicle, just uses a different kind of fuel. And once you've explained it to me try to explain it to the man with the eyebrows from ACC who was on Campbell Live. And then explain to me again how my E30, which might do 5000 k's a year, and never goes out at night or on wet roads, should require the same ACC payment as a rep's car which does 50,000 k's a year. There's something seriously whack about this.

Isn't a body kit for a Ti a bit like buying a mini skirt for your Nanna? ..Waiting for the hate.......

How cool is this! I was just thinking the other day how we need much more Government interference and rules in NZ. Hopefully they'll be able to employ another whole bunch of beaurecrats to enforce them and then they'll need a whole lot of middle management and we can just pay more for our registration or something so they can keep a jolly good eye on us naughty people.

My suspicion is that the vert dash is less likely to have cracking problems anyway because without a roof you don't get the excessive heat buildup inside the car when it's left locked up. The verts tend to spend less time out in the weather anyway, more likely garaged and not used as dailys now that they're getting older - it's less common to find verts with the 3-400,000 km's on them like the sedans may have for example. My vert also has an uncracked dash, but my coupe has cracks like the Grand Canyon.

Rear bumper is actually Primera P10. with a little heat gun and a couple of tags plastic welded in it fits like it was made for the car and looks like a tucked and shaved version of Tech 2 - and you can get them for about 30 bucks

That would have been me - doing a quick shopping stop on the way home.

Loving the 'vert on days like today. It was such a good looking morning I did the big loop - Warkworth - Kaukapakapa - Helensville - Massey - City - Harbour Bridge - Warkworh. Anyhow, this is the car I started with a couple of years back, and the way it looks now. (Or vice-versa depending on which photo comes up first)

I guess it doesn't make you feel any better if I tell you I got 810 k's on my last tank of diesel in my 2000 Rodeo 4wd ute - done 213000 k's and with the AC running hard.......works out to 7.5 litres per 100k's. Stoked!

Sheesh Flanders, take a chill pill. Your PMS is showing.

That made my brain hurt.

.....ever had that sinking feeling that you might be getting robbed?

I'm not up to speed on all that tech stuff - I just know that next week I'll be able to hold a pie AND a coke while I talk on my handsfree kit thingee that I forked out for at Noel Leemings yesterday. Woohoo! So long as I don't touch my phone I'm all good.

I've got the bog standard 2.0 head on my 2.7 at the moment, running the 2.5 intake and ecu. It makes tons of torque and revs nice but definitely could use a bigger valve head and a remap to make it really scream. Even in the standard trim that I'm running I think you'd be pretty happy to the gains compared to a 2.0 and it's a real simple weekend job to do.

You definitely win the prize for the cleanest overalls. They are practically gleaming on your youtube vid...

What a dopey idea. Most of us here own multiple vehicles (those of us over twelve, that is) and most likely have a vehicle which does very few k's in a year, and yet we pay the same ACC levy on that vehicle as a sales rep's car that does 100,000k's a year. Surely a registration and levy system linked to annual mileage (could be paid with your WOF based on distance travelled) would be a better and more fair system? The fact that my convertible is 21 years old doesn't make it more of a risk on the road for ACC, because it spends most of its life in the garage - especially during winter. It only goes out when the roads are dry, during daylight hours, when it's warm. So I should be paying stuff all ACC on that vehicle I would have thought.

Is that all? Mine made me a hot chocolate and asked if I needed a blanket.

Ok thanks, anyone know how to fix it....?

Just read the Linkadd, ok? At first it sounds like they're selling a dining suite, but now I'm not so sure.http://www.trademe.co.nz/Home-living/Lounge-dining-hall/Dining-suites/8-seater/auction-222364111.htm....

You'll enjoy it on here. We discuss things like "Which is the gayest BMW" and "Which is your favourite favourite chocolate bar." But not all the time.....

Hmmm. Came home and heard his sister gurgling and the rest of the family dead, did a load of washing then called the cops. Sounds a little odd.

I went through the process with my convertible. It was about as much fun as a colonoscopy and I vowed and declared never to do it again. Be warned that if the car has ever had any kind of accident in its past, no matter how minor, or the examiner decides that it MIGHT have had an accident at sometime in its past, then you'll be off to an engineer for additional costs and on and on it goes. VTNZ quoted the 400 bucks or so that you say, but then I had to pay several hundred more for an engineer and honestly, ther car would have to be pretty special or unique for me to ever bother again. Having said that, I'm not sorry I did - I love my car, but it is definitely a ridiculously stupid and beauracratic nightmare. If you enjoy dealing with the mindless little people in positions of authority and their silly little clipboards and rules you might not find it too bad.....

My reading has led me to believe that an E21 323 camshaft is the one to go for if you can find a good one, and don't want to spend several hundred bucks on a regrind or a Schrick / Piper / whatever. The early 323's (E21 only) have a 260 degree duration, as opposed to the 252 of the standard E30 325. If you can find a Total BMW magazine from March '07 it's all in there, written by the guy who wrote the "BMW E30 series Restoration Bible"

I also have an SV6 and a Rodeo ute (turbo diesel) Both are awesome and I'd happily buy again. I guess sometimes you can just get a dud - assembled on a Friday afternoon perhaps.