Olaf

can't argue with that, Ron. The guy I'll be using is recommended by a good friend, who has more german cars than I have digits, and additional sets of rims to boot. very particular is he. It was particularly refreshing to find a tyre guy who genuinely knows his onions.

man, 003's are exceptionally well-priced at the moment. I started looking around on Friday, and found - as Ron has pointed out in another thread - that the average to mid-range performance tyres come in from most places around $1k , with the premium end $1.2k-$1.4k. Imagine my surprise when finding sub-$900 pricing for 003s in 225/45/17 and 245/40/17 on the car. If you were completely ruthless and pushing for the lowest possible price and nevermind the impact to the market (eg you get Tony's Tyres trying to undersell the world to buy your business), it is entirely likely one could push the envelope and find these llantas for the mid-to-high $700s. On your car. At least at the moment. Best discovery made while I've been looking around, is finding a company I want to do business with for tyres and alignment. The pricing is sharp enough, but the service is worth more to me than the lowest price so I'll happy to be in the sub-$900 bracket.

can someone PS that image with an e24 please? it's nearly perfect.

yes thanks, I sort of stopped thinking about that suff when I bought another BMW after selling the Nissan. The VQ30 is a beaut engine, but I went for the full package with BMW #8 ) and bought a car that - largely - works.

I've often wondered about this, Ron. I used to know an induction systems engineer from Visteon. The effort (read: cost) that was expended in the average intake manifold and even the airbox for your run-of-the-mill Ford Focus, VW Golf, etc, amounts to the hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not more. It seems odd that given the development budget for the M54 which would have been in the tens or hundreds of millions, that they "got it wrong" and the earlier one was much better? Nissan were doing 'clever' manifolds on their VQ series V6 for a while, the 'MEVI' intake manifold had an RPM switch that opened some butterlies to give longer effective runners at higher RPM, and shorter at lower RPM for better torque. Or do I have that the wrong way round? They were also using plastics in the 90's for intake manifolds. At any rate, in the Nissan world folks were locating these later manifolds and fitting them to earlier cars, contrary to the M54/M50 approaches! cheers

like the t-shirt reads: I'm not a gynecologist but I'll take a look

nice work, John! Sorry didn't mean to sound as though I was doubting you; more about 'I wonder what wheels he's done that with, and how does it look? Total class, mate. Kia Ora for that!

yep, there's a clear process for landlords disposing of abandoned goods. it's a bit of a f%#king hassle to be fair; it was suggested to me by some very experienced landlords, on finding a bunch of random sh*t abandoned at my house when moving back in.... was to take the entire lot to the tip, and if anyone ever asked about it the answer was "the house was clear when I took posession as noted on the bond report; I know nothing about the property you mention". The process involves posting notices, charges for storage, and disposal after x weeks. All that for abandoned sh#t. Lazy f#cking tennants, there's stack of brown-smelling karma for them - and their back passages - too. Leaving their sh&t behind - can't they fill rubbish bags, clean up after themselves, take a trailer to the tip? /rant.

hey Elijah, it's not as flash as Ron's excellent negotiation gambit, but Bridgestone stores are having a 'buy one, get one half price' deal**. Which I guess amounts to 25% of a pair. Test-pricing today, their opening price well undercuts Tony's, which should open up for some outstanding competitive bidding between the big-boys to buy your business. PS - ** till 24 March

hey Rohan, what sort of Warranty do Bridgestone Stores provide?

you'll find it's being watched by the drug squad. you'll be bailed up/jailed up before you know it. incommunicado and fearing for your life in a holding facility.

sounds like -1 for Wheel Magician. I'm looking for a good repairer in Welly...

