Matth5

Except there's a massive price different on the 1M vs 135i, but those Bridgestone runflats are about as expensive as any performance tyre in NZ

That is so extremely rare and unlikely though, this is the "nightmare scenario" people make up to try to sell you on runflats. Not to mention the runflat probably wouldn't keep you going for those two days either in that situation. I've never experienced this and I've driven the entire country for work on multiple occasions. Considering how rare that is, if it does happen, just call up your roadside assist, have the car towed, use a rental for a couple days if you need to continue a roadtrip. Cost savings, extra comfort and better handling you experience over your lifetime will make it totally worth it. Every puncture I've ever had has been manageable by pumping the tyre back up until I could get to a tyre shop. Have carried the tyre goo for years, still never needed to use it. If you have a flat tyre monitor like every BMW has these days since runflats were introduced, it'll warn you well in advance before the tyre goes totally flat. Keep in mind if you ever actually take advantage of it's runflat capability and drive on it, it's then f**ked and needs replacement as well... which is more expensive than just having the car towed! And since most of us will have some kind of roadside assist, the towing is free as well.

A nice car driven into the ground by an owner that couldn't afford to maintain it... bummer. He should have sold it before he completely f**ked it. I imagine it'll be parted out soon, it's junk now... Edit: Wait that's a 320. Why the hell is '130' in the listing title? Maybe not such a great loss then lol.

I think the rims look good in silver. Some contrast looks nice. You can't see the shape too well when they're black, and those are nice rims. I imagine the drive between Chch and Queenstown is very scenic.

From there I ended up finding it on the BMW NZ classifieds page https://www.facebook.com/groups/546131948789959/permalink/2745507342185731/ Nothing much there though.

Yeah. All that effort making up excuses just to avoid being straight up and honest.... some people lol. Got a link to the facebook thread, or is that somewhere private?

Yeah this seller seems like a dishonest scumbag. Edit: called him out on it for the hell of it. He responded. Guess that's enough for anyone viewing the listing to make their mind up

More like $20 lol https://www.fcpeuro.com/BMW-parts/335i/intake-manifold-gasket-kit/ Granted the cheap one is not "genuine BMW". Will probably end up being $30 or so to get it to NZ.

Brakes ect can always be imported. FCPEuro, Schneidman (may have spelt that incorrectly) ect. The local suppliers tend to have a huge mark-up on this stuff, it's worth importing it yourself unless you think of $100 bills like toilet paper

VIN number on the sticker on the right of the engine bay, and the one on the left strut mount both match what's on carjam. So that doesn't appear to have been changed. Proper repaint job there. This isn't a great sign of confidence: Dude must be flipping this car, clearly he hasn't had it long at all, and hasn't even bothered to get any service history. Or he knows something and is acting dumb to avoid liability. Wouldn't touch without a thorough inspection.Good chance there's a hidden problem or three.

Here's a video of one of the BMW Board members driving it: I like the look from the side... but I'm one of those people that hate that huge front grille. The latest 3 series has a nicer grille design, wish they stuck with that...

I haven't looked into that for the current car. But with my 335i when I bought it 5 years ago, there were two tiers. One with exclusions for suspension, brakes and a limit of 5k per claim, and a more expensive tier where some consumable stuff was included and no maximum per claim (or was it 10k? So long ago). That was a Jap import, not via BMW. Looks like they've got the policy documents here: https://www.autosure.co.nz/products/mechanical-breakdown-insurance/ Not sure if there will be any special changes when arranged via BMW, or different terms for more unique cars like the M series.

The dealer did tell me they can sell me an aftermarket warranty when the BMW one expires, which would be provided by Autosure. If they do M4s, I'm sure they do M5s. Autosure are awesome, saved me thousands on my 335i. Modifications are negotiable too but your excess might be higher depending on what you modify.

Getting the BMW warranty is certainly nice. It's worth a premium if you're getting that, since servicing and repair costs can be very expensive on these. But once that has expired, then there is nothing different about them Be aware that with a BMW warranty, any tinkering with the software is frowned upon. Any discussions about that with my M4 were shot down pretty hard lol.

Lol I remember your 135i thread. Bummer that you sold it, but hopefully this one causes less stress for you! I think the E90 330i's are pretty hassle-free, unlike the 335i's. Amazing that they're so cheap now, they're still excellent cars.

Summit Road in the Port Hills is an excellent place to put a sports car to the test... Had an evening blast there to finish off the weekend!

