martyyyn

Bump.....finishing tomorrow.

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Thanks Ron, the 530d would certainly be my choice and it will come down to whether I can convince the wife She wants a new kitchen I want the car ! Clinton, you make a compelling arguement for an e46 320d I have to say. I wonder if I could get in one. Westy, I cant say for sure it was 8.0. It may have been 8.9 which is 9 as far as Im concerned but it definitely started with an 8. I saw 28-30mpg in my 740i regularly on the open road. Around town of course was a very different story, but if your door to door is just open road, which mine will be pretty much then something in the 9's is very much achievable. Stephen, as astute as ever my friend.

Thats perfect, thanks Allan.We had a 406SRi turbo in the UK and loved it, so hearing the 2002 HDi's are good is great news. 1100klms from a tank is a rough 7l/100klm and its surprising to see the e39 530 isnt much better than my 535is.

Really ? I thought 320d's were going for much more than that ? Hmmm, spend more to save more, Im sure the wife will buy that I assume what you mean is....Option 1: Drive the 535is. Buy the wife a 407/Mondeo for $15k. Five years = $55k spent. Option 2: Buy a 530d for $25k. Spend $5.5k a year in fuel. Sell Focus for 5k. Wife drives 535is. Five years = $47k spent. Of course this lends itself to.... Option 3: Buy a 407 diesel for $15k. $5.5k a year in fuel. Sell Focus for 5k. Wife drives 535is. Five years = $37k This is assuming 7 l/100klm for both the 407 and 530d. I know the 407 will do it, the forums seem to be mixed on whether the 530d will do it consistently. My wifes mileage will be minimal, school run, supermarket, the odd trip to Wellington so I havent bothered to factor anything in for it. So for an extra $2k a year would you have the 530d ahead of a 407

Clinton, your 320d wont be in my price range as a car for me alone and its nowhere big enough for the five of us. Im a huge Focus fan, weve had one for five years and its been faultless. But as a family we are getting too big for it and Id rather have something a bigger on the open road which is why I thought of a Mondeo or 407. Allan, older diesels are a concern certainly and Id only be buying something with a fully stamped maintenance record. There arent any other charges over and above RUC are there ? Josh, there really will be very little town driving and having owned 750's, 740's and 540's I know just how good they can be on the open road. Finding a good, unmolested and well looked after 540 for under 15k is doable, but its all the budget on one car with the potential for some very big bills should something go wrong. Im not a fan of the steering in the v8's so the 530 is a good shout. Given M62's start to require some decent money to be spent on them at around 140-180kms whats the story with older diesels, or just diesels in general ? Does anyone know real-world cases rather than the 'do the cambelt at 100k kms or it will go pop' comments. Ive done some quick sums with the worst case scenario of having to do 700kms a week. In the 535is I can get 11 l/100km, at $2.20 a litre with a 70l tank, thats $8000 a year. My wife's 1.6 Focus wagon is only fractionally better so the saving is simply using 91 instead of 95 and is only a couple of hundred a year. An M62 returning 8 l/100km is $6400 a year (saving $1600) A 407 returning 7 l/100km is $5435 a year (saving $2573) Clintons 320d returning 5 l/100km is $4350 a year (saving $3658) So unless Ive missed something by the time youve factored in the cost of the car in the first place its going to take a good four or five years to come out even. Seeing as I dont intend to be doing this for more than a couple of years at the most it hardly seems worth looking into it. So maybe I just spend the money keeping the 535is in tip-top condition and spend 10k on upgrading the Focus to something bigger. I have to say Im surprised. I was really expecting diesel to be an option but it comes down to the cost of buying the car in the first place when the e34 can give a reasonable 11l/100kms in the first place.

Im about to start doing a considerable amount of kms a week and need a new daily for the job. We also need to upgrade the family wagon so Im wondering if I can kill two birds with one stone, or whether it would be wiser to get two cars. My initial thoughts were an e39 touring. The 528 we had was 'reasonable' around town but I didnt have it long enough to know what it would be like doing 2000+km a month on the open road. Ive considered both a 407 and Mondeo diesel with a chip, but for the newer ones youre looking at up to 20k for the car in the first place and Im not sure how long it will be before the initial outlay repays itself. Ive had 8l/100km from a 540 and wasnt that far off in my 740, and although I know the big engine is barely ticking over they still seem excessive. There is a 2003 525 touring down here at the moment which looks promising but I have no idea what that might do and to be driving a wagon with only me in it doesnt really make sense when its my wife who will need a wagon more. My wife's mileage will be minimal but also be open road and with the kids in it in needs to be as safe as possible. There have been a few crashes recently where little wagons have folded like cardboard so no lightweight Jap boxes. I know nothing about diesel charges in NZ (other than diesel itself if 3/4's petrol a litre) and have had conflicting advice on whether it would be worth it or not. I think its a no brainer to go diesel myeslf, but a friend who does similiar mileage says otherwise based on the additional costs over the year and has just bought a 1.6 Corolla. I really dont want to spend any more than 15k but if something exceptional came up I might pay more. If I go for one car, it needs to comfortably fit two tall adults and three tall kids with all the kit when we go away. If I buy two then the wagon needs to fit those criteria but doesnt need to be super fuel efficient, whereas the one for me would and it cant be a little hatchback. An e39 sedan with a roofbox might replace a touring as they are considerably cheaper and more abundant. I know the new Peugeots can get phenominal kms from a tank, but how efficient are the older ones, say a 406 from 2001-ish ? Would an e46 318 do the job for me or would a 328 still give me similar kms over long distance ? Ill be driving outside of peak hours so being able to drive to the limits shouldnt be a problem and there will pretty much no town driving at all. Audi's and VW's (in my price range) often dont have three headrests in the rear too, but I might be able to handle a Golf for myself if they are good enough on fuel. So, any sensible thoughts on my options ?