I shouid like to call a point of order here: 'the segment' formerly known as "the sport saloon" in the 2-litre (or thereabouts class) was surely created in the 1960s, one of the cheif protagonists was the Triumph 2000 (straight 6) then competing with the BMW Neu Klasse. The class got a little split/cloned where we had Dolomite Sprint/2002 + 3 Series, and Triumph 2500/5 series. Larger 2 litre class and smaller 2 litre class.... eventually everything got a six! I will concede that BMW has essentially owned the segment since the e21 323i. and in the larger 2 litre class, the 5er has pretty much owned the segment. - well packaged - sporty handling - executive image/cachet - solidly engineered - class-leading in refinement, drive, comfort, handling, performance. It is for these reasons the 3er has consistently been the segment benchmark. The question Herbmeister rightly poses, could be reinterpreted as: "is the 3er still the segment benchmark? Has BMW lost their competetive advantage?" Ron, you can besmirch 911 character from here till sunday, though I've never met one I'd boot out of my party #8 ) bad character is in the eye of the beholder. After all, there are many in the british isles who describe BMW, Mercedes etc as 'german skateboards' and 'magnetically attracted to hedges arse-first'... which is more representative of a lack of experience with RWD and loss of traction, than any poor manners on the part of 3er or c-class. Olaf

congratulations on the move! people seem to drive Ford Falcons or Holden Commodores. If they're a little odd, they'll drive Citroen or Saab. It's interesting, Citroen has a long standing in Taranaki (pronounced Tarr-ann-uh-kai) Olaf

I'd like that.

Oh man. it's lovely. I must.... avert..... my eyes.

I picked up - rather unexpectedly - a set of style 194 wheels (staggered) - today, following a trademe offer. I spent a couple of hours cleaning them up - I doubt they'd ever been washed on the inner rim before. after springs... Next is: to find a kerb-rash repairer (recommendations in Wellington appreciated!) and then: some decent rubber in the 225/45/17 and 245/40/17 flavours. Happy, me.

pics or it didn't happen! Are you still on Style 68's, or "something different"?

I used to go to New Plymouth for work, a bit. I really like NPL, the people are friendly, the weather's pretty good. It's a small provincial NZ town, with the attendant features. Took my family there last year for a long weekend; we liked it so much we're going back this year. there are some reasonable restaurants there. Car culture is big, though largely centred around rods, muscle cars, street machines, Americana, and Oz iron. Mike's Organic Brewery (past Waitara) is worth a visit, the beer is pretty darned good. Gowett Brewster Gallery - though small - is outstanding. One of NZ's best record stores - The Vinyl Countdown - is in New Plymouth. it's a bit pricey to fly in and out of, and a little too far from Wellington for a quick hoon. You've got twisty roads to drive in the country, fishing, surfing, and fresh air. brilliant! what industry takes you to New Plymouth? Energy? Dairy? Sheep? Transport? cheers Olaf

Pete, if you've not experienced them, consider http://europeanleathercare.co.nz in Petone. You can have them do the work on your leather, or buy their kit and do it yourself. with a few hours elbow grease, I had my volvo black leather seats looking nealy new. the Elephant leather preservative is amazing. HTH. They do different kits to match the colour of your leather. Firmly recommended.

NZ New, 2 owners, V8 Sportpac, 100kms.... $17k. http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-1046650527.htm looks tidy, sounds well looked after. Not an M-Sport, and higher K's.... still, 100 kms for 14 years old, it qualifies as low k's. It'd be $13-15k all day long, given the number on the market, and the comparative age and unattractiveness of V8s for most punters. I rest my case.

indeed, good result. what they really meant was "we're not going to try and extract monies from you.... becuase we haven't a leg to stand on, our client is irrational, and you're a consistent and articulate witness.". They (try to) make it sound as though they're a court. "hold you liable" ha! Pull the other one... 500 times. ahhhh, that's better. cheers Olaf

sounds like a top idea, just pitch in and organise one mate. welcome aboard to both! The good thing about a saturday local meet is it can be less of an impact to the family routine...

jeez if it's for looks surely they shoud be 'good looks'. ? these folks are tomorrow's Darwin awards winners, pure and simple. Just because you "can haz stance" doesn't mean you should.