Fine! Have done some more driving, on my second tank of fuel now! I'd say while it's clearly faster than my tuned 335i... it does what it does with much less drama. It's quieter, so stable and composed like it's not even bothered when you're flooring it or slamming the brakes. I floored it in a countryside intersection and did a small drift, I was definitely a little sideways but I couldn't even hear any tyre squeal. Perfectly smooth, most mellow feeling drift ever. Maybe the fake interior engine noise was hiding the tyre sound. I guess if I imagine myself driving the 335i hard, making a lot of noise, spinning tyres, slamming the brakes... the M4 would casually keep up without breaking a sweat or making much noise. It's so insulated, you can see why they added the fake engine noise. It's the only way you can tell what the engine is doing unless you have the windows down. At least with the stock exhaust, because it's not that loud. I think I'd want an aftermarket exhaust or downpipes before I disabled that (which I'm not doing any time soon). I also don't get why some people online complain that it's constantly trying to kick the back out. I think these guys just drive with the assist on and assume every time they see the TC light come on it's just stopped them from throwing the tail out. I drive it around in MDM (from what I understand, it means assist only kick in if you go beyond a certain slip angle). Even with foot to the floor on imperfect roads I never had any unintended sliding, just on one slippery wet bit of road it struggled for traction from a standstill. Maybe my opinion on this will change as I get more confident with it, I'm still taking corners very carefully - both because I haven't driven in 6 months thanks to the situation with my old car and I'm still getting used to the M4. Speed builds up both more quickly and smoothly than the tuned 335i, it's even easier to get into loss-of-license territory when overtaking. I performed what felt like a slightly aggressive overtake on a country road of a single car, who was doing 90, and I hit 150kph as I was going past the guy... it barely felt any different to 100kph. Think the same effort in the 335i might have me hitting 130... at least then I might keep my license if I get caught doing it! The HUD is also great, seeing your gear and speed without having to look down is actually super helpful when driving a bit 'spiritedly' on the back roads.

Maybe a good idea for a side business, renting out specialized tools...

And the warranty even covers it. BMW dealer assured me non competitive track use is allowed for M cars. Scanned the fine print and didn't see anything that contradicts this ? Being able to track this without worrying about blowing another engine will be great! Think I do need to swap the pads though, apparently the standard pads are still a bit useless for the track. The manual mentions this too. This one has the steel brakes. I'm not rich enough for carbon ceramics, won't touch a car with them! Just shy of 30 000km, 2 year BMW warranty. Some good options including: Harmon Kardon sound system Heads up display Adaptive suspension LED headlights with High beam assist - got to test this last night in the Canterbury countryside, it's awesome being able to leave your high beams on and see the car blank out sections of the beam when other cars come into view. Sakhir Orange. But it does tend to look more red than orange. Will be keeping this one stock... I was struggling to find places where I could actually hold my foot down, and most of the time when I did I could see the traction control light flashing even up to 3rd gear in some places. I'm not getting why some people rush to tune these?! Have yet to try the MDM mode, don't want to light up tyres until I'm a little more used to it. Perfectly comfy on the crappy roads of Christchurch, you'd think it wasn't a sports car if you just drove it gently. And extremely sharp and stable when going at higher speeds on the back roads. Incredible suspension.

Couldn't let the crappy weather prevent me from taking the new toy for a test drive. edit: showroom section might have been more appropriate. Mods feel free to move it...

Buy one in NZ. Much less hassle. Have a look on Trademe as per Driftit's link above, it's where most of NZ's car sales happen. $27000 is about as much as that car could hope to sell for in NZ, if it wasn't a UK import (people here are wary of UK imports having rust issues due to salt on UK roads).

Nice! This part scares me a bit though. Custom Performance Tune (@thegenuis46m) Redline Raised to 8200rpm & Shift Lights (@js_imola) Higher RPM would lead to much faster wear especially if tracked I imagine, it's already a highly strung engine...

Here's how you remind yourself you have enough power: Go out to some back roads, and try flooring it! You can hardly use all the power of stage 1+, where are you going to put stage 2+ to use? I think it's when I had my car in workshops or not driving for a while, reading forums and seeing the mods that were available, that would always tempt me to buy new upgrades. Generally I would add upgrades when it was already in getting some job done. Take it from someone who modded the sh*t out of a 335i... it's like drug, you just get carried away and forget to appreciate the car for what it is. I'm going to try to have some more self control on the next car....

Wait you're running a tune on a stock charge pipe? That's asking for trouble Well stage 2+ gets to the point where you need downpipes (potential WOF trouble down the line), you might want to upgrade the diverter valve, you're doubling the boost the turbo generates leading to more wear. You'll want to shorten your service intervals for everything engine related from the extra wear. The extra investment is pretty significant here just for a little extra kick. You'll spend more time logging, potentially find more issues related to misfires, knock, injectors... And if you add up the costs for all of this, it just doesn't make sense because by the end of it the car depreciates to nothing regardless, next buyer will probably be scared to touch something that's been running an aggressive tune for a long time. Keep the money for your next car, you'll thank your past self when the time comes around. I don't think the extra fun of Stage 2+ was worth the expense and effort compared to stage 1+. You'll be upgrading suspension components to go along with the added power probably? More money! I didn't have any reliability trouble myself after going stage 2+, but I spent a lot making sure the car was able to handle it. Enough that the cost of the mods + extra servicing + time made up the difference in price between the 335i and an M3... so if I bought the M3 I'd probably be just as well off financially, and might not have the few grey hairs that have appeared recently It's possible it contributed to the eventual engine failure I had on track (although I stil think it's mainly oil starvation). Now... if I repair this car, I probably wont even recover the repair cost when selling it. At least if it was an M3, the cost of an engine rebuild wouldn't exceed the value of the car! That's another thing... you'll spend all this money on it, and it still will not be a track capable car like an M. You'll need something to help with the oil circulation so it can survive the cornering. It's a street car. A great one at that, but not a track capable sports car!

There will be that one guy.. "Hey mate those odo readings look a bit suspect, think you're asking too much.... keen to trade for 2k and my '95 civic? "