gjm

'That lovely Nissan' has an awful ride at highway speeds! And it's worse in town, crashing through potholes and the like. I dread to think what an early X3 would be like. 🤯

It's an F25 so hopefully wouldn't see me incur the spoon-up-bum wrath of Mr Doogle... I do like the idea of that. I'm trying to persuade my boss that he wants to part ways with his X5 3.0D, but he quite fairly says - what would he get to replace it that won't cost $Big? Edit: Ah. Slight fiduciary issue in the purchasing department where a 3.0D X3 is concerned...

The one I found is a low mileage... E83. On paper - fits the bill. Based on the experience of others (my favourite way of learning) it seems it is not such a good idea.

E46 M43 318i.

Reviewing online data, I should get better than 5.9L/100km in the X3 (equates to 1100km per tank). The job and role I have, and the purpose for the vehicle, mean an X3 is better-suited than a saloon or similar.

I was looking at an X3 diesel. Claimed 1000km+ on a full tank. (Can't confirm!) So that's $72 in RUCs, and (at $2.30 per litre) $154 for the diesel. $226 for (in my case) little more than a week of driving. A 2.0 petrol-engined car will take around 40l of fuel, 3 times in a fortnight. At $3 a litre, that's $180 a week, based on same usage. From an economy perspective, a diesel stops making sense very quickly.

Agreed. I'd focused on petrol-engined vehicles. The existing RUC charge is unreasonably harsh on those with private, smaller-engined diesel and mostly economical vehicles. It's simply not been changed to accommodate the change in diesel engine technology. EVs are going to see an RUC introduction at some point. It'd make sense to extend this to all road-using vehicles.

To do the job properly, the dashboard will need to come out. There's just not enough room to properly sort any cracks that may be close to the screen - the cracks can be like icebergs. What you can see is not all that needs sorting.

The cost of fuel at the pump has increased dramatically over the last few months. There was the usual big money-grabbing increase before Christmas, sustained through New Year, and a slight drop in early January. Since then though, it's been an inexorable increase. 1c/litre a day looked to be an average at one point. Lots of the usual noise about how bad the NZ govt is at managing this, and the tax they're taking. Yes - it's a significant contributor, but if the fuel companies didn't increase price, the govt percentage wouldn't compound the problem. I've said elsewhere that a cap on govt taxation would be a way that the public can be helped. Take a time and price - let's say $2.50 per litre - and once the price of fuel reaches that, the government doesn't take any further tax. However, that doesn't address any transparency issues that the public may have regarding what the oil companies are making vs govt taxation. A better way would be a fixed amount. Without going through all the tax take calculations, let's say the govt takes $1.50 tax on a litre of fuel. A huge amount of money to be sure, but we could expect the govt to be able to say that 30c is spent on x, 27c on y, 2.6c goes towards wrestling mats for one-legged black lesbian mothers of three or more children, 40c goes towards... whatever. Fix that figure. Any change in fuel price is purely and simply at the behest of the oil companies, and is clearly calculable and obvious. It's also far, far simpler for the govt, the filling stations, and so on. It can 'hide' any cents/dollars per barrel taxation, but the public won't care about that. They'd have a clear view of the tax take. Refineries... Lots of fuss and blame being laid at the govt feet for the closure of Marsden Point, a privately owned entity. All the fuss about that, and the offshore barges - all private owned/used. No govt involvement. Should there be? Maybe. Australia is nearly 30x the size of NZ, and has 4 refineries for the entire country. From an Oz standpoint, an area the size of NZ doesn't warrant consideration, and certainly not it's own refinery. Finally... Profit. Oil companies are raising prices at a time when they are making ever-increasing profits. Oil companies are also taking subsidies from governmental institutions... And they're not paying a 'reasonable' amount of tax on the profits they are making - lots of offshore obfuscation around ownership and finance. Clever move by the petrol stations. Announce a price increase, empty the filling station tanks so they can fill right up while they can still get fuel relatively cheaply, and then hike the price up to what the new barrel cost is. There's a LOT going on in this area. A lot of behind-the-scenes long-term planning, all the way down to individual and corporate profiteering with taxation somewhere in the middle. It's incredibly complex.

Original manual 325i 4-door manual, UK import.

Could be an NZ 'thing'. Those who own them, love them. I'd not expected to be selling and hadn't considered the possible problems that might present, but change of health circumstances means it is no longer a practical idea.

Selling a Merc 500SL. Had over 40 enquiries. All questions have been answered. (Half or so have been from Australia...) No-one has quibbled about the price. No-one has viewed. Still for sale.

9/10ths of no use to me, but great to see and indy setting up. (y) Wishing you every success.

We've talked about development of fuel cells for cars, and the issues (BMW and others) will face. The strength required of the hydrogen container typically dictates a specific shape, and that's something requiring significant R&D. Other issues have been the transportation of hydrogen, somethng which could be overcome by producing the hydrogen locally, on a smaller scale. That has also raised questions of ability and efficiency. A new development may have changed the picture. An easily produced composite of gallium and aluminum creates aluminum nanoparticles that react rapidly with water at room temperature, yielding large amounts of hydrogen. The gallium is easily recovered for reuse after the reaction, and testing has shown the reaction yields 90% of the hydrogen that could theoretically be produced from the reaction of all the aluminum in the composite. The process doesn’t require any energy input, and it bubbles hydrogen like crazy. The reaction of aluminum and gallium with water works because the gallium removes the passive aluminium oxide coating, allowing direct contact of aluminum with water. Transport of the gallium/aluminium is very, very easy and presents no significant risk.

Miss M follows 'Ologies'. Having spent time with her on a roadtrip, listening to some, I can see why. Very interesting.

Used car prices, generally, are on an up.

I post a lot on there, and sometimes I can' see some of the pics. And then they come back again...