318Touring

Slightly off topic, did you get charged $20/day for the loaner? It was unusual that you got a manual since usually they provided auto for loaners.

Lookin' good! You might be able to use this to check whether it's a 316/318.

That white one will be a Jap import. Tell tale signs, the number plate holders both front and rear are of a more compact design. These will take Jap style plates (and US). Sing cars will have the wider design for Sing style plates, which is the wider European style plates.

Why are you changing anyway? Maybe you'd want to wait until the new 7 is out. That'll be another year, won't it? By then it'll have all of the cool stuff standard (HUD, NAV, Active Cruise Control, Night Vision etc. etc.).

Jeff Gray BMWs sometimes do have imported BMWs from either Singapore or Japan. Or wait until a NZ new one comes up for sale here, as it would be quite highly spec'ed?

Yeah, when I was looking at an ex-Sing E65 at Jeff Gray, they either had done the conversion or there was nothing to do as they readily provided the nav DVD (CD?) as part of the deal.

From trawling the E60 forum, I know that I can do a DIY retrofit for AUX out on my E60. However the software has to be updated by the BMW dealer otherwise when the software needs to be updated at a later stage, the dealer will run into problems. Apparently before updating, the car configuration has to exactly match with what BMW has on its database otherwise the update won't run. That's why an AUX install costs about $300 while the actual hardware (cable) itself only costs $80!!! I guess it'll be the same situation with E65, and it's not about the iDrive thing, it's all about the car software. Although I don't quite understand why BMW NZ refuses to do the swap. As long as everything is swapped from Jap to NZ (fiber optics, BUS etc.) everything should run fine. Maybe you could post BMW NZ's reasons for not wanting to do it. Will be interesting to see.

A BMW dealer should be able to swap the nav unit from Jap to NZ (Europe) one. They'll then have to re-program and update the software so it'll work correctly with the upgraded nav. Any BMW dealer should be able to carry out this work for you. If you are not buying from a BMW dealer you can take the VIN to local BMW dealer to get the exact details of the current setup, and at the same time get the price for the swap from them. Apart from re-programming, it's do-able as a DIY project.

Fluffer for the female stars?

Drool ......

Also remember that the dealer has to pay interest on the money the borrow to buy the stock.

Assuming you don't have the TV option, first get to the consumption figure by pressing the button at the indicator stalk. After getting there, press the button again for about 2 seconds to reset the figure to --/--.

Nice car, congrats! Specs?

"its nearly 2008 body its fast life no1 have time for grammar specially me evry1 including u knows what it means and before u telling me about pretending ring BMW and ask ( is BMW520i 2000MODEL 2200cc tiptronic 6cylinder comes with M5 bage on???? )then u will know that u asked me good or stupid question" Fast life, crap grammar and spelling == idiot.

Welcome, what's your location?

So expensive though On TM

Great day I'd say. But I agree that the instructions didn't need to be so cryptic. And having a bit of a time between getting the sheets and taking off would be good as I'd use the time to decipher the instructions to 'at 2.6km turn left at 3.4km name yellow building etc.'

As for warranty, AA, $1250 for 3 years, no excess and servicing as required by the manufacturers not every 15000km/1 yr. But AA requires you to undergo its vehicle inspection, which was worthless. Protecta is about $1800/3 years. With $250 excess. They require the above servicing. It'll be ok with BMWs with the service light regime but not for the ones equipped with Condition Based Servicing. There is another product from Allianz which is reselling Protecta's anyway. $1350/3 years with $150 excess. Same conditions as Protecta. I got the info for the last two from Cath in GT Cont. State also offers mechanical warranty but not advertised in their website. Here's the link. Last I asked it was about $700/3 yrs which was very cheap and its terms and conditions were comparable to AA. But since Jeff Gray said it's dealt with AA quite a lot I went with them. Martyn, to see what options your touring has, go to Jeff Gray and ask nicely whether they can pull the car's build sheet. It'll list all of the factory installed options.

Congrats. Specs? Are you getting a mechanical warranty for it?

Here's a ski bag. To safely put your skis.

It's an option thing, mate. As the model gets older BMW started adding the previously-optional-features. These 2003s are E39? I think E60s get load-through as a standard feature. Also 520s will have the most basic features, mostly to provide the Asian market with affordable BMWs due to the high luxury tax slapped on motor vehicles.

Have you tried here?

Yeah, BMW dealer's like that. Let him hold on to the car for another 6 months, he'll be begging you to take it.

Yeah. it'll be everything. Carpet, door cards and all the plastic bits at the front. Interesting project :-) Good luck for tomorrow!!

And why not? If you got a good bargain for the car, you can use the rest of your budget getting those from FAB. Why don't you get a mate in the UK to buy you a nice E39 and send it down? Or from source one yourself from Japan.