balancerider

$80 I believe, but should be $54 if you buy between late April and late July. The steering is very heavy in sport. I believe you can adjust this

The F10 5 series is a LOT better looking than the F01...

They are solid. certainly better than that Audi she has at the moment 😜 PFL has N47 engine - some stories of timing chain problems so get one with reasonable history. factory intervals are 2 yrs / 33k km - a bit longer than I'm comfortable with. The Jap import ones are all RWD, NZ new 320d's all Xdrive so potentially issues with transfer box around that mileage. Japanese ones virtually all have alcantara interior and rear PDC only so if you want leather it would need to be NZ new or ex-UK. X3 is also sound but worse fuel economy and not as nice to drive. The F3x platform is markedly better for ride quality than the E9x but steering feel is average at best

@GerryAttrick the reason the coding is more expensive for Japanese NBT is that the HDD needs to be reflashed to ECE (Euro) spec, more straightforward to simply change map for UK / Singapore cars.

So much agreement with this. @KwS you can rest easy, Fit drivers are in a totally different league

Me too - still think I'd consider swapping mine for the right 550i. I think the LCI 550i with the N63TU would be worth a punt but I'm not brave enough to run the OG engine in the pre-facelift. N57 in the 530d/535d is a great engine though (not that I'm biased 😏)

Paging any local Bimmersporters who would be happy to help me replace my horn (inside front left wheel arch liner) - happy to reimburse you with beers or $? Have tried to do it with wheel on but access is a bit limited, especially to the bolt holding the horn to the bracket, see attached pic (bracket is held on with a pop rivet so would rather not remove whole bracket). Alternatively any suggestions to free this bolt welcomed...

Apart from the Macan it sounds like our taste in cars is very similar. The current gen D3 is very appealing, there's a low miles green one on UK Autotrader for low 60's GBP. I'd also wondered whether Alpina Australia would let you order a B3 there and then import to NZ (may be some compliance issues I guess)

Non M-sport?? that is some weird spec 🤨

Pretty excited about this. Hard to say whether I'd rather one of these or a G21 B3 Touring.

Spotted an iX (black on black on black) heading south on SH1 this morning. Didn't look quite as awful as the photos of the white ones I've seen...I guess people say black is slimming🤪

Suspect the 'BMW743' plate might be available shortly 🙃

This is the key for the 30d/35d engines. They aren't amazingly frugal if you compare to something like the 1.4TSI in the VW Golf, but you can cane them in big cars and still see single figure L/100k figures, if you did that to a V8 you might be looking at double the consumption

@Eagle Nissan Tiida (Versa in the US) is a strong contender for least safe car on sale. They are absolutely the shittiest car I have ever had the misfortune of driving. Even an E110 / E120 Corolla would be far preferable. Jazz / Fit is a good shout.

Non SUV BMW 2.0d will comfortably do 5.5L/100k in mixed driving and probably <5 if all open road so shifts the equation favourably. No doubt in my mind a small capacity diesel is more economical than a petrol in the same vehicle (if you’re doing open road km), especially with any use of the throttle.

We already have RUC's for diesel vehicles (although the per km rate is pretty brutal for light vehicles <2t) - wouldn't be hard to expand this to all vehicles which would make the taxation very transparent. I foresee a combination of RUC's and congestion charging in the future.

Well-used (front bumper appears to have been used for target practice) manual E46 M3 in Kaiteriteri

god works in mysterious ways 🤭

Seems my low tone horn has died - last time I hit it, it was decidedly squeaky. Apparently a known failure mode for these cars. Anyway, would I expect a code to show on OBD app if relay had failed? Guessing the horn wouldn't work at all if it were a fuse. Suppose a multimeter would be able to tell me if circuit to horn was intact.

@E28E30 (I think) heading north on SH2 in 'THE325'

They had a bunch of nice cars in Chch - 3 M340i sedans and a couple of X3 M40i’s as well as the Stingers. sadly I was consigned to a POS Vitara

@MilesP risk is that WOF will start checking/enforcing emissions - if your car isn't stock you're gonna have a big bill to get a pass. Also the performance benefits in a 320d are likely to be marginal

N47TU as seen in LCI E9x/ PFL F3x 320d is a solid engine, I would say on balance better than most of BMW's petrols for reliability. Certainly better than the 4cyl non turbos. Problems with chains could be a result of the 32k/2 yr service interval - so not an issue for the car you mention. Timing chain is on the back of the engine and I don't think it can be changed with engine in place - so suspect you'd be comfortably north of 2k for replacement. Dad's E91 320d is now at 265k km on standard service intervals. They like hot running and it sounds as though the one you're looking at may not have done much of that with consequent potential for carbon build up / EGR valve issues - PPI and interrogation of any codes likely to be worthwhile.

Bonkers - 700% appreciation in 5 years. Makes house prices look sane. Does look nice but $175k buys you something pretty special even if you're set on a BMW - E39 M5 or E30 M3 + considerable spare change

Do like where this is going. Interestingly my first E46 touring (also Jap import) had rust in exactly the same place - under the scuff plate on R rear door. Took it to a paint/panel place - they dealt with it for <$100, although that was 8-9 years ago...