Grant

You are an f**king d*ck, and the lazy one. I am a parent with two young kids and when at a shopping mall with them, having the chance to park near the entrance is great as it it not always easy to manage kids plus shopping etc through the carpark, especially when one is too big for the stroller and has to walk. You need to remember that 3 year olds and pricks who drive too quickly in carparks are not a good mix. It is not a lazy parent thng, it is a safety thing how good would you feel if you hit a young kid in a carpark?

Yeah, but if you park in them and you don't actually have small kids, then you are a big f**kwit.

It looks better upside down.

The same for me when I had my big accident (the other drivers fault). One phone call to the BNZ Premier Care 0800 number and it was all sorted.I just walked away and left my car on the side of the road, and they took care of the rest. They paid the agreed value, not market value and let me buy the car back for stuff all.

I never looked in the wrong place for the rear view mirror, or have even thought about it. But now that you mention it am wondering why I never looked in the wrong place!What I still find funny is that when I dream, if my dream takes place in NZ, and I am in a car at all, the driver (whether it is me or someone else) is always on the right, yet if my dream takes place here, the driver is on the left, and the side of the road driven on is always correct for the country. I also think that driving LHD when every other car around you is doing the same, and you are driving on the RHS of the road is easier than initially driving a LHD car when every car around you is RHD. Sorry, I have digressed off the actual thread topic!

^ I'm with him

Haha. I have driven nothing but LHD for 20 months now, and once in a blue moon I still go to get in the wrong side of the car.However, learning to drive LHD, even a manual is easy and I was used to it quickly. In saying that for the first while I whacked the door reaching for the gear stick, and handbrake a few times.

What I am guessing happened is that someone voted on this, and this bumped it back to the top, rather than someone posting and then deleting it.

Yup, exactly.Although I'm not sure about the good members point. The items that make the forum worse seem to have put off a lot of the really good members. However in saying that, over time there is a larger core of good members as the number of overall members has increased.

I'm pretty sure I was around in '03. You had your red E30 with the peeling paint, Andy had his E30, Ollie had his gold E30. Gus eventually got that black E30 325 with the chromies, and I had my grey E30 (RIP). How things, including Bimmersport have changed.

They just look like they have seat covers on them to me

I average about 28mpg (8.4l/100km) in the VW Passat (manual, 4 cyl, 1.8T), and average about 24mpg (9.8 l/100km) in the Subaru Outback (auto, 6 cyl, 3.0). In both cars there is probably 50% city driving and 50% freeway driving (although the freeway driving is most often at speeds of around 75 - 80 miles per hour, which probably isn't the most efficient speed, especially in the Passat).

I admire your entrepreneurial spirit, and wish you the best of luck but here is my two cents worth of advice on this endeavour: 1) I'm not sure what models of BMW's you are looking at, but if you are primarily targeting older models such as E30s and E36s etc, then I think you will really struggle. You just need to look at the vast majority of any group buys that have been set up here, even for inexpensive items. Members are full of bravado and bullshit saying that they are are in on the group buy, but then when it actually time to confirm and front up with the cash they back out. I'd be willing to bet that most members on here with anything older than a BMW made in the last 8 - 10 years struggle to afford to keep the car running, let alone install proper performance products (and I don't mean Repco supplied pod filters or Pit Stop supplied exhausts). 2) The people with the money to think about adding serious performance to their cars also have the nous to research the products and therefore where, worldwide they can source the parts the cheapest. If I was in NZ and in the market for any serious performance parts I know I would look at going directly to the 'horses mouth' and import them myself and cut out the middle man (in this case you). I know that you have the convenience factor of having them here, but it is not too inconvenient to order something via the web, pay with credit card and then picking it up from a shipping depot here. 3) Just because these types of places work in the USA or Europe does not mean that this will necessarily translate to the NZ market. The large populations of the USA and Europe (remember that the USA has nearly 100 times the population of NZ) means that the market can sustain serious performance outlets, but also means that the suppliers can generate huge economies of scale. As an example within the last month the ICM on my Passat started failing. I went to the dealer and the OEM Bosch part was $US400 (+ tax). I went online, and got the same part for $US110 shipped. I ordered it late on a Friday afternoon and had it in my hands by lunchtime Monday. These wholesalers are huge, and their warehouses are massive (they make the biggest warehouse in NZ look like a garden shed). They have very little mark-up and rely on volume to make money. You won't be able to operate with this model, or compete when people in NZ can simply order just as easily. I know that this sounds negative, but I am just trying to point out the major issues I can see with this idea.

