gjm

New rant. People whose default reaction to any question - any question - about a car, any car, is 'scan it'. No actual knowledge-based suggestion. And typically no help at all with "I get code 68 from my M50B20-equipped E36." (Yes it's a valid suggestion in some cases but there are often more straightforward answers.)

Always been the case. I paid $2500 for our 1989 Mercedes 500SE. That was $200000 in 1989. In the UK, most new cars could lose up to 40% of the screen sticker price just by driving off the forecourt.

Same here. Matt red-looking Honda Accord on SH2 southbound from Napier - first came screamin up a sliproad and used hard shoulder to pass a couple of cars before diving into the line of traffic, then zigzaggng through traffic along SH2 before heading off to Flaxmere. Very, very noisy car, coupla young 'uns (they all are these days ) in it. I had a pic of the car. Thought about *555ing them but... Where's the point? At home I checked and both WoF and rego are out byt over 6 months. 105 form, and... Yup - same pointless result. Maybe it is just a 'feel good' form for people who've felt strongly enough to report bad driving? In the meantime, the TV ad tells me the police are keeping speeds down to make our roads safer. 😡

Disappointment. Read about the new Tesla Model 2, some vague rumours of Li-S batteries (500wh per kg) and saw this pic. Winner! 🥳 🥳 🥳 Then I saw that they'll be made exclusively in China, and are likely to look like a watered down, more ordinary version of this: Not actually terrible, but very disappointing.

I was thinking it was much less scary viewing on a screen than it would be from underneath a vehicle...

It was good to see some sort of adherence to safety, although the typical ham-fisted "lret's see how far a car can lean before it falls over" roundabout manoeuvre suggested less of an unwillingness to break rules, than an inability to do so. Boosting past was not an option. There was the usual slower vehicle in the inside lane which was just fast enough to keep mad Prius drivers at bay. So that'd be a max speed of 81km/h, over a ~20km stretch of cheese-wire constrained, 100km/h speed limit single carriageway, punctuated by roundabouts with 200m-long two-lane stretches either side.

Not a BMW, but does show the potential versatility in use for hydrogen fuel sources. https://www.visordown.com/news/new-bikes/bold-hydrogen-powered-segway-apex-h2-not-only-here-its-bargain-too

Doesn't support coding for "E46, E39, E38, E53, E85 and anything older". Does do all the diagnostic stuff, though.

Got my Whanganuis and Whangareis mixed up. 🥴 20 years or so ago now, but we were able to buy every part for a W123-series Mercedes (end of production in 1986) from the dealer. Including a bodyshell (which we were offered at a MASSIVE discount! Wish we'd bought it...) I know that parts for the Porsche 928 are now NLA from Porsche, and that there are no official plans to reproduce them. Third party only. Manufacturers can't support vehicles indefinitely, but it seems that the need for that support is happening sooner. Stuff just seems to wear out much, much faster than it used to. Built in obsolescence?

I'm on a roll today. Probably due to lack of sleep. Why is that we now seem to accept that genuinely expensive (when new) prestige-badged cars need to have huge amounts of money spent on them at (what I'd think of as) low mileages? A recent article in the news talked about a 2-million km Toyota Corolla based somewhere north of Auckland. In the UK, I'd routinely see older cars advertised with 200000, 300000, 400000 miles and more. Yet I now see reports of engine life expectancy, without $BIG being spent, to be as little as 200,000km. Range Rover TDV8. Expensive when new. Over 150000km (not even 100000 miles) and turbos will have to come off for work which is likely to be required. Getting the turbos off means removing bodywork. It's not especially complex, but it's a long and messy job. Of course, that doesn't touch on the pletora of electrical issues that can be a problem. And don't buy a TDV6 because the crank can fail. Audi 3.0 TDi. "Some of them can make it to 200,000 miles, but likely won’t last much longer." Obviously engine maintenance is crucial with these engines, as with most others, but "expect problems after 100,000 miles if not kept up properly." [Let's skip over the BMW N42 and similar.] These are far from isolated examples. Has the accountant's pen really slashed through so much good engineering that cars are now inherently unreliable, and even regarded as disposable at 10 years old? Japanese cars are far from immune to issues, but do seem less susceptible than European or American ones. Maybe because they've never put the effort into making a decent small diesel, potentially diluting the funding for other mechancial work, so petrol-engined car development is properly addressed? Diesel high-pressure fuel pump failure is unheard of, because they don't make diesel cars! (Yes - there are exceptions.)

Had one of them on SH2 around Napier this morning. Complete with one even narrower space saver type rear wheel. 80km/h, max. And right hand lane through every roundabout. 🤬🤬🤬

Slow drivers in the outside lane approaching a roundabout, who hang back because overtaking a truck on the roundabout would be too dangerous, and then don't accelerate off the roundabout, trundling gently along behind the truck because they might not make the pass in the two lane space available...

Looks a bit better in a different colour. Interesting that so much effort is being expended by BMW in quite different alternative propulsion system directions (electric, hydrogen, fuel cell...)

Agreed. The number of cars being listed has dropped, and those that have been listed for higher prices don't seem to be moving as quickly.

Pricing is still optimistic?

Given the frankly optimistic prices of some E30s, this one looks almost reasonably priced. https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/bmw/listing/3518045341

S/h car market is a ridiculous thing at present and despite the Covid import issues, doesn't really make any sense. The vehicles you mention are right up there with other overpriced vehicles. I'd add a Hilux to the list! (Bl**dy horrible things to drive - what do people see in them?) What is your V6 wagon?

Really not sure where all the negativity around cheap BMWs is coming from. Maybe it's an impact of Covid? I bought the 320d with fairly high mileage, and ran it for a few years, piling (by most standards) huge kms on. Without issue. Look after it, and all is typically good. (It has been sold, and a non-starting issue is puzzling the new owner.) 560000km. We bought a genuinely cheap E46 318i. It runs, and runs... And runs... Look after it, and.. well, you get the idea. Bodywork is pretty rough, but it's solid. Well over 250000km. The Merc 500SE cost me $2500 nearly 7 years ago. Paintwork was poor when we got it and is not really better now, but it's cost very little in the meantime, despite having extended periods of daily use (which probably did it a lot of good, actually). Only real expense has been replacing the shock absorbers. Heading to 500000km Japanese cars? My experience is entirely contrary to what appears normal. Nothing but trouble. Buy cheap, run for 12 moths, throw it away, rinse, and repeat. I see people doing this A LOT but still saying how great their cheap Japanese hatch is (and how expensive European cars are to maintain), but something goes wrong and they buy another one every 12 months or so. YMMV. And obviously does.

Any chance you could go back to eRoad? They are among the most awful companies to deal with. No-one knows anything, and shipments for installation come in unmarked boxes with no information as to which vehicle they are for. Contacting them is a nightmare. Customers have spent hours on hold waiting to speak to someone, and we sometimes get emails replied to - eventually.