bravo

Ryan - remember they were like that when I did your timing belt and I just used vice grips gently to get them started - allen key did the rest. I think I mentioned to you that you would have to replace the dizzy cap at some point anyway due to wear and that you'd need to be careful undoing the crews then.

My sporadic offroad pics update: Photobucket Pics taken by the chick in the hilux. I have yet to d-load my camera, so more to come. Mines the one lying on its side. The old bugger driving it in some of the photos is my old man having a thrash. He's the one who put it on its side - I was in the navigaotrs seat at the time. Drove it home - all it needs is a new drivers door and window. Dad owes me a door.

Why did they change the tail lights for the sedan? It looks like its trying to sh*t out a brick.

That's a z9 which they dumped in favour of building the Z10.

I'm not sure what you are on about? MS uses MAP and is a fully sorted system.

There's your problem - the exhaust is supposed to go on the outside of the car. Looks good luke - awesome stuff.

I won't make it, but awesome. To all of you wanting to do drives, take note - this is how you do it. You don't muck around asking everyone what they want. You set a date, a time and a route and those that can show will. Good work, should be a good run.

Going by what you can see in the background has to be Birkenhead/Chatswood. So either one of the two parks over there. My guess is Hinemoa. P.S. where's the colling fan?

hah. I was counting in my head and was thinking -two??? no, more than that. must be four - that doesn't sound right??? oh well... So three was the number I was looking for. Thankyou David.

^^^^ he means motorsport clears, not altezza clears. Altezza clears look cheap on a bimmer. They look least offensive on white, black and dolphin grey, and worst on blue, green and unfortunately maroon. Nice ride height though, the front corner clears are alright and angel eyes are wicked. Good stuff - rims next?

Anyone going to be there to watch? I will be. We're going to get there nice and early, pick a good spot to watch and have a couple of beers while they blow up a frigate - cool. Bye Bye Info Estimated hundred or more boats in deep water cove to watch.

You take out the whole low beam lamp. Remove the wire connectors for both high and low beam, and park light. Remove grill (a couple of clips and 2 screws). Remove headlight assembly - (4 large phillips head screws.) and pull out headlight assembly. Pop broken lamp carefully off the adjuster stalks to avoid breaking the clips. Install new lamp in reverse order. 10-15 mins tops even if you've never done it before. Beware - lamps are different left and right so make sure you buy the correct lamp. Onlyother possible obstacle is the self-levelling headlamps some cars came with with the in-car control. Have to disconnect it aswell. Mine doesn't work so I just removed it.

dunno - ring up the $tealer - that should give you a nice heart attack when they tell you. Then go on trademe or ring someone like Ray at HellBM.

Happened to me once too - now I have clear headlight film on all my lights. Possible to change lens if you have the skills, but finding a lens is as hard as finding the whole light and then you have to fit it. Buy a new light and fit it in about 5 mins.

Its a good idea. We're overdue for a meet. I was talking with Andrew and Ollie the other day and from memory there were a couple of events in the wings, but no details as of yet. Work out the details and set a date.

I do my own accounts and tax on my residential. I let my accountant deal with the LAQC and commercial. So I'll have to ask. The commercial is a factory workshop with office space and owners accomodation on the second level, plus yard and carparks. I imagine my accountant has it under control though as he has always made us aware of every possibilt to save money where he can.

Sweet. You bring up an additional point too. Something I missed. As a rental, you can also depreciate the house and claim the depreciation as an expense against your income to reduce your tax too. I don't on my residential as I plan to make some capital gains, and don't want to have to pay tax on them lump sum later on, even though it means less of a gain in the meantime. I don't plan any major renovations soon either. However, on the comercial which is owned by my LAQC, I do. Horses for courses.

Score!

As always, though it pays to get professional advice. here's a snippet from an NZ property investment website. The respondent, Lisa Dudson is a long-time property investor and author of "The Complete Guide To Property Investment in NZ".

Not quite. Taken from some property investment info by Kenina Court (Accountant, property investor, Acorn Solutions Limited): When you are buying a new home and keeping the old home as a rental property, in order for the interest on the home to be tax deductible, it must be transferred to an entity. Whether or not interest on a loan is tax deductible depends on the purpose for which the money was borrowed. In a case such as this, the loan was to buy a family home and so the interest is not tax deductible. When transferring the house to an entity at market value, the entity is borrowing the money to buy an investment property and this makes the interest tax deductible. If you are primarily interested in the tax benefits of owning investment property, then a Loss Attributing Qualifying Company (LAQC) will be the most appropriate entity for you. An LAQC gives you the protection of a limited liability company while allowing the shareholders to offset the loss from the company against their own personal income. So basically you can do it, but only if you transfer the property to an LAGC, family trust or similar. It depends on what the money was BORROWED for, not what the asset is being used for. In regard to your tax comments - yes, which is why mostly I used the term "reduced tax liability". It is a free lunch in that a third of your costs or 39% (depending on your tax bracket) is saved over what you would normally be paying, (after correcting for rent income). Edit: Been thinking about it. If you were to move out of the family home and rent (not buy another family home) - maybe there's a loop hole there. Professional advice from a tax accountant would be wise in that case.

