Nic325i

I prefer Robin Williams theory on the origin of golf. One of the funniest bits of stand up I've seen

Just down the hill from the University of Auckland business school, across the motorway from the ASB tennis centre?

I can't work out how the X5 is not a competitor for the Range Rover anyway? AS others have said, great move

Would be hard to rationalise against an E34 M5 for similar money. Started at $30k about 2 years ago didn't it?

The colour does it for me - everyone's different. It would hide the dirt well also.

Glad to help - the site is worth poking around - lots of interesting stuff on special edition E34 M5's and so forth.

Have a look here. Described as the best all round car in the world on more than one occasion.

Another reason for people buying autos is car salesperson propaganda - endlessly going on about how "you'll never sell a manual second hand, people want auto..". Would make a good Tui ad.

How is the above comment about hedge funds not "populist hysteria"? IMO, the main problem Labour has is that people are sick of being told what to do on the small stuff - banning incandescent bulbs being a good example. Surely the government should spend its time on bigger things.

The Aston Martin is pretty scary - $240/day depreciation from new Edit: the range rover is just about as bad [schadenfreude] Nothing like the bank selling your house from under you to get the toys moving [/schadenfreude]

Another oldie - no offense to any accountants... "A group of engineers were traveling on a train with a group of accountants. Each of the accountants had their own train ticket, but the group of engineers had only one ticket for all of them. The accountants started laughing and snickering about how the engineers would be fined and thrown off the train. Anyway, they saw the conductor coming, at which point all of the engineers dashed into the bathroom. The accountants were puzzled. The conductor came aboard and said "tickets please" and got tickets from all the accountants. He then went to the bathroom and knocked on the door and said "ticket please" and the engineers stuck the ticket under the door. The conductor took it and then the engineers came out of the bathroom a few minutes later. The accountants were a bit hacked off, and felt really stupid. On the return trip the accountants were determined not to let the engineers get one over them again, so they bought only one ticket as well. They were slightly amazed though, for none of the engineers bought tickets at all. On the train, the accountants spotted the conductor and they and the engineers raced to the bathrooms, where they waited. Then, before the conductor came on board, one of the engineers left the bathroom, knocked on the other bathroom, and said "ticket please."

More likely to be mid mounted ala Clio V6 isn't it? Hard to imagine that a V12 would fit where there was originally a (transverse?) four. In which case it would redefine tail happy I'd imagine.

Going rate in UK seems to be 40-50k pounds, which is around that money - so maybe not.

Changing the topic a little bit - reading the questions, does anyone else find it concerning that a 500hp supercar is not getting it's first service until 30,000km. I know it is stated as what Porsche recommend, but

In a similar vein, an oldie but a goodie, and another I found like looking for it SMARTASS ANSWER #3 The cop got out of his car and the kid who was stopped for speeding rolled down his window. "I've been waiting for you all day," the cop said. The kid replied, "Yeah, well I got here as fast as I could." When the cop finally stopped laughing, he sent the kid on his way without a ticket. SMARTASS ANSWER #2 A truck driver was driving along on the freeway. A sign comes up that reads, " Low Bridge Ahead." Before he knows it, the bridge is right ahead of him and he gets stuck under the bridge. Cars are backed up for miles. Finally, a police car comes up. The cop gets out of his car and walks to the truck driver, puts his hands on his hips and says, "Got stuck, huh?" The truck driver says, "No, I was delivering this bridge and ran out of gas."

In a word, yes. In a few more, that sounds ideal - although not scrapping cars at 6 years old. Hopefully you and I both know that that rule has nothing to do with safety, and everything to do with making car ownership expensive and limiting the number of cars in a country that is 2/3 the size of urban Auckland but has more people than NZ.

Without wanting to get into a massive debate/argument about this, I still disagree on several points. I did not say there was no chance of crashes on state highways, or deny that people would have a radar detector to allow them to cruise at speed when cops aren't around. I don't think I said that police shouldn't enforce speed limits either. What I tried to say was that someone with a radar detector is more likely to be aware of, and slow down because of, cops. Therefore if there were a lot more cops with radars being detected, people would have to limit their speed. I also think that a lot of the problem at the moment is that vastly different roads have the same limit. I find it unintuitive for highly safe motorways to have the same speed limit (or lower limit in certain cases) than far less safe country roads. It should be a judgement thing, but it is pretty clear that some people don't have that judgement. Regarding the statistics given, I have no doubt they are correct, but statistics don't tell you everything. I bet that very few of the accidents were caused only by speed, yet this receives the lions share of enforcement. I have no idea how having more cop cars would result in more people testing their 0-100 times in the suburbs - surely it is much easier to pick a spot away from a speed camera than away from a roving cop car?

I think you are very much mistaken if you think there is a solid reason for a speed limit at 50 rather 40 or 60. If the reasons were that good then there would be FAR more variation in "open road" speed limits - it is not rational that the speed limit on the straights of the Hauraki plains is the same as the limit 10km further on once the road gets twistier. Equally, having the same speed limit on motorways (where there is no chance of people turning across the road, no chance of head on crash) and on state highways with cars, tractors, kids etc crossing the road is not based on sound reasoning. You say that a radar detector is an invitation to speed. I read a persuasive argument recently (Peter Gill or Brian Cowan?) suggesting that radar detectors actually worked FOR road safety by increasing the area of effect of police cars - i.e. making them "visible" from a long distance, hence slowing down traffic. If everyone had a detector and the police relied solely on cars rather than cameras, the roads would be safer. As has been said before, "Speed kills" is just about the ultimate in lazy arguments.

That matches what I've read. The interesting point (assuming price does drop) will be to see if the price at the pump drops commensurately... if Cullen is still in power it could just be an opportune time to whack some more tax on and pretend it saves the polar bears. Also, saw in the paper yesterday that Saudi Arabia is adding 500,000(?) bpd to production - so not just non-opec

Based on what I've seen, you are unlikely to find someone selling seats in much better condition than that - might have to investigate recovering. BMW should still sell the original cloth, but $$$

Petrol is only about 75% of the density of water - i.e. about 750g/litre

Well, done a couple of trips to the Coromandel now, Queen's Birthday didn't prove much except that auto is a nice way of surviving Auckland traffic. Last weekend was better... E46 is pretty good. Engine is fantastic, loves to rev and piles on speed pretty quick. I know the Kopu-Hikuai road rather well, this car makes overtaking in all the usual spots rather straightforward. Gearbox is OK for an auto, but not really a fan. Always feels on the verge of kicking down, plus I am a huge fan of engine braking, which an auto doesn't really help with. I've been using it mostly in tiptronic mode, which improves things, but it is hard to instinctively know which gear you are in compared to manual. Steering pretty good, but I think the car needs an alignment. Grip is good, as it should be - four new Bridgestone Adrenalins went on the car less than a month ago. Fuel consumption is hard to gauge - only filled up once so far, and I hadn't used the first part of that tank. Will have to fill again soon, but probably won't be a fair measure due to some spirited use on steep hills. The other notable point is that the headlights (not HID) are really good - obviously much better (blasphemy!) than previous E30, but also significantly better than current Mazda 6.

Yes. Nothing more to add really.

Would only last one term if organised - next time around there would be far fewer votes for either national or labour, and someone else would become a big(gish) fish

Sorry for the double reply - just had a look at that M325 - cambelt last done 90000km ago