GorGasm

Could use a lesson in photography, makes it hard to tell if it's actually nice or not.

Nice work!

I don't name the cars, the wife does. But here it is, the baby wagon we picked up a couple of weeks ago. Freshly back from OCD for a stage 3 package. Amazing family car package, super comfortable, nice to drive, reasonable power and actually good on gas! Imperial Blue brilliant effect metallic (lol, and the photos don't do the colour justice, it's actually very blue in the sun), and Everest Gray leather, and M-sport. The really great features I think are the double sunroof, active steering with ridiculous turning radius and the 8 speed auto.

There's bugger all F30 wagons available. We had our eyes on a couple of 328i's late last year with great colour combos, but no more. Theres a few sedans available though. I would strongly suggest the 328i over the hybrid. At a guess they are still quite popular in Japan, hence we haven't seen them dumping them onto the market yet.

Thought I would chip in here. We got our 535i Touring last week and took it away for the weekend. We managed 800km to the tank and just over 8L/100km. From West Auckland to Huntly it averaged 6.9 These things are super frugal for what they are! Grunty enough but certainly not that quick. Handling with the active steering is great and the ride superb. On the whole it's a perfect family sport wagon.

Or grab an AMG E55, pulley and tune and destroy both M5 and B5.

That particular example is exceptional. Super cool.

Agree with coop as you can't maintain your way out of a failure. It's all about risk mitigation. Maintenance is one form, MBI is another, either one is good but both is better.

As Olaf says. You can wrench all you like on it, but you still have to get the book stamped by a mechanic, usually MTA approved. Regular maintenance is not going to protect you the same as an MBI policy. When the trans had a minor fault on my E500 where it would get stuck in a gear requiring an off/on cycle to come back it cost $7000, $5000 of which was the part from MB Germany. You can't maintain your way out of issues like that. There are all sorts of dumb parts on Euros that have retarded prices. Some examples I can think of are M5 VANOS solenoids, at $1300 each and theres 4. DSC pump on E87 130i, $2000. Anything SMG... Most of the times I have had MBI I haven't realized the value of it, but the one $7000 fault in the E500 is more than the cost of all the MBIs I have ever purchased.

Penrite 10w60. Go.

If you got it for 15ish with those extras then it's a good deal.

Too pricey. 335i https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-1405452609.htm?rsqid=fb84372b64084607b034d91e1d11f894 325i https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-1523392365.htm?rsqid=ca6abf01fe0d4ae9be63ba8afe3603db

Yay someone bought I car I posted It's a good looking wagon. I got new window rubber from Pelican Parts for my M5 if that helps...

My old car had crank 550hp and 800NM. sh*t was legitimately feral to drive as the torque was available immediately. It was funny, but not fun. Hence I now have an M5 with no mods and it's great.

Exactly the car I want for my wife. 535i touring motorsport in white! Nice car.

330i https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-1519717740.htm?rsqid=8c53f020a9e5495f9b7b3669bc46db71 530i https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-1526467090.htm?rsqid=7264cd9b747e4fd7bb9fb482933b8302 https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/bmw/auction-1464115596.htm?rsqid=7264cd9b747e4fd7bb9fb482933b8302

My daughter is almost 1. My wife, myself and her is fairly tight. Pram in the boot is ok but you have to put everything else on top of it so you have to take everything out to get to it. My m5 is perfectly comfortable for us size wise. Once we get #2 the 130i just won't work at all.

I also have a 130i and it's just too small for us as a family now. We'll be looking at upgrading to an F30 328i , or F10 528i. If we run out of money then a 530i LCI as mentioned earlier.

All I can say is, double your budget and aim for 600 crank, not wheel hp.

What's your budget? This will limit what you can do.

15-20k. Sounds like a nice car. Agree, the M3 probably isn't a step up performance wise.

Nice one, almost ended up with one myself. Great little car, enjoy.

Phew it went for $30k. That basically puts a value on mine between $25-30k. I was getting worried it would go for low 20's.

Looks like a nice example to me. Plenty of "common" faults. Nothing is likely though.

Agree, SMG is no manual. I think all SMG equipped cars would be better as a manual. DCT/8 Speed auto is another story.