New Price

New price Would be interested in a cash+wheels deal if anyone has some e34 rims and tyres. Not looking for anything special just something to use whilst I have mine refurbed. Must be wof'able and safe. Happy to look at offers if any BS regulars are seriously interested. PM me. Would seriously consider a swap for 17' Alpinas and/or Alpina front lip. Genuine only.

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Im after a set of lower springs for an e34 with an mtech suspension. Dont want massively lower, just want to be rid of the arch gap at the front and drop the rear just a touch. Im after a decent brand in good condition.

e30 325i shocks....$1 reserve e30 bonnets and bootlid....$1 reserve e30 15" BBS center caps....$50 start e34 front stage resistor....$50 start e34 clear front indicators and side repeaters....$100 start

Made by TYC, so assume thats aftermarket. Fully compliant with E numbers etc

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I looking for the following: 4 x 225/60/15 for a set of standard e32/e34 rims 2 x 235/40/18 2 x 255/35/18 or 265/35/18 Must be WOF standard and as cheap as possible. Its just to get a car rolling again.

I need a set to keep the car moving whilst I have my current wheels refurbished. Does anyone have either anything I can borrow for a few weeks or buy for peanuts ? I dont care what condition they are in as long as they are straight and the tyres are warrantable so I can keep the car on the road in the car in the meantime. Wellington is preferred because when I say cheap, I mean cheap, and Id prefer not to have to pay for freight.

Im sorry but your opinons of whether those two comments were a personal attack or not are vastly different to mine. Ive been on here long enough to have seen more than my fair share of Ron and Jonno's 'conversations' and whilst both have obviously strong opinions Ron has always been honest in how he drives a car, what he expects from it and what he expects from the tyres he has used. He's never shied away from a 'discussion' on the subject and has mentioned on more than one occasion how his cars are set up which is a damn site more than anyone else on here has bothered to do. You dont go to the level of detail he has in describing his cars, setup, driving style, and tyres without learning something along the way. He has his opinions on tyres and he's entitled to them. Are they specific to his car, his driving style, his setup, the road he was driving on at the time, the weather conditions at that time ? Of course they are, but just because you disagree doesnt give you the right to start poking fun and making tongue in cheek comments just to be a prick. I didnt read Ron's initial reply to you as 'sarcastic and condescending' he just stated the report gives a higher rating in individual tests to one tyre and then gives a higher overall rating to another. Can you not see the inconsistency in that or are you too blinded by your need to attack him you didnt actually read what he said ?

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What about the parts I was coming around for ?

Thanks Brent, The heater tap has now been replaced so Im only after a sword. Have been reading up how people have repaired them themselves by just re-soldering the joints. I will give that a try on this one if I cant find another.

HB fella

1990 e34 with aircon and climate control. Heater currently only works on full and when it does it only blows hot air through the drivers windscreen vent. The sword will fix the heater only working on full and the heater tap should sort out it only blowing hot air. Im in two minds about just ripping the sword open and resoldering all the joints but am sure when a tap is dead its dead. Anyone have anything ?

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Its not a Samsung is it G ?There was a model you could alter the 'internal' settings to make it think it was the next model up and play video aswell No firmware update, just get into the settings, change from series 5 to series 6 and job done. This is going to be your problem. The uncompressed DVD's will be fine with pretty much every player and I would expect them to handle h.264 aswell, but the moment you start having to mess around with codecs for the downloaded content the 'out of the box' solutions can potentially cause you problems.Having said that it would have to be something pretty obscure for the new WD boxes to not be able to handle it. Have you thought about just getting a laptop with Win7 and just using MCE or whatever its called ? Or even building a very basic HTPC if it doesnt need to be portable right now ? Get yourself an MCE remote and keyboard off trademe for $50 and your pretty much all done. CoreAVC and AC3filter will handle the video and audio then get a tv tuner card and your sorted for recording freeviewHD too. Ive put together an HTPC for the garage which does all this for less than $150 with second hand parts and $100 of that going on a new power supply. To be fair there is no case, its just sitting in the open, which saves a fair bit of cash and I had 3Tb of disk to put in it already. But Ive done the above with P4's before and not had any trouble with HD content. VLC has remote apps for iphone, ipod touch and android too BTW if you want to stick with that. [e] As for working from home, Thunderbird for email and OpenOffice for everything else and youre sorted. Ive used both on my work laptop for years and they are excellent. Why anyone at home would want to pay for Office is beyond me. Also, if you went the laptop way, you could install something like ASIO4ALL and have your music being pumped straight to the amp and let that decode/play it. Its like taking cotton wool out of your ears if you remove the laptop from processing anything.