RvT

In Dubai, you get a fine if your car is dirty a local was telling me ...

Hi & welcome to the forumOthers may chime in but claiming VAT yourself is difficult / impossible. Usually it is the dealer who claims it back on your behalf and they have a lot of paperwork to do to get it so are sometimes reluctant to do so. From my understanding, you can only claim the VAT on the purchase price if the car is less than 6 months old or is a demo in the dealership. Cheers

Damm after 9 years on this board, I am exposed ...

Hahaha ... no sorry. Just a little bakery in the sticks ... I think it is great you ask these questions because experience from others will help you. It is the muppets who don't ask that get in trouble, then blame others for their lack of knowledge. Employ them as a 'Casual' and at worst case prepare a simple one pager stating that will cover your arse at minimum and get them to sign it so say they understand the situation. There are a few examples on the web for NZ Employment Agreements and just tweak the wording to state 'Casual' to clarify things.

Not necessarily. The minimum training wage standard kicks in, I believe, and secondly you technically have to pay PAYE on the person or you will be in breach of IRD. In these situations, it only goes tits up when you tell them to leave and they take out a PG against you for unfair dismissal then you are into $8k to $10k in lawyers bills plus pay the compliant s lawyer's bill plus loss of wages. Again, probably only a 1% chance the situation goes septic and you rely on the employee not to take a PG out on you. All this because you didn't have the paperwork in the first place set up.

What model are you looking at as I know lots about the cars I have owned but not much on early stuff ... ???

A trial is usually the first 2 weeks of employment and there are laws governing the process you must go through if you elect to not employ him or her. There is also the new 90 law that has come into play but NOTE that if you want to exercise the 90 day law you MUST provide an employment agreement BEFORE the staff member starts work and they MUST sign it BEFORE they start work. If they start work at 9am and hand in the signed copy at 9.01am, then technically the 90 day law can't be invoked. As I employ about 150 staff, when faced with 'trialling' someone, it is easier to say to the potential employee that you will provide a day of CASUAL employment and pay them the negotiated rate and just feed them a day at a time before you enter a normal Employment Agreement with them. It gives you an easy exit without strings attached. In all cases, you should provide a simple letter stating it is casual employment and the rate of pay to the employee to sign or else you leave yourself open to potential issues.

Hey Josh. I was there last Friday doing the same tour ... small world !!! The motor cyclist did the same stunt at 2pm ish when we finished our tour too. Thought it was strange that they used a Husky bike inside the BMW building and not the BMW version. The tour was great and impressed that they changed the colour in the spray booth in 45 secs from one colour 3 series to another. Enjoy Oktoberfest .. we did but so many people ...

Firstly THANKS for the link to Prezoom - hadn't heard of them but will use them I think !!!I think most e39 use the suction cups to keep the detector up next to mirror. If I remember correctly when I had an e39, I kept my detector in the small glovebox next to the drivers knee. I had it hard wired into an ACC power source I found behind the glove box and placed it on the RH corner of my windscreen. Main reason was because it was a V1 and the screen angle suited that location plus friends with e39s had their detectors stolen as it is still visible to the theives up next to the mirror.

Fair comment as my experience is about the e60 M5 but looking at the ones selling in eBay UK, they seem to have most options I don't agree here. New Toyotas used to be very expensive until the Jap imports arrived then they realised they had to close the gap mainly due to the fact that the late model, low km imports were under pricing the local market and the dealers NZ used cars on the lot. The only reason the BMW branded dealers would close is because they maintain high retail prices policy compared to other countries like the UK. Even today I was helping a friend who has bought a 2010 535 current model from the UK with how to comply it. He wanted NZ new but hell $50k saving by buying ex UK tells you something is wrong. Half an hour later I was helping my solicitor with importing his 2010 Audi too so the issue is not just BMWs. Correct and that is where BMW can make the profit. As you know, dealerships make their profit in the service areas so they won't go out of business, in theory they should make more money as there will be more BMW cars on the road.Jon, I appreciate your comments and don't take my comments personally. Without a balanced opinion, the forum becomes a one sided bashing which is not productive.

