GorGasm

Yeah when I bought the car I was ready to replace them as soon as I drove off the yard. But I gave them a couple of weeks and some wet weather and they have been perfectly fine since then. It gave me cognitive dissonance, how could these cheap crap Chinese tyres which I know to be bad actually be good. I don't push them at all though, so maybe i just don't get anywhere near their limits?

Provident at the moment. They're OK I was just trying to get a sharper price.

Eh, the servicing isn't so bad. It's like having kids, no one tells you what the REAL problems are before you have kids. I can handle puke and stinky poos all day but 3.5 years (and counting) of putting your own needs aside is taking it's toll. The real problems with owning a Maserati: Having to deal with Winger Maserati. Insuring a Maserati. I had a 90 minute conversation with State about insurance, asking questions like "how much experience have you had with high power cars". I had to kindly explain to the lady that the Maserati is a 4.7L V8 and my last cars were a 5.0L V10 and a 5.5L Supercharged V8 and that supercharging could be considered the same as turbocharging for insurance purposes and that both were more powerful than the Maserati. She was obviously just parroting the information on to the underwriter on the other line. It would have been much more efficient to just conference the underwriter in. They eventually did offer insurance, but they wanted $2400 a year and had silly exclusions like no glass cover and no other drivers. I stuck with my current provider. If I went and bought a nearly new Alfa Giulia worth 10k more the premiums would be about $1000. Such a messed up business.

Yeah I'm very close to needing two rear tyres for my 535i and hyper have 4x 255/40/19 Hankook Evo S2 for about $1150 fitted. That is cheap as chips for an upper mid range 19" tyre. The Triangle TH201 (LOL) I have on there at the moment are about $600 for 4 :o. I have been pleasantly surprised by these, they were new on the car when I got them and have done a decent job and lasted 25000km so far. So tempted to get them again at half the price of Hankooks.

Petrol cars have become much more efficient in the last decade and RUC has increased, which has narrowed the gap. My 535i can do 8.5/100 outside of Auckland making it about 20.5c per km. It averages about 10/100 in Auckland. Can't be arsed paying for RUC and the N55 is plenty grunty. Diesel would still the go for big rigs and towing though.

Nice, tough toss up between that or a B5 RS4 for me.

and BMW. LOL. I have PTSD from the BMW warning ding noise.

I actually really want this: https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/alfa-romeo/listing/2615447681?bof=UyalmtjY I'd even consider paying the 10 grand, but I just don't need another car now that COVID has legitimized 4 days a week at home.

In my mind front end camber would directly affect braking performance?

On the topic of adjustable coilovers, I had 2 sets on my some of my Subaru Legacy's and they were AMAZING. The Legacy already handles as well as most BMWs anyway but the adjustable suspension improved both the handling and the comfort. Around town was firm but not jarring and on the open road at 100 literally everything was soaked up, it was SO much better. These particular units were a niche Subaru specialist brand called Prova though and had nothing more than a basic install and alignment done. Height was maybe a little lower than factory but not much. On the same note I had Ohlins coupled with Swift springs in one Legacy and they were so hard that they were dangerous, no traction at all and braking distance was terrible as it would skip over the ground. I'm not sure what the likes of BC and KW are like in BMW offerings but when I looked at M5 suspension they consensus was that KW was much better than stock. YMMV as always but I suspect a KW setup would do a decent job of things. Certainly my experience has shown that BMW do a pretty average job of suspending their cars, probably cheap $$ targets, cheap components and a weird desire to have adjustable suspension modes from comfort to sport.

It's all about the Daihatsu Chirade GTti sound.

I'd prefer the Mark X GRMN.

Thanks for the info. Know how it goes, once you know what skeletons are in the closet you can't put them back in. I'm almost tempted by yours but I think i'd probably spring for a turbo one. I would be using it to punt around Hamilton and commute once a week to Auckland.

FK510 or PS4, both are good. If the FK510 are a decent amount cheaper then get those.

Good work as always. What do you reckon from a fun/driving perspective? I really miss aspects of my old manual TT Legacy and I have an itch to get one of these but I am not sure I can justify it if I'm not going to go to the office. They would appear to be a lot of fun.

High drain might be nothing. Just check if it comes back. Unplug the IBS cable first if it does.

+1 Battery

In my PA lance I get like 10+ washes out of the bottle. It doesn't use that much out of the bottle to create the foam. The stock stuff with waterblasters aren't foam guns, just mixers. I found stock one didn't clean anything off my car but a foam gun you can almost get away with not washing the car afterwards. I didn't listen to this, but the demo 4:30 and 6:00 is a good illustration. PA unit makes really good foam that sticks to the car. Cheap units may also do the same as PA, but I have never used one.

I also have a PA Italy device and it works great. Pricey I guess.

We usually assault West Cost Road - Woodcocks road and SH16 for spirited driving. Port Waikato...?

One of each. Are they worth $10 a pop? E60 M5 Mann Hu926/5x 130i Bosch 72241WS Pickup Auckland. I guess I can ship for a couple of dollars on top?

Before I sold my E60 I put an aftermarket black grille on so I have the original silver grille spare. It's in OK condition, I think all the tabs are there. It was plastidipped black but I got the majority of it off. I believe it fits your every day E60 as well. Free, just pay for/arrange shipping, or pick it up in Auckland.

Exactly what I was going to say. The E55 has practically won the game before it's started. I had headers, pulley and tune on mine and it was ludicrous, funnily enough it also sold for $20k. It was funny to drive rather than fun though. Seems if you hang around me long enough you can purchase a well maintained super sedan for 20 grand

If you can't afford to pay, you can't afford to play. In reality, the E60 Alpina on trademe is 2x the price of my old E60 M5 and my car was well sorted and had less mileage. There's no rational reason for it to be priced at 40 grand. The V10, and to a degree the gearbox is a game changer in the E60. There's very little like it out there. The V8 is just a boring old V8.

Hey not that I remember. It went to BMW for a service once and Burgers Motor Works another time. But I don't think trans fluid was in any of those services. We purchased it at 25km, it's possible that the dealer (Buy Right Cars) did it on arrival I guess.