elmarco

That's pretty cool. Griffins Bend at the end of Mountain Straight is pretty fearsome...

The actual drop off point, liability for insurance & duties and even who takes it off the truck etc is all defined by the Incoterms. If you are doing this regularly it would pay to brush up on them - a 3 letter acronym can easily make or break your week if you get it wrong.... Sounds like they were quoting CFR or CIF Wellington Airport. You might be better getting a door to door rate from DHL or FEDEX (which is pretty much CIP).

Yup. White taxi's look even less appealing than normal...

Yep, Nevada is like swiss cheese....

I can thoroughly recommend Thin Automotive Airconditioning. I don't have Thin's number but you can find him through Ross at BM Workshop Botany. As Vincent says, they don't leak for no reason & a $40 regas won't fix the problem...

Either German Kollision Haus (as above) or Precision Autowerks in Glenfield. Both are high end outfits & do a great job.

Yeah Paul is reputable & he's great to deal with. Pricing is good, and the quality of his parts are OEM or well known aftermarket - so you shouldn't hold back from placing an order with him.

Without looking at the individual cars I would still go the golf. Our Mk5 is a much better thought out car for families than my E90 or E46. Everything from the luggage tie downs to the cubby holes in the back for bottles and even the glove box is better designed. My E90 owners manual doesn't even fit into the glove box! The Golf has a proper slot for it to slide into. Think the golf even has 10 airbags vs the 8 in my E90. It's the little things that end up making a big difference to the usability. I'm actually regretting my E90 purchase at the moment - I should have got a gti...

Yep, the old fruit salad diff.

Yeah mine used to do that too. Mine was never severe enough to warrant me spending lots of time or money fixing it. Could be the EGR or MAF - unfortunately they don't have great diagnostics....

I had an NZ new manual VR6 for around 5 years. They are heavy in the front end and push a bit in corners (the chassis was designed for a 4cyl), and they aren't a fast car. Engine is a bit lazy - 2.8l for 127 kW, and not particularly keen to rev. They use a cam chain not a belt, so are a little noisier at idle. The unreliable bits I found were the window regulators & engine / trans mounts (which were a pig to change) - I don't remember anything else really aggravating me on that front (although it was a while back). The previous owner of mine did split an oil cooler - not sure how common that is though. They do like to drink too - the absolute best I ever saw was 7.4l/100 km on the open road on one particular trip, with more typical open road performance of 9l/100 km, and 14 around town... Moving to my 330ci with auto, an extra 50kW, extra weight etc was refreshingly economical... From memory the auto trans is a real weak spot on them, and I did test drive a couple of early ones (1993's) which both had ABS problems. I would be going for a 4cyl GTi manual if I was you - they are a much better balanced car. Overall, the Mk3 golfs are a good car, but not that big.

The problem is finding a good one - and the spec & mileage/maintenance history can vary wildly... $16k is not bad for what you are actually getting, but then again you can find real pigs for $11k, and there are some nice ones for closer to $20k. Just pays to be selective & know what you must have vs what you can live without.

Yeah I did wonder when you said 330i.... No problems!

4 door or coupe? My coupe is for sale... Linky

I've got some & have PM'd you...

Can't comment specifically on the E39, but I know of other vehicles where the US spec has smaller brakes. Something to do with their mileage getting racked up predominantly on interstates with less high speed braking if I remember correctly.

You didn't have a rugby team in the boot by any chance?

Heresy. Add more mud for that badassed "I've got a Rangie and I'm not afraid of using it" look.

There are no smart phones - they are all as dumb as the idiot using them. Apple just seem to be able to limit the negative impacts better than some of the others. I have a Samsung "insert some part number I have no idea of here" (running Gingerbread I think) - it does more than I need and is a reasonable quality design. Only negatives are the fixed focus camera (no good for barcodes) and the cover over the USB port isn't very well thought out. I had a Huawei POS before that and the crappy screen really killed it - it really was an insult to use and generally shitty quality all around. And before that I have had the bulletproof old school Nokia's which were totally bullet and beer proof. I do like the iPhones - the simplicity of their OS and setup is a winner for me (and I'm a reformed IT manager so not a technophobe - I just want sh*t to work the first time as I really don't have time to f**k around with it). Android is good once setup but still has too many buttons to press. Even my wife (who has an iPhone) struggles to use the Android phone at times. The other thing I like about the iPhone is the apps are somewhat controlled by Apple - so the chances of downloading a nasty is lower. I refuse to pay for a phone - over the last 15 years I have only paid for one & I'm not about to start now... If I did have to lay my own cash out, I'd be looking for a discount iPhone 4 or 4S from the apple store once the 5 arrives later this week....

I'm assuming it's for a BMW - if so you could try Paul at Milland. Pretty reasonable prices, and good to deal with.

Where was this when I was looking for one...

Care to elaborate on some of the more interesting ones for our enjoyment?

A former colleague of mine had one of these with the 3.5l V8 & super thrifty auto trans. He was scared to take it into town from Howick/Pakuranga as it was damn near the same cost in fuel as paying for a taxi... He also had a problem where the rear cylinders carboned up when used in traffic for long periods - and it was pretty much a pistons out job to rectify (cost him a bomb to fix, and was a common problem apparently).

While the maths looks OK, you can't compare the light output of the two types of lamp purely by power consumption... You really need to compare the light output in lumens of the 2x bulbs. And in some instances you might actually want to consider the illuminance (in lux) which is the light on the work surface - which can be dependent on the reflector & optic design.

Jesustittyf**kingchrist yes! There is nothing like the fear of god that a high power Kwaka puts in you right after you realise just how fast it's still picking up revs, what gear you are in, and how far over the wrong side of the speed limit you are.... And the chicks dig them. Edit: Although where is the purple paint? Can't have a green bike with no purple on it.