As a currency trader, I have all the exchange rates for the past 5 years on file. The currency exchange rates I used in my post were from June 2011 as this is when they 'set' their prices for all countries. It is very strange why the home country Germany, pays a lot more for their cars than countries like UK & US. If they argued that RHD are more expensive to make, then why is UK pricing cheaper ??? I agree that there are a lot of incorrect data on car yards margins posted here as I have discussed this before with a friend who owns a lot of dealerships. He said that dealerships make little margin on new cars and most income comes from factory rebates for achieving sales targets. The service department is where most dealerships make the profit because it is very likely that you will get your new car serviced from where you bought it for warranty backup and the sales team job is to provide work long term for the dealership. Had the experience recently where the Porsche dealership in UK charged me 300% mark up on parts and I know this because they sent me the internal invoice by mistake. Maybe the issue is with BMW AG where they obviously set the wholesale prices ex factory. Maybe NZ pays $60k more for their M5s than UK ??? Maybe it is because Economics 101 where low sales = high margin to cover NZ head office costs because it is not cheap to run a head office with a small unit turnover ???

Thanks for posting some balanced views. If you check this link ... http://f10.m5post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=547805 In June 2011 they set the pricing for the model for all countries (I assume). If I use these 'RETAIL' prices and then work out the exchange rate back in June 2011, they would be ... UK 73,065 x .508 = $NZ 143,828 US 90,695 x .798 = $NZ 113,652 Germany 102,700 x .572 = $NZ 179,545 So why when the rest of the world gets a cheaper price, BMW NZ sets the price at $NZ 235,000. I get the volume vs price theory but you are saying that BMW have to pay a premium of $100,000 over US or UK is a joke. It costs $5,000 in transport to get a car in a 20fter shipping container landed from Europe or $3500 if you share it with another car in a 40fter. As for the options ... the M5 comes with nearly every option ticked as it is the flagship 5 series. Yes you can get some unique colour combos / wheels if you order your own but has anyone thought of buying / ordering directly from UK a new M5 ??? The only way we can get lower NZ prices is to parallel import cars ourselves and then the boffins in BMW NZ will have to review their pricing strategy for the next model as this is what happened to the Jap imports back in the 80s and now we get better pricing on Japanese cars at showrooms. NZ is no longer an isolated island in the Sth Pacific with the www. When they loose market share, they will react. Until then they can just be on cruz control .... Cheers

Can someone explain why the M5 are $US 90k and $NZ 230k here ??? Why are we treated as muppets by BMW NZ when the extra cost in shipping is only $2k. I would be buying one ex UK that is VAT qualifying and use McCullough Shipping to land it here. That way you can choose the colour / combo you want given there are more choices in UK than NZ. However you have a trade to move so that would go against the idea ...

'You only buy a Boxster coz you can't afford a 911' ... much along the same thread that 'only fat chicks drink Diet Coke' .... it is what you will be labelled with. Having owned a Z3 and a Z4, I would say that the Z4 is worth considering but only in the 3.0l motor. The 2.2l has good sound but slow as. I was happy with the Z4 in performance and the electric roof etc

This Trademe guy (not me) is selling some new gear cheaply ... a friend is bidding on one hence why I looked at his listings ... http://www.trademe.co.nz/Members/Listings....?member=3602103

Getting the warranty from Takapuna is fine. In my case, one of the conditions of sale, was to get a BMW inspection of the car completed by a dealership. The buyer was in a hurry so he drove the car from Chc to Akl and went to BMW Takapuna and was informed by a guy called Bradley who told my buyer that the VANOS was stuffed. I knew this was bullshite and it turns out that the guy was a plonker but it almost undid the deal !!! The best person to talk to is Travis Cross at Jerry Clayton For this reason I was put of Takapuna as miss diagnosis can cost you $$$. I would take the warranty from JC as this was not an option for my buyer who had to shop elsewhere - can't remeber where he got it from in the end sorry. Found your car on Trademe - looks nice. If has a key start so not the push button start. Homelink means it has set up or garage door opening. If it has Climate Comfort Laminated Glass option (356), it will mean you can't use a radar detector in the car as it blocks the incoming signal - long story but I did a lot of learning on this ... I have a bluetooth dongle that fits into the car phone cradle that may get your phone working on bluetooth if you are interested. It is a BMW part but my car was Japan setup so never worked for me. I got it on eBay. If you end up buying it, drive it home past Rangiora and I can point out a few hints etc. Also have a set of front tires for your car which are on Trademe as you will need some rubber at some stage and $1200 a tire is a lot of coin

