elmarco

I think that rate is bloody reasonable. After all, if you had to pay for a professional in another field (insert pretty much what you like here - engineer, IT, psychologist, accountant) I would expect to pay over $100 per hour. And it isn't just the time spent hooking it up - there is the admin, invoicing, payment processing etc not to mention the cost of the tools to do the job. Glad the idle issues have been resolved - almost nothing worse than a gremlin in the engine!

Tried Best Bars? I think they do the factory BMW towbars for NZ.

Oooohh yeah - I love my M54 . I hit (insert slightly illegal speed here ) one night without pushing it and it was so smooth and quiet. The lighting in these is the best of any car that I have owned (admittedly I had to replace the blue H7 bulbs with std ones and all my other cars have been older). Amazing what even 5 years of development in the automotive world brings to the end user! Glad you had some fun in it!

Ouch! Must have tickled a bit (both the nerves and the bank balance)!

Mmmmmm - V8 power.... And there isn't anything else that sounds even close to a V8 on full song.

But would you go for the mullet? The XA falcon deserves, nay demands, a well manicured mullet. And none of this protomullet rubbish.

They have never been on my wish list to be honest Yuen - was just curious really. I have the steptronic box but I just cruise in my car now - my days of driving hard and fast are well and truly past! My VR6 was a manual and I just got tired of changing gears all the time... God I must be getting old!

You would hope so, but sadly I don't think you can guarantee it as some owners skimp on maintenance... Those are exactly the things that need to be looked at in an inspection and you are on the money about the paint and interior. The V8 and 6 speed imply that it should go like a cut cat if nothing else! Betting it isn't the cheapest car to run, but I might be surprised. Revs go right, gas gauge goes left... If you are looking at it kiwi535 - let us know how you go (it could be the steal of the year). Be interesting to hear what it is really like. At the end of the day, this is just one muppets opinion (ie: mine) - please don't take it as me trying to put prospective buyers off! As Dirty Harry said "opinions are like assholes - everyone's got one"...

Yes welcome onboard. Looking forward to seeing the photos.

Yeah, being sarky doesn't help a sale. Does yours have paddle shifters wild_weston? Were they original or off an M3 or something? I've just never seen them before.

It is a classic movie now. I watched the original in a hotel room in Japan a while back and they had dubbed the entire movie - in thick American accents not Japanese!

Intense...

Whoaback!! Air bag is never gonna stop that...

I am always wary of higher km vehicles and most likely wouldn't touch one with a barge pole (unless it was a classic where mileage was largely irrelevant - like a 68 Camaro). As you say, in the UK it is 100k miles and here is 100k kms. NZ has some of the harshest road conditions and anyone that has cruised the Autobahn, US interstate or UK motorway system will appreciate that racking up the mileage is a hell of a lot easier to do, and a hell of a lot easier on the car over there. I believe both BMW and Mercedes both class NZ and Australia as 3rd world roads and specify full size spares as opposed to space savers a lot of the time (read it in Automotive News a couple of years back). This might have changed with the runflats and might be a bit out of date now. And the road conditions do take a toll on the car (like salting the roads in winter and gravel roads). There is always the wear and tear items that need regular replacement (pads, rotors, belts, wheel bearings etc) but once the mileage gets up it isn't the wear items that cause the grief... It is the bits that don't have service intervals - like A/C, wiring, suspension bushes, electronics, interior and paintwork. Things that you typically don't have to worry about below 100,000kms and less than 6-7 years old. The car needs to be judged in the flesh and the true mileage will show to anyone who knows anything about cars - regardless of what is shown on the odometer...

I just saw chunks of meat rolling past the camera - probably kangaroo... That was one hell of a set of roo bars on the front of that Mack truck!!!

I'm just watching Mad Max. What is it with the aussies wearing studded leather gimp suits?? I know it was Coober Pedy in the 80's but come on!!

Always wanted to meet him - I have a huge amount of respect for what he has achieved. My life seems to be pretty boring comparatively - I've never met anyone that famous.

Don't they do that in Queenstown at the start of the Winter Festival?

Does look to be a nice car. And a 4 litre V8 with 6 speed manual is gonna be some fun any day of the week!

Yeah, looks like a nice car. I do like the suede.

f**k that!!!

The paint colour isn't my favourite, but the leather colour is much worse IMHO.... Bet you would have to keep a low profile in a car that colour though - must stand out like dogs balls on the road! Black, Imola red or silver is much lower key - wonder if they get pulled over less?

Have to admire Apple for perfecting the service life vs warranty game.... I have had the same with Yamaha hifi gear (although they replaced it no problems) and a mate of mine went through a phase where every Sony item he bought failed 2 days out of warranty.

Forgot to turn the heater off?

Guess that's one way to get to the bottom end.