qube

any reason for meyle over lemforder? Pricing was pretty much same between the two brands when I did my cars and I went for lemforder most of the time

buy a honda. seriously. $40 a week and you're sorted. My E46 325i fuel consumption is 10L/100km on average city driving which is already pretty good for what it is. If you want to get down to like 6-7L/100km you need to go for a 1.6L japanese like a civic, jazz, fit, toyota corolla, ist, suzuki swift, mazda 2, etc.

Thoughts part 2. I have put on just over 3000kms on this now over 2 months. A lot of driving this weekend, went up to omaha, did the little sprint to stillwater and a night drive to piha beach and back. No doubt this is a fantastic little car. So much power, and super comfortable, the ride, seats, suspension, everything about it is comfortable and still sporty at the same time. It really is great. In my previous post I mentioned that the 8 speed gearbox is awesome. A little amendment to this. It is still bloody quick and awesome but I feel like there is a slight limitation with it which is that in the twisty mountain roads, often I find myself fiddling with the gear more than actually focusing on driving. Im not sure which gear to be in half the time. Also because the car is so torque-y even at low revs, I struggle to rev the car out and really hear the engine but I suppose thats what you get with the turbo set up over NA. I realised how much easier and simpler it was when I used to do this same drive back in the days in my old E46 328ci and 330i/ci in which Im usually in 3rd or 4th and sometimes 2nd and can really rev the car out and keep it in the 4000-6000rpm range most of the time. With the 135 I found it easier to just leave it in drive and control the throttle but didnt feel as good because I couldnt keep the car in the high rev range (some part of this was because the roads were slightly wet also and if I gave it too much throttle in 3rd or 4th gear in the 135 I would lose the tail end in an instant). Anyway, its still early days and I am figuring out the car. The car performed remarkably well on the soft bends around matakana on the long straights. It was a real pleasure to drive and less "busy" compared to driving in the mountains. Anyway will keep posting my thoughts on here as I go along. Also should be a little update in the looks department in the next week or so so stay tuned!

stop being mean @Jacko welcome to forum. Have a look around the forum, youtube, instagram, google and see what you fancy in terms of looks (which is important for a first car I reckon) Do you want an old E30? or a more common E36 or jump to to something like the E46 that Brent has posted above? All models have pros and cons. If you want something A to b then E46 probably best (imo) because its more modern and comfortable (also because I am selling a nice one :)) If you want something you can tinker with and build up either the E30 or E36 is fine but E30 is probably harder to find a good one and will probably spend some time being off the road which is probably not what you want. A first car can either just be a P.O.S that you put gas in and drive around or it can be something you fall in love with and keep for years and years even if you decide to buy something newer later on. Dont expect to get the perfect car first time round though, you may need to go through a few and see what you like. Still way too young to know what you like. Also no point going for what everyone else tells you is "the best" because it is subjective to each person's taste and needs. But in saying that, do take advise from members etc on the problematic models to avoid. Also dont mention Audi on here or you can go to www.vask.org.nz

You will find that non RFT tyres will make it a lot nicer. 18 or 19 wont make a huge difference except tyre price. Also my suggestion is to go for staggered tyre fit so that would be 225/40/18 fr and 255/35/18 rear. To run these tyre sizes the rims in your trademe link probably wont work as they look like a square setup maybe 18x8. Also i wouldnt pay that price for aftermarket no brand wheels. Either go for some factory bmw wheels or something quality. (I have a set of bbs for sale if youre interested)

low life

probably starved the engine of oil and given it the full jandal

Definitely has some design cues from other manufacturers but thats not just for this car but for every carmaker nowadays. Bottom line is it looks good, much better than some of the other crossover mini suv style cars like the nissan juke and mazda cx whatever. I was having a chat with a colleague who recently bought the kia stinger sport and we both agreed that for around half the price (or less) of a german counterpart, you get a bloody awesome car with a lot of features and benefits. I am personally super interested to try the i30N!

Looking at the review it really does have some impressive features. Very BMW-like too the auto climate aircon controls, the different drive settings, and it looks like the infotainment system looks top notch! I wonder what these things would be worth in a couple years time secondhand.. might be a fantastic little car for trolley duties!

Cool car! I love it. Here is a nice review from a couple of guys who are quite good at what they do. unlike some new motorsport car channels. the banter between them works quite well.

http://www.vr-speed.com/vrsf-ceramic-coated-catless-downpipe-2012-bmw-n55-m135i-m2-m235i-335i-435i-f20-f21-f22-f30-f32-f33-f88.html http://www.vr-speed.com/vrsf-chargepipe-upgrade-kit-12-16-bmw-m2-m235i-335i-435i-f20-f30-n55.html

ahh that is not a bad idea so just flip the left side only so you can just pull the left for - and pull the right for + like the newer cars but still push down with right hand thumb for - !

I dont think its dumb. I prefer the old set up personally. What if I want to eat a burger with 1 hand or sip my latte but still use manual shift to blip my car next to hondas? But seriously, the old set up is not bad I reckon and it can be more useful for the lazy driver (me) Traditional drivers who like to drive both hands on the steering wheel would enjoy the left - right + setup more convenient

you push the paddes away from you with your thumbs to downshift and pull towards you with the other 4 fingers to upshift The new arrangement is left paddle pull for down and right paddle pull for up

looks like a very tidy LCI sedan with sunroof too! I think a debadge of the rear would tidy it up a bit since you got a nice spoiler on it so the badges create a messy look. what did you have in mind for new wheels? Also be sure you check waterpump, hpfp, all fluids and filters, maybe walnut blast/carbon clean up before you undertake all the popular power mods. reliability is important before you do all the tuning!

bump make an offer

I got one for sale... comes with a free whole car tho.. for $8000...

I know that but no sane person would run those size tyres unless it was to fit an e46 or some other stanced out car. Haha

I think he probably bought the wheels from someone who had them fitted on an e46 or similar and used the same tyres hence wrong size for the e38.

I figured it out from the sportline, 80kms, nz new. Looks good, might be nice if it was a little bit cheaper. I feel like the prices on these will drop very soon.

that one looks good

that looks the business

did not expect this..

might want to double that once more to find something manual and driveable haha