gjm

TBH, it never really bothered me. Took a week or so to get used to and after that... It was just different. RHD headers for a M5 may be OK, but several of the cars I've had would have been a different matter. Various V8 Mercs, and a Porsche 928... RHD headers don't exist unless you have them custom made. That said, following a tractor down a narrow-ish country road while in the C10 was 'challenging'. There's no way (from the LHD driving seat) to tell when it's safe to overtake, and moving far enough out to see past meant anything coming the other way would have hit me before I could see them coming. Certainly not ideal.

I drove a few left-hookers in the UK. US muscle (Camaro, Mustang, C10 pickup) and some Italian - an Alfa Romeo oddball, and a Integrale. It certainly takes some getting used to - overtaking while in the C10 really required a passenger! - but it's not so bad. And puts the gear lever to the right of the driver. And yes.. Tuning parts like headers are much, much more readily available for LHD cars.

Buuuut... Hyundai! Although if you squint at an early one, they do kinda look like a 1-series BMW from the back...

Photobucket being difficult.

Is that a Dailey kit?

I think the E60 530d tank is 70l. So 15-16km/l will give 1050km on a tank.

There's been a recent increase in events, largely driven by the Wellingtonians. Could we add these to the Bimmersport calendar? I had a quick look but suspect this requires admin-type privileges at present.

Silly money. The 'appreciating asset' card is played, but then there are mention of 'imperfections'. And has been said - parked up for an extended period is going to mean that while it may seem OK now, there will be work needed in the near future. Not $14k. Not even $10k. Even allowing for E30 tax, maybe $6k, tops?

What'd I do to my BMW? Nuffin'. Bought some wheels for the 500SE, though.

@CSET's business partner may know something about that...

I bought him a drink at Stringfellows in London - it was his birthday. How far off topic are we now?

Waitomo is pretty cheap, too. And (as far as I can tell) they sell Mobil fuel, so no ethanol in the 95 or 98RON unleaded. The new one at Bombay is so much cheaper than either the Caltex or BP there. Only possible downside I can find is that they accept a limited range of credit cards (no Amex, for example).

M5 wagon? That's nice... But I want to get somewhere quickly...! BMW will be releasing an all-wheel-drive version of the M5 in due course, with ~600hp, but alpina have got fed up with waiting and have released a G30-derived version - the B5 BiTurbo. 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8, 600bhp and 590lb ft of torque, permanent 4WD but with the ability to redistribute more power and torque to the rear wheels if you wish. 0-100km/h in 3.5s (3.6 for the wagon) and a top speed in excess of 320km/h. It'll be unveiled at the Frankfurt show in September.

Certainly looks that way.

That's still around. Could be for sale soon, though... Currently waiting for me to change the turbo which after 500000km decided the seals had got a little tired.

The E36(s) and the E46 all do that. Seems a common problem across many manufacturers actually - the use of a seemingly inverted pyramid for the fuel tank, with an uncorrected 'dip-stick' to measure what's left. The 318i will comfortably do 500km on a half tank. but is showing a low fuel light soon after 800kms. (65l tank - I rarely get more than 60l in it.) Haven't had the Ti long enough to work that out yet, but yes - the E46 does something similar.

Good work. I'd be interested to hear if you got much more than 300km from the second 'half' of the tank?

Sounds like you covered most of the important bits.

Oh, the R-class works... But it's aimed at polo mums, not soccer mums. Not many vehicles around that can carry 6 adults in comfort, and still turn 0-60 in under 5 seconds.

[BMW Boardroom] "Mercedes did their R-class... It wasn't a huge success, but I'm sure we should do something similar. We need a huge, ugly vehicle that's too big for school mums to drive..."

Following on from Ray's post about the Z3 coupe, here's the suggestions for the forthcoming Z5 coupe.

I don't think they're Fenix... Call and ask? I got a rad for our 500SE from Silverdale - fast delivery, seems to be good quality. It fits, it holds coolant, and the price was pretty good.

It's 10 years old... That's barely 10k a year. Average in the UK is estimated to be 12000 miles a year - nearly 19000km. And the UK has something which can be described as a public transport system. That said, I have no idea what one of these is worth. Tough life, eh?

Such nice cars.

Up to a a $400 value you are normally OK and don't need to pay anything extra to the NZ government. Bear in mind that this is simply a 'not worth our time' figure, so they could charge you anyway. If the value is between $400 and $1000, and this is noticed, your goods are held and you are at the mercy of NZ Post. (Sometimes something slips through with ahigher value - don't count on this!) I bought some parts in, and received a letter from NZ Post saying they'd need paying before delivery could be arranged. They neglected to give me any sort of reference number and it was only by the grace of a very helpful Customs bod in Tauranga that I was able to get things sorted. Still took them 10 days from confirmed payment of duties to get the parts to me. Over $1000 you need a client code which must be arranged in advance of your purchase. This requires completion of customs form NZCS 224, and (iirc) the code must be entered on the customs slip by the shipper. It's an enormous faff about and makes no sense to a private individual; ask about it, and customs simply suggest you use a shipping agent. US shipping is typically expensive. I'm not sure how the NZPost YouShop facility compares. Shipping of larger items from Europe has also increased dramatically in the last year or so - where I had previously paid EUR40-50, it's now EUR100+. And that shipping cost is a factor in whether you pay duty or not. Yes - your duty is calculated on the purchase price + shipping cost + insurance cost. If the seller doesn't discount local taxation (VAT, etc) then that is also included. All hail the system where we pay tax for the benefit of paying tax to a foreign government! (Actually, that's a little unfair - the seller pays that tax, and probably has a mountain of paperwork to get through to remove taxation from an out-of-country sale.) There's a further issue with this. Let's assume you had an XYZ device that broke and required return to manufacturer to repair. You send it back, it's repaired, and the manufacturer ships it back to you. They label the package 'Warranty Repair', and insure it for (say) $1200. You will be charged duties based on $1200+shipping+insurance for the import into New Zealand. This is an important distinction - it is the total value of the import that is used for any calculation, and not how much you may have paid. To avoid this, you will need to provide evidence of having exported something for repair - the shipper's say-so is not sufficient.