Nic325i

Most (all?) A4 and larger Audi's have longitudinal engines. Cynic would say they did it to help get more of the engines mass ahead of the front axle for added understeer potential...

Read a bit about these a couple of years ago when considering A4's - apparently nowhere near as quick as 286 hp would indicate (same power as 3.0 M3), very peaky power delivery mentioned from memory. There was a 220ish hp version of the MTM that most people reckoned was a better drive. S4 engine should be reasonably reliable - 2.7 litres and only 195kw is not overly stressed. Test drove a blue one near western springs some years back - acceleration was license losingly rapid pulling out from intersections within the city.

Without wanting to sound callous, my view is that the attention given to 200 fire deaths in Australia is out of all proportion - 80,000+ people die in earthquakes in Iran/Pakistan, and it gets virtually nothing in the news. I am also certain more than 200 people die every day in Sudan, Congo, other parts of africa due to hunger, disease, etc. While no doubt terrible, helps to keep things in perspective.

Not sure about BMWs/this specific BMW, but in a lot of cars the "disable traction control" button is actually a "relax traction control button" - i.e. the car is allowed to get to a greater level of instability before the computer starts trying to sort things out. I'm pretty sure Mercedes all work in this way, and no doubt many other brands too. On the more general point, I am with those saying it would be very difficult for the insurance company to prove a high likelihood that traction control could have prevented a particular accident.

As description, I no longer need the copy I have of the Haynes manual for three and five series cars from the eighties and early nineties. Basically covers E30, E28, and M20 engined E34. Free to a good home, must be able to collect from central Auckland ASAP

Glad to hear you don't perfume cars anymore - I would be really hacked off to collect a car and find it smelling like the Bodyshop in the lead up to christmas

Crowd deaths were far from the only contributing factor though - see in particular Henri Toivonen. Rather sad, but still a shame they couldn't find a middle ground. Current WRCs are meant to be at least as fast due to superior turbo charging, better tyres, suspension etc. edited for spelling

Not sure if they would do valuations, but BM Workshop/other specialists doing a lot of pre-purchase checks must know enough about values to provide some support

Also meant to eliminate the frequent very dicey manoeuvres seen at the ends of passing lanes when three more cars decide they "have" to get past the truck/caravan/etc, after the point where the lanes have merged back into one.

Rodney Hide could be a good person to bombard with letters - his main mission in life is meant to be reducing useless wastage of taxpayer money, hard to see how this would not fit the bill.

Holy lack of full stops batman!

I had the same feeling - think it changed about 3-4 years ago (possibly at the same time they stopped using hidden cameras, stopped marking speed camera areas etc).

Not unusual to use butchered up old bodies on new/development chassis though is it - in fact

Ask the seller?

I doubt they would be up - the amount of thought now put in to design of interiors etc to be more "friendly" during a crash has to help. Examples off the top of my head - generally all cars now have headrests, so whiplash/neck broken over the seat back should have dropped - much more thought put into preventing pedal box from smashing ankles, dash board and steering column from smashing knees - much higher likelihood of having inertia reel seatbelts (often x5) rather than lap belts only/sap sash but with manual adjustment of length Incidentally, if you want to reduce your risk of permanent disability in a car crash you should have the smallest possible amount of crap hanging from your car key. Saab put the key in the centre console to avoid having heavy bunches of keys impaling into kneecaps during a crash. Regarding Escort vs Impreza, I have no doubt that I'd feel much less sore after crashing the Impreza than the Escort Nic

There was/is one of those on the motorway at Ellerslie - saw it there last weekend and figured it would provoke some complaints. I actually think it is taking the micky out of society, not religion - seems to me it is at least equally pointing out how little we think about the origins of christmas and just go with the commercial part of it. Feel obliged to add, I am NOT christian, and billboard/lack of thinking about christ at christmas does not offend me in the slightest - if anything would classify myself as agnostic.

Looking at a photo of our place I think they actually blanked some number plates. See here

I think rear suspension is actually closer to E36 isn't it? First use of the Z arm design.

Might not be road legal, but have seen it driving through Remuera shops in Auckland before. I'd agree that some of the classics around the place are going to be top of the heap.

I've used a product called Liquid Leather before - touched up steering wheel and gearknob in my old M325i. Worked really well and certainly improved the look/feel of the leather.

I think it was meant to suit the auto gearbox better - I remember one review that said it actually improved the car.

High line on BMW's always used to mean FULL leather - as in covering dash, handbrake surround etc.

Power to weight only affects acceleration, not top speed doesn't it? That new Falcon is horrendous

Crocodile Dundee voice on/ That's not an M8, this would have been the M8 /Crocodile Dundee voice off

Only if the data they are based on is sufficiently accurate and the conclusions sufficiently solid - no point saying the E30 is a 5/10 and E34 6/10 if the scatter is so large that it swamps the difference. Bit like marking english essays - can a teacher really say one is worth 65% and the other is worth 67%?