Matth5

Covered in crappy looking plastidip. The paint underneath might be in bad condition and the plastidip is to cover it up.

Welcome. Awesome car, they are very rare here. Seen a few convertibles for sale before, but only recall seeing one Z4M Coupe pop up on Tademe which was also blue.

Bellars Motor Works can do aircon work. They fixed it in my old E46 before.

Real CSL will be very hard to find here, people with them keep them. Try overseas? VMR and Apex make good similar looking wheels. There's also those Kudos wheels I always see on Trademe, no idea how well made they are but they look good.

Hmm pricey, but worth it if you drive in the country a lot.Maybe I'll go for a reasonably priced radar detector to start with.

Gotta laugh at the fool who spray-painted it and knocked thousands of dollars off the value. Now it's a good cheap car for somebody, especially if they can wrap or paint it themselves. Apparently it didn't even fetch the 6.5k asking price that I see written on the window, seeing as it's going for 5k now

I've heard of people getting tunes online. Just need to be able to upload logs and do some test runs for fine tuning. No experience with it though, just what I've read. Mind sharing what your bought and the cost? I'm curious. Get an aftermarket charge pipe before you do any tunes. Mine had no leaks that I could tell, and then just went bang right as I was approaching the Coromandel one day.

Cobb AP is old and abandoned. MHD is the preferred choice these days. The BMW Performance Kit (MPPK for short) is a mild tune. 320hp. Personally I found it to be a great improvement in responsiveness, but I'm not sure how much of that was just due to getting a software update at the same time. My car has the N55 engine so your experience might differ. On some N55's there's an exploit where it works without the activation key, no such luck on N54s so you'd have to pay a BMW dealer. You can probably get similar tunes with MHD though for much less.

If you want to be safe on the warranty side, you could just do the BMW Performance Power kit. $2500 or so, so far from cheap. You won't get them to approve a tune I'm sure, and the intake + downpipe is rather pointless without that (except for the sound aspect). Maybe it helps throttle response a tad. I managed to get them to approve an aftermarket charge pipe for me when my stock one blew, had to ask the mechanic to assure them it was purely a reliability upgrade (which it was, I'm only using the BMW Performance Power Kit myself) Really though, for Auckland, stock power is already more than you can use here. Enjoy the car, don't get hung up on mods. These are very fun cars even in stock form!

So far you've emphasized cheap maintenance and 4 doors, without a word on performance, luxury, handling or looks. Based on that I'd point you to a Honda Civic or Toyota Corrola. If low maintenance is one of your top priorities then you're looking at the wrong car brand. High end cars come with high end maintenance bills. You need to pay to play. What do you actually want in a car? You need to start with thinking about what you want. Is performance important, do you care for rear-wheel drive (one of the biggest selling points of a BMW), do you care for high end interior with leather, a car that handles well at speed on twisty roads... or does that not phase you? Don't choose a car just because you think the brand is nice... Not trying to put you off, just putting your decision to the test to see if you know what you're getting into.

Not all that unusual. Auto 335i coupe, only special bit is MSport. Is a good price though provided the turbos aren't stuffed, which they very well could be. They are a bit bland in silver but MSport bumpers help, and if you add some extra black/carbon (depending on taste) bits like mirror covers, spoiler, bumper lip and wrap the roof it will stand out more. I've seen them pics of some like that on the American BMW forums and they look great.

All those M3 bits along with getting the body kit painted must have been a ton of wasted money, which obviously will not add to the car's value. So stupid...

http://bimmersport.co.nz/gallery/album/660-tee-135i/ Very unique looking BMW there, never seen the light-up BMW badges before. That head unit isn't in the same location the CIC was, so the CIC screen is still there but disabled I guess?

Should be E9x too, I doubt we get different airbags to America. Mine's a Jap import so I guess I'd better ask about this. I guess BMW NZ isn't being proactive and contacting owners?

Some pics of interior showing the sony system would be nice. Curious to see what it looks like with the iDrive swapped out. That does mean you can't access the service info showing brake pad wear ect? I know oil level can be checked on the dash but not sure about the rest.

Haven't been able to drive it hard enough to tell top end. Had a good back road thrash this morning before the mod but not after. Low end feels the same. Highly doubt there's any performance change, exhaust flow is virtually unchanged. It sounds faster though What I posted in another threat, to demonstrate the sound: Will be the same as this one. N55 engine, Performance Power Kit, BMW Performance Exhaust (which this mod matches exactly) After startup, skip to 1:25 to hear it rev. I love the crackling sounds...

Will be the same as this one. N55 engine, Performance Power Kit, BMW Performance Exhaust (which this mod matches exactly) After startup, skip to 1:25 to hear it rev. I love the crackling sounds...

Of the mufflers? I didn't take any of mine, but the document you'll find when you google this mod has some pictures. I'll attach it here for convenience: Modifying the stock exhaust to sound like the BMW Performance Exhaust.pdf

The BMW "Performance exhaust" mod done by Pitstop New Lynn (modifying the mufflers to make the same sound as the exhaust BMW sells for $2500 in NZ). Also new tips welded on, bought for $30 on Ebay.

And a comparison against the old tips... By the way, nice to bump into you Steve and see your car

All done by Pit Stop New Lynn. So far I think it sounds awesome. Volume has gone up but it doesn't seem obnoxious. Nice deeper sound and the overrun crackles sound great. Looks like a good job to me. Their guy cut a section of the muffler on the top so it's not obvious the mufflers were cut open unless you go looking for it. New exhaust tips look good, not bad for an Ebay find. And yes my car is rather dirty...

Ok this is starting to seem like more hassle than it's worth. Went down to Mighty Mufflers and the guy said they were flat out busy, asked if I could just leave the car there for the day. I hadn't planned for that so I couldn't. Was hoping they'd be able to work on it while I was there (expecting it to take several hours of course), I did ask for that while I was on the phone... Communication fail I guess. Stopped in at Pit Stop in Botany to discuss with them. The owner wasn't too keen, he said it would take hours just to cut open the mufflers and the bill would be too expensive to be worth it. Steve, how much did Pit Stop Grey Lynn charge and how long did it take? PM if you prefer not to post it in public. I'd consider buying the modded one off you but I have a coupe so doubt it could fit. Was really hoping I could do it this week as I was on leave. Such a pain to organise this when these places are only open while I'm at work Edit: Called up Pit Stop Grey Lynn and they're not too busy today, will pay them a visit.

That's good to know, thanks. According to your sig you have VRSF downpipes. I think that increases the volume considerably? I have no intention of getting catless downpipes so I'm hoping mine is not going to be super loud.

Shows that a second opinion can save you a lot of money and time. I've had a few cases of that myself Always a big relief when a potential major problem turns out to be a simple cheap fix.

I called Dean and he was against opening the muffler. Says you can't just open up a muffler and re-weld it because it could fail... Edit: Gave Mighty Mufflers a ring and booked in Friday