Another point. The IRD only lets you claim interest on money borrowed for an investment. This means if you borrow money to buy your own home to live in and a couple of years down the track you move out and rent it out, the interest on the mortgage does not become tax deductible all though all the other expenses still are. So the moral is, if its going to be a rental, borrow and buy it as a rental from the start.

Thanks everyone. I'm going to give AON a call. Jock kindly PM'd me the name of a guy there that races a 2002 - sounds like my kind of man. I'm pretty happy with my cover with FMG, they have great customer service, are always friendly and helpful, have always paid out promptly and in favourable circumstances, and are the cheapest I've found in a rural area. Thanks again.

I can afford to pay for income protection insurance now, and can't afford to lose my income in case of illness etc. Also want to look at mortgage protection so my family are not stuck with the payments if I die. Anyone recommend a good company that I can get a quote and copy of the policy from? My home, contents, and car are with FMG, I bank with ASB. Chur

I do it. I don't know why you wouldn't. You obviously havn't done the maths. If you purchase a property to rent out it is classed as an investment. Therefore interest on borrowings on that investment are a business expense and are deducted from your tax liability. Same with maintenance, insurance, rates... This makes a huuuuge difference as to the cost of ownership, esp. if you are in a higher tax bracket. (Everything costs a third less as it is all tax deductible). Conversely you have to pay tax on the rent. Lets take a hypothetical $200k house for easy arithmetic. 10% deposit means $180k borrowings. Interest rates are up at the moment. (About 9% fixed for 3 years). So on a 25 year mortgage using a table loan structure, you are looking at $695 a fortnight in repayments. Over the lifetime of the mortgage you will pay $273,000 of interest. Now if this is your own home you are living in that is all your cost. But if it is a rental, you get to offset that amount against your tax. At 33%, that's a saving of around $90,000. Then there are rates at say $1500 a year for a $200,000 home. With no adjustment for inflation, over the 25 years, that's $37,500 - another $12,750 saving if offset against your tax. So as you can see the savings add up very quickly - and I havn't started on insurance or maintenance. So what about rent??? Well, in the current market a $200k home probably brings in $230+ in the right area a week. 50 weeks a year (allowing for empty tenancy between tenants or for renovating), that's $11,500 a year to pay tax on. Seeing as you are paying a high proportion of interest on your mortgage in the first few years until the principle reduces, this will easily offset the rent income so no tax to pay. Basically in the first 5 years of ownership on a $200k home you can expect a yearly tax refund (after offsetting the rent etc) of around $2-3k. So that's $2-3k to put into the principle that you wouldn't be able to do if you were living in it. On a $400k home the numbers more than double as the multiplication effect of the interest. So it makes even more sense. As time goes on, the rent will outstrip the expenses and you will end up paying tax on it, but by then you should be in a better financial situation, your equity in the home will have increased, and then you can borrow to buy your own "dream home". Keep the rental as an extra income. You also have the added benefit of buying a house you can afford NOW rather than wait and continually find the goal posts have shifted. Buy in a less desirable area so you can get a foot on the bottom rung of the property ladder, and rent somewhere else. I did it. My brother did it, my sister is saving. I'm 25, own 50% equity in my rental property, own 33% of a commercial property, and am looking at what to do next. I don't earn stupid money (I'm only in the 33% tax bracket), but I live cheaply. I started with $12,000 as a deposit in 2003 when I was 21 and never looked back. My 2 cents. P.S> What I didn't tell you is that tenants actually do suck. Even the good ones cause damage, or miss rent occaisionally which you have to chase up. I used to be over friendly - now I'm a hard-ass as it gets the rent paid on time. Had the tenants in the commercial skip town and then go belly up. Have a $12,500 claim at the insolvency office. It comes with the territory I guess. All that said though, I still wouldn't do things any differently. The $12,500 comes off my tax anyway, and its only lost income in the end. Makes the bank all twitchy though lol.

Good story. I think Token did what most of us would. I found that when I lived in Akld I used to get wound up at other drivers. Now I only go down there a couple of times a month for a day or two, I find that I'm in a much more relaxed mood and they don't bother me. So when an Akld driver starts cursing, or driving like a nutter on the motorway for whatever reason I do the smile and wave. It's great because it usually just winds them up ha. I find a thumbs up is the ultimate gesture to put them over the edge.