As a past owner of a e60 M5 for 3 years, I know a fair bit about the Beast. Firstly your best friend is this web site ... http://www.m5board.com/vbulletin/e60-m5-e6...ing-discussion/ You really need to get the car checked out by BMW dealership and by the right person as some dealers do not have experience with M5s so they make stupid comments when they check over the car. I can't tell where about in NZ you live as you haven't entered that detail on your signature so can't give you advise on who to talk to who know the M5 well. If you are in Akl, avoid BMW Takapuna and go to Newmarket dealership Buying a car under 40kms is a good move and worth it long term !!!! First advise is to get an after market auto insurance because when things go wrong, you will be needing $000's of dollars to repair some faults. Vanos units are known to fail on the earlier M5s - allow $15k to repair. The gearbox SMG pump had a recall notice on it so you need to make sure it was carried out. If they didn't get fixed you can write your gearbox off if the pump fails = $25k repair bill. There are plenty of discussion on it in the above web link. Hopefully your 06 model has the keyless start - nice upgrade and bluetooth enabled as it costs a fortune to add it if not in the car. Make sure you marry someone who's parents own a petrol station !!! The car will use a tank of gas in 260 to 300km and if you drive it hard ... 140km. Think I once got 360km out of a tank on a long trip ... Rest of the car is amazing to drive and will put a smile on your face. Happy to give more advise on the Beast if you have questions. If it was in Chc, I could have checked it out....

Not quite off topic but when you talk to different heat pump companies, there is usually a preference by the seller for one brand over another. While this is possibly not applicable to all companies, it is applicable to most. While they may have all the brands for sale in the showroom, you will find that the reseller has a preference for one brand over another. The reason for this is because the more they sell, the better the margin they get plus if they sell X number of heat pumps, they get taken on all expenses paid trips overseas like USA etc. I have a friend who is a reseller / installer and he usually prefers one brand over another and every year, his annual holiday is paid for by his 'preferred' supplier of heat pumps. What Clinton is doing is the best method which is to do your own research before walking into a shop and tell the reseller what model you want. GT Radials has a similar scheme but that is more based around 'giving' the tire place a ute provided he sells x number of sets of GT Radials hence why there are a few GT Radial ute around ...

Cheers but we haven't made them for a few years as they went out of vogue. It has been in our family for 50 years and I have owned for past 20 + years. You can buy our food in nearly every town in NZ in case you need a reminder of the great stuff we make. We have contracts with most Multi national cafes ... just PM me for where to get it ...lol

You probably ate a bit of food at my bakery that has grown over the years ... lol

I too will be in Munich 18 till 23 Sept and be doing Oktoberfest as well as a work trade show. I have booked a factory tour at Welt for Friday 21. If any of you are in Munich, suggest booking a factory tour in advance rather than just visiting the museum. I did the 5 series factory last trip in Dingolfing which was AMAZING so looking forward to seeing the 3 series factory !!! This is the link and you need to book a few months in advance. The email doesn't work so just ring the number around 10pm NZ time Mon to Fri to book ... http://www.bmw-welt.com/web_rb/bmw-welt/en...ctory_tour.html

Thanks Gareth for the offer. I did talk to Telecom before switching as we had been with them for 20 years but they couldn't come up with an offer that even came close. I will follow up with a phone call to Telstra and update the thread accordingly. One decision I made was to take out a domain name in my family name as long term it will save me the grief of switching email address to friends and all those web sites that need it. At $20 a year, it seems value for money. I think it is a bit like personalized plates ... get in now before someone else gets your domain name. I used Domains4less website and it was very painless.

Well when we saw the $75 deal, it was attractive as Telecom was costing us $115 for a similar offer, so I made the change. 2 weeks later I am wondering if it was a good move as the www just got a lot slower; almost like the good old dial up days where you have to wait for pages to load. We didn't change anything internally and even used our 1 year old Thomson Wireless Modem that Telecom gave us, just changed the password. My download speed is 5.71 Mbps and upload is .72 Mbps ... Is this deemed normal or is our exchange in Rangiora screwed (I live near the town centre) ??? Anyone else made the change and noticed a drop off in speed or is it just my exchange?

Wow now that is multi-skilling and entrepreneurial ... lol

This is the official wording ... Customs does not collect tariff duty and GST where the total payable (tariff duty plus GST combined) on any one importation is less than $60 http://www.customs.govt.nz/news/resources/...0Sheet%2028.pdf I have a lot come straight through while other consignments get stopped. If you send it to a business address then it is more likely to be stopped in my experience.