kingkarl

the m3 made the cosworth look like a daihatsu with regards to the powerslides

The haka used to be awesome about 5 years ago when it was the all blacks, and only the all blacks who did it. Now every god damned NZ sports team to compete in any major sporting event has to whip it out. I agree that it has completely lost it's effect.

In my experience for first car ownership (im on my second jappa crappa) you want the cheapest hack you can find. I'm a reasonably careful person when it comes to looking after stuff, i value my possessions quite highly, but there are things you need to learn IMO about cars before you buy a semi nice one (ie a $7,500 beema). I've really enjoyed being able to thrash my first car... well not thrash, but drive rather spiritedly. I'm hoping it'll be fine mechanically because i change the oil as soon as it goes dark. But if it isn't fine mechanically, it's cool, because the car's worth crap all. My mates have lots of different cars. Some expensive, some not. The one who enjoys driving his the most, isn't the guy with the expensive Evo3, it's the guy with the shithouse Integra who gives his car death. Honestly, you've gotta see this guy launch over speedbumps in this POS its awesome. I don't know, but if your anything like me and like the thought of being a racing car driver, you'll want to thrash your car somewhat. I'd think very carefully about doing that to a (comparatively) expensive BMW because it might end up costing you. Maybe money isn't a really big issue for you ( if your looking at a $7,500 BMW for your first car ) so if this is the case, go ahead and get the 328. I would.

I've actually got no idea on what ownership stake NZ actually has in these companies, but you get what I'm trying to say haha. I imagine its a lot higher ownership percentage that what we had in toyota/honda.

I would advise against a beema for your first car. If you want something to be a good runner and last two years, a corolla or Civic might be your best bet. But if your insistent on BMW, then I'd have the 328.

There is nothing cooler than an e30 M3. End of story!!!!! 850s are pretty awesome too i reckon. And i wouldn't turn down an e24 635 come to think of it! ALL HEIL THE E30!!

they are so smashed haha

Yes, that is true, ceteris paribus (all other factors remaining unchanged). But because NZ workers were re allocated into different jobs (forestry and dairying for example... eventually) we still kept our employment rate constant, with the added bonus of having people work for New Zealand firms, where the profits stay here. I'll try and explain the theory of international trade. Suppose New Zealand and Japan can both make two (and only two) goods. One of which is cars and the other is Dairy products. New Zealand can make either 10 cars per year or 100 tonnes of dairy products. Japan can make either 100 cars per year or 10 tonnes of dairy product. These different quantities result from different resource endowments. We (NZ) can make dairy very efficiently because of good pasture in our country, and Japan's labour market and high technology innovation make them superior at car manufacturing. Assume NZ wants to have some cars and some dairy products available to it's economy. So it splits it's production 50-50 between the two goods. So we have 5 cars and 50 tonnes of dairy. Japan does the same and has 50 cars and only 5 tonnes of dairy. In total, both economies are producing 55 cars and 55 tonnes of dairy per year. However if both countries were to specialise in what they are best at, and trade the surplus both countries would be better off. EG: NZ makes only dairy (100 tonnes) Japan makes only cars (100 cars). NZ consumers want 50 tonnes of dairy, and the rest is surplus, so we trade this with japan. Japan only wants 50 cars, so they trade the surplus cars with us for dairy. The result is NZ has 50 tonnes of dairy and 50 cars. Japan has the same, both countries have significantly increased the quantity of goods available to them. Total output is now 100 cars and 100 tonnes of dairy, where as before it was 55 tonnes of dairy and 55 cars. I think you mean subsidies protecting local car producers. I hope my example above is clear enough to show why NZ shouldn't bother with car assembly. Sure, we have to import new cars, which sucks but why focus so many of our resources on supporting an industry we aren't efficient at when the same amount of resources could make so much more goods in a different industry where we do have a comparative advantage.

Here's how i see it, feel free to correct me. I think your only looking at the short term effects of the closure of NZ's car assembly industry. First off, Toyota and Honda are not and were not NZ owned companies. So every dollar of profit they made in our country, headed straight off overseas (wrecking our balance on income, which is the sole reason we have a huge current account deficit). Sure, there were a lot of jobs being created, which was great, but the reality was that NZ had a comparative Disadvantage in Car manufacturing. It was in our best long term interests to close the car industry. Sure, there was a LOT of short term pain for those affected by job losses, but in time, they got new jobs in industries where WE DID HAVE a comparative advantage (such as dairying and forestry). Also, the best part about re allocating jobs into other sectors, was that people were working for NZ owned firms like fonterra. The profits from these firms stayed in our country and were reinvested to benefit us all.

I dont have a problem with it because that car would have ended up as scrap had he not fixed it up. I'd be pissed if he had of got an all original M3 and started messing with it. This guy put it well: God i love those rims:

I think there's an original 60's Mercedes SL gullwing in a museum somewhere in the country. They are worth huuuuuuuuge money.