I saw a new Prius this morning with BMW alloys and an ///M badge on th back. I found the thought of an ///M hybrid amusing.

The Infiniti G35 (or now G37) Coupe is a fantastic looking car, although it is based right off the 350Z (now 370Z). Both are really common here, and the G35 coupe seem to hold their value very well. The G35/G37 Sedan is very bland looking. Interesting that Infiniti is referred to as Nissan's luxury brand. The older ones here are just rebadged Primera's (Infiniti G20) and the generation after that were rebadged Skyline sedans. The newer ones seem a lot more luxurious.

Bryan, is it going to be easy to go through the immigration process to move to NZ (or do you have family/connections in NZ)? When my wife became a "Kiwi" it was quite a difficult process. Getting my Green Card for the US wasn't just a case of rolling up and asking for one either and even though I was at the top of the heap for eligibility. It took time, lots of paper pushing, jumping through hoops and was expensive.

I'm pretty sure that that is done on purpose. This weeds out the people who really want to be there and will stick it out. It also caters to bring the lowest common demominator up, so that from second year onwards there is a level playing field (that's my theory anyway).I found that from my second year onwards it got better with each year (I was there for 5 years, my 4 year degree then 1 year post grad). I had a mate doing the same degree as me, when he handed in one of the biggest assignments of the entire degree, his lecturer/marker sent it back with "Is this a joke?" written across it is vivid marker, and no grade. This mate worked hard and it was a good assignment. He complained formally in writing, got it remarked by another lecturer and recieved the appropriate (good) grade. The original lecturer had a complete breakdown and made national headlines not long afterwards. Needless to say he never lectured again. In my second year I had a lecturer who had just shown up from England never having lectured before (I had a few beers with him and he said had gone through a nasty divorce and wanted to get as far away from England as possible). He was brilliant and had great industry experience (he was a part of the Toyota marketing team that lanched the Lexus brand in the US). I'll never forget the first assignment he gave us. He asked us how it should work, so we set our own assignment criteria, grading system etc. Fun times, and now a long time ago!

I ordered a heap of software from them. Promises quick delivery and was cheap too.

I agree with this completely! Great post John

You can't tint all the way around in California. I imagine that this is the same elsewhere here too.It is just the fact that there is no WOF or similar here, you would only get picked up on it if you were stopped by the CHP. I have never seen a car here with the windscreen tinted. Tinting the windscreen is probably the stupidest thing I have heard today.

I am left handed and meant to be one of those that are effected by the iPhone 4 reception problems. Lots of people I work with have the iPhone 4 (and I am getting mine this weekend). The reception issue is really a non issue and seems to be a very isolated thing, I can't replicate it no matter how hard I try, and I have tried it on 4 or 5 iPhone 4's. I think that the iPhone 4 is brilliant, and a huge step up from my iPhone 3G (or the 3GS), even when the 3G(s) is running iOS4. The good thing here is that because I brought my 3G from NZ to the USA, it is factory unlocked, and I can easily sell it for more than it costs to upgrade to the new iPhone 4, as people want the unlocked and non-jailbroken ones here so they can use them on the T-Mobile network instead of AT&T.

Those wheels are about perfect on an E36. Looks Great!

My issue with Top Gear, and don't get me wrong I still watch it and still really enjoy it, is that it just sticks to the same formula over and over again. Even the jokes are re-used over and over again. However I don't think that this is the Top Gear guys fault. The BBC have obviously found the winning formula and won't dare allow any deviation from it. It is also at the stage now where it is so overly scripted (to make sure they stick to the same formula) that any spontaneity is gone. It is now the equivalent of an automotive sit-com. However I will still watch it and enjoy it and pretend that it is the first time I have heard the jokes and that each new car that Jeremy tested won't be talked up only to be rubbished and then compared to two existing cars that he says are better (which of course Hammond and May will disagree with). It is also better and more entertaining than any other automotive program on at the moment, I just wish they still had the freedom to be a bit more impulsive like the series was 4 or 5 years ago.

The fact that at least one of the producers of Top Gear is active on the Final Gear forums, means that the BBC isn't too worried about them making it available for downloading.

Why the hell not?Brent - I always get it from one of the bittorrent sites such as isohunt.com or thepriatebay.org Otherwise go to www.finalgear.com and it will direct you to where you can get it.