The more distracted they are by their cigarettes and phones, the less likely they are to see me speeding, so I'm not that concerned. I've lost count of the amount of times I've driven past a cop going in the opposite direction to me and I've been doing at least 25km/h over the speed limit. The traffic cops are utterly useless at their jobs.

surely he cant be serious when he says she's hot

Saw you driving down 15th ave coming from welcome bay with a few guys in the car at around 6.45 tonight. Car looked real good man

I'd take the e46 IF it wasnt the colour of last nights chunder. The bile green is far too holden/ford, just doesnt speak quality to me. So e30 it is

yeah dead right. Egypt's GDP is around $400,000,000,000 but because their population is so large, GDP per capita is around one sixth of NZ's. It's the same story for the other countries mentioned. Our GDP per capita is around 4-6 times greater than their's. So in an economic sense it stands to reason that we are much further ahead than these countries.

Awesome car man, 4000 is an outstanding price. i made this topic when i saw it advertised http://www.bimmersport.co.nz/forums/index....showtopic=18263 and was sooooooo close to making the trip up to buy it. Because its all fairly original, low kms, high spec, manual and sweet colour, I'd be happy to pay at least 5.5-6.5k for it. Im not really a bargain hunter though, and you'll get the odd jew offering you half that for it. If i ever see you driving round Tauranga ill feel eternally jealous!

classy

4th try... got 2.19

Christ! i'll tell my dad, he's been after a car exactly like this. Looks real good for the price

tell me this isn't the sexiest car you've ever seen! From every angle it is awesome

wow... so much to digest. Firstly, to Glenn. This post was bordering on inspirational. As a country we need people like you who are motivated, intelligent and hard working. In a couple few year's I'll enter the full time workforce. I want to be hard working and I want to do something constructive with my life. My stubborn personality dictates i find it extremely difficult for other people to pay my way... I hate it when my parents offer to pay for warrants etc on my car. But that is not to say that anyone should have to work X number of hours a week because if you'd rather have a more easy going lifestyle that is entirely your choice. However I dont beleive it is a god given right that if you want to have several children, you can sit on your ass get pregnant and it then becomes the states responsibility to pay for your kids upbringing. When (excuse generalistation) in most cases they become just as much as a future dependant as their parents. Sure, if your put into a position where your left with several children in your care and you cannot afford to feed them you should definately be helped out financially, i have no problem with my (very very small) tax contribution going towards these situations. Going back to the choice thing... I think labour is slowly turning us into a socialist state. They are telling us what lightbulbs to use, how to raise our children, how much water we are allowed, they're taxing the sh*t out of food and petrol when hard working low income earners cant even afford it as it is and inevitably the driving age will eventually go up and we wont be able to buy any decent fireworks. You can see this happening to australia. They are begininng to censor the internet of any material the government deems inappropriate and everywhere you look over there, there are hundreds of conservative rules and regulations. I do beleive that labour has done for the most part a pretty good job with managing the country over the last 9 years. Only recently i think they have lost the plot, become lazy and not focused on making policy that will actually make a difference to society. A good example is gangs. Crack down on gangs and we will be so much better off but because it isnt going to be easy, we havent seen any action from them. I dont know if many people saw the debate last night, but John Key was quite clever in pointing out Labour's extremely good reterick but poor record. The free trade deals they have negotiated have been outstanding and i think they have to be applauded for that. How a bonehead like Phil Goff accomplished it is beyond me. To eddy: I have so much respect for my mother and every other mother in the world. It is the single hardest job there is bar none. There is no greater responsibility on the planet. I am sure you and your mother are fantastic people and I'm sure she is a fantastic mother and it probably takes up more of her time than 90% of jobs out there, but i don't beleive she can claim to be "employed" as a mother, so I can understand the cop's actions. There hasnt been any discussion of labour's universal student allowance policy, which brings me to HUFF3R"s interesting post. I know people in a similar situation to you also and it sucks. I hope you do get an allowance in the future, because acheivers like you clearly deserve it. But i think there are issues with giving students a no questions asked universal allowance. There are waaaaaaay too many people at uni studying useless sh*t like Bachelor of art that should not be there. Under labour, these people would get paid to study. Or worse again, people that study in NZ, have it paid for by hardworking people like Glenn and then piss off overseas to earn huge dollars in the UK for the rest of their working lives contributing nothing to our economy. There is no return on our investment into these people so i think it should be compulsary to return to NZ say, within 2 years of starting your OE to contribute to our economy. Or if you choose to bugger off overseas, you must pay back all grants you received from the NZ government whilst studying in NZ. but its all besides the point because i cant vote anyway haha

I dont know whether anyone has seen this car, but it seems outrageously good value. Low kms, manual, 325, coupe, original leather interior. Im not an expert on the subject but i beleive there were a few issues with cars coming from hong kong. http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=177723923 So is this a bargain or do you get what you pay for?

I didnt know richard hammond was into stripes??? Thats a fkn sweet looking e36 though. Too bad it bears a resemblance to a crappy honda